Hello Jamal,
This sounds like a great idea, and certainly has potential to grow
Wikiversity. However, Wikiversity is not simply a databank or an information
store, and while it would be great to add significant sections of content to
the wiki, we would need to run the program on a very small scale to begin
with to see if we can support the extra information.
You suggest that college students will supply the information, which would
certainly solve a lot of problems we have with quality of content, however
once the information is stored it must be organised, categorised, formatted
and so on. As long as we have enough people to do this, we would certainly
consider the program, but for now we might need a very small pilot (say, ten
students) to see how we go. See what sort of response you get from others
managing Wikiversity, and consider putting up a section on your user page
describing your idea.
On 10/24/07, jahmed(a)wesleyan.edu <jahmed(a)wesleyan.edu> wrote:
Hi there,
My name is Jamal Ahmed, I'm a junior at Wesleyan University in Middletown,
Connecticut. I have an idea to help the growth of Wikiversity. I figure,
there are a lot of college students who are doing homework on a regular
basis to help themselves understand the material we hope to one day see in
Wikiversity. But at the end of the day, their homework is only of use
to themselves, and at the end of the semester, it gets thrown away. Maybe
we can harness the intellectual productive potential of college students
to
produce mass amounts of Wiki material.
What I have in mind is starting programs in many universities where a
homework assignment given to a student is to complete a section on
Wikipedia /Wikiversity in his/her assigned subject, such as a higher level
math student writing a section on differentiation of polynomials, or an
upper level Spanish student making an interactive vocabulary list of
household items. This could even be extra credit, and guessing the number
of people out there who would love some extra credit, I have a feeling it
would be popular.
Start with contacting one university, and setting up a meeting with
any/all willing professors. Given the drive that a lot of professors have
for education and giving back to the community, I have the feeling the
response will be popular (nearly all would at the very least include an
extra credit assignment). If there is one class of about 30 upperclassmen,
and each of them is assigned to write a comprehensive section on a
relatively easy topic for their level of understanding, then for that one
assignment you can develop 30 complete sections. Given that academic
caliber material will be sourced too, this will add very complete chapters
to Wikiversity.
I would love to help out in this project, even starting the first chapter
here in Wesleyan University. Please contact me if you'd be on board for
something like this.
Sincerely,
Jamal Ahmed
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