12,782
edits
EWTE: Difference between revisions
From OER in Education
no edit summary
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
== Objective == | == Objective == | ||
Mediawiki is already used to host Open Educational Resources (OER), such as Wikipedia (which is possibly the most widely used OER overall). However, the use of mediawiki to develop and host more complex resources, particularly for structured resources (such as textbooks) is still limited. Mediawiki could be a suitable platform for collaboratively producing and hosting teacher education resources, including a potential platform for open textbooks (whether these are teacher education resources or otherwise). However, our previous research around the [[ORBIT]] project has highlighted some of the obstacles to this. Through work undertaken as part of the [[EWTE]] project, aimed to further develop our mediawiki practices to make it a more suitable platform for hosting ''structured'' open educational content. There could bring potentially very significant gains to the OER community, and possibly leads to a far greater adoption of mediawiki in that area. | |||
== | == Mediawiki requirements for educational resources == | ||
'''Content organisation.''' Wikipedia's "unit of content" are encyclopaedia articles. These articles have relations with each other, but they do not form "linear sequences". Other other types of educational materials, such as books, manuals, courses (including professional development courses) have a linear order. | |||
'''Access.''' PDF, mobile, ZIM. | |||
The concrete goal of the project is to develop a number of extensions to mediawiki, that will significantly enhance the usability of the platform for creating teaching and learning materials in Higher Education, and particularly for teacher education. We expect the outcomes of this project to be immediately applicable to other wikimedia sites (including wikibooks). | The concrete goal of the project is to develop a number of extensions to mediawiki, that will significantly enhance the usability of the platform for creating teaching and learning materials in Higher Education, and particularly for teacher education. We expect the outcomes of this project to be immediately applicable to other wikimedia sites (including wikibooks). | ||
=== Content organisation === | |||
During the ORBIT project, we developed a number of features for our mediawiki on an experimental basis, which we now want to develop into proper extensions. Our first goal is to assess the difficulty of this process, and compatibility with the mediawiki upgrade process, as well as to assess impact of our current solutions in terms of performance. Having assessed the options, we would like to improve/(re-)implement the following: | During the ORBIT project, we developed a number of features for our mediawiki on an experimental basis, which we now want to develop into proper extensions. Our first goal is to assess the difficulty of this process, and compatibility with the mediawiki upgrade process, as well as to assess impact of our current solutions in terms of performance. Having assessed the options, we would like to improve/(re-)implement the following: | ||
| Line 19: | Line 21: | ||
* '''Project specific page banners.''' On our wiki, different "projects" have different “page banners”, i.e. a section at the top of the page that identifies the project. Compare e.g. http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/ORBIT, and http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/OER4Schools. In order for projects to choose to place their outputs on a departmental site (let along a University wide, or wikibooks), they need to have their own identity within that site. Otherwise it is simply not acceptable to project stake holders. We have an existing mechanism for this, but it uses the 'site notice’, so we cannot have site notices, and it relies on an actual source code modification, which makes it difficult for us to upgrade. | * '''Project specific page banners.''' On our wiki, different "projects" have different “page banners”, i.e. a section at the top of the page that identifies the project. Compare e.g. http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/ORBIT, and http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/OER4Schools. In order for projects to choose to place their outputs on a departmental site (let along a University wide, or wikibooks), they need to have their own identity within that site. Otherwise it is simply not acceptable to project stake holders. We have an existing mechanism for this, but it uses the 'site notice’, so we cannot have site notices, and it relies on an actual source code modification, which makes it difficult for us to upgrade. | ||
* '''Wiki navigation between pages.''' We currently have a mechanism (relying on the semantic extension) that allows several wiki pages to be grouped into a collection, displaying a navigation menu on each page, see e.g. http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/OER4Schools/Questioning#menuexpand. We would like to assess our implementation of this, and optimise it. | * '''Wiki navigation between pages.''' We currently have a mechanism (relying on the semantic extension) that allows several wiki pages to be grouped into a collection, displaying a navigation menu on each page, see e.g. http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/OER4Schools/Questioning#menuexpand. We would like to assess our implementation of this, and optimise it. | ||
=== General usability === | |||
* '''Better searching.''' We did some user testing, and the wiki search came up as something that users found confusing, and not really useful for finding the content they were looking for. We currently use a Google custom search, but the integration into the wiki is not ideal. We would like to explore options for searching that allows our audience to find relevant content more easily. | * '''Better searching.''' We did some user testing, and the wiki search came up as something that users found confusing, and not really useful for finding the content they were looking for. We currently use a Google custom search, but the integration into the wiki is not ideal. We would like to explore options for searching that allows our audience to find relevant content more easily. | ||
* '''Collaborative options.''' We would also like to explore options for real-time collaboration, such as the collaborative editor or togetherJS. | * '''Collaborative options.''' We would also like to explore options for real-time collaboration, such as the collaborative editor or togetherJS. | ||
* Visual editor | |||
== | == Access == | ||
* '''Assessment of pdf generation.''' We currently generate our own multi-chapter pdf (using a set of scripts), as we have not found the pediapress pdf generation suitable for our type of content. We would like to explore what other pdf production tool are being worked on, and would like to feed Higher Education requirements into that process. | |||
* ZIM | |||
* Mobile | |||
=== Overarching outcomes === | === Overarching outcomes === | ||
