Talking points archived in P2PU wiki: http://wiki.p2pu.org/w/page/37031375/P2PU-Messaging
http://pad.p2pu.org/talkingpoints
== P2PU Talking Points ==
P2PU is learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything.
- Peer 2 Peer University is a global community and platform for learning.
- Everything is free and open.
- Together, we're teaching and learning everything from mathematics to web development to literature.
- We use open educational resources and learn in study groups.
- P2PU is run by our global community of volunteers who all believe that the best way to learn is from and with other people, no matter where in the world you are.
- The result? P2PU uses peer learning and open content to scale quality education beyond the traditional institution.
Anyone can get involved with P2PU.
Peer 2 Peer University is your open online university. You can:
- Join a study group. Find a topic that interests you and learn with peers.
- Start a study group. Can't find the subject for you? Suggest a new study group or start one yourself. It's easier than you think. And we'll help you.
- Help us build and grow. Get on our community list. Or join one of the working groups:
- Building new schools - Start a community that looks at one particular topic. Find partner organizations to work with. Ask for a micro-grant to get off the ground.
- Technology - Help develop the new P2PU.org web platform. Keep our servers running. Or improve the UX/UI.
- Research - Figure out how to track learner success. Design and run surveys. Work with researchers outside of P2PU.
P2PU enables learning opportunities based on existing online content.
- A wealth of educational resources already exist online.
- Peer 2 Peer University provides the social layer -- a network of peers that give these resources context and life.
- Traditional universities also provide social support for learning, but usually in inaccessible or expensive systems. P2PU provides this social layer in an open online environment.
- P2PU builds on existing free content and we create our own. All content on p2pu.org is free and open under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
- We're also developing certification and badges, partnering with organizations like Mozilla and UC Irvine, so that P2PU learners can get public recognition for their learning and skills.
P2PU puts learners in charge, replacing the traditional top-down model.
- Peer 2 Peer University is replacing the traditional top-down model of the classroom with a more open, peer-based model that puts learners in charge of their own education.
- Courses are designed, organized, and facilitated by volunteers around the world.
- We all interact equally as “participants,” using the peer-to-peer and open-source models as our guides.
- Imagine the science projects, hobbies and books you've always wanted to explore; now imagine exploring them with people from around the world
- P2PU is all about learning by trying and doing. Sometimes, this means we're experimenting -- which is what makes P2PU exciting!
P2PU is growing by leaps and bounds
- The Peer 2 Peer University community is growing! The number of courses we offer is doubling each cycle, and we're getting thousands of applicants from more than 40 countries.
- We have more than 10,000 members currently in our community.
- What's next for P2PU?
- We're working to make our site better and easier to use for everyone.
- We are adding a few amazing people to the support team to help us get there.
- Come meet us at SXSW or the MIT OCW Global conference ...
== Talking Points (Previous Draft) ==
[After reading through this again, I'd like to question the strong focus on being experimental and community driven. We clearly are both of those things, but by repeating it, it almost makes us sound apologetic - e.g. "we know the experience is a little rough around the edges, but it's because we are just experimenting". I think we want to strive to offer everyone who comes to P2PU a great experience, and should be more confident that we can achieve it. Considering our community as customers, who we serve, might actually be a good way of getting there?]
I'd push back on that - I think to counteract the "gimme gimme gimme free stuff" attitude that we've expreienced of late from some participants, we need to very strongly ... got cut off here?
There is a difference between offering a great experience, and replicating the traditional education model in which you get taught. Those are two separate issues for me. I would like to signal that we are serious about creating an awesome project and platform - I would also like to signal that learning takes place between peers, and not in the traditional model. But I don't think either of these points requires us to repeat over and over that there is a community of volunteers that drives the project. Firefox is also built to a large degree by a community of volunteers - but they still want to be the best browser out there, and that's how they market themselves. Is the purpose of this to lower users expectations?
P2PU is a community, not a service
- P2PU believes that we are who we are because of others.
- P2PU can only be successful if everyone builds the community together.
- The community is what steers decisions at P2PU.
- You can get involved with the community in multiple ways, and you can leave whenever you want to.
P2PU is run almost entirely by volunteers
- Anyone can contribute, propose solutions and present new ideas.
- The more you put in, the more you get out. Put up your hand and do something.
- We strive to optimize for participation and innovation over speed and ruthless order.
- Since it is volunteer-driven, some features may be implemented before others due to who is available and doing it.
- We learn by trying. If you have an idea the best way to share it is to show a proof of concept rather than writing an essay.
P2PU is not a traditional university and we're not perfect (yet!)
- We'll always welcome people who simply want to come and learn
- But we don't see people who come to P2PU as “customers” or “users” - we all interact as equal “participants”, using the peer-to-peer and open source models as our guides. Sometimes, this means we're experimenting. We think this a good thing, and encourage everyone to try something new in a respectful and secure space.
At P2PU, we put learning first
- P2PU makes it possible for anyone to learn about almost anything.
- P2PU is dedicated to evolving different types of learning communities beyond tradtitional course formats
- P2PU is developing pathways to accreditation and employment, but these are enhancements of the learning focus.
- P2PU aims to help participants develop real, transferable skills and portfolios of work at the end of a course, rather than a grade.
P2PU believes in openness and collaboration
- We direct participants to free and (where possible) openly licensed content.
- Courses are open for access by all community members, enrolled or not.
