[Foundation-l] Formal request: Wikiversity project

[Ray Saintonge]

Rebecca wrote:

>I just don't see why it makes any sense to have Wikiversity as part of
>Wikibooks. The two projects would be likely to feed off each other -
>as the development of courses would thus need textbooks, which would
>help Wikibooks.
>
>But they're not one and the same. Wikibooks is about making textbooks.
>Wikiversity would be about learning stuff through organised courses.
>
>It'd be ideal if the faculty system that's already templated out on
>Wikibooks was taken live, because if they then organised themselves,
>they'd have a much better chance of putting together a textbook that
>made any sense. That would then be used as part of a course - and also
>put on Wikibooks, benefiting both communities.
>
When I first spoke of a Wikiversity more than a year ago, I don't know 
if it was original but it was certainly independent, I included a smiley 
face.

If the "Idea of a Wikiversity" (to paraphrase Cardinal Newman) were to 
proceed to fruition there would be nothing wrong with taking the first 
steps under the umbrela of Wikibooks.  To have a Wikiversity we would 
need to be able to provide a broad range of material which together 
would allow us to offer a completion certificate of some kind.  I 
hesitate to use the term "degree".

A qualifying programme must include a wide selection of individual 
courses that will include more than courses that are limited to a narrow 
specialty.  What would we want as our parallel to a "general B. A." or 
"general B. Sc."?  What must those programmes include?  If we can get to 
the point where all the elements of these two programmes are in place 
then maybe we will be ready to migrate from Wikibooks to Wikiversity. 

A Wikiversity should be more than a collection of textbooks.  In any 
given course a textbook helps to give coherence to the course.  In some 
areas, such as beginning calculus, it will be essential.  But even there 
some consideration needs to be given to questions about how people 
learn, and how do we provide individual help to the student when that is 
needed?  How are we able to determine that a student has completed the 
required work?  What can we do to provide a learning experience that is 
superior to what may be found in a traditional university?

A Wikiversity would bring learning available to a greater population 
than what the universities have been able to do.  It's one logical 
extension to Wikipedia, but I'm not sure if we can pull it off.

Ec