Wikipedia:Education noticeboard/Incidents/Archive 5

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Assignment created in mainspace[edit]

A new user has just created an assignment in mainspace. Can somebody assist her with getting this placed properly? —C.Fred (talk) 22:45, 26 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@C.Fred: Thanks for the heads up. I couldn't find an email address, but left a message on her user talk page and sent an email to the only address on the school's website. Wiki Ed only supports higher education classes, but of course the education resources/materials are suitable for anyone, so I pointed her to them (and to the training). --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:53, 27 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Is this one of ours?[edit]

User:SW 6352-090 Heather, Gabrielle, Laurel and Naima
They and others are making a mess of things:

It looks like the online University of Utah has a course by the SW-6352-090 designator, if that helps any. CrowCaw 23:25, 28 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Crow: Thanks for the heads up. No, it's not one we support (nor one I've seen before now). The University of Utah course schedule site hasn't been responding but I found the professor by looking through faculty bios. Sent an email with information specific to her students and general information/resources about Wiki Ed to see if we can get them involved. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:23, 29 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Update: I heard back from the professor. It was a brief email but the gist is that students are supposed to be drafting an article which they'll submit as a Word document rather than working on a live article. It sounds like the class might work with us next time around but for now it doesn't sound like there should be much (if any) more activity here. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:50, 29 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! CrowCaw 19:31, 29 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): I deleted Chronic conditions SW 6352-090 as a clear copyright violation. The editor simply scrubbed out text that made the source text specific to Africa. You might want to let someone know? Keegan (talk) 03:31, 30 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Apparent course deadline[edit]

Could someone take a look at User talk:PsychMajor15, and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? Looks like similar editing from one unregistered psych course-- no evidence of knowledge of MEDRS. Editors whose first edit is to drop in a bunch of text, with edit warring. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:24, 4 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Also: [1] SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:48, 4 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'd bet PsychLife18 is in the same course. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:16, 4 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@SandyGeorgia and Adam (Wiki Ed): Thanks. Emailed the prof this morning. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:09, 5 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

UT Austin[edit]

See Talk:Epigenetics of human herpesvirus latency regarding an (unregistered?) course at UT-Austin, and two sub-par articles at Epigenetics of Childhood Abuse and Trauma and Epigenetics of human herpesvirus latency created by Mfstolm and Jkmayfield.77521? Could someone attempt to contact a professor, and could a friendly admin possibly userfy these articles so we don't have to clean up? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:13, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

SandyGeorgia, it looks like Epigenetics of human herpesvirus latency is being edited by other editors, w/ the childhood abuse article largely only being edited by the students. Might I recommend moving the latter but not the former? I'll try to find the professor. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:58, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Epigenetics of Childhood Abuse and Trauma looks to be copied from various sources.
  • "Of these, 96 were maltreated children removed from their parents' care due to reports of abuse and/or neglect within 6 months of study enrollment, and 96 were controls with no history of maltreatment or exposure to intrafamilial violence."[2]
  • "Healthcare providers and others charged with caring for this vulnerable population who understand the social setting of foster care and its impact on developmental health may help identify and treat developmental problems earlier, thus potentially reducing long-term effects of abuse and neglect."[3]
And so on. KateWishing (talk) 20:06, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Adam; I don't really care-- I'm just the messenger :) As I explained here to Everymorning and Ozzie10aaaa, if you clean up a poorly written, poorly sourced student article, you just make it harder to userfy it. So I will leave it for others to sort. I have a hard enough time keeping up with student edits on my own watchlist!

And, as pointed out by KateWishing, I'm quite troubled when well-meaning editors clean up student pages without first checking for copyvio. Everyone's time is wasted-- again. This time, I will let it be someone else's problem. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:12, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The new article search bots popped up a whole bunch of these: Epigenetics of Human Development, Molecular and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Alcoholism, Epigenetics of Plant Growth and Development, Epigenetics of Depression, Epigenetics of male infertility, and Epigenetics of Neurodegenerative Diseases. I am normally willing to support content about fundamental biology that happens to be about humans as distinct from medical content, but these are well past my tolerance level. They look at first glance like decent term papers (though I haven't checked for copyvio/plagiarism). I'd rather move the whole group rather than confusing the issue by treating different students differently, but if you get ahold of the professor maybe they will figure out sandboxes themselves. Opabinia regalis (talk) 22:08, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I would support a move to userfy all of them. We need to stop this timesink on regular editors that occurs with unregistered courses, and some action may draw the attention of the prof. Every one of us commenting on this problem could be writing valuable content instead. Userfy the lot. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:16, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Adam (Wiki Ed):, this course is old, but looks like a good starting place. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:28, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@SandyGeorgia: Thanks for posting that syllabus. I have just emailed the professor to see if this is his course. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:03, 15 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Were you all able to make any progress here? Helaine (Wiki Ed)? I've got epigenetics going on elsewhere. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 07:38, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

SandyGeorgia I emailed the professor, but have not heard anything back yet. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:33, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Have deleted the copyright violations. Not sure what the solution is. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 12:14, 20 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Child protection related course?[edit]

Just noted some 'odd' editing, possibly a group assignment, related to child protection & similar issues at Termination of parental rights. (And other pages)

The editing was unusual in that 4 very new accounts, plus the page creator Termpar (talk · contribs), have been editing that page, and/or related pages. 2 of those 4 accounts, and the page creators', were created on 9 September, the other 2 on 7 September. I have queried if this is an educational assignment at Termpar's talk page, and directed them to Wikipedia:School and university projects if so.

