Pronounced YOU-nee-commons, the name conveys a sense of togetherness in learning. "Uni" is a recognized contraction of "university." This project focuses on a return to the original meaning of university as "a community of masters and scholars" ("University," n.d., para. 1). "Commons" represents shared ground or a shared road ("Concurrency," 2008) whereby learners here may share a common platform to develop their scholarship.

Motto: A community of scholarship

Tenets

• Scholarship is learning and knowing and the process for improving both.
• Everyone is a scholar.
• Scholars should actively and openly contribute scholarship to the global community.
• Scholars should realize the importance of feedback.
• Scholarship is developed through both conventional and autodidactic means.

Method

The site is built with the Drupal open source content management system. The use of this application is applied elsewhere in education (see EDUCAUSE listing and this case study ). Moodle is also employed as a co-management system.

Furthermore, the concept of "open" academic content have been provided in several venues such as Academic Commons, MIT Open Courseware, UC Berkeley Webcasts, and many others. This project represents another contribution to these efforts, albeit with some unique characteristics.

Site Developer: Brian Sather

History Timeline

2009 January - Site launched as UniCommons.com

Development Plan

• Using the site for personal classes
• Allowing other instructors to use the platform
• Accepting academic content from other professionals and users from a variety of disciplines
• Setting up editorial boards for content
• Professional review system for journal-quality papers

Reference List

University. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved December 29, 2008, from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=univ...

Concurrency (road). (2008, November 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:58, December 30, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Concurrency_(road)&oldid=254313945