Your dream P2PU platform

Open Space
#1

It was either that or platform enhancements! :woman:t5::smiley: Has anyone else had learners ask for their own user account on the P2PU platform? I’ve had a couple of the participants wanting to track what learning circles they signed up for and potentially connect with other in the area learning similar things.

I personally would like something that allows potential/past learners to opt-in for alerts when there’s a new offering from us? This goes against the grain of living a digital life that’s less cluttered, but for stuff I’m interested in, I use it…

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Thinking about how this work can be applied remotely (aka the Pittsburgh Pivot)
#2

I think I hear two different things, both of which are interesting - @Beatrice_Pulliam can you let me know what you think about this? @dirk I wonder what you think about learner accounts too.

  • Mailing list of past learners - It would be very easy for us to aggregate everyone who has participated in a learning circle in Providence, and then use that as a mailing list to alert people of future learning circles. We recently added a question on the learning circle sign up for asking people to opt-in to future communication from us, so as long as they check that box, we could do this. I guess the question is whether it makes sense for P2PU or PPL to be the ones who hold on to that list and send the messages. Or it could also be automated, like you suggest, and people could just get alerts when a learning circle is created in their area.
  • Learner accounts - we were intentional in not requiring learners to have p2pu accounts, because we don’t want that to be a barrier to learning circle participation. However, we also haven’t dont anything to really tell learners what they could gain from getting an account. As you mention, I think doing that at the end of a learning circle is better than at the beginning. If we told people who finish learning circles to join, it would be fairly simple for them to do things like:
  • keep track of learning circles they’ve participated in
  • facilitate their own learning circle
  • advocate for learning circles in certain topics, connect with others in the area etc, using this forum.
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#3

One possible enhancement that springs to mind is to add a resource section to each course that would allow facilitators and participants to add links to additional resources that they’ve discovered, shared or created during their learning circle. I think people who are interested in facilitating or participating in future circles would find this valuable. Also as the resource library grows over time, past participants could choose to be alerted when new resources are added.

I also wondered about creating completion badges that participants could share on their social networks. Firstly because many people like to display evidence of their learning, but also because it’s a great way to promote learning circles and increase participation by providing badges that link back to the course.

And apologies if these features already exist, I’m really new here and I’m sure there’s lots I haven’t discovered yet - but enjoying exploring!!

#4

I like this idea!

It looks like you’ve seen how our system tries to do this with a course discussion created with every course added. An earlier version of this was using etherpad https://etherpad.org/ a collaborative document editing app, but it didn’t seem to catch on.

The other trick is that, sadly, some courses that people use in learning circles just disappear or go behind paywalls over time, meaning that any of the feedback that is created and shared that is specifically tied to the course content isn’t of much use.

However, from what I’ve seen, so much feedback about how to an adapt a course to an in-person discussion are often not content specific, and instead group discussion practices. Those ideas should be captured and shared!

#5

Yep, I saw the thread process, but it didn’t feel intuitive, and I’d imagine that etherpad, unless you’re already familiar with it, might be a little off-putting for some.

I use a free database tool, Airtable.com, to gather course and OER resource links, that I also share with colleagues. The tool itself is very intuitive but also offers the option to create quick and simple forms to allow others to contribute content. So a short form could be used to capture and categorize any kind of resource link or feedback comment that participants would like to submit, negating the need for familiarity with the tool.

Another enhancement could be to incorporate a reporting feature within the P2PU course page to allow people to report that they’ve encountered a paywall on the course, and also to suggest an alternative free course if they’re aware of one.