Wikipedia:Education noticeboard/Archive 9

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Course instructor and volunteer user rights granted to User:Elitre (WMF)

I have granted course instructor and volunteer user rights to User:Elitre (WMF). She will be taking screenshots for product documentation. This process may take some time, however, I will remove these rights once that work is complete. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 01:02, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: ProfTAH (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Timothy Henningsen

Institution

College of DuPage

Course title and description

ENGLI 1102: English Composition 2 | “Research, Writing, & Wikipedia” This class will teach the basics of academic writing and research -- while also promoting digital literacy -- through a rigorous inquiry of the world’s sixth most visited website. According to its own entry, Wikipedia is “a free-access, free content Internet encyclopedia, supported and hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Anyone who can access the site can edit almost any of its articles…[it] constitutes the Internet’s largest and most popular general reference work.” This class will require 2 major writing assignments: (1) a ~10 page academic research paper due at the end of the semester, and (2) a Wikipedia article written and edited by you. In order to successfully accomplish both, we will have to explore a variety of conventions related to writing. We will familiarize ourselves with the policies and procedures set forth by Wikipedia’s community of contributors. We will evaluate print and digital texts by conducting research in the library and online. We will hone your skills in academic writing, research, and discourse. We will practice summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, analyzing, and synthesizing the views of other writers; in doing so, you will learn how to use those views to leverage an original argument of your own. Ultimately, you will begin to apprehend the fundamental role of rhetoric (i.e., persuasion) within the world of academic discourse, while also learning about bias, credibility, objectivity, and community writing in the digital world. In sum, through classroom discussions, writing assignments, and your own online inquiries, this class promises to make you a better writer, reader, and thinker.

Number of students

22

Start and end dates

01/14/2015-05/15/2015

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --ProfTAH (talk) 14:29, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

@ProfTAH: Thank you for using the assignment design wizard. Your course satisfies Wiki Ed's Checklist. I will go ahead and grant you course instructor rights. Thanks. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:53, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
I see some concerning language here—"synthesis", "leverage an original argument of your own". Perhaps the intent here is to explore how writing for Wikipedia is different from writing research papers? It would be helpful if the instructor could clarify this, and confirm that he has read and understood Wikipedia: What Wikipedia is not and Wikipedia:No original research. Maralia (talk) 02:32, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Lejulelejule (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Lejulelejule

Institution

CSUCI

Course title and description

FJS/PHIL 210 Ethics for a Free World: This is the first course in a brand new minor, Freedom and Justice Studies, that intends to engage the rich fields of identity studies in a context of exploring foundational values. Students in the class are primarily second-year undergraduates who will be required to edit some portion of related topic pages. I am working under the tutelage of Jami Mathewson of the Wiki Education Foundation and look forward to learning and teaching in this space.

Number of students

About 25

Start and end dates

Jan 20-May 7

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Lejulelejule (talk) 07:42, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

@Lejulelejule: Thanks for using the wizard to create your course plan for your Wikipedia assignment. I've looked over your course page and don't see any red flags so I've granted you course instructor rights and created your course page for you. I am told Jami (Wiki Ed) has been in contact with you regarding getting started, so I'll just plan to follow up once things are underway. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out either on wiki, using my user talk page or email. Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:45, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Morgane Flahault (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Morgane Flahault

Institution

Indiana University

Course title and description

CMLT C147 East and West: Images of the Self. We are doing a survey of the Asian diasporic literature. I have all levels of undergraduates students, from freshmen to seniors, although most of them are juniors and seniors. A large portion of authors that I have assigned for this course are women writers whose work has been acclaimed by critics and received awards but there is little criticism available about them; and Wikipedia has little (in some cases, none) information about these authors and their work. Having my students write a Wikipedia article will remedy this and increase these authors' visibility. This is also part of a methodology that I am incorporating in my course, for students to be able to do research on scholarly databases and find relevant articles for the class.

Number of students

34

Start and end dates

January 12 2015 - May 9 2015

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Morgane Flahault (talk) 16:52, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

@Morgane Flahault: Thank you for using the assignment design wizard. Your course draft satisfies Wiki Ed's checklist. I will go ahead and grant you course instructor rights. Thanks. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 00:07, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Jcammm (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Cameron Thrash

Institution

Louisiana State University

Course title and description

Prokaryotic Diversity BIOL4125. This course surveys the diversity of microorganisms in the Domains Bacteria and Archaea.

Number of students

30

Start and end dates

January 15th - April 30th

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Jcammm (talk) 14:03, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

@Jcammm: Cameron, you already have the course instructor user right, and your page is live: Education Program:Louisiana State University/Biology 4125: Prokaryotic Diversity (Spring 2015). Thanks! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:06, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Flappable (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Jennifer Kinniff

Institution

Johns Hopkins University

Course title and description

Course Title: Freshman Seminar: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Course Description: Johns Hopkins medicine has set the standards since the late 19th century. Learn how Hopkins reinvented medical education, public health, and hospital care and meet the people behind the famous names.

During this course, students (first year undergraduates) will be exploring the history of Hopkins medicine through the study of its influential figures and key contributors. These individuals will provide a window into the complex institution and the many clinics, departments, and institutes that comprise it.

Course instructors will identify a set of articles on Hopkins medical institutions that do not exist in Wikipedia or are in need of significant expansion. As students learn more about Hopkins medicine, they will be asked to select one of these articles as their main project. The Wikipedia assignment will follow the 12-week syllabus outline from Wikipedia: Education, adapted for the course. At the conclusion of the course, students will share their articles and discuss the creation process with their peers in class.

This course is closely linked with the Hopkins Retrospective project, a university initiative to explore the history of Hopkins and weave that history into the university experience. I am the manager for this program at Hopkins and as an experienced Wikipedian, will be working closely with the students. Professor Bill Leslie, who is writing a history of Hopkins, is the primary instructor for this course and will add himself to the course page once he creates his Wikipedia account and registers as a course instructor. His research assistant will also join the course page. I also intend to try and recruit a Wikipedian online to assist with critiquing articles and giving advice. Articles created will also be tagged as part of the GLAM/Johns Hopkins University project that I oversee.

Number of students

15-18 students

Start and end dates

January 26-April 29, 2015

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Flappable (talk) 19:59, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

@Flappable: Thank you for using the assignment design wizard. Your course draft satisfies Wiki Ed's checklist. I will go ahead and grant you course instructor rights. Because your course may touch on medical topics, I will be following up with you about some specific recommendations in this area. Also, please do have the instructor of record create a user account so he can sign up on the course page as well. Thanks. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:26, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Ayelet sapir (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Ayelet Sapir

Institution

Bangor University School of Psychology

Course title and description

Methods in cognition and brain research, for graduate students. The module will provide specific examples in selected areas of cognition and neuroscience, including patient studies, psychophysics, MRI, EEG and TMS. Students will either create or change a Wiki page in a selected topic related to cognition and brain research.

Number of students

About 30 students

Start and end dates

27 January 2015 until 5 May 2015

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Ayelet sapir (talk) 22:47, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Trawat (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Rich Halverson

Institution

University of Wisconsin- Madison

Course title and description

School Level Leadership is a three-credit graduate course designed to introduce students to the central practices necessary for leaders to improve the conditions for learning in K-12 schools. School leaders are responsible for improving teaching and learning.This course addresses how leaders improve the core practices of instructional leadership. In this view of school leadership, management and leadership form a complementary relation in schools – management is necessary to create and promote stable conditions for teaching and learning, and leadership is necessary to envision and guide a school toward new frontiers of teaching and learning. The course is designed to introduce students to both the strategies and tactics of K-12 school-level leadership. Wikipedia fits in our course as we want to increase the familiarity with everyday technology of current and new school leaders so that they feel empowered to involve this in their schools.

Number of students

17

Start and end dates

Course start: 22nd Jan 2015, Assignment start: 12th May 2015, Assignment end: 7th May 2015, Course end: 14th May 2015

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Trawat (talk) 23:54, 3 February 2015 (UTC) Tanushree Rawat (TA for the class)

Request for course instructor right: Texidor94 (talk) (course page draft)

Name
Institution
Course title and description
Number of students
Start and end dates

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Texidor94 (talk) 16:47, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Request to add Qmjones2 as course instructor on existing course page [[1]]

Hello there. My teaching assistant on this course at Queen Mary Qmjones2 is also assessing students' wikipedia editing assignments. In order to help him monitor the students' progress, please could he be added as a course instructor for this module here?[| Research Methods (Film) Spring 2015]

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman:

Thanks very much for your help in advance! DrJennyCee (talk) 16:02, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

{{done}} @DrJennyCee: this is done. @Qmjones2: please limit your activities to this course unless you go through the instructor training and ask here first. — xaosflux Talk 13:51, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
OK not done (yet)...having a system error issuing access, think the enwiki job log is very backlogged--will have to check back in a day. — xaosflux Talk 13:55, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
 Done that was quick, done. — xaosflux Talk 13:57, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
@Xaosflux: Thank you so much for this - that's great. I'm sure @Qmjones2: will have undertaken the instructor training very soon if he hasn't done already. Thanks again! DrJennyCee (talk) 10:25, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Assessment of students: taking the training module

As suggested by Wiki Ed, my syllabus gives points for students who complete the training module. I can check if a student has, for instance, created their account and a user page. But how do we assess whether the student went thru the training module. (So far, I assigned them the "interactive training" from the course dashboard. Is this sufficient?) Thanks! ProfGray (talk) 17:42, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

ProfGray: You can see which students completed it from the Dashboard (linked at the top of the course page): http://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Miami_University/Religions_of_the_Hebrew_Bible_%28Spring_2015%29 --Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:54, 4 February 2015 (UTC)
Got it, thanks. There's a little red phrase "training incomplete" -- IMO might be good to have a "training complete" phrase, too. If they never even started the training, would it say something, or be the same as if completed? ProfGray (talk) 21:28, 4 February 2015 (UTC)
ProfGray: The dashboard doesn't have a concept of 'training in progress'; it's incomplete for anyone who hasn't gotten to the end of the training and clicked through the process at the end (in which they make an automatic edit to this page).--ragesoss (talk) 15:29, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Adding a new institution

Pinging @Sage (Wiki Ed): It appears that I can't add an institution. Cascadia Wikimedians User Group may use the extension for workshops that we offer, so please add us as an institution. Our first planned events are on February 13. Thanks! --Pine✉ 22:32, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

User:Pine: I've granted you the instructor right; you can now create an institution and a course page. I'll prettify the course page and set it up with the new Dashboard system when I get a chance, probably this weekend if it's ready by then.--ragesoss (talk) 22:36, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
@Ragesoss: thanks! Two of the workshops are listed here. I'll discuss with Monika if she wants a course page for the Saturday workshop. --Pine✉ 23:53, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Editnotice for this page

