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,…
Building a strong community of practice lies at the heart of P2PU. In order to collaborate effectively and reliably with our community, we are announcing a new monthly virtual event schedule and big changes to our newsletter. Monthly Public Calls Starting in July, we’re hosting 3 virtual meetings open to all: Community Call (1st Wednesday):…
Hi hello, nice to meet you! 👋 I’m Becky, and I joined P2PU in April as the Production Lead. I’m here to explore how we learn from people’s experiences in learning circles and uses that knowledge to support our community, improve our tools, and share our work with the world. Admittedly, a global pandemic is a…
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…
While learning circles are happening in-person around the world (maybe not right now), these aren’t the only communities that we are fostering. Part of what we’re building with learning circles is a global community of facilitators that share their lessons and best practices. Over the last two years, a small group of facilitators have been…
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…
We ask facilitators and participants a few questions at different times during the life cycle of a learning circle. We want the questions to be thoughtful and the information gathered to be useful. After getting some input from facilitators in Boston last year, we started working on improving the process. Overall it was a process…
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…