Communications of the ACM
In This Online University, Students Do the Teaching as Well as the Learning
Peer 2 Peer University cofounder Jan Philipp Schmidt. "The expertise lies in the group," he says. "Everyone brings something to the conversation."
Credit: P2PU
Although free online courses have been enticing students with the opportunity to learn from world-class professors at prestigious colleges, Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is questioning whether instructors are even necessary.
The institution, where anyone can set up a course, is experimenting with ways that students can develop and use open courseware that is free on the Web. P2PU, which began offering courses in 2009, has about 33,000 registered users, says executive director Jan Phillipp Schmidt. Although P2PU has no accreditation, students can earn informal alternatives to diplomas, known as badges, to show what they have learned. P2PU's learning style reflects an approach that many classroom instructors have been taking for years as they have stepped away from the lectern to guide students working in small groups.
"Everyone recognizes that education is about more than just content, and that it includes interactions with other learners and educators," says P2PU's Stephen E. Carson. P2PU's mentor program enables students who have completed a challenge to help other students who are struggling.
"The people who come to P2PU are attracted by the opportunity to take learning into their own hands and to create their own university," Schmidt says.
From Chronicle of Higher Education
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