Should Template:Editnotices/Page/Wikipedia:Education_noticeboard be blanked since the ambassador program has ended? --Pine✉ 23:54, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Paradoxically enough, what is anything but ended has been postings to this noticeboard by completely unqualified people to be ambassadors. --Tryptofish (talk) 15:56, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
Great question--just like should Wikipedia:Education_program/Ambassadors/Regional Wikipedia:Education program/Ambassadors, etc all be taken down , marked historical? Are all of these Special:CampusVolunteers people no longer in these roles and should be cleared? Would like to see someone from WikiEd answer this. — xaosflux Talk 16:16, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
Also does Special:ListUsers/epcoordinator need pruning - are these (Special:ListUsers/epcampus, Special:ListUsers/eponline ) still in use? — xaosflux Talk 16:19, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
Pine Xaosflux The ambassador program has not ended. The Wiki Ed program no longer uses it, but it was never their program anyway. The ambassador program will exist for as long as tools related to the education extension can only be used by people with userrights that are only granted by Wikipedians managing those userrights. If any group of Wikipedians, maybe a user group, wished to manage these rights then if they spoke up and said "we want to oversee this" then I think they would get community support and access to very useful tools.
I see no reason to make changes until it is decided what outcome we want to effect with change. Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:22, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
Well that answers the edit notice question up top then, leave it be! Thanks, — xaosflux Talk 16:57, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
Yep, what Blue Rasberry said. --Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:42, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
We need to update the ambassador application instructions so that the answers shouldn't be optional. People with sufficient experience would have answered those "optional questions" anyways and those without sufficient experience tend to skip them. OhanaUnitedTalk page 18:39, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

New Dashboard tool for tracking Wiki Ed courses

Today is the official launch of the "1.0" version of the course Dashboard system I've been working on for the last couple of months: http://dashboard.wikiedu.org . You may have seen the Dashboard link at the top of some courses pages in the last few weeks, as we enabled it early on as a beta test. The new version went live a few days ago, and pulls together a lot more information about courses. For regular watchers of the noticeboard, some of the key features are:

  • It shows which student editors have not yet completed the WP:STUDENT training;
  • It shows both how much each student editor has contributed in both mainspace and userspace, so we can easily spot drafts that are building up too much;
  • It shows view stats for the articles each student editor is working on; and
  • It shows the recent edits each student has made.

For the next few weeks, especially, I'll be focused on getting user feedback on this system. The intention is that this will eventually become a full-fledged system for keeping track of class editing projects. Please let me know what features you would find most useful, and any bugs or problems you notice with the current Dashboards.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:36, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Dashboards for non-Wiki Ed courses

The Dashboard system at dashboard.wikiedu.org will be available for any courses being supported by Wiki Education Foundation, but (in my volunteer capacity) I've set up another instance of it that can be used for any other courses: http://educationdashboard.wmflabs.org . I've enabled it for some of the courses (and edit-a-thons and non-course events) going on now that are outside the scope of Wiki Ed. I'll work on making sure the links from the course page itself to the corresponding dashboard are set up. I haven't documented this system much yet, but I'll work on that soon as well. In the meantime, if there's a course that you want to see dashboard information for, just give me a ping.--ragesoss (talk) 15:39, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

AWESOME! This removes so much tedious work! I want to learn all about this tool and will be using it immediately in my own tracking. Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:18, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
Looks good. Sage (Wiki Ed), what exactly does article views measure? I don't suppose it's how many articles are viewed/browsed by students while they are logged in? Anyway, is it broken down per student? (We're just starting so no views listed yet.) ProfGray (talk) 22:27, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
User:ProfGray: Views refers to the number of page views (by anyone) for the articles edited by the students (starting from the first day that they edited it). It's intended to give a rough indication of how much of an impact their edits have in terms of readership.--ragesoss (talk) 22:37, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
Sage (Wiki Ed), thanks. If I may ask, how are these articles detected? Simply by any articles edited by enrolled students? Or by articles listed in the enrollment page? ProfGray (talk) 22:53, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
User:ProfGray: Any articles edited since the start of the course.--ragesoss (talk) 22:54, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
THANK YOU, ragesoss!! :) My team and I are thrilled about this, and we're so grateful to you, as you already know. :) And we are happy to be working together to internationalize this dashboard for other languages. :) (Updates on that process are being posted here on mediawiki.org.) Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 13:54, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Dr Ostorius (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Dave Oosterhuis

Institution

Gonzaga University

Course title and description

LATN 303 Republican Latin Poetry: Lucretius. This is an advanced Latin class studying the Roman poet Lucretius. The goal is to have students expand the Latin Wikipedia article on Lucretius. Preliminary assignments will involve creating a Latin Wikipedia article on Gonzaga University and expanding the Latin Wikipedia article on Spokane, Washington. Depending on how things go students may also create/expand Latin Wikipedia articles of their own choosing.

Number of students

5

Start and end dates

1/12/15 - 5/8/15

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Dr Ostorius (talk) 21:04, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

@Dr Ostorius: Thank you for using the assignment design wizard. I looked through your course draft and while the assignment itself looks good, there's one major issue we'll need to talk about: we are only equipped to provide support in English and for the English Wikipedia. We can provide you with resources and tools that will help you to manage and organize your course assignment, but there are some limitations. I'll go over some of the specifics in an email. In the meantime, I've added course instructor rights to your account and created a course page which you can see here: Education Program:Gonzaga University/LATN 303 Republican Poetry: Lucretius (Spring 2015). Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:59, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Seeking 'course coordinator' user right for User:Samantha (Wiki Ed)

Wiki Ed is doing a small pilot this term with student groups seeking to create, edit, and improve Wikipedia articles. I’m requesting course coordinator rights so that I can help each of these groups create course pages, so we can transparently track these students' extracurricular editing activities. Would an administrator grant me the right with this account? Thanks! Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:30, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

 Done (Staff account) — xaosflux Talk 19:46, 9 February 2015 (UTC)
Thanks!! Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:52, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Abulubada (talk) (course page draft)

Name

Michael Raish

Institution

Gettysburg College

Course title and description

IDS 152: Youth and New Media in the Middle East

This course explores the themes of new media and youth culture in the modern Middle East. Students are typically upper-level undergraduates. They will work in groups to compose new articles on assigned topics, as well as make significant individual contributions to existing articles of their choice.

Number of students

2 sections of 25 students each

Start and end dates

Class is ongoing and will end in early May, 2015

@Helaine (Wiki Ed), Ryan (Wiki Ed), and Pharos: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Abulubada (talk) 21:15, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

  • @Abulubada: Hello and thanks for going through the Assignment Design Wizard. I'm excited to talk to you more about your course, but it looks like you may have inadvertently removed almost all of your course page draft. It's important for us to know about the assignment itself in order to provide good support. The assignment design wizard is designed to help you to build a Wikipedia assignment that incorporates our best practices for teaching with Wikipedia while allowing for customization to meet the needs of your individual course. It includes key elements like student training, up-to-date materials, and a milestone-based design that we've found extremely important to ensure a successful assignment. Could you say more about your plan? (Please leave a message below this one, on my user talk page, or send an email to the address on my user page). Thanks and I look forward to talking with you. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:38, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

2 neuroscience education projects?

Have been getting strange comments on Talk:Organophosphate poisoning. Looked at some userpages and found this: User:Liber.mark and similar, User:Bellre. There is no tag on the organophosphate article indicating it is a class project and none of the students 136.167.255.105, Mbeez, Jak0313, Sej942, Bellre display anything education-y - Seems like maybe 2 class projects, one on "Environmental Disruptors of Development" and the other on "Haemodynamic response". Just posting here in case these two projects aren't working with Project Ed. One of them did link to Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects/User:NeuroJoe/Fall_2009. NeuroJoe appears to be an instructor. Jytdog (talk) 02:11, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

I am just an interested instructor. That said, are you asking if these are education projects as yet unidentified? If so, I think contacting the instructor (if that is actually the case that it is a class, and contact is possible) advisable. Any of us can attempt to do so, I assume. Otherwise, I think dealing with these kind of edits as "the usual" sort of edits by anyone new to Wikipedia advisable. Meaning, if they are "poor" edits, let the consensus prevail. If an instructor chooses to work mainly offsite, their student/class posts should be treated like every other edit by new users and maybe leave comments to the effect that working with the education platform might be advisable to avoid excessive reverts. HullIntegrity (talk) 02:25, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
I posted here to make Project Education aware of this. Project Education can do whatever it wants with the information. I will edit like I always do. Jytdog (talk) 02:50, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
Thank you for the clarification. That makes total sense. HullIntegrity (talk) 04:21, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
just noticed similar comments on triclosan. that editor linked to Education Program:Boston College/Environmental Disruptors of Development (Spring 2015) so perhaps some of the editors above are from there. This is a very difficult topic, and controversial. Oy. Jytdog (talk) 03:10, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

The word "neuroscience" in the section header is a sure-fire way to get my attention. Previous discussion: WP:Education noticeboard/Archive8#Prof NeuroJoe. I've left a message at User talk:NeuroJoe, pointing to this discussion. I'm also going to leave Template:Welcome student on the talk pages of the accounts that Jytdog has listed here. Beyond that, I hope folks from WikiEd will follow up. --Tryptofish (talk) 16:19, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

@Jytdog: Thanks for bringing this up here. I've reached out the the instructor of the course to remind her students to add Template:Course assignment to these talk pages. But yes, it looks like these edits are part of Education Program:Boston College/Environmental Disruptors of Development (Spring 2015). Although it doesn't automatically show up on the students' talk pages, if you check out their contribution page, you can see any courses they're enrolled in at the top. This time of year that's not a guarantee, since there are inevitably some students who take a little longer to enroll, but in this case it does look like at least most of them are enrolled. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:03, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
thanks all! i am still wondering if there is a course page for the ""Haemodynamic response" people... Jytdog (talk) 17:39, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
Sorry, could you clarify which of the editors you mean? From your original post, all of them appear to belong to the Environmental Disruptors of Development class and the IP, 136.167.255.105, geolocates to Boston College. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:43, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
The reference to "Haemodynamic response" is at User:Bellre; he/she commented on the organophosphate article and when I went to his/her user page I found what you see there, which seems to be entirely separate from the environmental disruptors topic. The work on "Haemodynamic response" seems to be related to some Society for Neuroscience initiative and he references prof Joe burdo there too (who is not the instructor on the endocrine disruptors course). Bellre seems to be involved with both, separate things... confusing! Jytdog (talk) 17:54, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
I think I understand now. So yes, NeuroJoe organized several Wikipedia-related assignments that we were not involved with. We're hoping to change that for the future. It looks like Bellre was part of one of those classes (user page last updated in 2012) and now is worked as part of the Environmental Disruptors course, which is at the same school but a different course taught by a different professor. In other words I don't think there are two courses to follow -- not right now, anyway. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:00, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Facepalm Facepalm i didn't think to look at the date of the hemodynamic response stuff. thanks. Jytdog (talk) 18:05, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

