An increasing body of global scholarship affirms the benefits of collaborative learning. Research on peer mentoring shows that this approach consistently delivers quality learning, particularly when led with faculty oversight. It is a less individual-dependent than the model of faculty-alone leading the class. This is the essence of Peer-to-peer Learning (or Peer-enabled Learning). The “learning cells” for Peer-enabled Learning at the University of the World are small groups of students (Local and Global Classes) that connect face-to-face and through mobile Internet, in which students learn from each other while teaching to each other, sharing their perspectives, knowledge, experiences, and ideas, designing and implementing group projects, and jointly assessing their progress under faculty supervision.
You may be asking now if group learning is possible with geographically dispersed students. Technology has been a powerful enabler as the research about “communities of practice” has demonstrated. There are numerous examples in the web with virtual communities effectively sharing knowledge and expertise, with members learning from each other. But, as it will be discussed later on, the University of the World goes beyond online learning. Further, mobile devices should not be seen as the as “the places of learning.” Learning is happening whenever the students are (not in regular classrooms), and these devices are connecting them to a global network of collaborative learning where one student’s learning supports another’s.
Helping Others to Learn
Scholarship on learning makes two points very clear: First, when a person has an obligation to teach, then there is put in place a structure of accountability. Their students hold them accountable. Your fellow students will be tracking your peer-mentoring role, and the University of the World will be electronically tracking that also. This is to put learning pressure onto you. Additionally, through teaching a student learns. Having to frame the subject so that another understands forces the teacher to understand better, forces the teacher to individualize to the different students, prompts the teacher to position the topic both within larger context and also to localize the application.
To engage your peers, in Local Classes you meet face-to-face with them, working on academic skills, visiting demonstrations, perhaps also being jointly supervised by an expert. In your Global Classes you will meet electronically with your peers to learn both subjects and broader academic disciplines. The global engagement helps bring the best of the world to you – your world connects to the world.
Traditionally, as a student you were expected to read, listen, and absorb lessons – these tasks are still expected in the University of the World. But now, you are expected to do more. To complement that one-way process, you are expected to enable reading, listening, and absorbing in other students. Thus, responsibilities a student now carries are both learning and teaching. Responsibilities are more than time at task – the student must prove ability to perform and must prove competencies doing life-improving work. Resulting from this new universe of learning others are improving, not just the student. One group of “others” is the student’s peers, those in his or her classes. A second group is the student’s community where the student’s “desk” is situated.