Ignite MLA: P2PU

Editor's Notes

• #2: First of all, I’d just like to thank the NPC and the organizers of the very first Ignite MLA! And now I’ve got 4 minutes and 45 seconds left to talk about the concept of Open Education and Peer 2 Peer University…
• #3: I’ll start by explaining a bit about open education before I get into P2PU. There are two main components most people seem to agree on, and fortunately they’re nice and simple, just like PowerPoint AutoShapes.
• #4: The first component of open education is the removal of traditional barriers, like admission criteria, conventional classrooms, and often (but not always) the high costs associated with the current higher education system.
• #5: The 2nd component is the creation and use of open education materials that are freely available yet high quality and that are accessible without the use of high cost tools.
• #6: If this sounds familiar, it might be because you’ve heard of a little thing called open access. The two concepts are not unrelated, although they’re often discussed in different circles.
• #7: What is P2PU? According to its mission statement, Peer 2 Peer University is a grassroots open education project. It’s also a model of what open education can look like and a platform that provides a place where open education can happen.
• #8: At its heart, P2PU is large and growing international community that champions learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything.
• #9: How does it work? In a nutshell, people who want to share knowledge create a course on P2PU where people who want to learn something new simply register and sign up!
• #10: That’s it? Well, not quite. The creator must provide a syllabus and find openly available materials to use. The participants have to complete simple sign up tasks to be accepted. And finally, there needs to be participation (although it can take different forms) for everything to come together!
• #11: My personal P2PU progression looked something like this: I was a participant, then a peer facilitator, and then I leveled up to become a COURSE CREATOR! (success at this level remains to be seen.)
• #12: A bit about the different “levels”: as a participant, I completed tasks, contributed to discussion, and, of course, learned cool new things. All using open materials, from self-published essays to creative commons licensed videos.
• #13: In this role, I lead a group of peers through a syllabus that an expert had created, learning along the way myself. This is the model P2PU would like to promote: there aren’t always enough experts to lead all the interested people, so peer-directed study groups are the way of the future!
• #14: And now I’m a course creator! The sign up for my course is currently open…Anyone need to know where to find good consumer health info? There are definite challenges. Marketing and identifying open, not just free, technologies for group communication are two that come to mind.
• #15: “Real friends help me with things, not vice versa” is a quote from a different “Community.” But in the P2PU community, everyone is extremely helpful . Ideas are captured in different communication channels and there is a lot of momentum to keep this going.
• #16: The P2PU community is currently working on issues really any developing program faces: how to keep people motivated and active, how to get official recognition for their training/brand (possibly through a badge system) and finally, developing the best platform for their goals.
• #17: And now the 64,000 dollar question: why would and should medical librarians care about P2PU and open education? I’ll try to answer that…
• #18: Medical librarians understand the worth of open access journals and other materials, and we know what’s out there and how to evaluate them. Open education is one place these resources can be put to important use. Open education is also aligned with our values.
• #19: We can use the P2PU open education platform to reach our users, whether because we want to reach outside our organization’s walls and/or because it provides a central hub for free technology. And as the movement grows, it will simply be a good thing to know about and add to our arsenals.
• #20: But perhaps my favorite reason why medical librarians should care about P2PU and open education is because it provides us with a place to learn new skills that can improve our lives both professionally and personally. Now we just need to see if we can get a badge created that counts as MLA CE!
• #21: It wouldn’t be a PowerPoint without a few final resources. Thank you all so much for coming; now go out and see how the open education movement might work for you!