World University and School’s Proposal to DRK
- The mission and objectives of the organization.
World University and School (WUAS) plans to offer high-quality not-for-profit, free, online education. We wish to make the academic experience of an elite college readily available online.
We believe that three items in combination will make our program almost unique. First traditional elite schools are brick-and-mortar institutions, while we will be an online institution with little or no physical campus. Second, we will be a free, not-for-profit institution. Unlike most schools, both online and traditional, we will be providing education at little or no cost to the student. Third and finally, we will be a degree-granting institution. Much high-level course material is already available on line. However, we will be granting college degrees, not simply providing online resources. We aim to create a degree program with the same high quality normally associated with elite schools.
World University & School's mission - (like Wikipedia with MIT OpenCourseWare), - 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 underserved 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.
WUaS is a secular, startup university, and is not and will not be a religious school. That said, however, we are strongly influenced by the Quaker tradition and specifically by its time-honored emphasis on equality, simplicity, and social fairness. In this light, WUaS’s locus of decision-making is the monthly business meeting, conducted in the manner of Quakers. The Quaker spirit shapes our values and inspires our commitment to make “elite” education readily accessible to all. We will not be offering religious instruction in any form nor will we be formally affiliated with any church. Nevertheless, our vision grows out of an egalitarian religious practice, which emphasizes the value and intrinsic worth of all individuals.
- Objectives.
Wiki World University and School plans to be the MIT / Harvard of the internet in all 7,105+ languages and the 204+ countries, building on MIT OpenCourseWare, and also potentially extends MIT OCW into all languages and countries online.
WUaS is also planning MIT OCW-centric, Creative Commons’ licensed, bachelor, Ph.D., law and M.D. degrees, including online, Medical (as well as an hospital) and Law Schools, as well as International Baccalaureate diplomas, accrediting on MIT OCW, in many languages and countries, first in English, then in the United Nations' languages, then in languages with large populations, especially in the poorest parts of the world and in Africa. WUaS also plans to create wiki schools for people-to-people teaching and learning in all 7,105 languages; Wikipedia is in 285 languages, by way of comparison. Here’s WUaS’s Master Plan where you’ll find a clear, developing, execution plan, including time-bound action items within the next 6, 18, 24 and 36 months and the plan to get there. In developing a core US program as a pilot, WUaS will concurrently develop a modular and scalable series of country-specific programs.
- Innovative solution description: A description of the organization's program design and implementation plan. Explain how your organization will improve on existing efforts and how your approach is systemic and unique. Be sure to describe existing programs and how yours will differ.
We would like to begin by organizing a college, and then add graduate programs after that. Starting with the college program makes the most sense, since this is where the problem seems to be greatest, and the need for change most acute. We will measure organizational outcomes initially by the number of college degrees granted. We will seek to measure, and do studies, in a host of different, academically rigorous ways, in exchange for free degrees. Since we see education as a powerful tool for social and economic change, other metrics will also be of use to us.
We will be immediately national in scope, in that any person in the United States will be able to enroll. We will quickly become international, since our goal is to bring education to every country that has computer access. Though we will begin in English, we have already thought through an expansion into the six main languages of the UN and possible further expansion after that. We aim to be an international institution, and to bring elite education to places that are geographically remote from the United States and economically remote also. WUaS is seeking to accredit first with WASC senior, which does some international accreditation, and also accredits Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Funding is the main challenge we face at the present time. As noted, we are looking for funding partners who can see the possibility for revolutionary change in the field of education. We are especially dependent on grants for our initial start-up costs, and will have a special need for continued fundraising efforts in the first few years of our existence. We hope to find funding partners who are computer-friendly, or visionary, or (hopefully) both, since part of our vision is to create powerful long-lasting social change through the combination of education with technology.
WUaS, like Wikipedia with MIT OCW, plans to move from its current Wikia wiki to the new, C.C. Wikidata database / repository currently being developed for Wikipedia's 285 languages, by core developers in Europe for the Wikimedia Foundation, on the wiki side of WUaS, for both open teaching and learning, and in all languages and countries.
