We’re thrilled to announce the launch of P2PU Teams, an institutional membership program designed to support library systems and other informal learning organizations develop thriving open access learning networks in their area. This is an exciting move for our non-profit and global grassroots community! While our work has always been driven by our mission of…
2016 was a formative year for P2PU. We wrapped up our learning circle pilot with Chicago Public Library (CPL), marking a conscious move away from building online courses and towards a new in-person peer-powered education model. By the fall, we had completed about 40 successful learning circles, created a community of 20 CPL library professionals,…
I was scheduled to lead a 1.5 day learning circle training workshop for Portuguese librarians in March as part of our three-year project with the European Union. When this trip was canceled due to the pandemic, I had to consider how to approach this workshop in a virtual environment instead. I had some hesitations: while…
Last night, I joined my first online learning circle. It was hosted by Sebastien Vigneau of BosLab, a Boston-area nonprofit organization that supports community-based biology programs. The topic at hand was coronavirus, and we were going to be working through FutureLearn’s online course COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus, developed by the London School of Hygiene…
About a year and a half ago, I wrote a blog post about the state of online learning and how P2PU could take a stronger position in ensuring that there were high quality, open-access courses for the learning circles. We are thrilled that this idea is now a reality, thanks to Kansas City Public Library…
Since learning circles began, our community-generated learning circles course database has continuously been one of the most appreciated features that we offer. Rather than turning to Class Central or a search engine to find a course for learning circles, facilitators around the world can come here first to explore courses that have already been used in…
For nearly two years, we’ve sent out the same surveys to learners and facilitators around the world when they are finished with their learning circle. Some of this information gets put to immediate use (e.g. feedback about the quality of course materials goes straight to our courses page), and some of it was designed to…
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a day-long workshop run by Feedback Labs; a D.C.-based group that helps organizations close feedback loops in their work with the goal of more authentically engaging end users, whoever those people might be. Before I joined, I took their organizational feedback quiz (which you can take too)….
We just submitted our mid-term report for our 2017-2020 IMLS grant with Kansas City Public Library. This project has aimed to grow learning circles from a Chicago-specific project into a nationwide community of practice across public libraries. Since our project began in May 2017, our 12 partner libraries have run more than 178 learning circles,…
If you’re reading this, you probably already know that you can run a learning circle for free whenever you like. You probably also know about our facilitator resources, Juliana’s guide for local organizing, and of course, the global community of facilitators who are ready to help you out on our forum. However, there is a…