Wikipedia:Education Program/Structure proposals/Proposal by Jbmurray

My name is Jon Beasley-Murray. My Wikipedia username is jbmurray.

I have been uncomfortable about this process by which we are asked to submit program structure proposals that even (as in Frank's initial example) go so far as to stipulate the number of members of a putative Board of Trustees.

This process would only make sense were we to be expected to vote or otherwise choose between these discrete proposals.

But surely the point is to establish a working group whose task it is to come up with a concrete proposal, after discussion and consultation.

Anything else is putting the cart before the horse.

As such, I endorse entirely the proposal from Mike Christie. It is too early to provide specific details of the best structure for the education program. We still need careful evaluation and reflection.

The only real stipulation is that both the working group and the finished program should represent both the Wikipedia and the academic communities. Indeed, from the university side, it should also reach out to the various elements that are likely to be involved or concerned: not simply tenure-track faculty, but also instructors, TAs, educational technologists, and others.

But again, the point is not to come up with abstract blueprints already. That's precisely what went wrong for instance with the Pune experiment, which took too little account of local conditions. And we need to be serious about the resistances and obstacles that even the more successful North American program has faced. Otherwise no scheme that results will be taken seriously for long.