User:Mike Cline/USCAN Working Group Drafts/Phase I Task Forces/E-Academia/E-Academia Task Force Proposal

=Goals= The new structure will have four main goals concerning academics. They are: 1. Teaching and Learning with Wikipedia 2. Building community around teaching and learning with Wikipedia 3. Research 4. Promoting Wikipedia Studies.

=Activities=

For each of these goals, the New Structure will have many long term activities. Some of these essential long term activities we can envision in October 2012 include the following items.

Teaching and Learning
In Support of Teaching and Learning with Wikipedia, the New Structure will: 1. maintain a keen focus on promoting, defining, researching and supporting the best practices of teaching and learning with Wikipedia in higher education; 2. recruit and support faculty integrating Wikipedia projects into course curricula; 3. support assessment of student learning activities to continuously evolve effectiveness of Wikipedia projects within the curricula; 4. expand book shelf materials -- items that facilitate instructors' use of Wikipedia within the context of teaching and learning goals from multiple epistemological and disciplinary structures.

Building Communities
In Support of Building Communities around Teaching and learning with Wikipedia, the New Structure will: 1. support teaching and learning with Wikipedia to improve and expand Wikipedia content and editor participation, and promote free knowledge and information fluency; 2. serve to facilitate efficiencies and productivity between the WM community and the academic community which increase opportunities for greater use of WM projects in education; 3. support efforts to encourage research/expert faculty to become active Wikipedia editors, improving and expanding the quality of content available to the general public; 4. assist the development of Wikipedia Campus and Online Ambassador communities by facilitating dialogue between academics and ambassadors; 5. sponsor an interdisciplinary academic conference, The Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit, with peer-review mechanisms.

Research
In Support of Researching the mutual concerns of Wikipedia and Higher Education, the New Structure will: 1. help disciplines understand the value of Wikipedia in representing a public understanding of their knowledge; 2. actively research and foster discussion of educational trends related to Wikipedia in the classroom (i.e., teaching and learning trends).

Promoting Wikipedia Studies
In Support of Promoting Wikipedia Studies, the New Structure will: 1. serve to elevate the "image" of WM within academia; 2. help professors develop courses within traditional academic institutions which feature Wikipedia contribution units, or study Wikipedia and its cultures as a course focus in New Media, Computer Science, Communications, etc.

=Support Phase II Goals= In support of Short Term Goals for Phase II, the Key Professors task force will: 1. help to plan the Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit for October 2013; 2. help in the identification and definition of essential, early positions for the New Structure and assist in the recruitment of personnel; 3. recruit additional academics to the Working Group; 4. contact disciplinary organizations to announce the existence and purpose of the Working Group, and explore potential partnerships; 5. reach out to faculty to communicate the existence of the Working Group and explain its goals and progress.