After taking a closer look at the course page, I see that this is a little bit of an unusual case. I'd like to hear what you think the best practice would be for using the course assignment template in such a case. As you can see at Education Program:Boston College/Environmental Disruptors of Development (Spring 2015), the students were instructed to leave comments on article talk pages which were improved as part of the course in previous terms. The next step is to add 1-2 sentences to those pages. After that, students select and start working on their longer-term article topic. Is it worth adding the course assignment template for 1-2 sentences? If students only engage on an article talk page, is it worth adding the course assignment template? --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:01, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
My individual answer to your questions is that it is best practice for students to always provide course information for any edits they make outside of sandboxes as part of a course requirement. Strictly speaking, they can accomplish that by providing a link to the course page without using the template, but the template seems like the best way to do it. When it is a continuation of a previous term, the information should have been provided in that previous term, but if it wasn't, then better late than never. What I think is important is: (1) other editors need to know that students are making page edits (no matter how small the edits) or talk page comments, as part of a class, because otherwise there is going to be confusion about WP:MEAT, and (2) editors need to be able to reach the user talk page of the instructor, in case there is a need to communicate with the instructor. In my opinion, it's just a matter of time before the community is going to make those expectations a guideline that will be expected of all class assignments. It's really always in the students' best interests that other editors can always understand that they are student editors. --Tryptofish (talk) 19:51, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
Well stated and I agree. One question for clarification: does the sentence "It's really always in the students' best interests that other editors can always understand that they are student editors" include the instructor (editor) and any campus volunteers (editors) they may have for the class, or does that mean all student (course-related) accounts (and/or edits) should/must be visibly flagged as such so that non-instructor-editors and non-volunteer-editors know the edits and accounts are made by students? HullIntegrity (talk) 20:15, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
Though, that said, I could see having said designations as "optional" just as I choose to self-identify as an instructor and choose to label my student pages with the banner. If that is the proposal, why not? Options are always nice if they are supportive and some can opt out if they choose. HullIntegrity (talk) 20:24, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
Based upon earlier discussions that you and I have had, I feel like the first point I need to make is that in no way am I implying that "flagging" student edits makes those edits or the editors in any way second class. Agreed? Now to try to answer your questions, I'm motivated by two interrelated concerns: (1) that students not get unfairly mislabled as meatpuppets or sockpuppets, and (2) that more communication is generally better than less communication. So the course information is intended for non-instructor and non-class volunteer editors – just rank-and-file editors like everyone else. I'm assuming that neither the instructor nor the teaching assistants or other assistant volunteers are making article edits or talk page comments as students in the course. Consequently, their editing work is different than the editing work that students do. But it is very desirable that they be identified and reachable as editors who can be contacted by other editors, if those other editors feel a need to communicate about the class. In other words, any responsible instructor or teaching assistant would want to hear directly from a concerned editor, before that concerned editor expresses those concerns to students in the class. About your addendum, I'm not talking WP:Policy here, and nobody is going to be put up before a firing squad if they choose not to do this. Everything here is, strictly speaking, voluntary and optional, but I'm saying that it would be foolish not to do this. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:39, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
As to the first point (there is a lot to deal with in your comment, so I will take it as I can) I, of course, assumed you were not "implying that 'flagging' student edits makes those edits or the editors in any way second class", but I believe, based on over 20 years teaching online, that establishing a "subclass" of students will, in effect, be the result. I just disagree on that point. Strongly, in fact. Beyond that, everything else you suggested and stated was spot-on (in the original comment). I think I need a walk in the snow to deal with "meat-puppets and sock-puppets" next. HullIntegrity (talk) 21:40, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
@Tryptofish: Ok. After some thinking on the issues you raised, I agree with everything you have said above except for the possible outcomes (all "win") as I stated in the previous comment. I fear students, and eventually educators, will be targeted with a general (or targeted) editorial backlash--which is in effect no protection at all--with across-the-board flagging/tagging (whichever word works in the end). But maybe that concern comes from the fields I work in where that sort of negative reaction, or outright hostility, is commonplace (gender, race, ethnicity, and literary "sub-genres" like Children's Literature) where logic and sensibility does not often carry the day. Everyone in this conversation is brilliant, in every sense of the word, obviously, and experienced Wikipedians (a word which should be added to the spell-checker) but can we really protect our students from the world of Wikipedia by universally labeling them as students? Maybe so. I feel safer with the notion of self-labeling, which is what Wikipedia currently allows. Anonymous or not? Profile page or not? Userboxes that self-identify or not? I feel the choice for all users should be in the discussion and in the policy. HullIntegrity (talk) 23:01, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
That's a very thoughtful answer, and I thank you for it. I really do not have a quarrel with anything that you said, at all. I'll just make some observations that I hope may be reassuring. Wikipedia is not the same thing as "online" in general, but rather, a subset of the online world, with some specific kinds of self-selection in the editing population. Certainly, some snobbery, clubbiness, and misogyny are present. The editing population skews young, white, and male. But there is also a well-ingrained tradition reflected at WP:BITE, and growing out of the practice of welcoming edits by unregistered/IP editors, and seeing new editors as being important to Wikipedia's long-term survival. I don't think the editing community, as a whole, is predisposed to classifying student editors as second-class. On the other hand, to the extent that experienced editors keep seeing class assignments as creating headaches, that problem threatens to create a divide – but editors working together to make Wikipedia class assignments go smoothly and happily is the best preventative to that problem growing bigger. That is very much at the core of why I want more communication and more transparency, not less. --Tryptofish (talk) 16:02, 4 February 2015 (UTC)
Thank you for the reply. I do understand those concerns and the intent as completely valid. HullIntegrity (talk) 22:54, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
@Tryptofish and HullIntegrity: Sorry to take a while to reply. I'm going to sidestep the matter of flagging student edits as a bigger discussion I'm not prepared to comment on. There may be a mechanism to more easily identify student editors in the future, but for the time being let's operate under the assumption that the course assignment template, the course page extension, and straightforward talk are the tools we have available, imperfect as they may be. When you say it is best practice for students to always provide course information for any edits they make outside of sandboxes as part of a course requirement it seems like that needs to be qualified with some threshold of engagement. For example, surely we don't need to template every article in a copyediting assignment where students make small edits to twenty articles each. Would it be enough to say something to the effect of: if students will be making substantial changes to any article, add the template; if students will be making substantial contributions to a talk page but not the article, either the instructor or the student should explain as much beforehand. (In other words, if they're participating in a talk page-based assignment, don't add the template but do give people on the talk page a heads up that "this is part of an assignment for X course"). (BTW: Please consider this inquiry informal as I'm not in the process of (or in a position to) implement changes at the moment, but it seems helpful to get a clearer idea of ways to improve communication between students and other Wikipedians when such an opportunity presents itself). --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:36, 10 February 2015 (UTC)
@Tryptofish and HullIntegrity: - So, a totally hypothetical presentation, if you will bear with me for a brief moment. Let us say Wikipedia Education "rules" start to make my already complicated job (teaching web-supported classes and hybrids) more difficult. I have to deal with too many emails and what I see as unnecessary revisions or deletions of student work, perhaps due to the flagging of students or myself. I decide to go off-site and have students work on Wikipedia anonymously. Because I am a fairly accomplished editor, there are lots of ways I can accomplish that including setting up am undisclosed "class account" and so on. The ethics of that aside, why would I give myself myself MORE work by working with Wikipedia if it is less work to punk it (ignore the whole education system intent)? By comparison, I see working with Blackboard for classes as a HUGE amount of work--for what I do--compared to working with Google. HullIntegrity\ talk / 21:31, 10 February 2015 (UTC)
  • And "little" things like my sandbox being tagged (without a request) just now with the following make me very concerned. HullIntegrity\ talk / 22:15, 10 February 2015 (UTC)
This template should only be used in the user namespace.

I've posted Wiki Ed's Monthly Report for January

The Wiki Ed monthly report is available for January. You can find it as a PDF, on-wiki, or on the blog. Cheers!

Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:59, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: ACrockford

ACrockford (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I am running a series of editathons as part of the University of Edinburgh's Innovative Learning Week (16-20th February), and it was recommended that I use a Course Page as a pilot to see whether this method of organising multiple EduWiki events with distance learning components will work. I also hope to be able to act to some extent as an Ambassador at the University of Edinburgh where I teach and to incorporate Wikipedia into my teaching
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    University of Edinburgh, and can also provide support to Edinburgh Napier University
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    Postdoctoral researcher and teaching assistant in English and Scottish Literature at the University of Edinburgh (since 2012) as well as Wikimedian in Residence at the National Library of Scotland (since July 2013).
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    Extensive experience organising events as part of WinR programme, as well as with editing, creating articles and events pages, adding content to Commons both individually and using the GWToolset mass upload tool, improving content, etc. Have focused in particular on Wikipedia's gender gap.
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    This is not a request to be the official Campus Ambassador for the University of Edinburgh; I am in touch with a colleague who is interested in taking up that role, and this would allow me to support her as well as to trial using the course page extension for EduWiki events.
Discussion
@ACrockford: If you will be signing up new editors interactively, I suggest you request temporary account creator access over at WP:PERM as well. — xaosflux Talk 16:59, 13 February 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Xaosflux - will do that too, although we've tried to encourage participants to register in advance as much as possible. ACrockford (talk) 17:07, 13 February 2015 (UTC)
  • Support: Ally is doing excellent work in Scotland. Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 15:57, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
  • @ACrockford: I granted all userrights related to the education extension because you expressed a need for them and have the support required for granting them. Blue Rasberry (talk) 19:00, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Student training completed trigger in new dashboard

The new dashboard is so very useful and amazing! It's great for edit-a-thons and similar events, too. On the course end, I was wondering -- apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere -- what triggers the "training completed" state for students. I'm working with a few students who said that they did complete the training, while logged in, but the system is not showing that they've completed the training. I'm wondering if they just didn't complete some final piece, or if there's another explanation. Thanks! AmandaRR123 (talk) 22:51, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

AmandaRR123: "training completed" is defined as having made an edit to this page: Wikipedia:Training/For students/Training feedback. There's a button at the very end of the training (here) that will let someone make an automatic edit to that page. If your students' usernames show up in the history of that page, then the system is supposed to be counting them as having completed training. That said, I've spotted a few cases where a student had completed the training and made an edit to that page, but the dashboard still showed them as incomplete for several days. I'll try to make sure that bug gets ironed out. If you email me the usernames of the students you're referring to, I can look into it more.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 23:00, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: Ubaid

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

39.33.18.82 (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    Because I think I can help others being a part of it in real life,outside the computer.
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    I am currently in Saidu Medical College, Swat, KPK, Pakistan.
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    I am currently studying Medicine.
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I have a leadership skills, time management skills and can work under pressure.
Discussion
 Not done Only registered users can be flagged for this role. You would need to first WP:SIGNUP (or at least sign-in) and become a contributor to the project. — xaosflux Talk 19:58, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Campus Ambassador application: sahalsajjad

