Thanks very much for this, John. I'm very happy you've "jumped in" to
the discussion after just discovering it today :-)
I think you're right in that Wikiversity is a bit vague and nebulous
in its design, but many of us have been arguing that this is quite
necessary thing for the creation of the project. A wiki-based centre
of learning is a complex thing - unless we opt for a wiki-based
repository of learning materials, which has been one of the more
conservative options put forward. Once we decide to go for a more
ambitious place where people can learn, it becomes more complicated,
and, as you say, becomes flavoured by individual people's perceptions
and expectations of what education is and how it is done. In allowing
for a flexible project structure, I am hoping that individual people
are able to pursue their own visions of what the best form of learning
is for their subject and for themselves.
As Michael says, there is really no point at this stage in going for
an accredited university - it is well beyond our current resources,
and possibly even the remit of the Wikimedia Foundation. However, we
will be setting up a resource that accredited universities (or other
centres of learning) can use in their own courses - and hopefully in
the process gain some valuable contributors from their students or
lecturers.
It occurs to me to ask what you've seen of Wikiversity so far - have
you seen it on Wikibooks or Meta? Have you seen the current proposal?
(It's at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity/Modified_project_proposal
if you haven't.)
I'm curious about your suggestions though - do you envisage a project
where people write their dissertations on Wikiversity, with feedback
from supervisors, or other students? How would you see it working
exactly?
Anyway, thanks for your input - it's always good to get a fresh
perspective.
Cheers,
Cormac (User:Cormaggio)
The response that Wikiversity has no plans to become accredited at the
moment make sense. Basically what I suggest is that private efforts to
organize internet-networked learning are a very good, maybe an inevitable
idea. The idea of a wikiversity where anyone can get a college degree seems
to be an impossible task if it is to be done well. A variety of approaches
must operate beside each other.
I personally don't envision wikiversity operating like a university, I
suppose my own opinion at this point is that wikimedia would play a much
greater role in terms of the content of said classes, rather than in
organizing them.
The idea that allowed me to stumble on wikiversity is an idea for a private
organization, non for profit or for-profit (whatever works) modelled on the
structure of Reed University. Personally I see this as more promising in
the short term than other vehicles of accreditation, because if a university
would sponser the program, the student must create a serious piece of work
in order to get recognition, rather than passing some sort of standardized
test. I am fairly young and have other ambitions, but if there was some
interest in such a possibility I would consider working toward it. I myself
am strongly considering abandoning a four year university to study
independently in order to write a thesis that I can then try to "sell" the
thesis for a degree.
John Goes