Here's a version of a letter I sent to the Chronicle of Higher Education recently about World University and School, vis-a-vis University of the People.
July 14, 2011
Dear Editor at Chronicle of Higher Education,
letters@chronicle.com
World University and School – A University and School for All, in all Languages, to offer free Bachelors, Law, M.D. and Ph.D. degrees; WUaS is like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware.
In the July 15th 2011 issue, Kevin Carey's article entitled “A College Education for All, Free and Online” (http://chronicle.com/article/A-College-Education-for-All/128162/), says that Reshef “won't be the last” to build a whole, free, online university. Indeed, that is the case. World University and School (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University), started in 2008, plans to offer tuition-free, as well as fee-free degrees, as central to its mission. Furthermore, World University and School plans to serve many more people than UotP, with a school in every language, as wiki.
As one wing, World University & School's free, degree-focus approach differs from UotP's two program (and presumably 2 degree-majors) approach, of Computer Science and Business Administration, in that WUaS seeks to accredit for Bachelor, Ph.D., Law and M.D. (medicine) degrees, using MIT Open Course Ware as a basis, and potentially in 50-100 languages, and with interactivity in virtual worlds and via multiple, video-conferencing windows, for a conference-method approach to teaching and learning (paralleling Reed College's undergraduate education, significantly, with similar, traditional, related, but expandable majors, drawing on MIT OCW). WUaS seeks its first, matriculating, Bachelor's class in 2014, its first Ph.D. class in 2015, its first class in law in 2016, and its first medical class in 2017, each with 100 students, to begin. Its first, matriculating, foreign-country, degree class for a Bachelor's degree-equivalent, accredited in that country, will begin around 2015. WUaS seeks overachieving students (such as might go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Cambridge and Stanford, etc.), and also plans to offer these overachievers, and all interested learners, a developing set of learning possibilities, paralleling the internet, as it develops into the future.
But WUaS offers a lot more than UotP, as wiki.
WUaS is developing, as its other wing, a Wikipedia-like (now in around 281 languages) approach to open, wiki schools in all 3000-8000 languages, and in around 200 countries. In building out into cyberspace with wiki-schools for open teaching and learning resources, WUaS is creating a wiki-meta-directory with the following, main pages – Courses, Subjects, Languages, Nation states, You at World University, Research, Educational Software, Library Resources, Museums, and Hardware Resource Possibilities - and potentially in all languages (with an universal translator planned, building on Google Translate, etc.), simply by copying and translating the English version's sections. An open, wiki, 'Subjects' page, (indeed, all of WUaS's main pages), offers remarkable, creative potential for open teaching and learning worldwide, but especially for learning as ongoing conversation.
World University & School's mission (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Foundation), in reaching out to the entire world, is to provide a free, wiki-based, education platform and, through facilitating the development of broadband worldwide, to make our service accessible to under served parts of the world. The WUaS mission is thus to facilitate all levels of teaching and learning opportunities (and future degrees) through an open, editable wiki in all languages, nation-states and subjects with great universities, and for One Laptop per Child countries and everyone.
World University and School incorporated in 2010 in California, and received U.S., federal, tax-exempt, 501 (c) 3 status in 2011. WUaS has begun to accredit through Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), which also accredits Stanford and UC Berkeley, and which is a 3 stage process.
While UotP can be seen, in the sphere of California education, for example, to be targeting a community college and California State University student body worldwide, World University and School seeks to target overachieving students, with MIT OCW and the conference method, as its bases, interactively and generatively online, and with free, university, high-level degrees.
As a wiki, World University and School also facilitates ongoing innovation through people-to-people teaching and learning, inviting you to teach to your web camera, and add what you teach, or 'edit this page' at WUaS.
Sincerely,
Scott MacLeod
http://www.scottmacleod.com
Founder and President
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University
Biographical note: Scott MacLeod has taught Society and Information Technology on Harvard's virtual island in Second Life for 7 semesters.
