Wikiversity:Examples

This page lists selected content from Wikiversity. The page is related to featured content on Wikiversity, but extends much more widely to content which illustrate things about Wikiversity other than educational value. This page is not a directory of Wikiversity content.

Possible purposes of this page edit

  1. Studying Wikiversity content in order to develop a theory of wiki learning.
  2. Finding candidates for content development drives.
  3. Research into Wikiversity.

Note: this table is transcluded from featured content. Please refer to the original page for more information about featured content.

Name Main coordinator(s) Subject Level Size Notes
Observational astronomy User:Mu301 Astronomy Secondary, tertiary 1 Project participants access public astronomy databases and explore outer space.
Bloom clock project User:SB_Johnny Biology, horticulture Research, universal 858 Participants record bloom times of wildflowers and other plants; 858 plants and 144 keys.
Teaching and Learning Online Various eLearning, information technology Secondary, tertiary This is a collection of originally unconnected resources revolving around the topic of teaching and learning online. Some of the resources are highly developed - others hardly at all. Plenty of opportunity for enhancement. 22 resources, some of which have many pages and are featured in their own right; others are smaller and some are currently just a single page. Authors include User:Teemu, User:Cormaggio and User:Leighblackall.
Historical Introduction to Philosophy User:MaryCordova philosophy Tertiary, (secondary) 21 "material generated by participants in a course outside of Wikiversity"
Learning the basics of Filmmaking User:Robert Elliott film, media Secondary, tertiary 60+ Nicely designed course on writing scripts, storyboards, and other aspects of narrative Filmmaking; difficult to tell how large this project is.
Technical writing User:TWFred writing non-formal, vocational 18 very well developed resources
Web Design User:Michaelnelson information technology universal 0 Launched in 2005; has managed to encourage other contributors to come in from the wild, but is still mainly the original scrappy but voluminous framework. Needs work on aesthetics and structure. Some pages need completing. Modules missing. Great opportunity for improving this.
Economic Classroom Experiments User:FeeleTim, User:Toddkaplan, User:Dieter economics tertiary, secondary 21 The coordinators and main contributors are staff at the University of Exeter and won a national teaching award for work documented in these pages.[1]
Topic:Breton User:Luzmael, User:AC'hM. languages tertiary, non-formal 69 nice design; well-developed
Media literacy Renee Hobbs information technology, media tertiary, secondary 7 a collaborative project between graduate students working under Renee Hobbs
Topic:Instructional Design User:Phonebein Education, eLearning Tertiary c.130 Collaborative development emerging from real world courses. Ongoing. Probably graduate students working on this. Created under the aegis of Dr Peter Honebein of Indiana University.
Nonlinear finite elements User:Banerjee Mechanical engineering Tertiary 150-200 (300-350) Individually developed course material, probably in connection with real world courses. The higher page count in brackets refers to the total number of pages if closely associated projects by the same user are included.
Electric Circuit Analysis User:Thuvack Electrical engineering Secondary, tertiary 12 Elaborately designed.
Trade Finance User:MSUglobal Economics Tertiary 240 Developed as part of Michigan State University's first Open CourseWare and simultaneously published on Wikiversity by the creators. An example of government grant money being used directly for the creation of open educational resources.
Assistant teacher course User:Fasten Education Secondary 100 Course materials for training secondary school pupils to become involved in the teaching process as assistant to their teachers, following the principle that the best way to learn something is to teach it.
Introduction to Swedish User:Mats Languages Universal 17
Introduction to Computers User:Areil123 Information technology Universal 21 Originally run as a course at a real-world college. The content is almost entirely created by a large number of User:Areil123's students. Uses a lot of images and many podcasts prepared by the students. Genuinely very introductory. Some of the later lessons in this resource need better wikifying and dividing into subpages.
Spanish 1 User:Allioshida Languages Universal 29 A good solid start to Wikiversity's Spanish language training. Should provide inspiration and/or frameworks for others when creating more Spanish courses.
Motivation and emotion User:Jtneill Psychology Tertiary 178 Course materials for an undergraduate psychology course about motivation and emotion. Includes lectures and tutorials plus students have contributed over a 1000 pages about specific motivation and emotion topics.