Sahalsajjad (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I have been using wikipedia to enrich my knowledge since many years. Now, I feel that it's high time I contribute to wikipedia.
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    Computer Science
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    I have used Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikiversity and Wikibooks.
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I am a student at Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City. I am Pursuing a B.Tech in CSE. I am also working on a startup.
Discussion

Do you edit under a different account, this request is the only contribution in your history. — xaosflux Talk 19:56, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: shubhamelle

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Shubhamelle1994 (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    to share new thing to world
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    Graphic Era Hill University
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    Information Technology
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    support Open source
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    web maker mentor firefox student ambassador
Discussion
 Not done No answers to questions, no editing experience under this account. — xaosflux Talk 19:51, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

New course announcement: Bio 4030: Biological Clocks (instructor: Circadiansync)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Circadiansync (talk) 21:45, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

@Circadiansync: Thanks for going through the wizard. It looks like you already had course instructor rights from a previous term, so you're all set. As we discussed, I replaced the course page you created with separate ones for different parts of the class: Education Program:Washington University in St. Louis/Biological Clocks - Chronobiologists (Spring 2015) and Education Program:Washington University in St. Louis/Biological Clocks - Genes (Spring 2015). I've included a bit more information about the course pages, dashboard, and editing Wikipedia articles on medicine in my email to you. Thanks. Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:18, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Editatón: Historia de la colectividad judía en Argentina. (instructor: Giyuela)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Pharos, Bluerasberry, Kevin Gorman, and AKoval (WMF): --Giyuela (talk) 22:18, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

Dear Giyuela,
Thank you for your interest in teaching a course using Wikipedia. And thanks for using the assignment design wizard. When your course contents are complete and your institution is added to Special:Institutions, then I will re-review your request for course instructor rights. At this time, however, there is simply not enough information to make a determination as to whether or not this assignment is a good fit for this project.
I noticed that you indicated on your Spanish Wikipedia talk page your intention to create a course page on that project. It would be good to know how if these two assignments are related. I have also replied to you there about that.
It may help to talk with another international educator and user of the course page extension here on English Wikipedia. Vojtěch Dostál is a mentor in the education collaborative and would be a good guide through the process.
Please feel free to email me about this, too: akoval@wikimedia.org.
All the best, Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 17:45, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Hi Giyuela, I am to your disposal, if needed :). --Vojtěch Dostál (talk) 19:13, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: ART354, Performing Mediation: Video Art from the Studio to the Database (instructor: Krcohen)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Krcohen (talk) 18:14, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

@Krcohen: Glad you found this page (this is Jason). I've also been in touch with Education program folks, who will move the page you created to a designated space, connect it to the dashboard, and provide a link for students to enroll. Looking forward to tomorrow! ---Another Believer (Talk) 18:17, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
@Krcohen: Thanks for using our assignment design wizard. We've gone ahead and added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:Reed College/ART354, Performing Mediation: Video Art from the Studio to the Database (Spring 2015). I've sent an email to you with additional information. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on Wikipedia through my user talk page or by email. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:20, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Information Fluency in the Digital World (Spring 2015) (instructor: Muumuulibrarian)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Muumuulibrarian (talk) 22:14, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

@Muumuulibrarian: I took at look at what you created with the assignment design wizard and everything looks good. I've added the "course instructor" user right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:California Maritime Academy/Information Fluency in the Digital World (Spring 2015). I've also sent this link via email along with some more detailed information. Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:18, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: HPHY 212 - Evidence, Inference and Biostatistics (instructor: Eugenezed)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Eugenezed (talk) 01:28, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Conservation Biology (instructor: Bothell130)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Bothell130 (talk) 23:34, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Just letting everyone know that I did grant this user right, as this instructor met with User:Sage (Wiki Ed) yesterday for on-boarding. Thanks, Sage! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 01:03, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
@Bothell130, Sage (Wiki Ed), and Jami (Wiki Ed): - Thanks all. I've sent a follow-up email with some additional information, too. Bothell130, please don't hesitate to reach out by email or leave a message on my user talk page if you have any questions, comments or concerns. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:41, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Conservation and Sustainable Development (instructor: Bothell130)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Bothell130 (talk) 23:34, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Please see above: Wikipedia:Education noticeboard#New course announcement: Conservation Biology (instructor: Bothell130). --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:42, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Information Fluency in the Digital World (Spring 2015) (instructor: AmJans)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --AmJans (talk) 23:30, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Online Ambassador application: Prat bose

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Prat bose (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    In today's world Wiki is the primary source of information for mankind. There is a saying that the history is written by the winners and we hardly get to know about the vanquished. There are numerous events, entities which don't grab as much eyeballs in the media – both digital and print. Wiki is a game changer. It gives a hope to all to showcase and share with the world what they think is important. It promotes right to equality. The reach of internet is widespread and wiki articles are read by people in the developed and the developing world alike. I am a voracious reader of wiki and have contributed to articles over the years and would like to motivate and inspire others to help carry forward this movement.
  2. In three sentences or less, summarize your involvement with Wikimedia projects.
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)
  3. Please indicate a few articles to which you have made significant content contributions. (e.g. DYK, GA, FA, major revisions/expansions/copyedits).
    Created and contributed to the pages of Moheener Ghoraguli, Sudipto Chatterjee. In the process of creating a page on Ajitesh Bandopadhyay. Made minor contributions to some other pages.
  4. How have you been involved with welcoming and helping new users on Wikipedia?
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)
  5. What do you see as the most important ways we could welcome newcomers or help new users become active contributors?
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)
  6. Have you had major conflicts with other editors? Blocks or bans? Involvement in arbitration? Feel free to offer context, if necessary.
    There were some cases where objections were raised, but I have had discussions with them and resolved them. There are not always enough information on the internet when you are writing about regional things. All the discussions are archived. I have also educated myself on how to write and convey things without any breaches.
  7. How often do you edit Wikipedia and check in on ongoing discussions? Will you be available regularly for at least two hours per week, in your role as a mentor?
    Off late the frequency has been less, but I do observe the discussions and the articles.Yes I shall be available.
  8. How would you make sure your students were not violating copyright laws?
    I shall share with them my experiences, educate them and initially monitor their work. I am certain when people understand their responsibilities well they usually maintain things properly.
  9. If one of your students had an issue with copyright violation how would you resolve it?
    First task would be to take off the disputed artifact and then would look at the legal aspect and also consult the wiki legal cell to get more information help to check if the objection is genuine. At the same time would I would ensure that the students is sensitized enough towards the responsibility and goes through a cooling off time, after which he/she will have to send their article for mandatory review before upload till the time they are ready.
  10. In your _own_ words describe what copyright violation is.
    Breach of contract and uploading information/photographs without proper relevant permission from the rightful owner.
  11. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)

prat (talk) 06:35, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

  • Comment. Probably not enough experience with Wikipedia, despite the account having been around for years. The statement about needing to "consult the wiki legal cell" to determine whether content is a copyvio is a red flag for me. --Tryptofish (talk) 18:54, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Endorsements

(Two endorsements are needed for online ambassador approval.)

  • I oppose this application to become an online ambassador in my personal capacity as an online ambassador, because I get the general gut feeling that you are not experienced enough yet- please come back when you get more experience with Wikipedia. Cheers! --L235 (talk) As a courtesy, please ping me when replying. 23:06, 1 February 2015 (UTC)
  • Also a no from me. OhanaUnitedTalk page 06:59, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

 Not done --L235 (t / c / ping in reply) 02:36, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Sandbox or draft article?

Hello! My students are doing an assignment which involves writing a new article. Is it preferable for them to draft the article in their sandboxes or on the draft page for the article? Louibu (talk) 18:53, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

A user sandbox is specific to that user and other users are not normally expected to edit it. An article in the Draft namespace is implicitly open for anyone willing to help improve it. Normally the DRaft is the best place, particularly if more than one user is editing each article. Stuartyeates (talk) 00:51, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
That's very helpful information. Thank you. Louibu (talk) 01:58, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

student at Stanford

Please see here and here. Thanks Jytdog (talk) 00:39, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I emailed this instructor a few hours ago and am working to get his students enrolled in a course page. I do know the instructor has taught (successfully) with Wikipedia in the past, and hopefully my team and I can help head off any problems that may come up. I've reiterated that the students should not be graded on the content that actually sticks—thanks for posting here. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 01:12, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
thanks! Jytdog (talk) 01:15, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Wiki Ed "Editing Women's Studies" Brochure: Feedback requested

Hello all, Wiki Ed will be distributing a brochure to Women's Studies courses in the USA and Canada that edit Wikipedia as part of their classroom assignments. It will also be available on-wiki and as a .pdf for anyone to read or use. I'm hoping to get some feedback on the brochure's content -- if anyone has some time to review it, I've uploaded a Wiki draft here. This is the final week before we print, so reviews that come in before Friday would be most appreciated!

Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:42, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Could you explain why editing in the area of Women's Studies would be any different than editing in most other areas (I obviously exclude, for example, medical). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:45, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Hi SandyGeorgia. Certainly, a lot of editing is going to look the same across disciplines (as we have seen). But finding relevant articles to improve, and identifying reliable sources for those articles (the names of specific peer reviewed journals, for example), will vary from case to case. We want to help students working in these areas with examples that are relevant to what they study. By using relevant and meaningful examples, they’ll be more likely to grasp what a good contribution to Wikipedia looks like. Thanks for your question! Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:38, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Course requiring students to create dubious articles

At User:Thevisasofmar/sandbox, the account of a student at Carleton University I found "As a component of the course FILM3301 Topics in Film and Gender, a wikipedia project is to be done. However, a prerequisite to the assignment is to complete a stub about oneself, a friend, filmmaker, or an imaginary person. This component is due on Friday, March. 6th at 11:00am". Dougweller (talk) 15:25, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

I will be on campus tomorrow after 4pm and will talk to Aalya Ahmad if possible about the problem of the stubs. But this will be to0 late. An admin should e-mail her... info here. -- Moxy (talk) 15:36, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
  • The creation of bogus or questionable articles as an assignment is pretty disturbing. I would be interested in the follow-up if it seems appropriate. HullIntegrity\ talk / 16:09, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Follow-up Comment: I do hope said stub is to be turned-in physically or posted only in their Sandbox (not actually posted live). That would make some kind of sense, though I still find it unwise. HullIntegrity\ talk / 16:21, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Yikes! We had initial contact at the beginning of the term with someone in Carleton's teaching and learning center about a possible Wikipedia assignment happening there, but after further discussion, she said it wasn't happening this term. Apparently it was (or another instructor chose to do it, without us knowing). I reached out again and asked them to stop that project immediately if possible, and impressed upon them the importance of doing assignments in ways that actually help Wikipedia. I'll post here what I hear from them. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:43, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Correction — we'd talked to someone at Carleton College (in the US), not Carleton University (in Canada). So my email to my contact at Carleton College won't actually help. But we'll see if we can track down the Carleton University class and offer our advice anyway. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:52, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