References
Carey, Kevin. 2011. A College Education for All, Free and Online. (http://chronicle.com/article/A-College-Education-for-All/128162/). July 10. Washington, DC: Chronicle of Higher Education.
MIT Open Course Ware. 2011. MIT Open Course Ware. (http://ocw.mit.edu). Cambridge, MA: MIT
Parry, Marc. 2009. New Tuition-Free ‘University of the People’ Tries to Democratize Higher Ed. (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/new-tuition-free-university-of-the-people-tries-to-democratize-higher-ed/7831). August 29. Chronicle of Higher Education.
de Vise, Daniel. 2011. University of the People: Tuition-free higher education. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/university-of-the-people-tuition-free-higher-education/2011/06/14/AGRBFqUH_blog.html). June 14. Washington, DC: Washington Post.
University of the People. 2011. General Studies' Catalog. (http://www.uopeople.org/groups/coureses/general_studies_catalog). Pasadena, CA: University of the People.
And this is the letter to CoHE, at 500 words:
Dear Editor at Chronicle of Higher Education,
letters@chronicle.com
World University and School – A University and School for All, in all Languages, to offer Free Bachelors, Law, M.D. and Ph.D. degrees; WUaS is like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware.
In the July 15th 2011 issue, Kevin Carey 's article entitled “A College Education for All, Free and Online,” says that Reshef “won't be the last” to build a whole, free, online university. Indeed, that is the case. World University and School (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University), started in 2008, plans to offer tuition-free, as well as fee-free degrees, as central to its mission. Furthermore, World University and School plans to serve many more people than UotP, with a school in every language, as wiki.
As one wing, World University & School's free, degree-focus approach differs from UotP's two program/majors approach in that WUaS seeks to accredit for Bachelor, Ph.D., Law and M.D. degrees, using MIT Open Course Ware as a basis, and potentially in 50-100 languages for degrees, and with interactivity in virtual worlds and via multiple, video-conferencing windows, for a conference-method approach. WUaS seeks its first, matriculating, Bachelor's class in 2014, its first Ph.D. class in 2015, its first class in law in 2016, and its first medical class in 2017, each with 100 students, to begin. Its first, matriculating, foreign-country, degree class for a Bachelor's degree-equivalent, accredited in that country, will begin around 2015. WUaS seeks overachieving students (such as might go to Harvard and Stanford), and also plans to offer these overachievers, and all interested learners, a developing set of learning possibilities, paralleling the internet, as it develops into the future.
But WUaS offers a lot more than UotP, as wiki.
WUaS is developing, as its other wing, a Wikipedia-like (now in around 281 languages) approach to open, wiki schools in all 3000-8000 languages, and in around 200 countries. In building out into cyberspace with wiki-schools for open teaching and learning resources, WUaS is creating a wiki-meta-directory with the following, main pages – Courses, Subjects, Languages, Nation states, You at World University, Research, Educational Software, Library Resources, Museums, and Hardware Resource Possibilities - and potentially in all languages, simply by copying and translating the English version's sections. An open, wiki, 'Subjects' page, (indeed, all of WUaS's main pages), offers remarkable, creative potential for open teaching and learning worldwide, but especially for learning as ongoing conversation.
World University and School incorporated in 2010 in California, and received 501 (c) 3 status in 2011. WUaS has begun to accredit through Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), which also accredits Stanford and UC Berkeley, and which is a 3 stage process.
While UotP can be seen, in the sphere of California education, for example, to be targeting a community college and California State University student body worldwide, WUaS targets overachieving students, building upon MIT OCW.
As a wiki, WUaS also facilitates ongoing innovation through people-to-people teaching and learning, inviting you to teach to your web cam, and add what you teach, or 'edit this page' at WUaS.
Sincerely,
Scott MacLeod
http://www.scottmacleod.com
Founder and President
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University
Biographical note: Scott MacLeod has taught 'Society and Information Technology' on Harvard's virtual island in Second Life for 7 semesters.
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/07/machu-pichu-letter-to-chronicle-of.html - July 14, 2011)
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