Wikiversity:Topics



A Wikiversity page in the topic namespace helps Wikiversity participants organize learning resources related to a single academic topic area. In contrast, Wikiversity schools are used to help organize several related topic areas. Pages in the Topic: namespace can be called divisions, departments, centers, programs or any other descriptive term. If you want to create a new Wikiversity department or other Wikiversity content development project, please read the naming conventions.

Topic: namespaces are the equivalent to Wikipedia's community oriented Wikiprojects or taskforces.

Major Wikiversity Divisions and Departments

 * A STRONOMY
 * A GRICULTURAL E NGINEERING
 * C HEMICAL E NGINEERING
 * C OMPUTER P ROGRAMMING
 * E NGINEERING E DUCATION
 * E NGLISH L ANGUAGE
 * E UROPEAN H ISTORY
 * L ANGUAGE A CQUISITION
 * L ITERARY S TUDIES</SMALL>
 * P OLITICS OF THE</SMALL> E UROPEAN</SMALL> U NION</SMALL>
 * P URE</SMALL> M ATH</SMALL>
 * R EHABILITATION</SMALL> S CIENCES</SMALL>
 * R ISK</SMALL> M ANAGEMENT</SMALL>
 * W EB</SMALL> D ESIGN</SMALL>

Templates
There are templates that can be used to quickly start pages in the "Topic:" namespace. Use and.

At Wikiversity, we have a Topic namespace. Articles in it have the prefix  . This resource is to help gain an understanding of the Topic namespace and of Topic:Topics in general.

Topic namespace
To see what's in the Topic: namespace, click Special pages to your left. Scroll down to Prefix index and click that. Then, where it says Namespace:, click the drop-down box and select Topic. You will then see a page – All pages (Topic namespace) which gives you an alphabetized list something like Abenaki through XML. These are your basic Topics at Wikiversity.

The difference between topics, disambiguation pages and portals
<div align=left style=""> On Wikipedia, a disambiguation page is for topics whose names overlap or have multiple meanings (eg "reflection") - on Wikiversity the scope for overlapping is much greater, encompassing also different learner levels, different audiences, and different perspectives. A topic page is meant to serve all those functions, as well as allowing for links between related subjects, which wouldn't be fully covered under "disambiguation". Also, a topic page is meant to be easily editable so as to facilitate development of new content in a given area - a portal page is meant to be user-friendly to the person looking for content, but it is not so easy for people to edit such template/code-heavy pages in order to develop their own content. Cormaggio talk 09:10, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Finding or creating a topic
If you are disappointed to find that your favorite Topic isn't covered there, try it with no prefix (Topic) or as a School ( School:Topic) or a Portal (Portal:Topic).

Topics at Wikiversity are usually pages for other Wikiversity participants who have already organized a Learning group, Learning materials and Learning resources around that Topic.

If you are an expert, or even have a lot of interest in a topic, you can start an article in the   namespace if you desire to. A "high-level" general topic perhaps thought of as a "subject" in the Topic: namespace is usually considered a Division. In that case you can use to create a somewhat standard Division page.

Likewise, A "lower-level" specific topic perhaps thought of as a "field" in the Topic: namespace is usually considered a Department. In that case you can use to create a somewhat standard Department page.

Divisions can be parts of Schools and Departments can be parts of Divisions. As Wikiversity grows, it is importqant to interlink related content development groups, schools, portals and learning resources. Don't be discouraged if pages you create appear "lonely" or forgotten. Someone else may pull your topic into a broader context by including it on navigational templates or in other relevant categories or portals.

If you don't want to create a page yourself, just open the page and type or paste into it. Someone else will either delete the page or start the new topic. The template renders something like:

Classifying topics
Main article Classifying educational resources

See also:
 * Topic:Topics for the flat list
 * Help:Project boxes for the template system.