Wikiversity is, as its name suggests, a combination of the huge online database Wikipedia and a university. Like the main Wikipedia site it is a collaborative effort, and encourages the participation of teachers, students and researchers to keep it going and creating a learning community. It pulls information and knowledge from a huge range of sources to offer learning in many different specialist areas. It is a work in progress, and constantly gets better through participation from both students and educators.

The Wikiversity encompasses several different schools, each broken into different departments. These are then broken down further into courses, which can be enrolled in each semester just like with a normal school. These courses include lessons, practical exercises and tests with the aim of building each individual’s knowledge as well as encouraging group participation and discussion through forums and messaging. All the course materials are free and available online naturally, and discussion takes place on public Colloquiums for each course, functioning like message boards that anyone can leave feedback on.

Of course, like Wikipedia it relies heavily on user contribution in order to function. By allowing anyone to edit a resource, it’s able to pool the knowledge of educators from many different institutions. However the downside is that this means the resources aren’t necessarily all completed at a consistent level. What’s available is whatever people are able to offer with their free time and expertise. There are different icons to indicate what level a resource has been completed to, and in most cases the groundwork will have been laid, but with gaps needing to be filled. This is sure to be an ongoing process, and like Wikipedia it will take many years to reach a state of fullness and completion. However even if you aren’t an expert, the best way to contribute is to participate and offer feedback. Several courses are already at a state of completion, and even if not there is still plenty of learning to be gained.

Wikiversity has already laid the foundation of a great online learning resource and with continuing effort and development will become a powerhouse free educational resource.