There are two sections of the class mentioned on the sandbox page above, both taught by the same professor. I've reached out by email. Hopefully the message is received before any articles are created (or that it's just a sandbox exercise). --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:00, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Update: The professor already responded. She has taught with Wikipedia before and assigns this just as a way to have students learn about Wikipedia formatting -- a sandbox exercise that will never be more than that. We'll talk more about assignment design and getting involved with WikiEdu, and hopefully the class will have a course page soon. Thanks Dougweller for the heads up. Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:17, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
And thanks to everyone here. I'm very impressed. Dougweller (talk) 18:08, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Research Methodologies for Environmental History (instructor: Hilokid)

Hi: I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above. Thanks for your consideration, support, and the outstanding work y'all do daily! - Daniel Lewis, Ph.D. / History Dept. / Claremont Graduate University

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Daniel Lewis, Ph.D. 20:27, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

@Hilokid: Hello and thanks for using Wikipedia in your class this term. I'm Ryan, interim classroom program manager with WikiEdu. I've looked over the assignment draft you've created and everything looks good, so I've added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:Claremont Graduate University/Research Methodologies for Environmental History (Spring 2015). I've sent an email with some additional information, but if you have any questions feel free to leave a message for me on my Wikipedia talk page or by email. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:57, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Lib 100: Information Fluency in the Digital World (instructor: MsTCason)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --MsTCason (talk) 20:20, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

@MsTCason: Thanks for using the assignment design wizard to create a class. I checked the assignment draft and everything looks good, so I've added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:California Maritime Academy/LIB100.4 - Information Fluency in the Digital World (Spring 2015). I added the "LIB100.4" to distinguish it from the other two classes of the same name. I've sent an email with some additional information, but if you have questions please feel free to ask via my user talk page on Wikipedia or by email. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:35, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: ETwomey

ETwomey (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    As the recently appointed Student Engagement Officer (Web-making and digital skills) I am passionate about building the Wikipedia community on campus.
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    The University of Edinburgh
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    Bachelor in Media Studies and Communications, Post Graduate Certificate of Education, Master of Education
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    More or less new as of 2015: participated in the Women, Science and Scottish History Editathon held recently at the the University of Edinburgh. Established a monthly University of Edinburgh Wikipedia:Meet Up and hope to grow such events.
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I love writing!!!
Discussion
  • Support: Great to see you apply. I am sure that the support of Wikimedians in Residence and the broader community in Scotland will ensure that you can deal with any problems you encounter.Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 10:08, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: adityashah

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

101.59.151.40 (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I want to be innovate and grow high, and wikipedia can give me a plateform to do so.
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    I am perusing bachelor of engineering degree from Oriental College of Technology, Bhopal (RGPV) and i will work on the same campus as an ambassador.
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    I have been a student of Central Board of secondary Education Student with Science stream.
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I have been a technical person and a web developer. i have designed various websites.
Discussion
 Not done You have to WP:SIGNUP for an account and have an edit history to apply for this position. — xaosflux Talk 17:04, 10 March 2015 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

New course announcement: Environment and Revolution in the Middle East (instructor: Academic29)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Academic29 (talk) 15:29, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

@Academic29: Hello and thanks for using the assignment design wizard. It looks like you already have course instructor rights from a previous semester, so you're all set on that front. I've sent an email to you with a couple questions about your course pages. If you ever have questions or concerns please don't hesitate to let me know either at my user talk page or via email. Welcome back! --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:39, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

undergrad class working on lithium

please see here. Jytdog (talk) 22:27, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, User:Jytdog. I've requested more information on the student's talk page, as it looks like the student isn't currently enrolled in a course that we know about. Hopefully we will hear back and can get more information about their assignment, whether their current plans fit well on Wikipedia, and how we and WikiProject Med folks might be able to help steer them in the right direction. Thanks for notifying! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 03:46, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

My stalker disrupts course pages

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T67635

I have an anonymous IP harassing my course as described at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Request_for_block_-_IP_disrupting_a_course_with_students.2C_no_rationale_given. I requested page protection and a block of the IP. I thought that I would share here so that there would be a record of this behavior to anticipate in other cases. Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:13, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Hmm... courses made using the education extension cannot be page protected. They have a special status. I wanted page protection, but it seems that it is not possible to have it. Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:05, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
You can (semi-)protect the talk pages. Would that help? Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:25, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Not even admin tools can semi/full protect the course page (or its talk page). This appears to be a deficiency in this extension. OhanaUnitedTalk page 20:37, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Agreed. Is Phabricator the appropriate place to report a bug? This seems like something that should be a high priority. -Pete (talk) 19:08, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Social Cognition (PSY 327) (instructor: Regretscholar)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Regretscholar (talk) 20:29, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

@Regretscholar: Hello and thanks for using Wikipedia in your class! I took a look at your assignment draft and didn't see any major red flags so added the "course instructor" user right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:Miami University/Social Cognition (PSY 327) (Spring 2015). I have a couple questions which I've sent to you in an email, along with some additional information. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a message on my user talk page or send an email. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:11, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: EN 141: Rewriting History: Fiction Now and Then (instructor: Ryanweb)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Ryanweb (talk) 17:21, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

@Ryanweb: Hello, and thanks for using the Assignment Design Wizard to create your course page. Everything looks good, so I've added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:Boston University/EN 141: Rewriting History: Fiction Now and Then (Fall 2015). I've sent an email with some additional information, but if you have any questions please feel free to ask at my user talk page or via email. Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:43, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: History and Psychology (instructor: Dperkins16)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Dperkins16 (talk) 18:33, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

@Dperkins16: Thanks for using the Assignment Design Wizard. Everything looks good so I've created your course page here: Education Program:Ball State University/History and Psychology (Spring 2015) and turned on access to the dashboard. I've sent an email to you with a couple questions, but you're good to go! If you have questions feel free to contact me at my user talk page or via email. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:00, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Information Technology (instructor: Twotino)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Pharos, Bluerasberry, Kevin Gorman, and AKoval (WMF): --Twotino (talk) 13:24, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: USERNAME

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

1.23.15.144 (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    YOUR ANSWER
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    YOUR ANSWER
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    YOUR ANSWER
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)
Discussion

 Not done IPs cannot hold permissions. --L235 (t / c / ping in reply) 16:16, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Marking a course as finished

I am an instructor for a course, and I also signed up myself as a student for the course. How do I mark the course as finished so that students' contribution pages no longer have course participant notices placed at the top of them? Thanks, --Pine✉ 08:22, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

@Pine: Changing the end date of your course page should do the trick. (there's a setting when you edit the course page). It's currently set to 12 May 2015. Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:47, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): Thanks, I eventually figured out which of the edit buttons I needed to press to edit that info. --Pine✉ 21:47, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Introduction to Psychology (instructor: Shanique B)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Shanique B (talk) 16:52, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Research on planned or unplanned cooperation by groups of like-minded editors

What academic or journalistic research sheds light on planned or unplanned convergent editing by like-minded individuals on Wikipedia?

In my Hebrew Bible course, I ask students to imagine biblical "source criticism" applied to Wikipedia. It's obviously easy to trace individual edits. However, as one student emphasized, the biblical sources were presumably done by groups (or "schools") of writers. I know that there are like-minded groups of editors on Wikipedia -- any research on their impact or how they might be studied?

Yes, I realize there are Wikipedia policies against canvassing and "cabal" types of editing, e.g., Wikipedia:Tag team. I'm not asking whether factions or cabals exist, but more about the impact of real or implicit groups. For instance, imagine studying the Mitt Romney editing history to discern the editing trends by liberals, conservatives, Mormons, (anti-Mormon) Evangelicals, etc. Thanks! ProfGray (talk) 11:51, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

You could always look at antagonistic non-English speaking countries (Russia / Ukraine; Iran / Iraq; Greece / Turkey; etc) examining the patterns of IP edits (which are easy to geolocate) to their respective politicians. Stuartyeates (talk) 00:38, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Monthly report for February

Would like to let everyone know that the Wiki Ed monthly report for February is now available. Find it as a PDF, on-wiki, or our blog. Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:01, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Learning theory (education) and Learning styles

Both of the subject articles are getting hammered by inexperienced users; appears to be a class project. Help? Thanks! Jytdog (talk) 00:43, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

getting some response here: Talk:Learning_styles#Class_project.3F - apparently their teacher is not working with you. :( Jytdog (talk) 01:04, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
@Jytdog: Thanks. Looks like one of the names you (and now I) pinged is a professor. I have an email address here and will reach out shortly. Could you (and I'll also direct this to Ian (Wiki Ed) and Adam (Wiki Ed)) summarize the issues you've seen with their edits? You could also add it to the article talk page and I could refer him there. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:33, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
I'll put it here and copy it to each talk page. Students are adding unsourced content, too closely paraphrased content, nonencyclopedic content (long, chatty, too much quotation), not considering UNDUE, and are adding the same content to the two different articles, obliterating the difference between them. typical student errors. Jytdog (talk) 15:58, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
Ok. Thanks. I decided to reach out first and address specifics upon reply. Hopefully we can turn this into a supported class. I'll point to the article talk pages for discussion of the issues.--Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:54, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
Hi Jytdog. I've added both of those to my watchlist and I'll take a look at the content shortly. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:09, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
thanks! Jytdog (talk) 20:19, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
Left a note for two editors. As Ryan noted above, we're not officially supporting this class, but I hope we can avoid disruption to the page and a bad experience for these students. I'll take a look at some of the other student editors in a bit. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:27, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

Possible unhelpful student editing on MEF International School Istanbul

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, but the editing pattern on MEF International School Istanbul seems to me to suggest a student assignment editing the school's article page: for the last 3 days there have been groups of 8-10 newly registered editors with overlapping edits adding similar content within 30 minute periods. At the end of each period the article contains first person, unsourced and non-encyclopaedic content, which is then re-added by the next group with no edit summaries or discussion. I am not at all experienced in this area of WP editing, so am not really sure what the appropriate response should be. (I have so far reverted edits and left some messages on talk pages as to why). Thanks, Melcous (talk) 00:01, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

