Wikipedia:Education noticeboard

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Purpose of this page Using this page This page is for discussion related to student assignments and the Wikipedia Education Program. Please feel free to post, whether you're from a class, a potential class, or if you're a Wikipedia editor. Topics for this board might include: Content issues created by real or potential student assignments Improving student assignment output quality per the RfC Questions about the trainings or any question from instructors or students Discussion of the Wiki Education Foundation or the Wikipedia Education Program. Students who have done great work and need {{The Excellent New Editor's Barnstar}} Of course, we should remain civil towards all participants and assume good faith. There are other pages more appropriate for dealing with certain specific issues: An issue requiring immediate administrator attention → Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents Vandalism by non-participating students from schools → administrator intervention against vandalism. Cut-and-paste moves/history merge → the cut-and-paste move repair holding pen. Students revealing sensitive personal information → requests for oversight. Please DO NOT make such requests here; reports here are visible to everyone. Course announcements from dashboard.wikiedu.org / outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org → /Wiki Ed course submissions Issues related to dashboard.wikedu.org / outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org → meta:Talk:Programs & Events Dashboard For a list of topics that students should avoid editing → Wikipedia:General sanctions#Active sanctions "Start a new discussion thread". Use an informative title: ==Informative title==. If a thread is related to an ongoing discussion, consider placing it under a level-3 heading within that existing discussion. You should generally notify any user who is the subject of a discussion. You may use {{ping}} to do so, or simply link their username when you post your comment. It is not required to contact students when their edits are only being discussed in the context of a class-wide problem. If no comments have been made within 30 days, your post and any responses will be automatically archived. Please sign all contributions, using four tilde characters "~~~~". If discussion is already ongoing elsewhere or if there is a more natural location for a discussion, please continue the discussion there, and put a short note with a link to the relevant location on this page. If you cannot edit this page because it is protected, please place your comments on this page and they will be addressed. Managing threads If you'd like to make sure a thread does not get archived automatically after 30 days, use {{Do not archive until}} at the top of the section. Use {{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveNow}} within a section to have it archived (more or less) immediately. A brief Archives page lists them with the years in which those now inactive discussions took place.
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Request for course instructor right: Wikirishiwiki (talk)

Name

Marcy Newman

Institution

Rishi Valley School

Course title and description

Wiki@Rishi is the name of our course. Our students are 9th through 11th standard high school students working on our school web page Rishi Valley School

Assignment plan

We plan to rewrite the Rishi Valley School webiste as well as update related pages, including Jiddu Krishnamurti and a new page that does not yet exist for G.V. Subba Rao.

(I believe there are other articles too - eg. Punganur cattle Shyamal (talk))

Number of students

17

Start and end dates

June 2013 until March 2014. @OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Wikirishiwiki (talk) 05:13, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

Hmm, Education Program, India, high school. Does those keywords sound familiar? OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 00:29, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

The Rishi Valley School is one of the world's foremost nontraditional boarding schools (particularly for its school philosophy), but I'm not in a position to compare their ability to the IEP issues of yore. I am, though, fairly familiar with both the school and Krishnamurti (his philosophy and biography), and would be willing to work with this instructor and class. czar · · 19:14, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

User:Czar, how would you tackle this challenge? You may have the willingness and passionate to guide the students but without good execution it can easily turn into yet another failure for education programs (EP) in India. You will be dealing with high school students whose writing skills will be on the low end of not just the participants in EP (who are university students) but also Wikipedia in general. I noticed that you haven't participated in ambassador roles before, which would make this your first time if approved. Also, on your userpage you identified yourself as a Wikipedian in Long Island which suggests that your role, if successful, would be an online ambassador. India is half a world away and you will undoubtly encounter time zone issues that hinders your assistance. I am just concerned that all of these issues mentioned may be just too many obstacles to overcome. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 20:29, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

