2024:Program/Wikiversity in higher vocational education in Switzerland

Session title: Wikiversity in higher vocational education in Switzerland

Session type: Lightning talk

Track: Education

Language: en

In my presentation, I'll share how Wikiversity saved my job. I teach writing skills to Swiss technical students, focusing on polished business communication rather than grammar. Wikiversity aids in creating innovative learning situations with theory inputs and quizzes linked to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Through blended learning, students prepare on the Wikiversity page, critiquing and improving quiz questions collaboratively. This approach eliminates the need for complex websites or paid platforms, while fostering trust in peer-produced content. In my presentation, I'll showcase how I've utilized Wikiversity and suggest user-centric improvements for its enhancement.

Description

In my presentation, I'll discuss how Wikiversity helped me as a teacher in applied language from being overrun by the emerging artificial intelligence.

I teach technicians (Techniker*innen HF) at Higher Technical Schools (Höhere Fachschulen) in Switzerland. My courses are titled 'Written Communication' (Schriftliche Kommunikation) and traditionally align with advanced-level German language courses focusing on professional written correspondence. However, technicians have already learned German in their vocational training and, according to the competency-oriented teaching mandate, they are not supposed to learn orthography and grammar anymore: They should primarily be trained in polished communication in various business situations: inquiries, requests, complaints, minutes, statements, user manuals, summaries, and so on. Artificial intelligence, especially ChatGPT, threatened to render the subject obsolete because polished letters can now be generated automatically. The intellectual benchmark should now be raised, intertwining linguistic competencies with informatics and other cognitive skills.

Wikiversity helped me to invent new learning situations: I composed my teaching materials with theoretical inputs, followed by quizzes. In the quizzes, I link terms to Wikipedia and files to Wikimedia Commons. According to the educational concept of "blended learning," students can prepare for the face-to-face course on my Wikiversity page. If students criticize quiz questions, I or the students can immediately improve them. The quizzes are thus continuously improved. Thanks to Wikiversity, I don't have to build and maintain my own website, I don't waste money on a paid learning platform, I link learning content in the simplest way possible to the most trustworthy sources, and I do good by supporting peer production as an alternative to the currently dominant inequality-producing economic system.

In my brief presentation, I will demonstrate how I have technically adapted Wikiversity so far and how Wikiversity could be improved from my simplified user perspective.

How does your session relate to the event theme, Collaboration of the Open?

With paid learning platforms, you either build your own course from scratch every time (in Switzerland, for example, platforms like Teams, Moodle or OpenOlat), or you purchase expensive teaching materials that become continuously outdated due to artificial intelligence. Paid learning platforms would become obsolete if everyone switched to Wikiversity: important elements of traditional learning platforms are available on Wikiversity. I was able to take advantage of these benefits for myself. The more people participate, the faster we could overcome paid learning platforms.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Speakers

• Paul Sutermeister

MA University of Geneva (2006), MSc University of So Paulo (2011)