I have just seen that at 'Termpar' has also edited at Child dependency or neglect proceedings, created by Dasfsadkjhl (talk · contribs) about 8 hours ago, who was also one of the four newby editors at Termination of parental rights. Both also edited Child Protective Services, and Termpar created Criticism of Child Protective Services ‎ about 4 1/2 hours ago, so there is almost certainly some connection between the accounts. 220 of Borg 05:25, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@220 of Borg: Thanks for the heads up. For simplicity's sake, the editors appear to be Termpar (created 9 September 2015), Dasfsadkjhl (created 9 September 2015), Soy111111 (created 31 August 2015), and Casio andra (created 27 August 2015).
The articles they've worked on are Criticism of Child Protective Services (new article), Child dependency or neglect proceedings, Termination of parental rights (new article, then redirected), Child dependency or neglect adjudication (new article, then redirected), Disposition (law) (new article), Child safety plan (new article, then redirected), Child Protective Services case plan (new article, then redirected), National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (new article), and Child Protective Services.
None of the users look to have posted anything outside of the article space.
Given the article topics, I think it's safe to presume that if this is a class, it's at an American institution. Looking quickly at the list of classes on the Wiki Ed Dashboard, I don't immediately see a good match. Introduction to public administration and Introduction to Sociology maybe, but these articles look pretty focused. @Helaine (Wiki Ed): Do these articles ring any bells?
Meanwhile I've added the students' talk pages to my watchlist in case they reply. Then we can reach out to the instructor. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:09, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): I don't think this is one of our currently supported classes. Please let me know if you find out the professor, and I'll reach out to them. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:23, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): & Helaine (Wiki Ed), thanks for your attention.
Has there been anything in the US news recently about Child Protective Services that might cause creation of the "Criticism of ..." page for example? It seems a bit POV to me. AGF, if the editors were related to, or from the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, it would all make sense. - 220 of Borg 20:05, 10 September 2015 (UTC).[reply]
I ChrisFCarroll (talk) 21:20, 10 September 2015 (UTC) confirm I was unrelated - I edited the page because wikipedia asked me to when I created an account.[reply]
ChrisFCarroll Yeh, no problem. That became pretty obvious pretty soon. The others were much more one topic editors. Interesting that a message (automated I believe) directed you to a brand new page to edit. 220 of Borg 14:30, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Possible course usage at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi[edit]

I believe that we have a course at Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi that has assigned students to create articles related to a Design for manufacturability course. See Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Somesh9041. Would it be possible to get some assistance from the Education Program on tracking this down and some guidance on how to handle this? I would be happy to restore all of the deleted articles and move them to an appropriate space where they won't get deleted (Draft? User?) while this course is going on. -- Gogo Dodo (talk) 07:43, 12 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging AKoval (WMF) to see if she can assist. Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:39, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Eryk (Wiki Ed), for your ping. Sadly, this is news to me. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 21:02, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Gogo Dodo, for your message. This is the first that I'm hearing about this. And it's very troubling: sock puppetry, policy violations, copyright violations, disruptive editing behaviors... Pinging User:Yohannvt at m:WMIN as an FYI. I wish I'd known about this course beforehand, and I hope that I'll hear from the professor responsible for the course, as I noted here. Regardless, I appreciate your investigation of this case. I appreciate you advising the student. And I appreciate you offering to restore the deleted articles to sandbox status; that's very helpful. Take care, Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 21:02, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@AKoval (WMF): Thank you for the help with this. Besides the message you left for Risav1994, you might try contacting the professor through User:Shivenrastogi or User:PranjalSingh IITDelhi. Both of those accounts have made some non-assignment related edits and they might respond. I left your information on Shivenrastogi's talk page. The PranjalSingh IITDelhi account is currently blocked. I can unblock that account if you need it done. Or you can message everybody listed in the SPI to see if one of them will be helpful. Several of them have email enabled which might be linked to their school account and they might read email more than any on-wiki message. -- Gogo Dodo (talk) 05:16, 15 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Anna Koval (WMF) & Gogo Dodo for getting me into loop about this. I have some contacts in IIT New Delhi. Will try to reach them & get some information on User:Shivenrastogi or User:PranjalSingh IITDelhi or their professor. Thnx from WMIN - Yohannvt (talk) 07:32, 16 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@AKoval (WMF): @Gogo Dodo: - Sorry for the delay. I have finally been able to get in touch with Pranjal Singh. I found him on a social network. I have his contact details. I will meanwhile try getting a contact of his professor. It looks like they have examinations going on currently, so they are busy & might not respond quickly!! Yohannvt (talk) 15:21, 23 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Visiting Scholar dashboard[edit]

When do you think this will be ready? Another question. I will be working on medical content with the University of Pittsburgh. When I come across an article (reference) that may of value to students who are given assignments to create/edit an article as part of their coursework, would it be alright to leave the reference on the talk page of the article? I understand that student-edited/created articles should be left alone, but if I locate a good reference, it may be helpful. I would just provide a bare url and a sentence about the source. Best Regards,

  Bfpage |leave a message  11:15, 12 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm pinging Ryan (Wiki Ed) to answer these questions for you, but he's not on-wiki today. Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:34, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Bfpage: For an estimated dashboard timeline I'd have to defer to Sage (Wiki Ed). Regarding references, yes please do. I find Template:Refideas to be a seriously underused template, but however you choose to do so is up to you. I do want to say, however, that it is not the case that student articles should be left alone. The goal of the Education Program has always been to improve Wikipedia, so to that end it's great when members of the community work with students or work on student articles. For health and medicine-related content in particular, folks at WP:MED are often actively engaged with students and we try to announce new classes working in those areas at WT:MED. BTW: Look for an email from me later with some Visiting Scholars information/questions. Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:50, 15 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Class project at Cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase[edit]

Can I get some help for these students? See this. --NeilN talk to me 00:09, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

