Welcome to Peer 2 Peer University. We’re so glad you are here.
One of our core values is “peer learning.” It’s kind of a wonky term, but we’ve grown to love it. Generally we use it as a shorthand for the following framework for learning:
- Everyone has expertise.
- We learn by connecting and sharing what we know.
- We give helpful feedback to each other to improve.
Everyone has expertise: in the average P2PU learning group, you might have a super-organized project manager, a whip-smart headline writer, a shark of a negotiator and an exhibition designer. No matter what the subject of the course, everyone brings their suite of skills and experiences to the team. In this light “expertise” doesn’t necessarily mean a skill that is recognized by a degree or a job title, but instead refers to a more informal definition of talent. What is the ability to bake a cake, anyway, if not an arena of expertise?
We learn by connecting and sharing: every single P2PU experience will ask you to work on something together and share it. Whether it’s a team-based project such as the Data Explorer Mission, a peer review team such as Copyright 4 Educators, or making an HTML file with the School of Webcraft, interacting with others, sharing your work and imparting your knowledge is part-and-parcel of the learning experience.
Giving feedback to improve: at P2PU, we believe that delivering feedback is a kind of learning. We built our friendly assessment platform badges.p2pu.org around that very principle. When you submit a project, another P2PU community member will give you feedback to help extend your learning. Here’s an example from our Data Explorer Mission:
The feedback helps you by honing on your individual needs, and helps the P2PU member learn more by diagnosing where you’re at with the project.
Those are the core elements of what you can expect from every peer learning experience, and they can take many forms. How will you peer learn today?