Serendipity35

The new year brings new courses, organizers, and peers for P2PU. The first P2PU cycle of 2011 is in session (over 40 courses) including 8 from the School of the Mathematical Future, 5 from the School of Social Innovation, and 26 from the School of Webcraft.

This university comprised of volunteers continues to grow. I am participating in a course now called "Find, Author, and Share Open Textbooks" which is described this way:

At a time when commercial textbook prices are soaring and a fundamental shift in the way we access and create information has occurred, why not consider using or authoring an open textbook? Open licensing means that you can freely incorporate open resources into a textbook that meets the needs of learners in your course and provide re-usable resources for other educators.
In this course, we will learn together how to find high-quality open textbooks and open educational resources and adapt them for re-use. We will explore different authoring and hosting platforms such as Connexions, Wikibooks, Wikieducator, LeMill, and iTunes University while ensuring that students with learning disabilities and mobile devices can also access materials. Open Licensing models will be a key component of the course as we gain understanding about what can be freely used, copied, modified and how we can make our materials available for re-use.
The use of weekly discussion forums and our community meetings will be the primary way to connect with each other around the course learning objectives as we share our insights and tribulations with others in the class. You will develop an OER project in a small team and work asynchronously on this throughout the six week course.
Several guest speakers from the OER community will join us during the community meetings sharing their experiences and answering questions for those who are starting on their journey with open textbooks and open educational resources.

P2PU has also held its first ever working meet-ups in the UK and the Big Apple. The UK meet-up took place at the MK art gallery in Milton Keynes. There is coverage of the NYC meeting at the NYC Observer. 

P2PU hopes to launch a website redesign soon and a badge system so students can get college credit for classes or have a certification to show a potential employer.

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Course Showcase
P2PU Orientation process