From Pneumocandin Bo it seems that they could usefully be taught:
  • Don't create a stub containing nothing but an image
  • Use edit summaries
  • Use preview rather than make numerous consecutive edits
  • Add refs inline not in the "References" section
  • Format refs, don't just give bare URL
  • Don't use informal English like "It's".
And this course has been going three years! PamD 05:50, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@NeilN and PamD: Thanks for bringing it up here. I noticed that in the exchange with the student it came up that there's a page about the class on cawiki: ca:Viquiprojecte:Bioquímica UB. It looks like they're working on biochemistry articles in several language wikipedias and, as PamD points out, have been doing so for a while. It looks like the professor is RodriguezAllue. I'll post a note to his/her enwiki and cawiki userpages, pointing here.
There are pages on the Outreach wiki with information about the education program in Catalonia and in Spain that might be useful if they aren't already involved (but it looks likely they are). AKoval (WMF) might be able to provide some additional guidance. Also leaving a message at WT:MED given the subject. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 12:24, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The class page on cawiki doesn't seem to list User:BQUB15-Kramos, nor the page Pneumocandin Bo which they are editing. Is this editor part of the class or what's going on? PamD 13:31, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Nor does it list User:BQUB15-Agarno and Cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase. Odd. I'm looking at https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:Bioqu%C3%ADmica_UB#Articles_a_fer where the right-hand col of the table is usefully sortable by language - none of the 4 articles listed there for "Anglès" have yet been created (3) or amended (1) by the students of this course. PamD 13:39, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Looking at one of last year's projects, in the space of 4 days several of the BQUB14 cohort moved from a poor start at 10:20 on 22 Oct to quite a good-looking article at 07:37 on the 26th, which has hardly been modified since. But there's no sign of the talk page ever having had a banner to say it was part of a course, etc. PamD 13:53, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Definitely need some help here. Other editors are not Teaching Assistants here to correct poor information and simplistic definitions of enzymes and protein synthesis! Jrfw51 (talk) 19:03, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It continues: see this series of edits by one of the students: mangles heading levels and italicises one, adds totally unsourced and unlinked section which includes a completely garbled paragraph. Just a mess. Please encourage this prof to teach their students some basics of editing. PamD 21:39, 19 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You're right, these people are students participating in a biochemistry project I supervise. They are 4 people working progressively on the term until October 30. They need to complete a good-looking article by that day. As his supervisor, I will talk to them to change their attitude. I'll explain your concerns and urge them to proceed correctly according to the rules of Wikipedia and following your advice. My apologies RodriguezAllue (talk) 11:07, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@RodriguezAllue: The students editing Pneumocandin Bo do not appear to have understood your explanations about adding sources for their content. Please remind them (a) to add references, (b) that those references should look like references in a normal academic paper, not just be a single article title, and (c) that adding a bare URL as an "External link" is not adequate referencing for an encyclopedia article. Thank you. PamD 22:30, 24 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@RodriguezAllue: The students still seem not to understand how to add a reference: in a written piece of work, would you accept a reference consisting of an article title and a journal title, with no date, author, volume or page number? They appear to think that's all that's needed. Please offer your students better training before sending them out to edit the encyclopedia. Thank you. PamD 18:22, 30 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

i would like to learn how to post & edit on Wikipedia[edit]

please help me . what do I do to learn how to post and edit on Wikipedia ,and remain private — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.102.138.107 (talk) 05:42, 22 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there. This page is for talking about issues that come up with classes working on Wikipedia. Are you a student? The simplest answer to your question is to create an account using a pseudonym. You can do that by going here: Special:UserLogin. It's a good idea to include an email address, so you'll have to decide whether to use an existing address or create a new one for privacy reasons. While logged in to your account, only your username will be visible to people, so you would be private. If you're looking to ask questions about creating an account or editing Wikipedia apart from a class assignment, one of the best places to do so is the Teahouse: WP:TEAHOUSE. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 14:27, 22 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Possible Indonesian course - "TELL", perhaps at "UNEJ"?[edit]

This poor stub (now improved slightly and tagged) was produced by an editor whose user page says "For TELL Assignment". UNEJ appears to be a university in Indonesia (though you wouldn't know it from the stub as written). Presumably if one student is writing a Wikipedia page as an assignment they won't be alone. PamD 12:59, 28 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The user's first edits were to copy/paste some copyvio material to his/her userpage about MotoGP, then tag it as for the TELL assignment, then replace that with [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Vareza_Juniardi&diff=prev&oldid=687725480 text about Balung Kulon, which like UNEJ is in Jember. It looks like the same user created Balung kulon, which was speedied A1 yesterday (and was not in English according to Wgolf's talk page message).
@PamD: Aside from "assignment" and that the user edited the UNEJ page, I don't see that there's much else to go on here. Thanks for leaving the welcome message on his/her user talk page. Whereas the Wiki Education Foundation oversees education program activities in the US/CA, the Outreach Wiki has a list of other involved countries' activities and contacts. Here's Indonesia, though it doesn't look to have been updated recently. Maybe AKoval (WMF) can suggest a contact? --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:05, 29 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Student copying images and text[edit]

At Talk:Association_of_American_Medical_Colleges#Copyright_violation_notice there is talk of a student in Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/College of DuPage/ENGLI1102-088 Academic Writing and the Meaning of Knowledge (Fall 2015) copying images and text. The student says it is okay because it came from the organization's website. Ian (Wiki Ed), do you have this one? Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:53, 3 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Thanks for the heads-up. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:16, 3 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I had posted a couple of messages to ProfTAH's talk page when problems could be seen to be emerging. I was under the impression from the documentation that ProfTAH had a supervisory role. Drchriswilliams (talk) 22:21, 3 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm advising the student to stay away for the time being. That student was apparently not aware that an article like this would be off limits in our class, despite multiple warnings. Being said, let me know what I (or the student) can do to amend. ProfTAH (talk) 22:32, 3 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
ProfTAH Sorry to hear of you staying away from this article. The problem was copying content (text and images) from a website then republishing them in violation of copyright. That could have happened at any article.
I would love to see the student contribute constructively to that article - I was watching it because I care about that topic, and not because I was following the student. Going to medical school is a marketplace burden on people with less money to a greater extent than it is to demographics with more money. I have worried for a long time about the lack of information on the Internet about getting into medical school, and how some populations have to worry more about getting this information than other groups. This is a topic worthy of development if the student is interested. Blue Rasberry (talk) 22:43, 3 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The Association of American Medical Colleges article is certainly one that needs work, so I don't see that it should be seen as off limits. Also I wholeheartedly agree with Blue Raspberry that there is still a lot of work to do around making the medical applications process more transparent thus supporting efforts around widening participation. As far as I can see, the AAMC have been involved in lots of good work around WP. I'm certainly not against this article (or similar ones) being tackled as part of a project like this. I think that a difficulty that an inexperienced editor might face is that some of the descriptive text presented on the organisation's website is already in quite a distilled form. The editor here hadn't managed to get their head around the copyright issues, but I assume that can be remedied. Drchriswilliams (talk) 23:12, 3 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Possible University course - Russian new religion / pseudoscience[edit]

There are a couple of articles Transurfing of Reality and Vadim Zeland which are receiving some attention and one ofthe editors has said "Also, I am doing this as part of our University Wikipedia project, please don't delete it or merge it now, can you at least for now undo this tag for deletion, until I have finished editing the Article." Just mentioning it here as a heads-up. I'll leave a note on the student's talk page. PamD 10:10, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