On the academic side of WUaS, WUaS plans to accredit on MIT OCW video / audio courses (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/), for planning purposes, and hire graduate student instructors, potentially, for example, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Princeton graduate students to teach these classes using the Conference Method in Google + group video Hangouts (http://plus.google.com/hangouts), and eventually in many, many languages, with especially a MIT-centric, STEM focus.
Since WUaS is MIT-centric, as well as great Universities-centric, and, like MIT OCW, is Creative Commons' licensed, and will offer accredited, free, online, university degrees (in addition to the I.B.), and in many languages and countries, and is wiki (editable web pages, for idea-generation), WUaS improves on all existing platforms and projects, such as edX and Stanford Coursera. WUaS is also unique in these ways. In terms of comparing and contrasting WUaS with other online projects, see also these log entries A and B.
- An indication of the organization's tangible results to date, as well as an explanation of how you plan to measure organizational outcomes and success in the future.
World University and School incorporated in 2010 in California as an educational corporation, received 501 c 3 federal tax-exempt status in 2011, and accreditation is a 3 stage process with WASC senior, where WUaS has to graduate its first undergraduate class, probably in 2018, before we can finish the third stage of accreditation.
WUaS currently has 580 wiki subject pages, with about 28 language pages and about 46 country pages, each of which will become their own school or accredited university. These are WUaS's main pages and focuses - “Three, main, I.T. foci at World University & School, are a Music School, an Universal Translator, a Virtual Earth as 'classroom'” and the 10, main, WUaS, foci pages - Courses , Subjects, Languages (All), Nation States (All), You at WUaS, Research, Educational Software, Library Resources, Museums, Hardware Resource Possibilities in 3000-8000 languages.
Wikidata and repositories/databases allow for remarkable measurements and 'metriticization.' WUaS will seek faculty from great universities to design all kinds of studies of how students learn, what enjoyable learning is (e.g. Csikszentmihalyi's research on enjoyment as an absorbed mind, and challenge at the right level, will be one body of psychology literature WUaS research engages), as well as cross-lingually and longitudinally, with a very long time horizon. MIT OCW-centricity makes possible an integrated and STEM-centric university curriculum for comparative and rigorous research.
- Scale: An explanation of how the organization, over time, will be nationwide in the US or global.
World University and School plans to scale into all 7,105+ languages (per “Ethnologue”) - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Languages - and 204+ countries (per “The Olympics”) - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nation_States. WUaS would like to develop a MIT OCW-centric, accredited, online university in each of the 204+ countries, in the main languages there, offering the above Bachelor, Ph.D., law, MD, degrees, and I.B. Diploma, with headquarters, and first accreditation, in California.
- An explanation of the main sources of financial support that your organization will use to sustain your work over time.
World University and School plans for both an endowment through fundraising from foundations, governments and companies, - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Business_Plan - as well as a bookstore / computer store for textbooks, and intellectual resources in all countries and languages - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Bookstore_/_Computer_Store_(New_&_Used)_at_WUaS.
- Leader.
Scott MacLeod is the Founder, President, CEO and Head Clerk, and his CV is at the bottom of this biographical page.
Written by Scott MacLeod and John O'Connor (both active in San Francisco Friends' Meeting)
http://draperrichards.force.com/websubmitcomplete
See, too, the WUaS blog here:
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And see, too:
"As a MIT OCW-centric, startup World University and School, is WUaS ELITE?, WUaS seeks overachievers, such as do apply to and get into MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cambridge, etc., but esp., for example, those in wheelchairs and who might not have the financial resources to pay for M.H.Y.P.S.C. etc., WUAS will offer a 32 brain candy course requirement for MIT OCW undergrads and try to become Harvard and STEM MIT of the internet, So elite or 'POPULIST FOR OVERACHIEVERS' since WUaS is free and wiki and CC where anyone can create a course in any language?, Please tell Malaysians and Azerbaijanis on your upcoming trip that - WUaS is LAUNCHED, in English"
http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/04/green-sea-turtle-as-mit-ocw-centric.html
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