My understanding was that wikiversity would not itself "grant" degrees. Rather the degree "granting" would be thru a proxy, and the coursework via another proxy.
For example, a technical/science degree program via wikiversity could have something like the online branch of Thomas Edison State College of New Jersey be the proxy to grant a degree, and the coursework provider could be MIT. Thus, wikiversity itself neither provides coursework nor degrees, rather, via proxys such as in this example, it could, hypothetically, "facillitate", rather than "grant" degrees.
Does this sound more or less correct in terms of the general approach to degrees with wikiversity?
Frank Erdman --- Andreas awolf002@earthlink.net wrote:
Michael Wehrle wrote:
I just came across this list and wanted to pose a
question to all list
members as I am new to wikiversity. Are free
online degrees through
wikiversity in the works? And if not, why not?
What is keeping them
from being able to offer completely free online
degrees?
In my opinion, Wikiversity should never award degrees.
The reason for this is based on the fact that a degree has its value in being accepted by people outside of the degree giving institution. This would mean that the basis of the degree needs to be under some sort of control (or at least must be certified) by people outside of Wikiversity. From this I conclude that the curriculum and learning resources would *no longer be free*. (Free as in "liberty," not as in "beer"). In my mind this means we have choice: Either we must become a type of Citizendium-versity, with "authorities" blessings the content and then "we" can award degrees, or we should never try to put up "giving out degrees" as a goal, in the first place. I definitely prefer the latter option.
Just my 2c. Andreas =:-)
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