We're trying to discern the source of that course, PamD. If it's in the USA/Canada we can help, otherwise best to ping User:AKoval (WMF) if further assistance is needed. If you get a follow-up, let us know. Thanks for the heads up! Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 00:28, 17 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Australian high school Women in Wikipedia project[edit]

There's apparently a project encouraging New South Wales high school students to create articles about women, supported by ABC. See a teacher's comment here while opposing a CSD nomination: "Two Year 9 students wrote the article and as their teacher supervising them, I had to publish it yesterday as it was due to the Project organiser." etc. I've offered advice on her talk page. PamD 00:16, 17 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have a suspicion there may be a COI involved over Bourne End Academy[edit]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to mention this, but this is the Incidents board for Education on WP, so I figured I'd get this out here. I was looking over the history of the Bourne End Academy page, given that it was my old secondary school (I left before the name change in 2014), when I noticed that a user named User:BourneEndAcad was editing the page. I believe this may be someone in the school itself attempting to alter the article, as they were making rather big changes such as uploading a logo for the school and providing information that is highly specific to the establishment itself. I doubt that there's any shred of paid editing involved, but I thought it was generally discouraged to edit articles that you have a personal interest or connection with, including if you are an employee or staff member of the establishment, company or school. I hope I'm not in the wrong place about this. --BrayLockBoy (talk) 14:35, 27 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Usual warning template placed on talk of BourneEndAcad (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). The edits made to the article Bourne End Academy (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) seem OK at first glance. Restored the picture of the school, and moved the logo to the school info box. Anything else needed? John Nagle (talk) 05:14, 28 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Seems good to me. I'm glad this got notified, because the edits are indeed benign - I was just worried it would lead into more conspicuous activity.--BrayLockBoy (talk) 10:08, 28 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Duplicate artile creation as "college project"[edit]

See Alice Stopford Green (Project). I've slapped a Merge template on it to merge to the existing Alice Stopford Green, and left the editor a note. The article was created in editor's sandbox but then moved to main space with the edit summary "Project for college". No indication of what college, or how many other students on the same course are doing the same sad waste of effort by creating duplicate articles (with lots of refs but no inline refs, no wikilinks ... basically a college essay dumped into the encyclopedia).

Oh dear, just checked out the image and found it's "Own work" - a nice sketch of someone who died in 1929. Hmmm. PamD 15:17, 28 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hi PamD. I'd say a prod is a good route here. It's not a good redirect candidate and it does look mostly duplicative. I'll look into it and try to find out which class the student is associated with (though from a quick glance it does not appear to be one of ours). Thanks for the note. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:06, 1 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I changed my mind about Merging, and PRODded instead, because with no inline references there would be no way to incorporate the material from this "(Project)" page. I wish tutors would teach their students how to edit, not just point them vaguely in the direction of the Encyclopedia. PamD 16:47, 1 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ecology postgrad course at Maine?[edit]

There seems to be a postgrad project at Maine - see Talk:Plant strategies. I've left a note there and added the "Educational assignment" template, and left a note at User talk:IceAgeDoc. PamD 08:11, 9 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@PamD: I previously went along and successfully CSD'd a student piece in the past and felt pretty bad about it, which is why I only tagged that article with the common "there's an issue but I can't be bothered to fix it" tags yesterday. It's on my watchlist, and hopefully they'll start working on it soon because, as you said, students don't get a free pass -- samtar whisper 08:22, 9 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Samtar: After the tutor asked how best they should have gone about this, I moved it to Draft:Plant strategies which seemed useful - the students can now work on it together and discuss it on the draft's talk page. No idea whether this is the standard recommendation for similar projects but it felt like a good idea. PamD 15:12, 9 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)@PamD and Samtar: Thanks for the heads up. I've forwarded the professor's information to my colleague, Helaine (Wiki Ed), who will be reaching out to talk about how Wiki Ed can help. It looks like she's involved with the assignment on-wiki, which is always a good thing, and as far as I can tell (though I haven't looked exhaustively), it seems limited to this article? Also pinging Ian (Wiki Ed). --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:13, 9 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Samtar and Ryan (Wiki Ed): There are two other groups of students working on upgrading existing articles (total of 7 students in 3 groups) - see User talk:IceAgeDoc#Course?. The tutor is interacting both with me and with her students, but seems to be a brand new editor herself. PamD 15:17, 9 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Workshopping" articles on the article talk pages[edit]

I'm not naming names as I'm not sure this rises to the level of "incident" so forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but it it typical to "workshop" educational assignment articles on article talk pages? By this I mean filling them up with walls of text that may include complete proposed rewrites of sections or whole articles. If there's a quick link to the guideline I'd appreciate it, I don't have time at the moment to look it up and wanted to register my alarm at this phenomenon here. I'm thinking a subpage or sandbox would be a better place for this sort of thing. Valfontis (talk) 18:49, 10 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Is that really so bad? I think talk pages are terribly under-utilized for proposed rewrites, and I know I use them to stage things like that (albeit on a much smaller scale, usually lists of references rather than sections). If the students leave off without completing it, it's more easily discoverable than a subpage etc. Choess (talk) 01:05, 11 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I just think they're messy and hard to follow since newbies don't really understand section heading levels and the like. But if there's not guideline for this then it's as good a place as any, I suppose. I'll sit on my hands and tidy up after if need be. It might be an issue on more heavily trafficked pages, however, but I'm sure the people who usually watch those pages can intervene when needed. I guess I'm just being a bit territorial about people who don't understand How Things Work Around Here using "our" pages to do their homework. I'm sure I'll get over it since in the end hopefully it will enhance the project rather than detract from it. Valfontis (talk) 01:30, 11 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Choess: @Valfontis: Perhaps it could be recommended that such drafts be collapsed, but kept on the same page, as a sort of compromise between the two. I understand your concerns, Valfontis: a balance needs to be struck between respecting the guidelines of Wikipedia and its openness to newcomers in a way that is neutrally beneficial. --Rubbish computer (HALP!: I dropped the bass?) 19:34, 11 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
That's a good idea. I'm a bit tied up at the moment but if I run across any pages I deem "messy" I'll wait a decent interval and collapse them. Fall term is almost over here! Valfontis (talk) 19:59, 11 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I actually think this is a good thing, and certainly better than using a Sandbox (or even a subpage). One of the prime points of conflict with student assignments is when a student (usually very close to their deadline) simply dumps a mass of text into the article itself. It's often not at all clear where it's coming from, and not infrequently gets reverted, leading to hurt feelings all around.
If students use the talk pages to work things out, then regular editors at least know what's going on (or that something's going on). The fact that things may be messy is by the by; as long as things are useful for the students, then I think regular editors can mostly sit by and simply watch what's going on. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 20:40, 11 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • There's nothing wrong with them creating a draftspace version of the current article (attribution just require an edit summary) and using that to work on the article along with a similar talk page and then people here can review that and merge the contents in as they find it useful. I'd think that's better and better uses the respective skillsets we all have. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 10:13, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Educator requiring some assistance[edit]

