This page quotes reflections from previous organizers and participants in P2PU courses. It includes excerpts of things that worked well (+), general approaches (=), and things that blocked progress and participation (-).

 

ON ACCEPTING PARTICIPANTS

Once sign-up for your course closes, you'll have to review applications and accept participants. It's up to you whether to allow everyone in or select individuals. It should be noted that many applicants often overestimate their time/motivations.  If participants are given clear expectations for commitment when they sign up - they often drop out during the course.

(=) "The course received 32 sign ups. I admitted 27 of the 32 applicants based upon application completeness. I only rejected applicants that didn't answer all of the questions on the very short application form. Immediately after closing signups I set out to coordinate a weekly time slot for us to have synchronous meetings. The best we could do was 11AM & 1PM Eastern time which would allow for around 20 of the accepted applicants to make the course. For the first week I held two sections, but consolidated to one section at 11AM Eastern for the remaining five weeks." -Organizer, Mashing Up The Open Web

(-) "I accepted everyone who applied. We didn't really make any introductions, rather we started by reviewing the material, and discussing it via blogs. It was a pretty bad format and almost everyone dropped out by week 2." -Organizer, Arid Land Restoration & Reforestation

(-) "We want to worry less about trying to make it so anyone/everyone, regardless of their level of commitment or ability to put in time, can participate.  This is a fantasy.  If you decide that your course needs some certain level of commitment, make it clear at the beginning." -Organizer, C4E

ON COURSE MATERIAL

Almost all previous course organizers felt they had included too much content or time-consuming tasks for the six-week course. As you develop your syllabus, identify the most essential tasks for learning. Take into account how much you would have to spend with the workload if you were new to the material.
 

(-) "The 6 week course had no provision to stop and think and engage with the content and in the end it became a matter of just "getting it done". I felt we needed far more time to engage with the ideas, so perhaps the same amount of content but in a 10 or 12 week period would be better. " -Participant, Copyright For Educators

(-) "I think next time around we will have to cover less material and spend more time solidifying things.  I think it may have been way to much to try and tackle in 6 weeks, not to mention the first time running." - Organizer, Music Theory

(-) "I tried to do too much at once with this class, beginning with the syllabus. I selected a dangerously open-ended task at the outset - identifying and articulating a design challenge for the rest of the class. In my experience, these kinds of conversations and exercises were difficult enough in the real world, even amongst experienced designers sitting in the same room; it really got us too broad too early." - Organizer, Build Ideas Through Design

ON COMMUNICATING

Communicating with your participants well is the key to success in a P2PU course. Participants and organizers both vocalized its importance. In courses where communication lagged, members were less enganged, produced less work, or dropped out. However, courses with strong communications (especially from the start) kept members engaged and produced more work.

(+) "We started the course by using a web based video conferencing tool, Tokbox. Each week at 11AM Eastern, the group would gather in a video conference room to do three things. First each participant would give a project update, followed by a review of the active assignment, and finally a group discussion around the passive assignment. During class, I encouraged participants to ask questions and lead the discussion in whatever direction they wanted it to go. My goal was to facilitate the discussion, not control it. I generally tried to defer answering questions to other participants, unless I was the only one able to answer." - Organizer, Mashing Up The Open Web

(+) "We had a super energetic kick off call - really, everyone was pumped, except one student who had terrible connectivity issues  - and we had lots of solid follow-up skype conversations. We had some good, high-level exchanges on the boards, too."  -Organizer, Building Ideas Through Design

(-) "Getting everyone on the same call proved to be a challenge, and with writing classes, only text feedback is not desirable as you don't really feel part of a community or group. I don't really see how this could be remedied, as people were from all different timezones and that's what made it interesting." -Organizer, Creative NonFiction  

(+) We used P2PU's website and the forums as the central hub of communications augmented with a mailing list, UStream, Twitter (#kmdp2puDJ) and an IRC channel that was also accessible via a web interface on the P2PU website. Each week, we had assignments and a real-time seminar. The physical space was the Keio Hiyoshi campus, but I would video conference in via H.323 when I was out of town and we had guest speakers and remote students video in via Skype. We then streamed this and recorded it on UStream, using the IRC channel as the discussion and question area. We would tweet the UStream sessions and would gather an tag-along participants in real-time. The video of the seminars recorded in Tokyo in high definition and were uploaded later (html/rss). - Organizer, Digital Journalism

(-) I think that having so many modes of communications made it difficult to keep track of the threads. - Organizer, Digital Journalism

(+) "In addition to the weekly hour of class time, I held two office hours. One at 10AM Eastern (before class) and another at 12PM Eastern (after class). I had a much higher participation rate in the office hours after class than before class, but generally always had at least one participant taking advantage of the time. Office hours were especially useful for working with the less experienced participants." -Organizer, Mashing Up The Open Web

(+) "I posted discussion questions and responded to each and every student posting and had some really great interaction (and the best thing that could have happened as a teacher happened: I learned from the students!)" - Organizer, Green Action: Creating Sustainable Communities

Feedback Database from Cycle 1 (2009)

Feedback Database from Cycle 2 (2010)

Feedback Database from Cycle 3 (2010)

Feedback Database from Cycle 4 (2011)

☜ Return to Course Design Handbook