These are 2 links/programs/initiative referenced here:
Mechanical MOOC (last post in 2015) and
Webcraft and Webmaker from Mozilla.
OpenStudy looks like dead too. Am I right?
I’d love to know more about the reasons they are discontinued.
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Hi Adrien,
Yes, P2PU is no longer keeping these domains updated, however you can still access much of the content from some courses or fork it from github.
The short answer to why we discontinued these programs is that we made a strategic decision to stop working exclusively online because we were not reaching people who stand to benefit the most from the promise of free and open online education. There is a longer answer with more context that you can find from this interview we did with AACE part of which I copied below:
In 2008-2012, there were not many organizations out there trying to create non-formal learning experiences on the web. You had tons of distance education programs that were by and large tied to degree programs, and then lots of incredible resources from Youtube to Wikipedia to Github that people were using to learn every day. But there wasn’t a huge industry of organizations trying to create scaffolded learning outside of traditional educational institutions. But that’s exactly what P2PU was founded to do, and for a few years, the value that we added was helping people to document things they cared about in a way that other people could learn from.
Fast forward to 2013, and all the sudden there are large, well-funded organizations popping up doing something similar and saying that learning was going to be democratized and the age of the university was over. From there, I think that a lot of people got disenchanted with online learning, and, frankly that includes organizations who funded our work. The good thing that came out of the MOOC hype was that online learning was normalized for a lot of people who might not have considered it an option beforehand, and there were many new online spaces to learn and create knowledge. It was in this context in 2014 that we took stock of the space we were operating in and asked ourselves what the role of a 4-5 person non-profit was going forward.
We determined that, amidst the influx of new online learning resources and experiences, there was still a gap making sure that those opportunities reached beyond the digital-savvy mostly college-educated people that were the low-hanging fruit for MOOC providers. We agreed that our role in this new environment could be to help frame and articulate online learning in ways that expanded the reach, rather than focus just on creating courses. And from this came a partnership with Chicago Public Library and the beginning of learning circles.
To add one more thing here, I think it’s worth noting that the pedagogy of learning circles is the same as the original P2PU online courses. We’ve always felt that curriculum, content, whatever you want to call it — the learning resources always must work in service of the people, and never the other way around. Both the original P2PU courses and the current learning circle program emphasize bringing a group of people around a common set of interests to co-create a learning experience. That won’t change.
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Thanks a lot, Nico,
Concerning forking on Github,
it could be a great idea for a course in fact: “How to fork and update/upgrade a project”.
However, 2015 is the Neanderthal in the Web IT field. But it surely can be used to train and start with Python.
What about Slack or Google Chat?
Why did you choose Discourse. I am not criticizing, just to know the reasons behind the choice. I’m sure you aske yourself these questions of “best community/project management/engagement tool”.
Do you think Slack (just to name this one) could be a good addition to the site? or it’s maybe redundant.
I fell in love with MOOCs,
although they can very different in term of scale, depth, teaching methods, and of “fire/motivation-to-learn” transmitted. The cost of creating a course can be surprisingly high especially in well-known universities were “big shot” professors take time to build a great course.
I stopped trying to build one when I found all those great ones on the net, some from MIT, Stanford, etc.
We are in very interesting times indeed, where the money is not a problem to acquire almost any kind of learning, anywhere. “Reasons/excuses” for not learning are increasingly irrelevant and telling a lot about ourselves and our choices in life if we are lucky enough not suffering form impairing disabilities of course.
The level of quality we can find (mixing the MOOCs providers, to special online universities programs, Youtube (a great repo), Udemy and other low-cost price courses providers) stopped me to try and create my own course for now. So many talents, so many fascinating “learning paths”.
Being a great facilitator won’t be easy for me but I think not only it’s worth a shot but it makes me even more eager to learn, share and empower… but with a purpose. Being a great facilitator is what really is needed to make a great aggregation of diverse learning platforms, videos and information repositories assembled in very valuable experience. It won’t be easy. But it will make THE difference for the loners and isolated MOOC-aholic like me.
I’ve read your answer thanks for the details.
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Navigating the “Select a Course” list is challenging. I would like to be able to filter for those already used, rating, number of modules/time commitment, and level of difficulty. A link to former facilitators or the individual who added the course to the list would be helpful.
Hi Julie! Thanks so much for this feedback. I’ve noted your suggestions to the team so we can consider them as we make changes to the course page. If you have any other thoughts about how we can improve the process of searching for course (or learning the details about one once you’ve selected it), please feel free to share!
A link to former facilitators or the individual who added the course to the list would be helpful.
Agreed! With a feature like this, are you hoping to reach out to them privately? Or would it be more helpful to have a written record of their experience facilitating a specific course? Or both? Or more? 
Both.
A recap as part of the discussion specific to the course would be helpful.