Course review

[Stian Håklev]

Hi all,

I just had a look through the four Citizen Circles courses that are open for enrollment (http://p2pu.org/course/find?course_status[00_draft]=00_draft&course_status[10_open]=10_open&course_status[20_running]=20_running&course_status[30_complete]=30_complete&course_status[40_archived]=40_archived&tid[510]=510&title=). There were some other issues, which I left comments about on the pages of the various courses, but one overarching concern I have with all of them: None of them really explain what a "citizen circle" is, or link to any further information about SoSI etc, and none of them specify that participants have to gather together in local groups etc. You cannot expect people to find these pages through a given path, they might come to a course on women as entrepreneurs from a tweet, knowing nothing about SoSI - they would have no idea that they need to find a local team to be able to take the course (if that is indeed the case).

I think it's quite important that you clarify this, so that there aren't a lot of applicants that become very disappointed.

The courses look great, looking forward to following their progress!
Stian

--
http://reganmian.net/blog -- Random Stuff that Matters

[Julie Bowes]

Thanks, Stian. I've been thinking about this and how to get all the necessary info into the description without overwhelming people with a ton of material. You're definitely right, though! Apologies if I missed this in a previous email, but is there a general landing page for SoSI we can link to?

Julie

[Stian Håklev]

Not sure, I thought I heard something about one being created, but I don't know if it has happened. If not, perhaps link to citizencircles.org. But I think the requirement for local teams - if that is the case - needs to be stated clearly in the prerequisites.

Stian

[Laura White]

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure a landing page has been created yet, but until that is ready, http://www.citizencircles.com/ is the place to link to. 

As for Citizen Circles and School of Social Innovation, maybe we can add the following onto each of our course descriptions:

This is a Citizen Circles/P2PU School of Social Innovation course, and has a couple ofl unique features. First, this course is centered around small offline groups of three people. If you want to participate in the course, it is your responsibility to find two other people from your community to participate in the course with you. Second, in addition to joining the online meetings, your small group is expected to meet face-to-face throughout the course to engage in offline activities as outlined in the syllabus. 

Does anyone have any edits to this? Should we include any more information about joining the google group, or would that be too much for the syllabus?

Laura

[Alison Jean Cole]

This is good - once you have a final version, you should encourage all SoSI organizers to include this in their summary.

ALISON
p2pu.org/users/alison

[Alan Webb]

Hi everyone,

I have been in contact today with the developer who is helping us with the landing page (Charles).  Apologies that it isn't ready yet for you all, but we will of course put a description of what constitutes a citizen circle up there so that you can link to that.  Laura, your description works fine, or you all could also use this page in the wiki: http://wiki.p2pu.org/w/page/33982467/SoSI.

For a quick roll call, these are the courses which I understand are going ahead, as of now, and their completeness status:

Exploring Creativity as a Vehicle for Changemaking 

- Organizer is Amanda Drozer. She asked for an extension on getting her course up because she got the flu, but is still very much planning on going ahead, should be up in the next day or two.

Women Social Innovators 

- Organizers are Laura White and Julie Bowes.  

- Course is up and tagged as SoSI.

Education Politics in America 

- Organizer is Emily Connuck.  

- Course is up and tagged as SoSI.

- Need to add the contents of the Syllabus to the Syllabus page (http://p2pu.org/node/15696/document/15697)

Conflict Resolution 

- Organizer is Emily Miller.  

- Course is up and tagged as SoSI.  

- Please explain to participants in the sign-up tasks that they are asked to form local groups.

Open Government 

- Organizer is Lucas Cioffi.  

- Course is up but is not yet tagged as SoSI.  

- Need to add sign-up tasks and explain in there that participants are asked to form local groups.  Please let me know if you need any help or want to discuss those.

Sustainability Studio 

- Organizer is Chris Geith.  

- Course is up but is not yet tagged as SoSI.

Any more comments from others?

One general comment is that I'll also be checking in with each of you this week about what kind of accomplishments or learning outcomes students should be expecting in your courses and what kinds of badges students could potentially earn, if you are interested in participating in the pilot of new P2PU badges next semester (e.g. a conflict resolution badge, a ecological justice badge, etc. but also ones for all courses like for recognizing real team players in your course, etc.).  I'll need to give a bigger update on tools and options we will have to help with the process of going about that, so expect more on that from me on Wednesday after I'm back from Toronto and have a chance to digest everything I learned here!

Thanks everyone, you're looking great!

Alan

[Chris]

Stian and Alan, do I need to do something to have Sustainability
Studio listed in the SoSi list? - Chris

[Alison Jean Cole]

In the "edit" menu it should be your first option in a drop-down menu.

ALISON
p2pu.org/users/alison