Hi all,
I emailed this list (and textbook-l) a few weeks ago about final feedback on Wikiversity [1], but, surprisingly, there was no response at all on this list (only on textbook-l). Can it be true that nobody here is interested in Wikiversity? Or is it that nothing new can be said at this stage? Or possibly that a lack of response indicates tacit agreement/approval?
There was, in any case, a single response on the current proposal's talk page [2] (by Amgine) - which I found instructive. Amgine is still concerned about a lack of clarity in the proposal - I'm wondering if anyone here agrees/disagrees, and how so? I see Wikiversity as occupying a niche within Wikimedia as well as serving the interests of the other projects, but there is still some ambiguity about some of these inter-project relationships - particularly with Wikibooks. I'll briefly define how I personally see this working, and the distinctions.
* Wikiversity and Wikibooks will both host educational materials - but of a different kind. Wikibooks attempts to develop its resources into textbooks; Wikiversity will turn its materials into discrete learning objects, designed to fit within a course structure (though not nercessarily), so that students can avail of them in their own self-directed learning. On top of this, teachers may use these materials "off the shelf" in their lessons, and Wikiversity will construct lesson plans to facilitate their ease-of-use. If people want to do further reading on a subject, they can do so on Wikibooks.
* If someone wants to develop a course (or some sort of body of information for learning), they can start doing so immediately on Wikiversity. It may very well be that this material will, through time, develop into a textbook. I think that the material should then be *copied* (not moved) to Wikibooks, leaving behind material to be used in learning activities. (Note: I'm not sure if the mechanics of this will work within the GFDL licence - I'd appreciate comments on this.)
* Some learning activities on Wikiversity will be to develop content on other Wikimedia projects. For example, a learning group/community will apply their learning in writing a textbook (on Wikibooks) on their subject of interest, or apply their, say, researching skills in writing an article for Wikipedia or Wikinews.
* Finally, as a clear difference between it and Wikibooks, Wikiversity will allow research - though how this is to be done should be left to its community. Personally, I feel that we should be allowing for original research to be carried out and published on Wikiversity - this will then require a peer reviewing process and possibly a way for work to be "protected". How all this is to be done needs to be worked out by the community - we have been hesitant to define such a process on the wikiversity subcommittee, because the project really needs to be developed through its participant community [3].
As an update, I'm still trying to move this process along within the Special projects committee, and hopefully there will be something to show for it soon. Meanwhile, however, I continue to invite comments, suggestions, criticisms from anyone, however new or peripheral to the discussion you may feel yourself to be.
Best regards,
Cormac / Cormaggio
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity/Modified_project_proposal [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikiversity/Modified_project_proposal [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity_community