WikiEducator roadmap

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This is a dynamic roadmap which evolves in reponse to the needs of the WikiEducator community within the constraints of available resourcing.

Current state of the project

As of January 2007, Wikieducator.org received an average of more than 700 visitors and about 10,000 hits per day. The project's rapid growth can be explained by the use of the same wiki technology popularized by Wikipedia. WikiEducator places a stronger emphasis on quality control, requiring users to register before they can contribute, combining wiki editing with capacity building, and identifying community leaders who can mentor new project participants. Many initiatives are supported, which have resulted in several on-location workshops. The goal of the project is to develop educational content for real world use in eLearning systems and printed form, and the capacity for educators to do this. To the latter end, WikiEducator has a very simple PDF export facility.

Roadmapping the future

We can broadly divide the roadmap into technical, policy, and content/structure. This roadmap should only be used for high level classification and specifications. The number of deliverables should be kept small (at most 5 per section); related items should be merged. This reduces the risk of the information falling out of date. For detailed classification and specification, data should be managed in a tracking system.

Technical roadmap

Short term goals

Goal State
Improve print support and output formats Resourcing confirmed
Improve discussion functionality Resourcing confirmed
Support course assignments Not resourced
Increase hosting reliability Quote submitted

Mid term goals

Goal State
Build interface to eXe editor Not resourced
Support offline usage Not resourced
Make WikiEducator fully multilingual Development underway
Support advanced metadata Not resourced

Long term goals

Goal State
Integrate real-time collaboration tools Requires discussion
Support contextualization of content Requires discussion
Support WYSIWYG semantic editing Requires discussion

Content and Structure roadmap

Short term goals

Goal State
Standardize and simplify navigational structure Underway

Policy roadmap

Short term goals

Goal State
Establish an interim governance and advisory board for the project Underway
Organize regular WikiEducator online meetings No action

Mid term goals

Goal State
Clarify mission and scope of WikiEducator No action
Develop process model for new bottom-up initiatives No action

Long term goals

Goal State
Explore official partnerships/fusion: Wikiversity, etc. Requires discussion

Tectonic Shift Think Tank

COL is hosting a Tectonic Shift Think Tank to explore the eLearning potential of Mediawiki and related Open Source Technologies. The purpose is to explore the future development requirements of these technologies regarding the development of free cultural works for education with particular emphasis on learning for development.

The Think Tank is scheduled for 11 - 13 April 2007 in Vancouver, Canada.