@Melcous: It's certainly possible it's the product of an assignment. The edits do seem to be grouped into blocks of an hour or less and the accounts look to have been created for the purpose of editing this article. It looks like you only reverted some of what they did, which means, I assume, you did not find all of the contributions problematic? Or perhaps just not egregiously so. Here is a diff for the net changes to this point. But, of course, it does not cite even one secondary source and is therefore fairly promotional. I'm not so sure the school is notable in the first place (public secondary schools and accredited universities are typically considered notable, but not necessarily private K-12 international schools). Since Wikipedia covers aspects of a subject only insofar as they're covered in reliable secondary sources, it's certainly undue weight to include so much information pulled from the school website.
I've left a message on all of the students pages with a general student welcome and some information about primary vs. secondary sources and a request to connect with their instructor. If I hear back, I'll connect them to AKoval (WMF) to see what sorts of resources we might have in their area.
In the meantime what would you like to see happen here? It looks like you've taken care of the most immediate issues -- thanks, by the way. My advice would be to request page protection if they're unresponsive and continue to add problematic content. If you don't think the article is notable, you can nominate it for deletion, too. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:48, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): Thanks. At this stage the article has been semi-protected which I think is good. One of the editors has engaged on my talk page and I have attempted to give some advice, as well as suggesting they read the information you have directed them to. I'm happy to leave it to those more involved with Education topics to decide if they think it is notable. Appreciate your help. Melcous (talk) 04:38, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Information Technology (instructor: Twotino)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Pharos, Bluerasberry, Kevin Gorman, and AKoval (WMF): --MeganYeo (talk)

@Twotino and Vijaysethi: Hello there. Have you been contacted by anyone regarding your course page yet? I see that you've used the Assignment Design Wizard to create an assignment draft for your class at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. I'm glad you'll be teaching with Wikipedia!
To get you started, I've created a course page for you here: Education Program:Nanyang Technological University/ Information Technology (Spring 2015). Please have your students visit that page in order to "enroll" (there's a link at the top). Could you advise me which username should be listed as "instructor". This is usually the instructor of record for the course, but if an assistant or someone else will be doing most of the work with students on Wikipedia, it may be helpful to list that person as instructor or as volunteer as well.
I would encourage you to check out the Singapore page in the Education section of the Wikimedia Outreach wiki. I see there that User:Smuconlaw has taught with Wikipedia at SMU. Perhaps he knows people who can assist at NTU.
@MeganYeo: You could get in touch with Ffbond (Francis Bond), assuming he's still at NTU. — SMUconlaw (talk) 17:08, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
@Smuconlaw: Thanks for your quick reply/advice. I'll ping Twotino and Vijaysethi again, as MeganYeo was just the last of several posts to this page that I suspect are from students. I've added the original user's name above. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:25, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
@Ryan (Wiki Ed), Smuconlaw, and Ffbond: Thanks. We did intend that the students post to the assignment page, and not here. I did notice students posting here instead yesterday, but was busy with some personal issues, and so couldn't respond immediately.
Yes, I was also waiting for Wiki editors to get back to me on this. Thank you for creating a course-page on this; I'll be assisting Vijaysethi on this, so would be good if I was given rights as well. - Twotino (talk) 06:34, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
@Twotino and Vijaysethi: Thanks for your response. I've added the course instructor right to your account and added you as instructor to the course page. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:50, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
@AKoval (WMF) and FKoudijs (WMF): Are you aware of additional resources or contacts that might help? --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:58, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): Thank you, Ryan, for reaching out to Twotino and Vijaysethi and for creating the course page. It was really nice of you to do that. And thank you for granting course instructor rights to Twotino. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have given right to Vijaysethi, even though he is the instructor of record for the course, because he is still redlinked and has made 0 edits to any of the Wikimedia projects. Twotino is also a very new user. But he seems to be fairly responsive. So we will hope for the best. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:09, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
@AKoval (WMF): I was hesitant to do so for the lack of edits, and for the same reason I don't know if there would be any harm if you wanted to remove it. My inclination is usually to ensure the instructor of record is listed as an instructor, even if someone else is managing the assignment, for accountability purposes. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:47, 26 March 2015 (UTC)
@Smuconlaw: Thank you, Dr. Lee, for connecting Twotino and Vijaysethi with Professor Bond. I hope that you, too, will be able to lend them your expertise as a wiki mentor. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:09, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
@Ffbond: Dear Professor Bond, I hope that you will be able to lend your expertise to Twotino and Vijaysethi as a wiki mentor. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:09, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
I am happy to help as a wiki mentor, although can't necessarily guarantee a quick response time. Let me know if there is anything concrete you need. Francis Bond (talk) 06:06, 27 March 2015 (UTC)
Dear Twotino and Vijaysethi,
Welcome to the the Wikipedia Education Program. :) Thank you for choosing to have your students contribute to Wikipedia as part of this course. To ensure the greatest success for this pilot, I have a number of recommendations:
  • Please complete the Wikipedia:Training/For educators.
  • Please require your students to complete the Wikipedia:Training/For students, as I see some already have.
  • Please read the Education Toolkit. The Run section, with information on adapting assignments and supporting students, may be particularly helpful if you are new to the education program.
  • Please read the Learning Pattern on getting the community involved early. You must make sure that you have sufficient help monitoring and managing your students' work on-wiki. Unfortunately, the global education team is not staffed to provide that level of support. So please reach out to existing online volunteers to see if they may be willing to support you and your students. Please reach out to local volunteers (Category:Singaporean Wikipedians or Category:Wikipedians in Singapore) to help watch your students' on-wiki work. If you do that, then you may have adequate help. If you do not have the support of the community, and if your students make mistakes, then your pilot could go very badly.
  • Please review the updates to the Singapore education program page on Outreach wiki, which now include NTU. Please add additional information to that page as you wish. This will help ensure that your university is connected with the global community of Wikimedians, educators, and learners that are part of the the Wikipedia Education Program and it ensure that my team is able to track and report your impact to the Wikimedia movement.
I will email you to schedule time to review the progress of your pilot and to see how else I may be able to support you and your pilot.
All the best, Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:09, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
Thank you Anna Koval (WMF), Smuconlaw, Ryan (Wiki Ed) and everyone else! I haven't made too many edits through this user-account - wanted something that could tie my NTU account here - but I've contributed before (less than I intended to, must admit :) ) through earlier accounts. I'm reasonably comfortable with Wikipedia's norms, and certainly the syntax. Would be happy to work with everyone in ensuring our students will comply with the policies here. Yes, Professor Sethi is a bit inactive here, given his other commitments, but I'd be happy to front any comments or requests. Feel free to ping me if there's anything.
I will reach out to Professor Bond separately.
We had asked our students to complete the Wikipedia training before attempting to edit articles. As you'd see, we are mostly following the recommended guidelines for Wikipedia assignments, although there was this flood of pings here on this page. There was some miscommunication, but we're working on that. Also, am doing the training for educators now.
Thanks once again for the pointers! - Twotino (talk) 08:55, 26 March 2015 (UTC)
I wrote about my experience running a Wikipedia project at SMU for the Wikimedia Outreach This Month in Education newsletter, which you can read here. — SMUconlaw (talk) 09:23, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Cultural Ecology (instructor: Derickfay)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Derick Fay (talk) 18:17, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

@Derickfay: Hi, I'm Ryan, interim classroom program manager with the Wiki Education Foundation. Thanks for teaching with Wikipedia this term! I've gone ahead and added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:University of California, Riverside/Cultural Ecology (Spring 2015). I've sent an email with some additional information. If you have questions or comments, please don't hesitate to leave a message for me on my user talk page or via email. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:44, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Wikipedia Connection (instructor: SuperHamster)

Hi there! I've created a course page for the spring semester for a new club I've created at Ohio State University. We're not a course, but a student organization. We'd like to use this page to keep track of our collaborations and edits, and to see progress made. I'm already an online/campus ambassador, but am now requesting instructor rights for this. Thanks, ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 23:25, 28 March 2015 (UTC) @Pharos, Bluerasberry, Kevin Gorman, and AKoval (WMF):

SuperHamster I granted the userright because you have already been reviewed on this board and because we have previously talked about this. Good luck with your project. Blue Rasberry (talk) 10:36, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Research Writing (instructor: Ianjporter)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --ian (talk) 17:43, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

@Ianjporter: Hi Ian. We've already talked by email, but I just wanted to respond here for the record to say that your course page looks good. I've added course instructor rights to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:UW Bothell/Research Writing (Spring 2015). If you have any questions feel free to send an email or leave a message on my talk page. Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:57, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: History of Pentecostalism in the Americas (instructor: Jmdoran)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --JMDoran (talk) 19:28, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

@Jmdoran: Hi, I'm Ryan, interim classroom program manager with WikiEdu. I took a look at the assignment draft you created using the Assignment Design Wizard. Everything looks good so I've added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:University of Texas, Austin/History of Pentecostalism in the Americas (Spring 2015). I've sent an email with some additional information and links. If you don't receive the email or if you have any questions, you can send them to ryan [at] wikiedu [dot] org or leave a message on my user talk page. Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:48, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: African American Women's History (instructor: Msloveandlight)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Msloveandlight (talk) 08:45, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Msloveandlight. Just a note that I granted the user right yesterday and created your course page: Education Program:University of Oregon/African American Women's History (Spring 2015). Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:11, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Asian 207 (instructor: Kisobushi)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Kisobushi (talk) 02:50, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

@Kisobushi: Hi there. I see you got the account issue worked out :) Everything looks good so I've added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: Education Program:University of Washington/Asian 207 (Spring 2015). I've also just sent an email with more information and links. If you have any questions about your course page, Wikipedia, or teaching with Wikipedia, please don't hesitate to send an email or leave a message on my user talk page. Thanks! --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:02, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

How do I turn off student enrollment?

A certain class has ended. It was hardly advertised on Wikipedia, yet for some reason new students continue to enroll months after the course has ended. I am trying to determine why this is happening but it seems that new-ish Wikipedians are enrolling.

