I've decided to "*BE BOLD*" and start a new course or learning
experience on Wikiversity. I know there are several attempts right now
to start at the top and work down to corses, and a few "bottom up"
ideas, but I'm really going to try and push forward the model that has
been explained and described, but not actually done so far in any large
degree.
One of the things that case up on the IRC discussion today (August 17th)
is that there was a need for a few critical "core" subjects that really
are prerequisites for just about anything else. While I'm not quite as
comfortable doing this as perhaps others might be, I have selected as
one of these core subjects to be College Algebra, which is often a
graduation requirement for just about every college student unless you
are lucky enough (I was) to have to take even more advanded math as a
requirement instead because of the technical nature of the program.
I'm seeking a little bit of in-depth throught on this subject in terms
of how to organize it for an on-line experience. I've considered trying
to come up with formal lesson plans that would be followed on a weekly
basis as a sort of "topic of the week" for participants in this learning
group. I would also hold "classes" via IRC to explain some of the
details and give a bit of a lecture of sorts, although this is also more
a way for us to try and study the topic together. A homework "study
area" would also be set up on Wikiversity that would go over some
homework problems (there is going to be homework for this class) and to
try and get into depth on that topic. There would also be required
reading from various sources including web content from other sites,
including non-Wikimedia websites.
Just as in real life, you will get out of this as much as you put into
it. As there isn't going to be a grade or "transcript" kept of your
participation (yet... this is a detail we should seriously talk about)
your ability to learn is going to be directly proportional to the effort
that you put into this subject. My thought was to try and go through
cycles of about 10-15 weeks where at the end of the 15 weeks we would
start all over again at the beginning. At that time you should move on
to another subject, and hopefully feel comfortable with what we are
discussing, although I hope that a few "students" will stick around for
the next round and act as instructors for the new group. The idea here
is that I would like this to become a self-sustaining community unto
itself after a fashion that would be able to continue the idea and make
modifications to the curriculum even if the originator of the course has
moved on. I think this would definitely be possible for some of these
core subjects if they could be properly organized and set up.
I also am planning on using the Algebra Wikibook, and I'm hoping that
the students who are going to be involved with also help partially write
that Wikibook as they find blatant errors and want to add more depth to
the material. In this way (as has been suggested in the past) Wikibooks
and Wikiversity can also achieve a type of synergy that can help each
other out and bring these core textbooks up to a standard that they
might actually be used for other educational environments besides
Wikiversity. BTW, I was thinking of putting that explictly into the
"homework" requirements of making some sort of modest change each week
on the Wikibook.
I know this sounds like a tough goal, but I would like to be able to get
this up to the point that those who are serious about participating with
this study group can start from scratch and then have the ability to
"test out" of any College Algebra course at a major university. This is
a high goal, but I don't think it is impossible even with a small group
of Wikiversity participants. The amount of material already available
is pretty substantial, and for those that are trying to push for some
sort of degree program, this would be a very important first step.
My goal is that by the week of September 3rd to be ready for my first
group of students. I know I'm going to make a few mistakes along the
way, and this first round isn't going to be quite up to my stated goals
and wishes, but we need to make a start and meet the expectations of
people coming to Wikiversity. Another goal is to use this as a sort of
"gold standard" to compare other learning groups, although I'm not
trying to suck the wind out of any other efforts. I am also openly
admitting that this is but one idea for how people can learn via
Wikiversity, but it is something concrete and something that people can
relate to that are familar with in terms of a more traditional learning
environment.
--
Robert Scott Horning