Wikiversity:I Want to Know

Helping Wikiversity
(First off I apologize because I know this question isn't in the appropriate place - please inform me where I should put these types of questions in the future...) I am attending college currently, and am wondering how I can get my professors to help Wikiversity as much as possible; obviously I could tell them simply to 'go there' and explain the concept but if they have specific questions as educators, where should I point them? If we assume they are willing to put time into this project, do they have to prove their credentials, is it okay for them to submit tests or lesson material? Who answers these questions? Thanks. SolAce7x 05:31, 10 August 2006 (UTC)


 * After some long delays the Wikiversity is now (14 August 06) getting setup in permanent databases. If they have specific questions they can come ask them in English here:  http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Main_Page  They can submit specific questions and tests anywhere they find appropriate along the learning trails in the link mazes.  They should understand the nature of a wiki which is that anyone else may modify the material and that the material is licensed as FDL (GNU Free Documentation License) and may be modified and reused or republished in accordance with those license requirements).   Any participant who knows can answer these questions.  A more specific project/community structure will start to evolve now that we are officially active.  Welcome! Lazyquasar 10:04, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

General Relativity
Anyone know some good sources or places to start with General Relativity? Hah, what an open question. Fephisto 23:50, 31 July 2006 (UTC)


 * A search of Wikibooks finds: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/General_Relativity  This is mostly an index of mathematical treatments of some concepts useful in Relativity.
 * A potential learning group may be getting established here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikiversity:General_Relativity
 * This seems a pretty good starting place to lookver concepts and maybe find additional material: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Relativity
 * You may wish to check back in a few months. Wikiversity is currently pending approval to proceed and this is probably suppressing interest and activity at the moment.

68.238.143.172 07:31, 3 August 2006 (UTC) user:lazyquasar


 * t'hooft has written a book which is available on-line.--Hillgentleman 15:55, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

School of Natural Sciences
Either I have missed something, or there is a glaring omission in the wikiversity: no natural science courses. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, all of these would be good resources. I know that Wikibooks has a lot of different books about these subjects, but it would be beneficial if there were course series for each of these as well.
 * http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Wikiversity_Schools Has links for these subjects. Perhaps you are looking the outdated shortlist on the front page?  Or perhaps a neophyte has made an error and deleted the layers of links leading to the active Biology portal frequented by non other than user:JWSurf http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikiversity:School_of_Biology or organization shuffling is in progress.   A search for these subjects in the Wikibooks database will find some excellent materials in the wiki books, active biology portal, and some sparse activitiy in other areas. I will check the links when I get a chance.  Thanks for reporting the problem here!  If you were logged in when you left message above and put four tildas after a space at end of the paragraph it provides a signature with link back to your personal/handle pages.  Lazyquasar 10:42, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Standard Particle Theory
What replaced the Standard Particle Theory when it was discovered that neutrinos have mass? Do we know what the range of typical speeds for neutrinos are yet? Is anyone working on developing neutrino telescopes yet?
 * Good introductory background at this link.
 * Some good discussion here.
 * Some serious handwaving here.
 * Excellent background and explanation of neutrino oscillation.
 * Wikipedia has a good overview of situation. neutrinos

Globalization & China
Who controls China's foreign policy? Communist party leaders, military leadership, or new capitalists created by rapid industrialization, urbanization and foreign capitalists pursuing offshore opportunity?


 * The Great (fire)Wall of china is blocking wiki[pm]edia btw.

Class Sign Up
I have read many articles regarding the accreditation of this online university and the ramifications of it. My question is much simplier, I am concerned where to sign up for courses of interest. Should there not be a central page where I could sign up and have updates from my instructor. I am afraid the course boils down to me learning the major points outlined in the course description on my own with no testing of the material. I am not a big fan of tests but assessment of my knowledge on the subject is a big plus.

Politic0220


 * There is no intention or ability for this Wikiversity to become accredited within a few years. First we have to build some materials, credibility and organizational structure that would be satisfactory to an official body which provides accreditation.   We are just getting started.  We hope to build a community of participants who work and study together to meet individual learning goals and simultaneously our common goal of creating free instructional material and human knowledge, present it efffectively to each other and any human being with the technology to access it.  I happened to have gotten an A in Politics 205 in at Oregon State University aproximately 20 years.  If you need an initial study partner I could track down my text or buy another one.  We cannot violate copyright so we must be careful to be paraphrasing and creating our own notes.  Plus we can use any applicable texts available on the Wikibooks bookshelves, articles in the Wikipedia, and information available elsewhere on the web, personally accessible libraries, etc.  If you are interested leave a note on my discussion page.  user:lazyquasar  Ignore the "It's Dead Jim" message.  You and I can create a few sparks to possibly help it ignite again.


 * Update. There has been some activity here.  http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikiversity:School_of_Political_Science  Apparently severl participants are already active in the poly sci area.  Keep in mind there are no credentials at Wikiversity so far only participants who have registered like yourself.  If you find yourself in conflict with the "Department Heads" or "Instructors" simply start your own study group.  The appropriate designation for all of us at this time is "participant".  We are studying together while creating free materials that express human knowledge for our common posterity.  user:lazyquasar

How to assist classes?
I read many pages in wikiversity but couldn't find how to assist classes. Are they over irc or like a video conversation or just by typing in wiki pages? I specially want to get info about politics and business classes. Thanks in advance.


 * Does "assist" mean "attend"?


 * Wikiversity is in the process of being reviewed, finalized, and activated by a proposal committee chargedd with showing the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Director how we intend to operate initially. We start with some awesome assets.   Once final approval is achieved a dedicated set of wiki's at wikiversity.org in various languages as participants show up.  Basically we do not have structured classes at this time we are trying to get some study groups up and running.  These will start to develop learning trails and leave useful materials behind for the next participants who show up.  The German Wikiveristy is already active and to my certain knowledge several French graduate students have swung by looking for applicable processes they could use and help out with.   They were disappointed that the French wiki was not already active but we gave them adresses for the Board so this may be ready to change as soon as we have approval to proceed across the board instead of prototyping within this temporary space.  We can easily link to Wikipedia and other wikimedia projects such as Wikibooks, Wiktionary,  Commons (multimedia, photographs, and other stuff or components used by multiple Wikimedia projects) as well as the rest of the Web.   Groups of participants can use other resources like IRC, external mailing lists, etc. etc. and link to or cut and paste as long as care is taken to get appropriate permissions to respect everyone's expectation of privacy issues and personal copyright inherit in private or public writing.   Notice when material is submitted to this and the soon to be Wikiversity English site the submittal form requires submitter to know they are publishing the material appropriately under the FDL free documentation license.  See above about politics.  I operated a business for eight years and have some books around.  If you wish to a study group of some kind started regarding business leave a note on my user discussion page (click on signature link and then the discussion tab at top of my user page) and maybe we can get it going and attract some more high and low end participation to make it really worth your while. user:lazyquasar


 * Update. I could not find any recent activity here http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikiversity:School_of_Business.  It is probably pending approval of our dedicated wikispace at URL wikiversity.org.

There is a significant link structure leading back various Wikibooks under construction. By checking the history page and following user names you might find some people interested in Business. Alternatively, go to the appropriate shelf at the Books by subject tab to the left and look for user handles. Strike up a discussion at their user page and see if anyone is interested in a study group focusing on your current specific interests. user:lazyquasar