Is there a way to turn off student enrollment in the currently-being-deprecated course interface system? Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:00, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: Could you link me to the course in question? --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:05, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
Do you have a end date on the course? Once the course is ended, the enrollment option appears to go away. (See this course, for example. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:16, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
Resolved
Ian is correct. Clicking "edit" brings up the dates for the course in a special interface. I changed the ending date to be last month, and now enrollment is disallowed. This is how one stops enrollment. Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:19, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
Unresolved
I was hoping to have WP:eternal tracking for anyone who was ever in any course that I am watching, so that if people in a course continue to contribute after the course finishes, then that can be included as an outcome of the course. If I set the course end date to a certain point, does that mean that tracking thereafter ceases? Or is this not customary? How are course outcomes tracked now, and how will they be tracked with the new interface? It seems worth noting somehow if as a result of course participation, some of the students continue to contribute to Wikipedia.
I expect that by default, all tracking ends when the stated end of course date comes, right? Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:52, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
Maybe this is something that the Dashboard can handle? @Sage (Wiki Ed): does the Dashboard continue tracking, or does it stop when the course ends? Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:10, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
Bluerasberry: What I would suggest is to extend the course dates, but set (or change) the enrollment token. Then no one will be able to enroll without inputting that token. The dashboard currently stops tracking when the a course ends. We may eventually have some additional tracking of activity after the end of courses, but not at this point.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:38, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, I see how that works now. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:44, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

Amy Schalet, Not Under My Roof spamming

As seen with this, this, this, this and this, there appears to be a class of WP:Student editors adding content from a Amy Schalet Not Under My Roof book. There's also this and this edit concerning Amy Hasinoff. I attempted to query one of the editors about what class they are and why they keep adding Amy Schalet content, but I got no reply. This sandbox didn't reveal much either. Flyer22 (talk) 04:55, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

@Adam (Wiki Ed): I see that one of the editors was in Education Program:University of Illinois/Queer Lives, Queer Politics (Fall 2014), and other students Flyer22 references have edited about Illinois-related topics. Have you heard anything (you're listed in SF if not on the course page)? If not, I'll email the prof of that class to see if it might be an iteration of the same class. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:54, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
I hadn't heard anything about this. I'll take a look. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:24, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): It looks like there are three student editors from that course still active: Jmrase, Mhayashi95, and Ayoung40. I don't know if they have another class but it looks like GWS 202 from some sandbox edits. They may be in this class along with the students Flyer22 mentioned above. I don't see a course page for this semester, however. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:27, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
Ryan (Wiki Ed) and Adam (Wiki Ed), this class doesn't appear to be well-organized at all. They just keep adding Amy Schalet, Not Under My Roof sources to articles, as recently as this and this edit, and other similar content. In some cases, the content is not appropriate for the article, or not appropriately added to the article; for example, this bit that I tweaked (followup edits here here and here) would be more appropriate as part of a Society and culture section; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Medicine-related articles#Sections. Flyer22 (talk) 18:56, 4 April 2015 (UTC)
There was also needed tweaking for the Slut-shaming article addition; see here, here and here. Flyer22 (talk) 19:02, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Online Ambassador application: Kikichugirl

Kikichugirl

 Done by Soap.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Kikichugirl (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I often help out students on #wikipedia-en-help connect, and many people who come there are requesting assistance with their non-Education Program assignment. As a college student myself, I fully understand the difficulty associated with being unable to do what a professor wants. Therefore, I believe that it would be useful for me to become an official online ambassador in order to contact these students' professors on their behalf. Additionally, I really enjoy helping people learn the ropes of Wikipedia editing, and students are no exception.
  2. In three sentences or less, summarize your involvement with Wikimedia projects.
    I am most active on the English language Wikipedia in WP:WPAFC, and when I have time, I go on review marathons, so I have experience working with newbies. I also spend lots of time helping out in #wikipedia-en-help connect, answering newbies' questions, and the like, as mentioned above. Occasionally, I rate articles based on class, hang out with WP:SONGS and WP:ALBUMS, and fight vandalism.
  3. Please indicate a few articles to which you have made significant content contributions. (e.g. DYK, GA, FA, major revisions/expansions/copyedits).
    My first article, A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart was the very first article I wrote. As a WikiGnome, I do many small edits across large spaces. Most of my content work is at AfC, having reviewed hundreds of articles, as well as cleaning them up at WP:NPP.
  4. How have you been involved with welcoming and helping new users on Wikipedia?
    As previously mentioned above, I am active on IRC and AFC. You can see my AfC work here. Before I was involved at AFC, I was also a new page patroller. Additionally, my talk page is also an indicator of the extensive amount of newbies that I communicate with on a regular basis.
  5. What do you see as the most important ways we could welcome newcomers or help new users become active contributors?
    It is often most difficult to discern the good-faith editors from the self-promoting possibly-bad-faith editors, but when helping newbies it is always best to be patient and kind, using laymen's terms and avoiding extensive jargon. For example, instead of "you need to verify your sources" I try to say "You need to prove that everything you say is true" so that we're not accidentally using alphabet soup or allowing policy creep to turn them away. When I believe that an editor is really only here to promote their company, I will tell them, "That probably won't work," saving them the trouble. Additionally, I find that providing links such as WP:CHEATSHEET, WP:REFBEGIN, WP:CIT, or links to WikiProjects of their choice make them less confused and more willing to stay. Sometimes, it may seem like everything that needs to be done has already been done, since some of the most widely-viewed articles are at GA or FA, so then I link them to WP:BACKLOG. Essentially, helping them navigate the site and the eons of pages we have in projectspace would be the way to go.
  6. Have you had major conflicts with other editors? Blocks or bans? Involvement in arbitration? Feel free to offer context, if necessary.
    I have never been blocked or banned. I was once taken to ANI in December (for nominating an article at AFD), but the request was quickly closed as the editor who began the thread at ANI about me was also at ANI, and their actions should be discussed in one post. Most of my conflicts in editing have been with vandals or editors that were eventually sanctioned in some way for disruptive editing.
  7. How often do you edit Wikipedia and check in on ongoing discussions? Will you be available regularly for at least two hours per week, in your role as a mentor?
    I try to edit Wikipedia as often as I can, when I am not busy in real life. Even when I'm not editing, I can usually be reached on IRC in the evenings, if not all day Pacific Time. Two hours does not seem like a lot of time for me. In the event that I would not be able to devote sufficient time to the project, I would relinquish my volunteership.
  8. How would you make sure your students were not violating copyright laws?
    As students we tend to grow up hearing about plagiarism. Educating them on what is constituted copyright is key, especially in regards to images. Explaining copyright as related to plagiarism will probably prevent text-based copyright issues, but pointing out that all images are copyrighted unless otherwise stated - and directing them to WP:IUP or WP:FUR would be the way to go.
  9. If one of your students had an issue with copyright violation how would you resolve it?
    If I found that a student was having issues with copyright violations, I would first attempt to bring it up with the student themselves. Many new editors are simply confused about Wikipedia's copyright policy and not intentionally attempting to infringe. If that did not resolve it, and the student blatantly insisted on retaining the copyright violation, then the next step would be to notify the professor. Sometimes the threat of grade demerits is all you need...
  10. In your _own_ words describe what copyright violation is.
    Copyright violation is the copying of non-free content, usually from another website, onto Wikipedia without a compatible license, rationale for fair use, or permission to be licensed as CC-BY-SA from the original content creator. This includes images and text. It also includes claiming another's copyrighted work as your own, and then releasing it under a free license as "own work".
  11. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I really enjoy working with others and would love to become an ambassador!

— kikichugirl oh hello! 03:35, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Endorsements

(Two endorsements are needed for online ambassador approval.)

  • Endorse. Prolific, experienced, friendly editor. --L235 (t / c / ping in reply) 05:09, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
  • Endorse - Experienced editor, clearly familiar with policy, active in several areas of the project, with an inclination for helping newbies. @Kikichugirl: I see you're a psychology student -- do you edit psychology articles much? The Education Program could definitely use more people familiar with WP:MEDRS, WP:MEDMOS, and general best practices for editing psych articles. (That's not a conditional endorsement, by the way -- just a particular way you may be able to help if you choose). — Rhododendrites talk \\ 14:14, 3 April 2015 (UTC) (Note: I also edit on this noticeboard as User:Ryan (Wiki Ed), but this endorsement is in a volunteer capacity only.)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

New course announcement: ER190 (instructor: Julianfulton)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Julianfulton (talk) 04:16, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

@Julianfulton: Hi Julian. Everything looks good, so I've added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page using your Assignment Design Wizard output here: Education Program:University of California, Berkeley/ER190 (Spring 2015). I know we already exchanged several emails last week -- just responding on here, too, for good measure :) If you have any questions, feel free to email or leave a message at my user talk page. Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:20, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: Archie0401

Archie0401 (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    Wikipedia is an exciting way to integrate information literacy into the curriculum. As a campus ambassador I hope to be in a position to support students and faculty in using Wikipedia in the classroom.
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    I am a librarian at Sonoma State University in CA and at Santa Rosa Junior College in CA.
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    I am a research and instruction librarian. I teach Information Literacy both as a credit course and in workshops. I have a BA in Psychology, an MA in Humanities, and an MLIS (Master of Information Science).
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    Very little. However, I am learning quickly and am willing to complete trainings etc.
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I am new to Wikipedia, but am a quick learner. I have completed the Ambassador Training modules (as well as a few others). I will be hosting an edit-a-thon at the SSU campus in the near future. I think that being a campus ambassador could be a good fit for me, though I'm not sure if I'm too new to Wikipedia for that.

Thank you for considering my application. Archie0401 (talk) 23:34, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Discussion

New course announcement: English 325: Writing in the Health Professions (instructor: Mavcallens)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Mavcallens (talk) 19:56, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

@Mavcallens: Hello! I'm Ryan, interim classroom program manager with the Wiki Education Foundation. Glad you'll be teaching with Wikipedia this summer! Your assignment looks good so I've gone ahead and added the "course instructor" right to your account and created your course page here: [[2]]. I do have a question about the end of the assignment which I will include in an email with some additional information and links. If you have any questions feel free to email me or leave a message at my user talk page. Thanks. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:52, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: ENG1300 Comp III Literature (instructor: Pindham)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Pindham (talk) 21:41, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

@Pindham: Hello! I'm Ryan, interim classroom program manager with the Wiki Education Foundation. As you used the Assignment Design Wizard to create your assignment page, everything looks to be in order. I've used it to create your course page here: Education Program:South University, West Palm Beach/ENG1300 Comp III Literature (Spring 2015) and added the "course instructor" right to your account. I've also sent an email with additional information and links -- I hope you'll let me know if I sent it to the wrong address. If you have any questions, feel free to email or leave a message on my user talk page. Thanks! --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:34, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

article talk page tags

two questions - one specific and one general:

  1. specific: where do i find the template for tagging the talk page of an article that is being worked on by a class?
  2. general: it seems that these tags are not used. the Anorexia nervosa seems to be a favorite subject and this semester, per SandyGeorgia's remark here is being edited by about three courses this semester alone. Having the record of classes that have worked on an article would be really useful, i think so teachers can see that and maybe consider not working on a given article in a given semester... is there a way to encourage teachers to do this, as part of setting up a course, or perhaps volunteers/ambassadors could make this part of what they do?

