Wikiversity talk:Browse/Old

Descriptions
Could we please bring in a quick description possibly from wikipedia as to what each of the schools cover to make sure people are using the right schools. Or at least clarify what each school includes to insure that various projects and learning material are appropriately categorised. --michael_DesignNZ 23:59, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Engineering and Technology,

Humanities ,

Interdisciplinary Studies,

Life Sciences ,

Physical Sciences ,

Professions,

Social Sciences ,

Linguistics

Organization
Some time down the line, we should make this look a wee bit more professional. You know, with topic-specific logos and such. Of course, we should really focus on the content first and not the aesthetics. I'm not saying....I'm just saying. --The Winged Self 04:15, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

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sohail qadeer abbasi

Portals versus Faculties
Doesn't it make more sense to call the Portals "Faculties"? I mean, that's how they are named in a real University...--Dnjkirk 06:09, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Some of the major portals are analogous to faculties in universities. But there are also other portals on wikiversity.--Hillgentleman|User talk 09:30, 1 December 2006 (UTC)


 * "I object to the use of the term "faculty" at Wikiversity. Many English-speaking people will naturally assume that if there is a "Faculty" then there must be individual faculty members who are certified and appointed by an educational institution. Many people use a definition for "faculty" that is like this one: "The group of people who teach the courses at a college or university. The faculty consists of lecturers, instructors, assistant professors, associate professors, and professors." Wikiversity does not have appointed faculty members, so it is misleading to say that we have "Faculties". There is nothing wrong with calling Wikiversity portals, "portals" as is done at Wikipedia." (source) --JWSchmidt 21:34, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
 * More English speakers will naturally assume that if there is a school then there must be individual teachers who are certified and appointed by an educational authority. --Hillgentleman|Talk 22:56, 16 December 2006 (UTC)


 * The words "Faculty of" should be removed simply because this phrase is repeated so frequently, it is hard to read. Let's keep things simple! · Robert Elliott 21:04, 16 December 2006 (UTC)


 * One problem - there is a portal:Physical Sciences and a School:Physics and Astronomy, a portal:Mathematics and a School:Mathematics. There may be other examples.  We want the structure to be clear.--Hillgentleman|Talk 21:14, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
 * So what is the problem? Portals are user-friendly guides that quickly direct browsers to content pages. Schools are content-development projects where Wikiversity editors collaborate to develop learning resources for a subject area. --JWSchmidt 21:34, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
 * The problem is that, if you remove the faculty, or if you wish portal: from the header, and leave only mathematics, scholars would be confused. Even more confusion will arise if you find two different links Mathematics and Mathematics on the same page.  (Or Physical Sciences and Physics and Astronomy.--Hillgentleman|Talk 22:31, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Portals are user-friendly guides that quickly direct browsers to content pages. <--- Do you mean that browsers can avoid the schools altogether?--Hillgentleman|Talk 22:40, 16 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Portals are not used correctly
 * Using Portals as a "user-friendly guides that quickly direct browsers to content pages" is a great idea. However, currently, it is not clear what is a portal and what is not a portal.


 * On the main page of Wikiversity, people are told to "Browse our subject areas and schools: Engineering and Technology · Fine Arts · Humanities · Interdisciplinary Studies · Life Sciences · Physical Sciences · Mathematics · Social Sciences · Practical Arts and Sciences. These are all portals.


 * But when you click on "Browse", you get a different set of major portals


 * Also, when you have a portal called Mathematics and a school called Mathematics, people get confused. When you follow the two paths, you do not arrive at the same information. Instead, you find that there are two partially different set of departments of mathematics.  In this case, the portal does not quickly direct browsers to content pages but rather, the portal goes off in a different direction from the school.  (The problem is the worse in Art and Design.)


 * The idea behind portals is great but that is not what portals are used for currently. This needs to be fixed. Robert Elliott 07:33, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Templatiziation
If we templatized the sections it might be useful. --Remi0o 22:21, 14 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Suggestion: Go to the portal for Mathematics and a school called Mathematics and create a template so that the "Departments of Mathematics" lists will be the same on both pages.


 * Similarly, go to the portal for Mathematics and a school called Computer science and create a template so that the "Departments of Computers Science" lists will be the same on both pages. Robert Elliott 07:55, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Medicine Icon
Currently the icon for the medicine section is an animation of a human brain. I think this is a very poor choice. For one, it should not be animated. The rest of the icons are not animated, and the icon should be at least somewhat similar to the other icons, and should also lend itself more to being printed. Plus the animation is very choppy (perhaps just my computer) and is not aesthetically pleasing. Secondly, it a picture of a brain, and a brain is already being used in the icon for psychology (which makes sense). Medice is a hugely broad field, I'm sure there are many many more approprate icons that could be found. For example, perhaps an x-ray of a human skeleton. 142.68.160.138 20:46, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Unstable browse concept page
Please go here if you would like to help develop a more efficient and user friendly version of the browse page. Perhaps the icons could be removed and the information could still be presented in an interesting way. --Remi 04:46, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Christianity
Could you please add Christianity Studies under Major Schools, the link is: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Christianity Thanks