Peer learning refers to a pedagogical practice in which learners (students) come together formally or informally in order to share their knowledge of a given subject and help each other attain specific educational goals. The notion of peer learning is certainly not new but has been gaining visibility more rapidly with the advent of online learning and, more recently, the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) movement. Peer learning is a logical component of MOOC education given that there are tens of thousands of students typically registered for these courses and, even though active participants may number in the thousands (rather than tens of thousands), it is impossible for any single instructor to effectively interact with all the learners. The solution? Peer learning, in which the masses are divided into small, manageable groups with volunteer peer leaders lending some structure to the groups. (This, too, is not a new concept. What is new is doing it online with co-learners from around the world participating.)
But why must there be a course around which to form peer learning groups? Why not a subject matter area!? At UC Irvine, we are embarking on a project to create peer learning capabilities centered on our OpenChem content (which consists of video recordings of nearly all undergraduate chemistry course lectures plus ancillary content). Through a searchable portal, learners worldwide will be able not only to view the lecture videos but to create their own virtual peer learning groups focused on individual topics, as well. The idea is to have peer leaders be able to manage these groups and convene synchronous study sessions during which participants can explore the content and solve practice problems together. A prototype application is well along in development and we are excited at soon being able to test this new use of our already-popular chemistry content.