Thanks! Jytdog (talk) 14:19, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

@Jytdog: The template is Template:Course assignment. Any class which creates an assignment using the Assignment Design Wizard will have instructions for how to do this (see week 5 of this course, for example). I think if it's already on the course page and we noticed students missed that step, we'd likely bring it up with the student. If it seems class-wide or not on the course page, I'd take it to the instructor to address. As anorexia nervosa is already being discussed for various reasons, I just went ahead and added it.
Ian (Wiki Ed) may know better, but I only know of the two classes working on it: the Denison class and the one run by Sisipherr. Having just found out about the Education Program/Foundation, I can't imagine she would've had a way to find it and as the class has no course page, part of the usefulness of the template is gone, but certainly anybody could add it. To find what third class you may be talking about I went through the Dashboard, opened all the classes which seem like likely candidates for working on the topic, and did not find one.
While I had those classes open, I took a random/haphazard sampling of student articles to check the prevalence of the course assignment template. Talk:Personal-event memory no, Talk:Hematopoietic stem cell niche yes, Talk:Alarmism yes, Talk:Multiplicity (psychology) yes, Talk:Murray's system of needs yes, Talk:Sex trafficking no, Talk:Stem cell controversy yes, Talk:Dorchester, Boston no, Talk:Miriam Cahn no.
4 no template, 5 with template. I don't know how typical that is across all classes, but clearly it could be better.
@Sage (Wiki Ed): is this something we might be able to automate in the future? --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:53, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
thanks! Jytdog (talk) 13:56, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
The template isn't terribly useful if there's no course page, since there are course-specific parameters. If the class has a course page, the template with appropriate parameters should be available on the course page. As for the second part, no I'm not aware of other courses editing that article. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:13, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
In terms of automation, that's one of the features planned for the new course page system: whenever a student editor signs up for a specific article to work on, the system will automatically add a talk page template at the same time using their account. (And if the instructor assigns a specific article to them, similarly, the instructor's account will automatically add the template.)--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:24, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Jytdog, in my experience, they rarely tag article talk, and are increasingly unregistered, and you can only detect it may be student editing in retrospect based on all the signs (certain training modules, a rush to get in edits before term-end, lack of reliable sources, little or no communication, SPAs, focus on marginal textbooks or what is often their prof's agenda, etc).

Ryan (Wiki Ed), the three courses at Anorexia are the Sissipher group (discussed already), Education Program:Denison University/Development of Children with Special Needs (Spring 2015) (which has been problematic across the board), and whatever is represented by these contribs from an apparently better instructed student. Three courses, no article tag. This is the norm for my area of editing ... and they are often working not only with little instruction, but at odds with each other. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:07, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

This is typical, representing perhaps yet another course, since we have another unregistered student adding the same info from the same less than optimal textbook. And, since it's spring (students trying to get edits in before term-end) my watchlist is full of same ... to the extent that I won't be able to get to all of it. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:30, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

For example: [3] SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:51, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: 92.80.232.160 (talk)

IP's can not apply for the course instructor right - please register an account, then apply again, making sure you fill out the form in full. Mdann52 (talk) 11:02, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Name
Institution
Course title and description
Assignment plan
Number of students
Start and end dates

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Helaine (Wiki Ed), Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --92.80.232.160 (talk) 08:04, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Mohammed Alqama Dafedar

AlqamaD (talk · contribs)

  1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I am passionate about activist related to Information & Technology ,Wikipedia is becoming revolution for knowledge gainer i want to learn and show my talent through this platform
  2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
    I am Indian Karnataka state belgaum dist , ya i have plans to work in campus .
  3. What is your academic and/or professional background?
    I am pursuing masters degree in computer application .
  4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
    Organizing the effective events and approaching people.
  5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
    I am enthusiastic about my work and i m very confident to do work about Wikipedia.
Discussion
  • Question: your account doesn't have many edits, do you perhaps have editing experience under a different account or IP address? Stuartyeates (talk) 20:48, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Introduction to Women's Studies (instructor: Mosterbur)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Mosterbur (talk) 15:50, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

@Mosterbur: Hi! Thanks for coming to the workshop today and using our Assignment Design Wizard. I'm shooting you an email about your course page for the fall right now, as I'll likely have you hold off on creating the final page! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:42, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Black Politics (instructor: Mosterbur)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Mosterbur (talk) 16:00, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Same note as above! Sent you an email. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:56, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: International Law (instructor: Bellicist)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

I'm sitting in the MPSA conference right now and am excited to get started. I'd like to do a final project based on the ideas that are being pitched. This wouldn't be a full course-lenght project, but rather be a replacement final project.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Bellicist (talk) 16:12, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks again for coming to our booth and workshop today. I went ahead and finalized your course page (here: Education Program:Alderson Broaddus University/International Law (Spring 2015)). The students who opt in to the assignment will need to log in to Wikipedia and click on the 'enroll' button in the top left. This will register their usernames to your course, making the dashboard more effective. I will also send you an email connecting you to User:Ryan (Wiki Ed), my colleague who can give you more information about the best ways to get started. Super excited to hopefully have a few of your students participate! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:11, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Including students in COI Guideline

Rational watchers of this noticeboard ought to be aware, if not already, of the efforts at Wikipedia talk:Conflict of interest#Student editing and COI to classify student editors as having an inherent conflict of interest ultimately resulting in strong discouragement of any student editing on the basis of our COI guideline. FYI --Mike Cline (talk) 23:24, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

Mike Cline you misunderstand my intention. And I put a notice here on the incident board that I had opened the thread at WT:COI. Jytdog (talk) 23:41, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
Probably should have been posted here, since proposing a major guideline change hardly falls under the incident category. --Mike Cline (talk) 01:08, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
that may be true. it grew out of the discussion over there. thanks for listing here. i changed the section title to make it neutral btw. Jytdog (talk) 02:26, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Writing for the Web (instructor: Pflugi)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Pflugi (talk) 15:56, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

@Pflugi: Hello! I'm Ryan, interim classroom program manager with the Wiki Education Foundation. I've added the "course instructor" right to your account and created a course page using your assignment draft here: Education Program:Oregon State University/Writing for the Web (Spring 2015). I do have some questions about the assignment and have included them in a longer email that also includes links to some useful resources. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:20, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

US Educational Program needs to reach out to this class

There is a class rewriting Sociology of the family. They are doing good edits, but they seem not to be aware of our educational infrastructure. I was able to get instructor ID: [4]. See also Talk:Sociology_of_the_family#Educational_assignments. Will somebody pass it to whoever is in charge of the US program (Vanderbilt University, Tennessee) these days? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 08:16, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

@Piotrus: Thanks for the heads up. I've emailed the instructor and, in addition to telling her about WikiEdu and the various resources available, suggested she head over to Talk:Sociology of the family. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:38, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
There's a discussion about a similarly unconnected course going on at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine#Psychological resilience article and the Bigender article. LeadSongDog come howl! 18:54, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
I tracked down that class separately and it turned out to be the same as the above. I've exchanged some emails with the professor now and am trying to get them on board with a course page, etc. in the future. This assignment, however, is done. Students are to watch the talk pages for another couple days, but are done editing articles (at least that's my understanding). --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:57, 23 April 2015 (UTC)
@Ryan (Wiki Ed): Ryan, since you tracked her email, would you mind passing the concerns of me and Doncram (both of us are, btw, sociology professors - something that she may be interested learning about). We appreciate her course contributions, we are however concerned that referenced content was removed without any explanation in this edit: [5]. If her students are done editing, we would hope that she herself would read both versions and consider whether any integration is necessary. After all, adding content is great, but removing it requires some justification: one cannot envision an assignment, for example, in which each year her class would delete the prior class entries in this article and rewrite some of them from scratch - yet not knowing the assignment details, and looking at this diff, we can get the impression that this could happen again. With all due respect, and such. Thanks, --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 02:52, 26 April 2015 (UTC)
@Piotrus and Doncram: I've pointed the instructor here and to the talk page of that article and suggested reviewing your (and other editors') concerns. Since the assignment for this term is over, I don't suspect she'll be working on the students' articles at this point, sorry to say. It does sound like she'll be working with us next semester, though. If so, we'll be addressing several of these issues directly (or rather preventing them, most likely, via best practices required for any "supported" class). On my list for follow-ups as we move closer to the fall term. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:44, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Wiki Ed's monthly report for March now available

We've made the monthly report for March available as a PDF, on-wiki, and on the blog.

Eryk (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:36, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Course with some issues moving pages from sandboxes to article space

I came across 3 newly created pages associated with Education Program:California Maritime Academy/LIB100.4 - Information Fluency in the Digital World (Spring 2015) that cover the same subject as an existing article under a different title. It looks like maybe an admin is needed to do a history merge (or should the articles be moved back to sandboxes? I'm not sure what to do here). The new pages are: Spotted Jelly (existing article at spotted jelly), Wikipedia:The blanket octopus (existing article at blanket octopus) and Gobius Niger (Black Goby) (existing article at black goby). It looks like several other students in this course have chosen to expand existing articles, but haven't yet moved the material out of their sandboxes. They may need some assistance doing so. Plantdrew (talk) 22:37, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

@Plantdrew and Adam (Wiki Ed): Thanks for the heads up. I've moved the student articles back into the user space, CSDed the one which left a redirect in the Wikipedia namespace, and redirected the other two articles to the existing ones. In two of the three cases, the student article has considerably more content so shouldn't be an issue to merge. Black goby looks like it'll be a little more of a challenge... --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:22, 23 April 2015 (UTC)
I encountered this issue some time back, so on advice of an administrator what I did for the project I managed was to move the article to a subpage of the talk page of the article (for example, "Talk:Constitution of Singapore/Smuconlaw version"), replace the existing contents of the article by a copy-and-paste, and then add {{copied}} tags to the article talk page and the subpage containing the sandbox version. Alternatively, if there haven't been any updates to the original article that conflict with sandbox edits, a history merge would be cleaner. — SMUconlaw (talk) 08:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
I'll admit the history merge is something I never read much about (it was introduced well after I got the bit), so Smuconlaw's solution above makes sense. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:31, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: English 123--Literature and Composition: "Reading the Harlem Renaissance" (instructor: Annekingsley)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Annekingsley (talk) 01:07, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

Anne, I completed the process and emailed your course link to you! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:41, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

Jtsimons89 request

New course announcement: Physics Edit-a-thon, APS DAMOP 2015 (instructor: Jtsimons89)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Jtsimons89 (talk) 15:40, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Physics Edit-a-thon, APS DAMOP 2015 (instructor: Jtsimons89)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Jtsimons89 (talk) 14:11, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

I just granted user rights. I presented Wikipedia to this person at the Simons Foundation. They intend to host Wikipedia editing events at academic conferences in the sciences and need the kind of metrics which can be easily generated in the education module and through no other way. This person in my opinion understands enough wiki basics to be in accord with usual expectations for receiving userrights so I assigned them. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:42, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Jtsimons89 request

New course announcement: Physics Edit-a-thon, APS DAMOP 2015 (instructor: Jtsimons89)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Jtsimons89 (talk) 15:40, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

New course announcement: Physics Edit-a-thon, APS DAMOP 2015 (instructor: Jtsimons89)

I'm pleased to announce a new course I've created with the Assignment Design Wizard, and I am requesting course instructor rights to get started. If you'd like to see more details about my course, check out my course draft linked in the section heading above.

@Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed): --Jtsimons89 (talk) 14:11, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

I just granted user rights. I presented Wikipedia to this person at the Simons Foundation. They intend to host Wikipedia editing events at academic conferences in the sciences and need the kind of metrics which can be easily generated in the education module and through no other way. This person in my opinion understands enough wiki basics to be in accord with usual expectations for receiving userrights so I assigned them. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:42, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
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