User:JWSchmidt/Wiki Scholar

"Learning the wiki way"An essay by John Schmidt

The role of courses at Wikiversity
In November 2005 the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees rejected the first Wikiversity project proposal and instructed the Wikiversity community to modify the proposal to "exclude online-courses". These words (exclude online-courses) caused confusion and consternation within the Wikiversity community. Many members of the Wikiversity community continued to develop plans for Wikiversity that relied upon a collection of online courses covering academic topics typical of a conventional curriculum (for example, see b:Wikiversity:School of Media Studies). If Wikiversity were to exclude online courses, what would be left?

Learning resources
Other Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia and Wikibooks produce online learning resources (an encyclopedia and textbooks). Wikiversity can produce and host all types of learning resources that are not already found at other Wikimedia projects. How does the idea of Wikiversity as a host of online learning resources satisfy the Board's request that the Wikiversity community "clarify [the] concept of e-learning" that will guide Wikiversity?

Styles of learning
Not all educational institutions emphasize or favor the same Learning styles. Many bricks-and-mortar educational institutions adopt a default approach to education that emphasizes a rather passive role for learners who listen to lectures and read textbooks. Some students prefer a more active style of "learning by doing". Wiki projects such as Wikipedia allow for both passive learning (reading encyclopedia articles) and active learning by participating in the production of articles. The modified Wikiversity project proposal that was approved by the Board calls for two major components of Wikiversity:1) learning materialsand2) learning activities.

The cure for Nupedia disease
Nupedia was the free online encyclopedia that "gave birth to" Wikipedia. Nupedia relied on a conventional approach in which experts crafted encyclopedia articles that were subjected to peer review. The problem was, Nupedia was too slow. Soon after Wikipedia was begun it became clear that collaborative wiki-based authoring of encyclopedia articles was possible. Wiki was the cure for the "Nupedia disease" of slow article production. In retrospect we can see that the basic unit of production for Nupedia was a finished encyclopedia article. The method of production was to find an expert to write each article. In contrast, the basic unit of production at a wiki is the page edit and non-experts are an important source of good page edits. It is much easier to find people who can provide a "bite-sized" nugget of good information in the form of an edit than it is to find people who will produce complete articles. Collaborative editing is the cure for Nupedia disease.

Learning projects
Wiki-mediated collaboration is a cure for Nupedia disease because it transforms a difficult "one-author process" into a more easy to accomplish "multi-author process". Nupedia tried to produce a finished article with one expert authoring an entire article. Good writing is always a learning experience for an author. The wiki way is to allow collaborative authoring by many co-authors and we can conceptualize the process as a "learning project". All of the collaborating authors learn about a topic while they create an article about the topic. While trying to create learning resources such as encyclopedia articles and textbooks, wiki projects become learning projects that editors participate in.

Courses as learning projects
Learning resources such as textbooks and encyclopedia articles can be produced by learning projects (wiki editing projects). If your goal is to use a wiki to produce and host learning materials such as lessons and courses, then you need to think about how best to harness the power of wiki to assist you. That means making use of interested non-experts and thinking about the required wiki editing as a kind of learning project. Wikiversity needs to define learning projects that will accomplish its educational mission. At other Wikimedia projects, the learning that is inherent in wiki editing is a natural by-product of working towards the projects' main goals. Wikiversity inverts this "main goal" > "learning by-product" relationship.

At Wikiversity the main goal is to facilitate learning. When we correctly establish learning projects, they provide an environment for "learning by doing" that can lead to the production of "by-products" such as lessons and courses. At Wikiversity the relationship between learning and learning materials is:"Wikiversity participants learn by doing" (main goal) > "Wikiversity participants produce learning materials as a by-product of their activities."Rather than wait for some expert to produce a lesson or a course at Wikiversity, everyone who is interested in a topic can get started and engage in exciting learning projects. Scholarly pursuit of learning projects will result in steady accumulation of learning resources related to the topic of study.

Creating courses the wiki way
Rather than try to produce conventional courses in one step (Nupedia disease), Wikiversity can start with learning projects. One type of learning project might be given crass titles such as "learn how to produce a course for topic X". But that misses the mark. Most Wikiversity participants do not want to produce a conventional course for topic X; each Wikiversity participant just wants to learn information about topic X that will allow them to move towards their personal learning goals. If that learning can be accomplished by a non-conventional learning project, then who needs to wait for conventional courses to become available?

If we take on the task of using wiki technology to create conventional courses we are led to the realization that courses can be constructed by wiki participants who engage in collaborative learning projects. The Board directed the Wikiversity community away from conventional courses because conventional courses are not a good fit for wiki technology and because wiki technology can provide learners with more flexible non-conventional learning activities. Conventional courses compact participants into a passive one-size fits all lump that can be pounded into shape according to the factory model of education. The wiki way of learning is to let each participant explore their personal interests. Wikiversity needs to provide a rich environment of "learn by doing" activities that will attract and intellectually stimulate online learners. Once online learners are hooked on Wikiversity they will do all sorts of wonderful things....maybe even construct some conventional courses. But then again, maybe by the time we are done discovering what can be accomplished with unconventional learning projects we will have forgotten all about courses.