Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is a grassroots network of people who believe that knowledge should be freely shared and learning is best done with others. Powered by a global community of dozens of libraries, thousands of volunteers, and a small core team, P2PU builds this vision with learning circles. Born out of the 2008 Cape Town Open Education Declaration, P2PU has remained active at the forefront of open education ever since, establishing the first open badging standard with Mozilla, developing the tools that supported some of the first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and nurturing experimental online learning communities with a variety of audiences around the globe. Since 2015, P2PU has worked with libraries and community-based organizations worldwide to realize its mission and vision through a methodology called learning circles: free, facilitated study groups for people who want to learn something together. P2PU’s values include peer learning, built on the conviction that people develop expertise through their own life experiences, that learning happens whenever people share and connect with others, and that feedback is necessary to improve; community, reflected in both what P2PU does and how it does it, believing that sustained learning communities are best created through grassroots collaboration, not hierarchical mandates; open, predicated on the belief that value is created not by gatekeeping but by working together, sharing resources, and lowering barriers to entry, with P2PU built on open source technology where everything created is free to share, remix, and redistribute; and equity, recognizing that education is a social good rather than a commodity, with systemic injustice meaning that providing access alone is insufficient and requiring active design for inclusion at every step.
Why it matters: P2PU demonstrates that learning is best done with others through free, facilitated study groups called learning circles rather than isolated individual consumption of online courses, proving that peer learning creates sustained communities when built through grassroots collaboration in libraries and community organizations rather than top-down mandates. By establishing the first open badging standard with Mozilla, developing tools supporting early MOOCs, and working with libraries worldwide since 2015, P2PU shows that open education requires both technological infrastructure and community methodology grounded in the conviction that people develop expertise through life experiences and learning happens through sharing and connecting. The organization’s commitment that equity requires recognizing education as a social good and actively designing for inclusion at every step reflects understanding that providing access alone is insufficient when systemic injustice means lowering barriers, demands intentional work beyond simply making content available.