- We openly license any content we make and develop our software environment under an open license.
- Our processes are transparent and we are open to change.
+++++++++++++++++++++++PREVIOUS VERSIONS BELOW+++++++++++++++++++++
One of the reasons P2PU has grown so phenomenally is the power of word of mouth - everyone should feel free to speak about P2PU with the passion and enthusiasm they feel for the project. However, it has become increasingly clear that some points about P2PU need to be consistently made out there in the world – doing this will make it easier for newbies to understand what we're about, and hopefully make people feel more comfortable about joining our community.
Below are some draft talking points – please feel free to add your thoughts to these before they go to the community for approval.
Talking points are guidelines only - this is not a press release, or a script. So please keep your contributions as short and sweet as possible.
People think in 3s, so three bullets per point is a good way to go.
P2PU is a community, not a service
- P2PU is like the African
(South African? or other) concept of Ubuntu (yes, like the software) which states that “we are who we are because of others”. [more on the word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy)] - P2PU can only be successful if everyone builds the community together.
- The community is what steers decisions at P2PU
P2PU is run almost entirely by volunteers
- If you have an new idea or a problem that needs to be resolved, propose a solution.
- Anyone can contribute: which is said with "You can get involved..."
- We strive to optimize for participation and innovation over speed and efficiency.
- Things may happen more slowly than they would in a top-down structure, but you have a greater say in the result.
- Since it is volunteer-driven, some features may be implemented before others due to who is available and doing it.
- Sometimes we re-hash things. This can be challenging but often new opinions or solutions emerge when a topic is revisited, and it's worth the extra investment.
P2PU is what people make of it (this seems like it could be collapsed with above) (agreed)- volunteers drive the Red Cross but do they have the power to decide what the Red Cross does?
- The more you put in, the more you will get out.
- If you care about an issue at P2PU, put your hand up and do something about it. Doacracy?
- Chances are, you'll find like-minded people who share your ideas.
- We learn by trying. If you have an idea, often the best way to have it adopted is to show a proof of concept rather than writing an essay.
- You can get involved with the community in multiple ways:
- As someone who takes the initiative to start a course around things they want to learn
- As a participant in a course
- As a topic expert for a course - participants ask for your advice
- As a researcher
- As a web developer - we build our own open-source software
P2PU is not a traditional university and we're not perfect (yet!) (maybe collapsed with #1?)
- We'll always welcome people who simply want to come and learn,
- But we don't see people who come to P2PU as “customers” or “users” - we all interact as equal “participants”. ("peer to peer" and "open source" philosophies might be another way to explain this)
- Sometimes, this means we're experimenting. We think this a good thing, and encourage everyone to try something new (But we also test our software as much as we can and [backup data? respect privacy etc.)
At P2PU, we put learning first (as opposed to grades, credits, classroom management, etc). (this sounds more like it's coming from staff, or the people who "run" P2PU. People participate at all levels-- isn't first priority to learn? [ab - is the current version better?]) (I read it as it is the tool for which anyone can learn almost anything from each other. Can lead a student to a book but can't force him or her to learn. Just make it as easy as possible to get that book and read it.)
- P2PU makes it possible for anyone to learn about almost anything.
- P2PU is developing pathways to accreditation and employment, but these are enhancements of the learning focus. Current options beyond learning include...
- accreditation via badges / assessments.
- portfolio pieces and code (if applicable) at the end of a course which are good for resumes and interviews, which we leave up to each facilitator/group but also some project based learning.
- community votes on topics of interest so that which is learned could be extremely focused on getting employment but someone still has to step up to facilitate the class with that focus in mind.
P2PU believes in openness and collaboration
- We direct participants to free and (where possible) openly licensed content that we are free to remix and improve.
- Courses are open for reading by all community members, not just enrolled participants.
- We openly license any content we make and develop our software environment under an open license.
- Our processes are transparent and we are open to change.
- Anyone can join P2PU; reiterate above - what you put in is what you get out!
========Other stuff======
Re: class/course terminology
Sometimes I wonder about the term "course" or "class." I use it but it seems to be like the traditional classes where there's an expert/professor at the front of a room and the rest of the class are students there to get a transfer of knowledge. I like "community" and "learning" though the vehicle through which this is done is groups(?) of students? Not sure. Just typing "out loud." Class works but I want to help people realize how open source/community driven it is and one doesn't have to be an expert to get the class going. [Philipp: Not sure who wrote this, but totally agree]
[Pippa, agree too - changing the terminology from course to (learning group) may encourage greater participation from learners. Course organisers "grok" this already, but general participants just think they're getting free traditional courses. This is an important communication decision to make]
Maybe we should have some tech talking points too. I realize that it's changing -- of course -- but some of the tools involved in all of the above are really good to mention during interviews and such too depending on audience. Might get more devs with this project specifically, find some more shared projects, or inspire other groups like this. We could even use the tech talking points (or even the open ed research team's findings) as gateways to get interviewed in niche magazines.
[not only are we responding against traditional bricks and mortar education, we're also challenging the way traditional "e-learning" is perceived, designed and created]
Other things I love when doing interviews are statistics. Perhaps we could have a page of general ones like X% increase from the first sessions (when) to January's. I've seen them around somewhere but one spot where the above talking points lives would be nice for quick referral.
Super useful - regular reports on site/ user metrics and surveys would be great to archive on the wiki anyway.