Projects which are not featured edit

This section lists major projects on Wikiversity which are worth studying to understand what Wikiversity is, but which for some reason (usually given) are not suitable for listing as featured resources. The experience behind this listing is that during its first years, much content on Wikiversity was created and then simply disappeared, forgotten, leaving little sense of what Wikiversity was actually doing.

Multi-page projects edit

Anything big at Wikiversity should be listed here.

Name Main coordinator(s) Subject Level Size Notes
Lunar Boom Town User:Mirwin Engineering, management Universal 71 Was the point of this course to really plan a city on the moon? Either way, the use of fantasy scenarios for simulations is an approach used in many fields of applied learning. This project experiments with Wikiversity as a centre for multiple simulations related to the same topic. The project is unique in kind and worth studying to see what a wiki learning environment could be used for.
History of Quebec and Canada/Study Guide User:Mikec History secondary, tertiary 18 Unmaintained and incomplete. The author was a retiring schoolteacher looking to preserve his course materials for posterity. He had difficulty finding a suitable site to host them and turned to Wikiversity shortly after Wikiversity was launched. The publication of the materials elsewhere led to copyright misunderstandings. The coordinator left Wikiversity as a result of these misunderstandings.

Other things which need sorting out: wikification, conversion of quizzes to new format now that the quiz extension exists.

Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War User:Daanschr, User:Erkan Yilmaz Literature, history nonformal 13 This was one of the larger reading group projects which experimented with synchronous IRC-based study methods coupled with wiki pages. Strongly experimental in nature. Worth studying to see what worked, what didn't and why or why not.
Educational Media Awareness Campaign User:McCormack eLearning, information technology Universal 100-150 Includes a rotating Picture of the Day facility for the main page, and more rotating subject-related pictures for subject portals and other portals.
ESL for Primary School User:Laserenite Languages Primary 9 Abandoned project. ESL is likely to be a popular topic on Wikiversity if it was properly coordinated. Quite a lot of detailed work was done here, but it fizzled out and things are quite a mess.
Science for kindergarten User:Harriska2 Science Primary 7 The contributor has created a variety of pages across the whole early primary school curriculum during 2007 and 2008. The resources have a feeling of incompletion and scatteredness. Support for this project needed?
High school physics None Physics Secondary 27 The project is perhaps half-developed. The resources are remarkably flat and media-free. Could be developed. The most interesting thing about this project is that it appears to have no coordinator at all. It was put together by a genuinely leaderless and large group of contributors.
Introduction to Latin User:Prothmes Languages Secondary 6 Recently started (2008).
Ivan Illich: Deschooling Society User:Countrymike Education Tertiary, nonformal 7 Another experiment in the "reading group" learning format.
Category:Japanese User:Balloonguy (and others?) Languages Universal 48 There are a surprisingly large number of detailed pages devoted to learning Japanese. This category needs sorting out and making sense of. The area is currently unmaintained, but there is plenty of opportunity for turning this into something good.
Fundamentals of Neuroscience User:Kernsters Science Universal 25 Currently still under review for featured status.

Single page projects edit

Name Main coordinator(s) Subject Level Size Notes
Hitler's Germany User:Kfitton History Tertiary 1 The project is structurally interesting, as it represents an early and partially successful attempt to realise a specific learning model for Wikiversity. The project attracted a variety of contributors over a period of more than a year.
Human Genetic Uniqueness Project User:JWSchmidt Biology Secondary, tertiary 1 This project is a prime example of a model of learning promoted at Wikiversity during 2006 and 2007. The initial "coordinator" starts a framework, into which a community is invited. The "coordinator" then steps back and disengages from the project, waiting for it to achieve a life of its own. Questions which need to be applied include: what is the measure of success? what can we learn from the (in)activity of this resource?
War and Iran None Politics Nonformal 1 An experimental resource from the early days of Wikiversity. This resource experiments with the debate format. It is a large and unstructured series of discussion threads expressing points of view.
Sugar in the times of cholera User:Aldenis History Research 1 Failed research proposal on a very specialised subject. Placed here in Wikiversity's early days, it could be that the author hoped to attract wide attention from academia.
Crocodile User:jtneill Science Primary 1 One of User:jtneill's earliest experiments in using a wiki environment for education. Exemplary use of media. Probably ought to be featured, but currently a little small? Could more pages in the same series covering different animals be developed?

See also edit