Thanks very much for this, John. I'm very happy you've "jumped in" to the discussion after just discovering it today :-)

I think you're right in that Wikiversity is a bit vague and nebulous in its design, but many of us have been arguing that this is quite necessary thing for the creation of the project. A wiki-based centre of learning is a complex thing - unless we opt for a wiki-based repository of learning materials, which has been one of the more conservative options put forward. Once we decide to go for a more ambitious place where people can learn, it becomes more complicated, and, as you say, becomes flavoured by individual people's perceptions and expectations of what education is and how it is done. In allowing for a flexible project structure, I am hoping that individual people are able to pursue their own visions of what the best form of learning is for their subject and for themselves.

As Michael says, there is really no point at this stage in going for an accredited university - it is well beyond our current resources, and possibly even the remit of the Wikimedia Foundation. However, we will be setting up a resource that accredited universities (or other centres of learning) can use in their own courses - and hopefully in the process gain some valuable contributors from their students or lecturers.

It occurs to me to ask what you've seen of Wikiversity so far - have you seen it on Wikibooks or Meta? Have you seen the current proposal? (It's at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity/Modified_project_proposal if you haven't.)

I'm curious about your suggestions though - do you envisage a project where people write their dissertations on Wikiversity, with feedback from supervisors, or other students? How would you see it working exactly?

Anyway, thanks for your input - it's always good to get a fresh perspective.

Cheers, Cormac (User:Cormaggio)

The response that Wikiversity has no plans to become accredited at the moment make sense. Basically what I suggest is that private efforts to organize internet-networked learning are a very good, maybe an inevitable idea. The idea of a wikiversity where anyone can get a college degree seems to be an impossible task if it is to be done well. A variety of approaches must operate beside each other.

I personally don't envision wikiversity operating like a university, I suppose my own opinion at this point is that wikimedia would play a much greater role in terms of the content of said classes, rather than in organizing them.

The idea that allowed me to stumble on wikiversity is an idea for a private organization, non for profit or for-profit (whatever works) modelled on the structure of Reed University. Personally I see this as more promising in the short term than other vehicles of accreditation, because if a university would sponser the program, the student must create a serious piece of work in order to get recognition, rather than passing some sort of standardized test. I am fairly young and have other ambitions, but if there was some interest in such a possibility I would consider working toward it. I myself am strongly considering abandoning a four year university to study independently in order to write a thesis that I can then try to "sell" the thesis for a degree.

John Goes