True, I'm still in a holding pattern on the new ambassador page, and I'd want to Skype with the adviser to get a feel for the group's (and her own) experience and ambitions before committing outright for a whole semester, but I suppose I'm just not afraid of keeping an open dialogue with them and being honest about what is and isn't surmountable. I'd strongly advise the teacher to draft locally with students and then only go online in draft space, as there's no need to edit directly in article space until the class's contributions are ready. There will be no net neg for the encyclopedia as long as the assignment helps students better understand WP and as inexperienced editors keep unvetted drafts out of mainspace. Re: time differences—Rishi Valley is a boarding school, so I think we'd be able to work something out if they wanted it enough. I'm currently an education grad student and versed in the class's intended subject area, so I thought it'd be a good first project. Even if the course request is denied, I'd still be interested in working with them as an individual outside of the wiki ed program because this type of work (especially with younger students) is important to me. czar · · 17:18, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

User:Czar, thanks for the offer of assistance. I have visited the school and have run them through some of the essentials of Wikipedia policies, copyright, plagiarism, research, citations and basic editing. The duration of this project is short and it is only a small bunch of students who have volunteered for this weekend-only program. This is an independent and short term internal school project that has nothing to do with the IEP program or Wikimedia Foundation/India Chapter. Shyamal (talk) 10:54, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

• Question: Would you care to comment on how getting school students to edit the article for their school stands with respect to our guideline on conflict of interest? Stuartyeates (talk) 20:12, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

  Yeah, this isn't exactly the best idea, considering most of the edits have not been to Wikipedia standards.—Ryulong (琉竜) 09:08, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Having visited the school and having discussed Wikipedia and its policies, the students are aware of CoI and the article about the school is not the only article on their list but just a starting point. The students will be researching and citing published resources and trying to produce balanced articles. Even if they have not been able to edit well so far, I believe they need to be given a chance to improve. This project has nothing to do with the IEP program and does not involve any WMF funds. More importantly it appears that they encounter frequent autoblocking presumably because the school computers run via a web proxy server (with multiple editors sharing an IP) and an autoblock exemption might be very useful for this account of Marcy. (See Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#School_proxy_autoblock) Shyamal (talk) 10:46, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

• Some of the problems with the IEP are not intrinsic to the IEP or its (mis)management, namely ESL, the culturally lax attitude to copying and the Indian education system. Do these students have the written English skills to contribute to Wikipedia effectively? MER-C 02:41, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

While we wait for Marcy's response I can add that one of the aims of this Wikipedia project aims is to improve the writing skills of the students. Marcy who is making this request is their English teacher (and a native speaker of English if I may add). Shyamal (talk) 03:28, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure what to do with the tone and sarcasm above about our students. If you don't want to include students at this level or in this country, I suppose that is up to the Wiki people. But as the teacher of the course I would hope that the spirit of Wikipedia--particularly the idea of inclusion--would be open to expanding participants rather than shutting them out. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikirishiwiki (talk • contribs) 06:28, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Hello Wikirishiwiki, and I'm sorry for the tone here. Let me go ahead and clarify what I think is behind it, if you don't mind. I've heard that in India (and even a student from India told me himself) that there are gigantic cultural difference in regards to copyright and plaigarism. Are you aware of what a copyright violation is, in terms of what is allowed and not allowed on Wikipedia? Sorry again. Biosthmors (talk) 11:10, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. Certainly there are cultural differences between the west and India. But you cannot say across the board that all Indians have a particular view about copyright and plagiarism. I find it problematic that you would take one Indian's view and decide that all Indians share his view. Yes I am aware of what copyright violation is (for the record I am a published author) and we are working with someone from Wikipedia in Bangalore who has instructed our students about what is and is not allowed on the Wikipedia page. Wikirishiwiki 05:02, 2 September 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikirishiwiki (talk • contribs)

Hello again Wikirishiwiki. Well it wasn't just one person who I've heard that from... =) But no worries. I'm not placing a value judgment on any potential cultural differences. I just want good Wikipedia content. That's great they have been instructed on copyright. I assume they are subject to harsh penalties on their assignment if they violate any copyright? Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) 10:24, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I just saw Wikipedia:Education program/Ambassadors/Become a Campus Ambassador