Hi all, just been alerted to an active {{Help me}} some of you may be interested in. Looks like an educator which needs to be introduced to some "Education folk". If you respond, could you please deactivate the help me template? Cheers -- samtar whisper 22:06, 26 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've reached out to her, thanks for bringing this here! Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:38, 28 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No worries, and thank you for picking it up :) -- samtar whisper 16:50, 28 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Student/admin editing own school page[edit]

Greetings: A recently joined user apparently works for or is a student at Arcata High School. They added a long and overdetailed list, I removed it and explained about reliable secondary sources. They added a long and uncited "history" of the school; I have been unable to verify this "history". The comments on the section restorations imply that I'm in error by removing uncited material, and despite my friendly suggestions, they seem to be on their own roll and not understanding about references. In the external references section has been added some link to an art center which has no apparent connection to the school. I am a bureaucrat and administrator on Commons and while I'm familiar with some of the en:wiki processes for situations like this, I am not an expert. Rather than edit-warring on this, I am coming to you for assistance. Ellin Beltz (talk) 15:25, 19 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

class currently studying DC history/urban studies/sociology?[edit]

Perhaps there's a class studying the DC/Tacoma Park area (perhaps from Maryland? perhaps in urban studies or sociology?), since today I saw two brand new articles by two brand new editors on very closely related topics: Draft:Sammie Abdullah Abbott from User:Chocolate City student; a second article, Draft:Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis from User: Alessandragrossman that uses as primary reference a FORTHCOMING book called Chocolate City ("Chris Myers Asch with G. Derek Musgrove, Chocolate City: Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming).") If there *is* a class, I'd encourage students to fill out their Talk page, and to link to a central page describing the class. If this *isn't* a class, then it's even more of a mystery...Jodi.a.schneider (talk) 06:02, 29 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for flagging this, Jodi.a.schneider. I'll see what I can find. ---Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:59, 29 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Eryk (Wiki Ed). It's now looking to me like an African-American history course, this seems to fit the general pattern: Draft:New Negro Alliance by User:McGara DeWan & Kaiya Adams. Content overall looks good but they may need some pointers (e.g. no shared accounts, ...)Jodi.a.schneider (talk) 03:20, 30 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]
And this one: Draft:Hobson v. Hansen by User:Dalshakh. Jodi.a.schneider (talk) 03:55, 30 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]
These articles cite the FORTHCOMING book Chocolate City: Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital. The two history professors who wrote the book teach at UMBC and University of the District of Columbia. My bet is that one/both of them would know more about this. George Derek Musgrove and Chris Meyer Asch Jodi.a.schneider (talk) 04:04, 30 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Jodi.a.schneider, thanks for the information. They appear to be teaching two courses this term which might relate to this, though both were due to start on the 25th of January. Samantha (Wiki Ed) will reach out to him to see if these are his students. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:34, 1 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Hi All, I've reached out to the instructor to offer our support for the student work if this is a classroom project. I'll keep you updated on what I hear back! Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:10, 1 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Fantastic, thank you both!Jodi.a.schneider (talk) 20:40, 1 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Class working on sexuality articles[edit]

I came across Sexual fluidity where Flyer22 Reborn was working with some students who appear to be part of a class project. No ambassador, or class page in sight.. so am bringing it to your attention.

Nmuggleton seems to be the instructor. Not sure. But there is a very big list of users in Nmuggleton's contribs: Special:Contributions/Nmuggleton that she appears to be trying to manage.

Would be great if you all could figure out what is going on there and help them get oriented. Thanks! Jytdog (talk) 23:33, 9 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Under construction/Rutgers TFD[edit]

I don't know if anyone has an idea about the Rutgers class project here but I've listed Template:Under construction/Rutgers for deletion at TFD. As noted, the template was created months ago and has a corresponding category, Category:Articles in class projects/Rutgers that was emptied and deleted in December 2015 so I presume articles were tagged then as well, untagged, and the category gets used/emptied in that fashion. Both having an giant under construction sign on the page, deterring most people here from editing it, and a category that goes in and out of usefulness seems like a strange mechanism.

Separate from the TFD issue, I would suggest that students be encouraged to use draftspace instead: they can fork over a copy of the current articles (with attribution which isn't a lot), work out and create a draft version for the semester, and we'll merge back the contents at the end of the term. That should be better in terms of problematic additions that are probably fine for a class but not for us while not destroying or losing the material that they do add. I'm sure this has been suggested before but I wanted to get more eyes about the template/category issue at the moment. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 10:20, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Ricky81682 thanks for flagging this. We reached out to the professor about a week ago but haven't heard anything. We definitely encourage the instructor and the students to follow our best practices and hope we can get them set up with the proper info. I will keep you posted if they reply. Thanks again, - Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:39, 24 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Samantha (Wiki Ed), have you reached out to a student, User:Mdm260? The notice here] literally stating an WP:OWNership of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is not encouraging. According to the TFD page, there's over 100 students in the class here. It's a good subject but I hope the professor responds. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 21:50, 24 February 2016 (UTC) -- Ricky81682 (talk) 21:50, 24 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Ricky81682, I went ahead and left a note on the students talk page in order to encourage them to have their instructor contact me. Unfortunately, some instructors proceed with Wikipedia assignments without using our tools, staff support, and resources even after hearing about our organization. I will do my best to provide them with everything they need, but unfortunately don't have the capacity to reach out to all 100 students that may be doing this assignment with the hope that they can convince their instructor to email me. I'll email the instructor again today and see what I can find out. Thanks for your help. - Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:59, 24 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Great! Like I said, I'm not against the project but the template and category are not the right way to go and the professor is probably not aware of potential problems that can come with trying to do a live article here. They would all be better off if they had their own versions in draftspace to work on or something. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 23:07, 24 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Samantha (Wiki Ed) the professor identifies himself at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Languages#Rutgers_University_Class_Project as User:Chuck Haberl. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 22:51, 25 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yup! I heard back from him and am working now to get his students our trainings and support materials. Thanks Ricky81682, - Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 23:53, 25 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

