Via Barbara Dieu:

“The P2P Virtual University is about to be launched in February 2009. Similarly to the EVO sessions, the P2PU courses will run for 6 weeks and be open to anyone with a computer and Internet connection. Learning, however, will take place in small groups of 8-14 students and will require the payment of a small sign-up fee and an application as a way to ‘assure’ learner commitment and motivation.

As Alastair Creelman states in his post:

The whole concept relies on committed tutors who use P2PU to enhance their academic reputation and the opportunity to work in communities they would not otherwise have access to. The role of the “sense makers” is more to provide academic depth to the courses and to liaise with the tutors. Whether these people will get some kind of financial reward for their contribution in the future depends on the success of the project.

While George Siemens questions the notion of “sense makers” (no one makes sense for us) and centralization, the Chronicle of Higher Education points to some of the obstacles to such project.

Although the initiative signals yet another movement towards openness, de-institutionalization and personalization, like Siemens, I still see it as linear, top-down and very teacher-centred. The content and design are laid down beforehand and precede the learner instead of respecting truly self-determined learning and reflection.

I wonder whether I will see the day when learners themselves discuss and write down their own curricula on a wiki according to their passion and needs, and then, interact in diverse communities to seek out experience, discuss and collaborate with feedback from tutors, experts and peers in order to make sense and achieve their goals. Their certificate, whether accredited by an institution or not, would then be their personal learning process and trajectory documented through their interactions and artifacts on the Web/f2f. “