On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 3:50 PM, Sage Ross <ragesoss+wikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I've been thinking about exactly this, and doing
some preliminary planning
with pair of Wikipedian educators. If done right, Wikipedia MOOCs could
really move the 'active editor' needle and bring in a new generation of
'natural-born Wikipedians' for whom it hasn't been as easy to dive into
Wikipedia as it was 5 years ago.
At this point, it seems like Coursera is the only MOOC platform that has the
technology to do the sorts of peer evaluation that would be necessary for
running a Wikipedia course with thousands of students; it has a number of
humanities and arts classes, as well as open-ended technology classes, where
all the grading is done by peers. I've taken one class that had peer
grading, and it was--if not smooth--at least usable for peer evaluation.
Unfortunately, Coursera professors have to be at universities that are
signed on with Coursera at the institutional level, which means that
bureaucratic and political barriers will be in the way unless the professor
is already at one of the participating universities.
If any professors on this list have a strong interest in doing a MOOC with a
Wikipedia component, let me know.
Awesome to have other people already thinking on that! I've started a
draft on meta for those interested in developing the idea
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course_using_Wikipedia
Best,
Tom
--
Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom)
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more
useful than a life spent doing nothing."