Wikiversity:Wiki as a tool for learning

This Wikiversity learning project is an exploration of the implications of wiki technology for online learning. This project will review existing ideas about how to use tools such as the wiki user interface to help meet the goals of active learners. Naeve et al have recently reviewed technologies that facilitate learner-centric online learning.

Explaining how learning groups work
In a discussion of collaborative learning, Barbara Davis described the importance of explaining to students exactly how collaborative learning works and what is expected from anyone who participates in group learning projects. Wikiversity needs to have in place an efficient system for explaining to new participants how the Wikiversity model for online learning works.

The duration of learning groups
Barbara Davis discussed different kinds of collaborative learning in terms of the length of time that a learning group exists. A good goal for Wikiversity is to provide flexible support for many kinds of learning groups.

Some Wikiversity collaborations might be very short-lived, being established to accomplish a task that will not take all that long. For these projects, it's essential to be able to find suitable collaborators quickly; nobody wants to spend more time trying to find people than it takes to actually do it yourself.

Other Wikiversity projects will have open-ended goals, such as continually updating a list of published sources on a particular topic. This kind of project needs a system of making sure that community members know that even long-standing projects are open to new participants, and Wikiversity must also provide a convenient way for its participants to find existing projects that interest them.

Some projects will become irrelevant and die a slow death. Wikiversity could learn about the factors that lead to success or failure in wiki-based learning collaborations by finding ways of summarizing the life history and dynamics of learning groups, their failures, and their accomplishments.

Project participants

 * JWSchmidt
 * Cormaggio
 * Piotrus 03:28, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Mpleahy 02:05, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Javier Carro 05:46, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Saidkassem 18:31, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Dionysios (talk), a Participant in the Wikiversity School of Advanced General Studies, Date: 2007-06-08 (June 8, 2007) Time: 221601 (UTC)
 * Historybuff 00:55, 9 June 2007 (UTC)