Activity – Write an invitation to someone who can help as a co-facilitator on your project. Clarify what you hope to learn from them and what your project has to offer. Helpful questions to consider: What resources are available or missing? What do you already have that you can build on? How will you find the necessary resources? Who else is interested in these kinds of challenges? The two of you should be able to come up with a respectable list.

Technology – Identify tools that could potentially be useful during the project, even if it’s new to you. Start learning how to use them. Connect with people in other locales who share similar interests or know the tools.

Suggested resources – The Peeragogy Handbook, parts III (‘Convening a Group’) and IV (‘Organizing a Learning Context’).

Recommended Reading – Schmidt, J. Philipp. (2009). Commons-Based Peer Production and education. Free Culture Research Workshop Harvard University, 23 October 2009.

Observations from the Peeragogy project – We used a strategy of “open enrollment.” New people were welcome to join the project at any time. We also encouraged people to either stay involved or withdraw; several times over the past year, we required participants to explicitly reaffirm interest in order to stay registered in the forum and mailing list. This choice cut down on the distraction of wondering if inactive members would reconnect. Still, the project continued to accumulate content, which gave some newcomers the discouraging feeling that there was too much to catch up on. Those who ended up being the most productive dove right in and didn’t worry about making mistakes. The most active members were gracious and patient with the newcomers – an important quality in successful peer-learning facilitators.