Robert Metry

My CNF experience was worthwhile on many levels.  A lifelong learner and former for-profit university officer, I enrolled to gain skills and to test the P2PU concept.  On the first goal, I grew as a writer and learned much about myself in the process. I especially commend Jane Park for her diligence, intelligence and flexibility – and consistent good humor.  Her critiques of my efforts were accurate and constructive.  The Thomas Farber videos were marginally useful.  I got much more benefit from his book, Brief Nudity, and would have welcomed his in-person involvement.

Respecting P2PU and sticking with the “shake down cruise” analogy, I ask first: What did the P2PU crew learn about the system’s design and operation?  I heartily endorse the concepts of “free” and “peer to peer” but they will succeed only if the “peers” are fully engaged.  In the vernacular, if the students don’t have “skin in the game”, that is, an investment beyond the bare desire to experience the course, their motivation and participation wane as demands are made on them to perform.  Succeeding courses might require modest, more than token, fees.  Money is only one form of investment, however.  What investment will future enrollees be required to make besides a bare commitment to participate?  On the other side, what are the incentives?  P2PU’s target student profile, enrollment criteria and applicant  screening procedures could address this.

Also, peer to peer works only if the peers constructively interact as a community of learning.  In only one of the three small groups did I succeed in connecting by conference call with fellow students and engage in real time person to person conversation about each other, our work, and the program.  We generally agreed the experience was positive and that we would have benefitted from more guidance and a clearer understanding of what was expected from us, that we may have been left too much on our own.

I conclude that we were essentially volunteer guinea pigs, that structural and technical details have been and will continue to be worked out.  In hindsight I would enroll again and looking ahead I hope to enroll in other P2PU courses.

As you  pass from shakedown cruise to maiden voyage I continue to wish you calm seas and following winds.