One of ours?[edit]

Hello, please see Depression in college students which claims to be an educational assignment. The author claims here that this article is here for a class project and "will be taken down in a few weeks", and that they will fail the class if the article is deleted. While nobody wants to see that happen, the article is in pretty poor shape inclusion-wise. I don't know if this is related to any WMF courses or if they are just using WP as a convenient sandbox. Advice? CrowCaw 19:11, 20 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The article needs to be moved to userspace, otherwise it'll be going to AfD: it has so much wrong with it that I can't see how to edit it to make it acceptable in article space. This is an encyclopedia, not a student lab where they can play around making "a wiki" for their coursework. PamD 22:45, 20 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I've moved the totally unencyclopedia preamble to the article talk page and left a comment on the editor's talk page, but there seems nothing salvageable in the article as it stands at the moment! PamD 23:13, 20 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Crow: @Mduvekot: I've now moved it to Draft:Depression in college students and left a message on the editor's talk page. PamD 09:11, 21 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
We left a message with the student and reached out to the instructor. They aren't registered with Wiki Ed, but we'll see what we can do. Thanks for flagging this. ---Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:46, 23 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Reputation management[edit]

So this article was a student assignment last semester, doesn't appear there was a course page set up, no mention of the professor's user name (though there is a link to a contact page for her) and it's kind of a mess now. I don't like to complain on the talk page because I got the impression the students were doing their best, but...well, I've made a start on cleaning it up, but I wanted to notify other possibly-interested editors, hoping this is the right place to do that. Should I contact the professor? I kind of hate to do so as I wouldn't want to discourage her from doing another class project, but it would be good if she would set up a course page next time. valereee (talk) 15:01, 17 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Adam (Wiki Ed) thanks...from her talk page it looks like she's been on the receiving end of WP:BITE in the past. Maybe someone could reach out and be constructive? I'm willing to but I'm not sure I'm the best person to do it as I just discovered this program via guesswork so I'm completely unfamiliar with the best practices she should be guided to. valereee (talk) 15:46, 17 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
It looks like they've been introduced to our program before and the University of Pittsburgh has had a number of quite successful classes we've supported in the past. Helaine (Wiki Ed) may be able to help them get set up with a course page if they're continuing their work. But let's give them a bit to reply. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:53, 17 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) @Valereee: Adam covered most of what I was going to say, so I'll just add that in general this is a good venue for any specific issues regarding classes or classwork on Wikipedia. As Adam mentioned, Wiki Ed supported a previous iteration of the class, but we weren't aware of this one, as far as I can tell. Reaching out to the instructor is generally a good step, regardless. For those classes that are supported by Wiki Ed, you can always reach out to the content expert (Adam or, as was the case for the fall 2014 course, Ian (Wiki Ed)). For general article improvement in a case like this, whether we hear from the instructor or not, I'd probably recommend leaving a message at relevant WikiProjects, too, like Marketing & Advertising or Brands, both of which appear to be semi-active. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:05, 17 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Hi all. Yes the article was edited in my class in Fall 2014. I had some issues with my students in that class and I tried to fix some of the problems and asked them to also remove problematic edits. The students most likely are not active anymore and I am trying to make sure students in my class this semester do much more careful editing of an article they are working by spending more time on preparing the material and I am trying to carefully watch their work too. I am happy to help if there is something I can do. Rostaf (talk) 17:17, 17 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Related thread at AN[edit]

There are questions about an account used by a class at USC at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Problematic school shared account?. Comments there would be welcomed. Thanks, ansh666 00:12, 14 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Michigan parks school project[edit]

There has been multiple creations of articles about minor parks of Michigan, claimed to be part of a school project. See also Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#Problematic_User and Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/ReillyG13 for the gist of it. Pinging @Mckenzie1248, ReillyG13, Ashton donaldson, WikiDan61, and ThePlatypusofDoom: it looks more appropriate to discuss it here, there will be people who know how to handle school projects on Wikipedia, and I have faith the multiple creations will cease without needing to resort to AN/I. TigraanClick here to contact me 15:40, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

  • Raising this issue so quickly at WP:ANI or WP:SPI shows a real failure of WP:AGF! Apparently these are student involved in a class project to create an app about local parks. According to this message (from the students' teacher, if we are to assume good faith), the students and their teacher received some rather poor advice from a university professor who advised them that it would be a good idea to connect their app to Wikipedia pages for the parks which their app covered. In fact, it is not a good idea, but I don't think there was any malevolence on the part of the students in creating these pages. They appear to be middle school students who were told by a figure in authority to create these pages, so when the pages were deleted, they recreated them, based on the instructions from their teacher and advisor. I'd recommend cutting this case some slack and moving forward, having advised the students that their articles are ill-advised and they'll have to move in a different direction with their app. WikiDan61ChatMe!ReadMe!! 15:56, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I totally agree with you, though if I had not seen a helpful summary in one deprod, I would have gone to SPI as well. But certainly ANI before a warning was quite WP:BITEy. TigraanClick here to contact me 16:05, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I wrote a notice to the three named persons in the SPI, in case the notification system confused them, so hopefully we will have the teacher commenting here. TigraanClick here to contact me 15:59, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • We'll look into this and see if we can contact the instructor. As WikiDan says, it looks like these are middle/HS students, so may be hard to find contact info (or resolve whether that info is correct) Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:00, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    • No info on any related school website in that county. I'm hesitant to go trawling beyond that, so we may have to wait for someone to respond on one of the talk pages. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:25, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks for looking into this! ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 16:13, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sorry for going into ANI, but I had told them not to create pages and they persisted. I'm new here, so I apologize. The teacher put his email on his letter to wikidan. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 16:15, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • I apologize for any disruption the kids caused. They meant no harm and will not be using Wikipedia for anything. We have moved on and they will not be creating any more pages. There shouldn't have been anything created that wasn't accurate and meant to help the community that they live in. ReillyG13 (talk) 18:46, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • It's such a pity that they weren't taught how to use wikipedia properly instead of just randomly creating articles without any checking by their teachers. It's a lost opportunity when they could have been taught how to draft and taught about the pillars of wikipedia. We see rather a lot of that, which I suppose shows that a lot of adults also don't understand what the project is all about. Deb (talk) 19:27, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    • Merged a bunch of them into Wyandotte,_Michigan#Sports_and_recreation and gave them a quick copyedit. They're not notable enough for standalone articles, but per WP:GEOLAND they can potentially be a credible addition to the article on the overall town. There's a mild undue weight issue with the listing, but at least the relevant referenced material is preserved and the work that went into this project isn't entirely wasted. A couple of other park articles are at AfD so I left them alone until the discussion concludes. The odd one out (A Park in Riverview) I just left alone as it lacks a mergeto target. -- Euryalus (talk) 01:18, 17 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Bernardo Florencio Javalquinto-Lagos[edit]

