Thanks to many comments received, my earlier posting has been considerably
revised (and re-organized). Please comment here (and I'll incorporate in my
next round of editing.
Or visit
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Welcome%2C_newcomers#Proposed_New
_Content and begin editing!
The Wikiversity is for learning. A place where you'll find a learning
materials ready for downloading and courses ready to take. Anyone can
participate, no cost, no advertising, no credentials required, no degrees
awarded just learning.
Anyone can upload new teaching materials or revise the ones already here.
Anyone can take a course. Anyone can teach a course. No entrance
requirements. No fees. No certificate at the end. In the context of the
Wikiversity, a course is an undertaking of a student to follow through a set
of materials under the guidance of someone willing to teach.
The Wikiversity follows in the traditions of the Wikipedia, in other words
collaborative creation and editing. What does this mean in practice?
In the [[Wiki]] tradition, the Wikiversity is constantly evolving, both its
content and its [[Wikiversity:Policies|policies]]. While currently true, the
following should not be taken as final.
===Credentials, diplomas & provenance===
* Will I earn a diploma at the Wikiversity?
:No. That's one thing we don't do yet. At the moment you cannot earn
credentials here. But you can learn here and then earn your credentials
elsewhere. For now this is about the learning itself, by itself.
* Are there exams at the Wikiversity?
:Some course leaders may post some questionnaires so you can assess your
learning progress. Course leaders may also give personal feedback on their
observations of your progress. Wikiversity strives to help each person
define and reach their personal learning goals, and so there shouldn't be
any pressure to perform or fear of failure; instead, we promote learning
through experience, which includes making mistakes.
* Who gets to decide what gets posted here?
:You do. Go ahead and post. A more complete answer is, "We all do." All
Wikiversity pages may be created and revised by anyone. In this sense a
Wikiversity page is being created a community, by those who choose to be
active in the process. The result is pages which reflect the current
consensus. Note that older versions can always be revived. Any vandalism can
be undone by any user.
:If you're an expert (or, better, "have proven expertise"), we encourage
you
to be prepared to work with others in collaboration - just as they are
encouraged to work with you. This encouragement of equal participation is a
positive factor in building a healthy community of learning, for the sake of
learning.
:Appeal to non-present or non-proven authority is not the normal expectation
here. Much less is learning by authoritatively stating a fact with no
supporting reasoning. We encourage a reasoned dialogue showing a neophyte
the reasons, assumptions, etc. that make a commonly accepted fact in a given
field of expertise to be commonly accepted.
:The Wikiversity has no set-in-stone identification of authorship, or even a
concept of single authorship. Each page version is preserved. You can easily
step back and compare one version with any other, see who performed the
edits and communicate with those editors. And indeed, enter into
conversation with any of the editors about their choices. This is peer
review of content.
:This is community building by collaborative participation.
* How is "inappropriate" material kept off the site?
:Hate speech is unacceptable. Propaganda used as propaganda is unacceptable.
([[Wikiversity:Copyrights|Copyrighted]] material is immediately removed, on
discovery.)
:It's the community of active participants who decides what's irresponsible
and inappropriate for the Wikiversity. That community includes you, if you
choose. Content is challenged all the time. Community consensus may cause
sections or whole pages to be removed.
:If you feel strongly certain material should not be published, then start
by posting your concerns on the page's Discussion area, and/or by contacting
the various editors of the page (available from the page's History tab),
and/or by posting your concerns on the [[Colloquium]].
:The Wikiversity is a [[Wiki]] driven by consensus building among its
participants.
====Learning materials====
* Can I download materials here and use them in my own offsite classes? Can
I revise the materials? Must I make attribution to the Wikiversity?
:Yes, yes and yes. Download and use in your teaching.
[[Wikiversity:GNU_Free_Documentation_License|Check here for how our learning
materials are protected]]. And definitely revise. Better yet, post your
revisions back to the Wikiversity. Also post your experiences using the
materials to the page's Discussion area. Give back and make the Wikiversity
better.
:Finally, the [[Wikiversity:GNU_Free_Documentation_License|GPL license]]
protecting the content of the Wikiversity '''requires'''
attribution when
our content is used elsewhere. You should do this by providing a link
specific enough to find the starting point of the materials.
* How can I determine whether the material here is any good?
:By questioning, and by striving to understand the material yourself. It's
your judgement call. If you can make it better, go ahead and edit. Note that
every page has a Discussion area where you can post your observations and
questions. You can review the History of a page, see who wrote which version
and enter into dialogue with these individuals. Together we can, and will,
make the material here stronger and stronger.
====Online courses====
* Who's authorized to teach?
:Anyone with the motivation to help others learn, no credentials required.
Wikiversity is about ''people learning how to learn as well as to teach''
we value expertise and experience, but we also value learning ''through
experience''.
:You'll find all kinds of individuals teaching here, retired professional
academics, currently active ones, people from industry and the self-taught
with no formal qualifications at all. Ask course leaders for their
backgrounds, or not.
:If your students like the course, good, they'll probably continue working
with you. If not, they'll likely wander away. Or worse, raise objections.
You can only maintain yourself in the role of instructor through meritorious
contributions, positive feedback from the community and especially from
those who participate in your online courses. Everything at the Wikiversity
is subject to peer review.
* If I teach, will I get paid, can I charge my students?
:No, no fees are collected or paid for participation in the Wikiversity.
Everything is voluntary. The Wikiversity is free to all.
====General====
*How can I become involved?
:By visiting the [[Wikiversity:Community_Portal|Community Bulletin Board]].
There's a link in the sidebar under the Wikiversity logo. Here you'll learn
what tasks need to be done, what groups can be joined.
[{{fullurl:Special:Userlogin|type=signup}} You're vigorously encouraged to
join]. It's free; as a member you identify your contributions and get a
"Talk" page where you can engage in discussions.
:Here's [[Help:Starting_a_new_page|how to start a new page]]. And here's
[[Help:Editing|some editing tips]].
:Don't "sign" your submissions. That's done automatically and shown on
the
History of the page. But definitely sign your contributions to the
Discussion page and any Talk page. Do this with four tildes (~). Here's more
about [[Wikiversity:Signature|signatures]].
:Here's Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Contributing_FAQ|guidance on contributing]]
. These principles generally apply to the Wikiversity as well.
:Here's [[Wikiversity:Copyrights|guidance on copyright]]. Only public domain
resources can be copied without permission this does '''not'''
include the
vast majority of web pages or images.
:If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly or redistributed by
others, do not submit it.
:Be sure to visit the [[Wikiversity:Colloquium|Colloquium]] for general
discussions.
* What if someone wrecks a perfectly good course?
:If you see a page which appears (at least in your eyes) to have been
degraded from an earlier version, then enter into the editing process.
:It's good practice to enter into dialogue with the editor who made the
changes you feel are unfortunate. Propose a compromise. Discuss your
feelings in the Discussion area of the page. Don't be afraid to be bold.
Integrate what you liked about the older version into the current version.
Use the History tab at the top of the page to compare any two versions of a
page and see what changed.
:There's also the option of "forking" a course into two equivalent and
equal
versions covering the same subject but in different styles. Nothing at the
Wikiversity is "definitive".
* Who pays for the Wikiversity?
:You do, we all do, by donations. [[Wikiversity:Site_support|Here's how you
can make a donation]] (entirely voluntary). Notice there's no advertising on
the Wikiversity. We're non-commercial, entirely run by volunteers, operating
costs covered by donations, from people like you and by grants from various
institutions. The Wikiversity is a facility for learning.
Morley Chalmers
--
Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they
should be. Now put the foundations under them. -- Henry David Thoreau