Web architecture for Wikis/Wikiversity Main Page

From Wikiversity

This is only a copy of Wikiversity:Main_Page and is being used by the Web architecture for Wikis Learning Project to discuss the architectural and design aspects of this page.

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Welcome to Wikiversity Set learning free with 11,667 learning resources and growing. "Education [..] is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." -John Dewey (discuss)

Welcome Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. We invite teachers, students, and researchers to join us in creating open educational resources and collaborative learning communities. To learn more, try a guided tour or start editing now. Today's Featured Project Assistant Teacher Course In this project, assistant teaching is understood as involving and training pupils to assist with the teaching process at secondary school level, the underlying idea being to combine service-learning with training in pedagogy and a good way to review knowledge and to extend one's understanding by teaching a topic. The course also touches on the topics citizenship education, school democracy, motivation, mentoring, parent education, individual psychology, self-study, theory formation, classroom management and teacher exchange programs. The course currently stands at about 100 pages and is about halfway to completion; some parts of it may already be usable for creative instructors. The course includes a teachers' handbook and an instructors' guide and has a unique way of using Mediawiki technology to format course units. The course is conceived as a three-week course in a summer camp or summer school for pupils between seventh grade and eighth grade. Visit this resource · see more featured content Community Start editing, join the discussion (on the colloquium) and become part of the Wikiversity community! For real-time advice or assistance, you can join our Wikiversity's IRC channel, or our mailing list, or add learner questions on our help desk. The community portal is a listing of notices, projects, activities, guidelines and resources, and learn more about us through the history of Wikiversity. Educational Picture of the Day The Violin A diagram of a violin, showing the names of the main parts. Click on the image for a full size version which you can freely re-use and modify. Print it and use it for your lessons, integrate it into your pages on Wikiversity, or use it in other learning resources and websites. Use the links below to find more images like this one. Images and audio clips of violins Images and audio clips of musical instruments - Music images and resources This image is a part of the Educational Media Awareness Campaign, raising awareness among educators about the availability and usage of millions of free internet media in education. Development At Wikiversity we are committed both to conventional learning patterns and resources, and to innovation and experimentation. Wikiversity is open to reconceptualising how web education can occur and how open educational resources can be made, and we are open to new ideas about the use of the Mediawiki environment for learning and research. Check out and help develop our learning projects and how learning works on Wikiversity, see how Wikiversity can help you, and explore how to get involved and start adding content. The sandbox server project is also a centre of learning experimentation. Explore Wikiversity Catalogue | Guided tours [−] Resources by level  Portal:Pre-school Education  Portal:Primary Education  Portal:Secondary Education  Portal:Tertiary Education  Portal:Non-formal Education [+] School subjects [+] University faculties [+] Resources by type [+] Paths by user type [+] Resources by completion status News 2009 15 August: celebrate Wikiversity Day! 1 January: visit the Think Tank to suggest a new learning project 2008 24 August: join Wikiversity the Movie 15 August: Wikiversity is two years old today. Help Creating educational content at Wikiversity (teacher-orientated tour). Starting out at Wikiversity (student-orientated tour). If you missed the main welcome page, try again! [+] Help

Wikiversity's sister projects Wikiversity is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other multilingual and free-content projects: Wikipedia Free-content encyclopedia Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus Wikiquote Collection of quotations Wikinews Free-content news Wikispecies Directory of species Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals Wikisource Free-content library Commons Shared media repository Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination

Main Page

Other pages that explore proposed changes: Wikiversity:Main page design changes and .Talk:Main Page.

Critique of the current main page

The current Main Page was first designed at User:Trevor MacInnis/MainPage starting in the first week after the Wikiversity project launch. Additional development of that design took place at Wikiversity:Main Page/Design. Like the original Main Page design, the current design arguably still contains many links that are irrelevant to new visitors. The current design was influenced by experienced Wikipedia participants who have since pehraps not contributed significantly to the Wikiversity project. As such, the current Main Page may serve best experienced Wikipedians who follow a link to Wikiversity.

As a young project, Wikiversity needs is to attract new participants, most of whom may not be experienced wiki editors. Does the main page serve the needs of Wikiversity or is it an artifact resulting from the efforts of a few Wikipedians who created it and then went back to Wikipedia?

Main Page namespace

Which namespace should the Main Page be in? The current Main Page is in the "Wikiversity:" namespace because it is viewed as a "meta page" about the Wikiversity project. An alternative would be to return the Main Page to the main namespace so that it can take on the primary function of being a learning resource; a page where new visitors can learn about the Wikiversity project.

Main Page target audience

The Main Page should be designed for the least knowledgeable visitors with the least wiki experience. These "Wikiversity naive" visitors need to be efficiently guided to basic information about wiki, the purpose and mission of Wikiversity and the current status of Wikiversity (essentially, a content development effort). New visitors who are not experienced wiki editors need to be shown how easy it is to participate by editing Wikiversity pages. More experienced wiki users can take care of themselves and make use of the pages linked to in the "navigation" and "community" side boxes. Can we identify a few key types of Wikiversity Main Page visitors and re-design the main page so as to better serve them?

Current redesign is 0.3, available here.