According to this, the article Bernardo Florencio Javalquinto-Lagos was created as an "academic task". Is there someone who could reach out to this editor appropriately? — Brianhe (talk) 03:38, 17 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Possible student having a hard day[edit]

I'm just a regular editor unfamiliar with Wikipedia's education program, but have come across what appears to be a student -- who may be in a small amount of distress at the moment. I have no idea how to tell if they're in a registered class. The student -- Lobzang412 -- is in danger of having their article Restructuring of power sytem (sic) deleted. Any non-admin teachers would not be able to see the contribution history. Is there anything special I can/should do to help this person? --Larry/Traveling_Man (talk)

  • I'd suggest userifying or draftifying the article. At the very least, the page can be worked on with some peace rather than edited mercilessly as appropriate in mainspace. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 00:05, 22 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Traveling Man: Students in a registered class should have an incoming link from their course page, so 'what links here' can help figure that out. (Students in Wiki Ed classes should have a template on their user page, or in the page history). That said, not everyone actually registers. Regardless, I'd favour userfying, since it's, maybe not a notable topic, but at least viable section within a page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 00:20, 22 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently a course from University of Notre Dame in Australia?[edit]

See:

Both of these users are adding references with links to that university's library site and are editing about health (badly), and are completely nonresponsive. I have already reported one to WP:EWN and am about to report the other. Don't know if there is some course involved here. Jytdog (talk) 00:49, 18 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

No incoming links to their talk pages, so it doesn't look like they're registered on a course page of any sort. Hard to deduce from the topics what the course might be. One positive - it looks like there's a DOI in the url of their university proxy links, so their sources probably could be deduced. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 03:49, 18 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe someone can help microbiology course[edit]

See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Sockpuppet investigation. Nil Einne (talk) 16:56, 29 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Education program/B K Shah Medical Institute[edit]

Students from this course are actively editing/creating medical articles in mainspace and ~appear~ to have received no training; they are adding COPYVIO content, badly sourced (fail both MEDRS, RS, or both) or unsourced content, incomplete citations to the point where they cannot be used to verify content, etc. Please intervene. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 18:11, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like Netha Hussain is involved with that class. Have you tried to get in touch with them? Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:22, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
PamD and I posted at the project's talk page yesterday; no response and students are still working so I came here. Jytdog (talk) 18:24, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I've had no response to User_talk:Netha_Hussain#Student_assignments of 21 August, and she has not edited since 19 August. PamD 21:06, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Presbyphonia was first created as pure copyvio, deleted, then recreated, and it now looks as if the editor has copied their supposed references from their sources, unread. When I queried the "telephone interview conducted 2014" (ref 3 of this version) they just removed it. No edit summaries, ever. PamD 21:11, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

  • Transoral robotic surgery has been a mess of copyright violations - I've reverted some, but goodness knows how little of the text is actually by the supposed student editor in their own words. PamD 22:51, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Note - I am going to start moving the new articles created by this class to draft space; editors in this class are not being responsive to notes about sourcing etc... Jytdog (talk) 21:55, 13 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Jytdog, I had a similar experience with this class in its 2015 incarnation via AfC. Completely non-responsive student editors, no apparent monitoring of their work by the instructor, and massive copyright violations with material copied largely from textbooks. I agree about moving them to draft space, but note that their modus operandi in 2015, was to simply cut and paste their drafts into article space when the drafts were rejected. I suggest you keep all the ones you move on watch. They probably all need to be checked for copyvio too. The writing is often garbled because they copy verbatim and then proceed to remove random words or substitute them with inappropriate, misspelled synonyms in an attempt at "paraphrasing". Sigh. Voceditenore (talk) 07:22, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Is there any way the Education Program can work on the instructor and if they remain nonresponsive, ban them? Maybe that is an ANI thing but I don't want to jump there. Jytdog (talk) 07:25, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I have moved the articles to draft space that had not been worked over by the community, from this year and last year. Jytdog (talk) 02:01, 18 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry for pitching in really late. I and the course instructor had an extensive discussion about this. He thinks that some students went on with the copyvios even after being warned to not do so. He has advised them against plagiarism again, and we hope it will stop now. To give the students a clearer picture of the writing style on Wikipedia, I have placed a grant request to conduct a one-day workshop in B K Shah Institute. Hopefully, this will solve the problem. -- Netha (talk) 20:00, 19 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Netha Hussain: Have the students been directed to the existing online tutorial material? Have the instructors involved read any of the online giidance on running student assignments? Has anyone from their department made any attempt to monitor the students' efforts? Has it been pointed out to the college authorities how badly these poorly-written, copyvio, falsely referenced etc etc edits reflect on the academic standards of the institution? PamD 06:25, 20 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, they are directed to at least some of the existing online tutorials. The instructors involved were sent the links to online resources on running the assignments. At least one person in the department is monitoring the students' edits, but I am unsure if the department does anything to revert harmful edits. However, the students have been instructed about copyvios and referencing. I had no contacts with the department until round 1 ended. Before Round 2 began, I discussed with the head of the department regarding the benefits and risks of participating in the program. The project page was created after obtaining his informed consent over e-mail. -- Netha (talk) 20:26, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Netha Hussain: The students may or may not have been instructed about how to write for the encyclopedia, but the student who created this version of Masked mastoiditis, at least, appears not to have heard anything:
  • Copyvio: "Clinical features" (and most of the rest, now I come to look) is lifted from this book
  • No sources cited
  • No links
  • No standard lead sentence (starts with "It is...")
  • Poor English ("The condition often result from inadequate antibiotic therapy" "but mastoidectomy show extensive destruction" etc) - apparently poor copy-typing from the book where the text appeared, by someone not careful to reread what they have typed, or not familiar enough with English to spot the mistakes. PamD 07:33, 26 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Netha Hussain: I've just looked at one of the 2015 course articles: Arytenoid granuloma is entirely copyvio from this book. I hope the student was not awarded a pass for the course. If they were, then the instructors need a big "fail" mark from the Project! PamD 13:18, 26 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I see the copyvios, and I will inform the course instructor to temporarily suspend the program until the students are given a workshop about Wikipedia editing. Please note, the students are participating in the education program during their free time, and no grades are awarded for writing articles. This program is not a part of their coursework and their participation is optional. -- Netha (talk) 07:00, 28 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • More copyvios. Oroantral fistula was created directly the other day and is all COPYVIO; tagged it and other people are working to clean it up. Another member of the class moved their own article from draft space to main space without anyone reviewing it. I moved it back to draft space. I went through and put AFC tags on all the articles I had moved to draft space as a quick effort to avoid WP violating copyright in mainspace at least. Let me just say - ARGH. Jytdog (talk) 07:58, 24 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/BQUB16-Mgravalos[edit]

