e-Taalim

The “Peer 2 Peer University” (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses having a strong commitment to openness that enables high-quality education opportunities at a lower cost.

The mission of P2PU is to take to another step the power of the Internet and social software, and enables communities of people to support learning from each other.

P2PU combines open educational resources, structured courses, and recognition of knowledge/learning and it is run and governed by volunteers.

The P2PU folks describe it as “an initiative that helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well”

The first Pilot ended last October, run for six weeks with seven courses and approximately 90 participants. One month later, the pilot phase volunteers, including the course organizers, met in person for the first time at the first ever P2PU Workshop in Berlin. The goal of the workshop was to integrate pilot phase experiences into a working plan for the future of P2PU. Judging from the outcomes, the workshop achieved its goal. P2PU is also willing to organize a research workshop on alternative accreditations soon, and have been building relationships with other organizations (such as CC Learn) to explore avenues in research, assessment, and sustainability.

In the short term, P2PU is aiming to double its courses for its second pilot, which was launched in March, and contained 16 courses, three of which in Portuguese, by Brazilian course organizers.

P2PU has also established a strong community of core volunteers in tech, outreach, sustainability, research, and course organizing. These volunteers, who run P2PU, are all very busy getting ready for the next level which includes:

• A new website and social platform
• An orientation process for new course organizers
• A CC BY-SA licensing policy:  P2PU would like to recognize the efforts of the staff of Creative Commons for their advice and collaborative awareness-raising and research support

So do not miss out this educative initiative and have a look at the course list: http://p2pu.org/course/list, or you can Sign-up for the next round of courses which are scheduled to open in August 2010.

“We would welcome any course proposals from any community, in any language. If somebody is interested in getting involved, I would suggest that they sign up for the site, and join the P2PU Lounge, which is our main discussion area”, said Stian Håklev (P2PU co-founder) to e-Taalim.

Please visit their official website for more information: http://p2pu.org / Facebook Group