I see I've been listed to recieve notifcations over at Wikipedia:Education program/Ambassadors/Become a Campus Ambassador, but I've seen none. Can we do those here? Biosthmors (talk) 09:15, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

I thought notifications were supposed to be wiki-wide and not just applied on specific pages, no? OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 03:39, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure what's going on, but we have another applicant at Wikipedia:Education program/Ambassadors/Become a Campus Ambassador and no discussion on any application for months! And the notification didn't work again. A notification to User:OhanaUnited, User:Neelix, User:Ktr101, User:Pharos, User:Pongr, User:Sleuthwood, User:Etlib, User:Daniel Simanek, User:Biosthmors, User:Kayz911, User:DStrassmann, User:Rjensen, User:Bluerasberry, User:Kevin Gorman, and User:JMathewson (WMF) that this is a problem. User:Sage Ross (WMF) mentioned a while ago in the archives moving these applications to this noticeboard, if I remember correctly. That was a wise suggestion. Can we do that? My apologies to User:czar, User:Kolekar Pandurang, and User:Codeie. Biosthmors (talk) 09:04, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

I did try to start that discussion, though the Regional Ambassadors came to the consensus at the time that they'd like to speak with potential Ambassadors, as they do now. I still think the process could be here on-wiki, but I believe somebody's point was that there are different qualifications for OAs and CAs. I would love this to be a discussion the RAs are a part of. User:Biosthmors, do you want to send out over the RA listserv to see if everyone would be interested in coming to an agreed process here on WP:ENB? JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 18:03, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

I might have to plumb the archives. I think I saw that conversation, had things to add, but then didn't participate. I just went ahead and changed the status quo as you can see below. I think it's definitely an improvement! I think speaking with the applicants is a good step, still, and I spoke with one last night. As for the list-serve, it seems potentially counter-productive (by introducing sampling bias) unless other ambassadors and other Wikipedians are also notified to participate. I think we might already have a slightly biased sample given that the notifications I tagged for this discussion thread initially was largely targeted to the regional ambassadors. Biosthmors (talk) 08:29, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Well on second thought I'll still email them anyways, despite the concern. Biosthmors (talk) 08:37, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Although I definitely would like to speak to any potential ambassadors in my region, I'm not even really too sure we can meaningfully say no to a potential ambassador from a practical standpoint. We can discourage them from trying to participate, but from what I've seen so far, people we would be likely to deny would also be likely to just ignore getting told not to participate. We could deny them access to advice, but that would be counterproductive. We could stop them from using the course page interface, but again, I think that would be counterproductive. We can't really tell them 'no, you can't go do realworld outreach on your own.' We can't even really tell them that they can't call themselves ambassadors. I guess in instances where we have relationships with professors, we could advise professors that letting particular people help their classes out might do more harm than good, but I think that's about the strongest thing we can do. Although I generally like doing as many things on wiki, I'm a little bit iffy about making any formalized on-wiki process for vetting potential ambassadors, since I think such processes (see WP:RFA) tend to end up becoming way more pain than they are worth. Kevin Gorman (talk) 20:15, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

FWIW, I have no idea why that notification hack is working on this page but not on the other.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 15:14, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

I've fixed it now; the empty Discussion subsection was preventing notifications from going through. Thanks for flagging this, User:Biosthmors.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 15:30, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