I just chanced upon an SPI Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/BQUB16-Mgravalos. These may be students, see ca:Viquiprojecte:Bioquímica_UB on the Catalan Wikipedia. Can anyone help to verify? --Lemongirl942 (talk) 15:45, 18 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging @Kippelboy: from Amical. TFlanagan-WMF (talk) 16:38, 18 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Hi! Yes, they are biochemistry students from University of Barcelona. Teacher started project back on 2009 and each semester new students create accounts with the acronym BQUB16_username (for biochemistry University of Barcelona + number of the year + First letter of name + Surname). How can I help?--Kippelboy (talk) 06:09, 19 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. Looks like all is well :) The SPI was closed by Vanjagenije. --Lemongirl942 (talk) 09:03, 20 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Year 12 passing at Talk:Peter_Tabe[edit]

Apparently @Pppppptabe: needs to make said page to "pass year 12". A picture of a dead fish (talk) 04:43, 2 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Mr. Anane"'s class creating pages[edit]

@Daoasamoah: created page Daoasamoah saying that "Our lecturer, Mr. Anane told us to create a page on Wikipedia." A picture of a dead fish (talk) 00:54, 3 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@A picture of a dead fish: Thanks for the heads up. Both this student and the one in the section above look to have been given welcome messages and have not edited again. Doesn't look like enough to go on to find the instructor/school at this point unless the students respond, but keep us posted if you come across additional information. Pinging TFlanagan-WMF to keep him in the loop. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:15, 4 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]
My bad, didn't see the template at the top of the page, thanks for templating for me. A picture of a dead fish (talk) 01:22, 5 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Chester M. Southam[edit]

Class is directly editing the article, adding unsourced content, WP:UNDUE content, badly formatted content, etc. This course: Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/UC Berkeley/IB35AC Wikipedia Project- Section 106 (Fall). User:Ian (Wiki Ed) is listed as the WP person there. Edit warring now too. Jytdog (talk) 22:39, 12 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Note: i reported at ANI here and asked for the page to be protected. Jytdog (talk) 01:46, 13 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Note - one of them got so frustrated they created a sock impersonating me and was just blocked for socking. out of control class. too bad they are getting no guidance. Jytdog (talk) 03:36, 13 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:38, 14 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Jytdog: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I have reachd out to the professor to alert her of the situation and to advise her students that this type of behavior is unacceptable. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:39, 14 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy[edit]

A class from a program there, taught by Dr. Robert Lodder, seems not to be entirely aware of how things work here, and their edits drew attention at WT:PHARM#Somewhat strange article expansions and WP:COIN#Odd appearance of multiple accounts editing about pharmaceuticals. Things were resolved at User talk:Kelltastic, but it would be very good if the WMF folks would reach out to the class. Thanks! --Tryptofish (talk) 22:28, 3 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

User:JustJess_PhD[edit]

Hi! Can someone please remove User:JustJess_PhD's ability to start courses? JustJess PhD is not WP:COMPETENT for that role. See her and my talkpages, and the results of this course (most of it has been deleted already). Before responding, please take 30 minutes to check the results of that course and read our talkpages, otherwise you'll think I am overly dramatic and/or an asshole. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 22:56, 16 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi The_Quixotic_Potato. Wiki Ed staff will take a close look at how that course went and what we can improve in our support systems next week.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 01:28, 17 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. If you need any info or help from me, feel free to ask. I think it would be a great idea to pair up instructors with experienced Wikipedians who can help them avoid making beginner mistakes.
JustJess_PHD is a lost cause unless someone convinces her to accept help (a lot of experienced Wikipedians have spent a lot of time trying to politely help JustJess_PhD, and they've been ignored and/or accused of sexism and harassment. I have also bluntly pointed out the elephant in the room, but JustJess_PhD does not seem to care that she is a net negative to the project.), but maybe this would be a good idea for the other instructors. It shouldn't be too difficult to make a list of experienced Wikipedians who are willing to help instructors with their courses. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 01:30, 17 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I noticed the user right "course instructor" no longer exists. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 02:33, 17 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I do not like waiting so I solved most of the problem by myself. I've cleaned up most of the remaining mess that was created during the spring 2015 and spring 2016 courses. The spring 2016 course can be very useful for Wiki Ed staff if they analyze what went wrong and why. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 07:21, 17 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@The Quixotic Potato: I just wanted to follow up with you. Due to the time of year, I haven't yet been able to set up a call with the professor. We're trying to do so next week. Thanks for your patience. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:53, 23 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. An in-depth investigation is better than a quick result. Merry Christmas and a happy 2017! (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 20:57, 23 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Student projects at ANI[edit]

See Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#College_project_that.27s_introducing_copyvios.2C_plagiarism.2C_OR_and_Non-NPOV_content_to_wide_variety_of_Indian_history_articles. PamD 12:40, 29 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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