In today’s world it is easy to see limited resources as determinative (money, nature, time). But against these scarce resources what has greater potential to extend throughout the world direction is growing the capacity of people. The people are already positioned – wherever there are problems there are people. And now, able to reach these people is mobile broadband Internet technology – so there is an ability to engage these world scattered people with education. The potential of mobile broadband Internet changes what was always a modest impact of blended learning pedagogy into now a truly world engaging potential. Mobile broadband Internet in one decade has become the most rapid extension of technology in human history. The University of the World brings together these two resources of capacity of people and new technology.
To achieve this, the University of the World significantly reframes the context in how curricula are usually designed. That is, the curriculum is initiated by the student and designed collectively by students working with faculty through a Learning Class process. For validation, outcomes are measured according to established external standards. What makes this rigorous education is that the whole process is under peer and faculty review, resulting in collaborative scholarship.
Learning Plans are the foundation document for matriculation and the guiding metric toward graduation. They will be regularly revised through the degree process as a student’s learning advises, holding students accountable as they progress with rising skills. Moreover, in connecting multiple Learning Plans through a Class, a network of learning is created that is not only learning in their respective contexts but also using those local contexts to create larger learning to create a matrix of learning and parallel critique. This is a departure from traditional curricula where the learning is one-way teacher-to-student and students do not critique what they are learning and where the product is not aggregating into a growing body of global scholarship.