[Foundation-l] Re: Wikiversity

[Amgine]

IMO: MediaWiki software is not an appropriate medium for online courses. 
I also get very frustrated by the shortcomings of WebCT. The demands of 
online course leaders and participants are too specialized when you're 
planning a series of courses to be academically challenging enough to be 
considered creditable at the international academic level. If that's 
your goal I would encourage adopting a floss project whose sole goal is 
an online course software and which is willing to integrate with 
Wikimedia resources.

* Threaded forums, with thread and forum privileges definable by course 
leaders
* Private messaging, including file attachment
* File uploading (and serving if possible) for learning modules
* (WebCT has a "Chalkboard", which is a sort of js graphical shoutbox - 
probably useful in courses using formulae, etc.)
* Chat/IRC integrated - leader/participant "office hours" as well as groups
** Should also include audio/video lectures at some point
* Quiz/exam server
** Timing feature (when it can be taken, how long they have to complete 
it, etc.)
** Random question feature should be included (not yet in WebCT.)
** Answer key/scoring options
** Leader response/discussion is optional
** Statistical output (quiz analysis, student analysis, class analysis, 
as well as data dumping)
** Needs to allow essay and fill-in-the-blank type questions at some point.
* Grading tool
** Lists all assignments in course, grade for each completed assignment, 
cumulative grade to date
*** shows weight of each assignment toward final grade
** Leaders can define what constitutes passing scores for their 
particular course
* Calendar tool
** Leader can build-in course calendar
** Participants have a personal calendar which can incorporate all 
enrolled course calendars
*** personal calendars also editable

Specific for the leaders...
* Participant tracking
** Identifies if they have logged in to course
** Tracks time spent in different modules/sections of the course
** Statistics available for sections, lesson modules at the class and 
participant levels
* Lesson module building
** prebuild html
*** upload as a directory
** online editor
*** upload files separately
** multimedia modules possible
** Timed release is definable by course leader
*** lesson modules available on dates or everything at the start, other 
options should be made available
* Grading tools
** Exams - currently feedback is optional; should be feedback optional 
on a per-question basis, to address specific problems a participant 
might be experiencing and to allow for essay questions.
** statistical analysis is still limited at this point, but a current 
data dump in a portable format is available.

There are many additional elements which would be useful, some of which 
may be a part of other online course software.

Amgine