(Re Kevin Gorman's comment) We did have a professor in Canada who is no longer participating in the program telling other interested professors that he has this female student as a campus ambassador even though she's not. She has never applied let alone being accepted and signed off as a CA. I highly doubt that she knows the prof hung her out to dry but it's definitely not in good faith for the prof to be masquerading and claim her to be a campus ambassador. Without hearing it straight from his mouth, I wouldn't have believed it. As for the application process, I'm glad that up to this point it hasn't descended to the level of turning it into a vote (let's hope that it'll be kept this way). OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 03:20, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Just out of curiousity, but was it out of malice or ignorance? I can picture someone in a class going 'oh, I know a lot about Wikipedia, I can totally help out with this assignment,' and then the professor reading some about the EP and going 'oh, I have a helper, I guess I should call her an ambassador.' Either way, unfortunate situation. Kevin Gorman (talk) 04:10, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Definitely not ignorance because the prof participated in EP and had CA before so he knew how things work. And no, she was a complete green hand (0 edits) prior to the course last year (which was not one of the courses affiliated with the education program). Then the prof picked her because she's enthusiastic. And to fuel your curiosity, he is the "he who must not be named" psychology prof from Toronto. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 21:42, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Oh, I'd say what my reaction to that information is, but I'd have to resort to some incivil language. --Tryptofish (talk) 23:45, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and copied and pasted the applications below. And I've made it so that they automatically appear here at the noticeboard instead of at Wikipedia:Education program/Ambassadors/Become a Campus Ambassador

@Kevin Gorman, I understand what you're saying, to a degree. This is the encyclopedia anyone can edit. But I think the point is this: who do we want to recognize officially to interact in the off-wiki (even if that's just email, but also on the phone, Skype, and in person) with professors and students and say they have at least a modicum of community support? I think it's all about making sure someone is serious and knowledgeable before "officially" listing them as an ambassador. I'm not saying I agree with the entire structure of the user right/extension combination. But I don't see any wisdom in handing out the user right and privilege to list oneself as an Ambassador to anyone. And I don't understand why you said I'm a little bit iffy about making any formalized on-wiki process for vetting potential ambassadors, because we've had it that way for a long time. I corresponded with both Rosechiango (talk · contribs) and Dward2612 (talk · contribs), but they didn't follow up with me, so I never granted them the user right. Others have been responsive, so I've assigned rights: Special:UserRights/Drdemartino. Biosthmors (talk) 08:29, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: czar

czar (talk · contribs)

1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   I want to list myself as a public resource for teachers, which I hope will further encourage more to incorporate WP into their curricula. As an educationist, I consider WP an integral part of future literacy and civics, especially in that all American students (if not all Internet-connected Americans) will use it this year and yet none will be familiar with how to read it. Moreover, Madison is one of the bigger ed schools in the country, so it's exceptionally pertinent/important in my field to familiarize future teachers with a tool/skill set they should be imparting to their own. To the point, I also like working with other editors and students, copyediting, and having a little extra leverage when proposing such ideas to professors. I'd like to be more useful in the education outreach corner of Wikipedia.

2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?

   University of Wisconsin–Madison (Hi Dan)

3. What is your academic and/or professional background?

   B.A. Yale, current Ph.D. student at UW–Madison in ed policy and curriculum/instruction

4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.

   I'm familiar with all the projects. I was a rabid IP editor in high school, was bit hard, forgot my username for a while, and have been more involved the last few months—quite intensely so.

5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   I'm first for this new application format, eh?

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --czar · · 08:15, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

Well this one seems to be a no-brainer (experience with Wikipedia and studying in the area of education). Thanks for your interest User:Czar. I think the standard for now is that a regional ambassador http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Regional_Ambassadors/Current talks with you over Skype and then assigns you the right. I could do that, but if I did I might step on the toes of User:Daniel Simanek. Ah. Now I get the hi Dan portion. =) I could just be bold and assume Dan doesn't mind if I assign you the course volunteer right, but I'll wait because I assume he received a mailing list email I sent. Ping me if this doesn't get dealt with in the next few days. Do you have any questions? Best. Biosthmors (talk) 10:40, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

@Biosthmors: No questions. I'm going to follow up with the Rishi Valley teacher above and see how I can be useful. czar · · 15:59, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Great User:Czar, thanks. Any luck? I just emailed them to let them know I replied at the bottom of their original posting. Best. Biosthmors (talk) 20:26, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

@Biosthmors: Haven't heard back yet, so I left a note on her talk page. Haven't heard from Dan either. czar · · 10:28, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

@Biosthmors: Looks like they're already working with another editor, but I will follow-up, offer myself where it interests them, and watch the page to keep edits constructive. Also, haven't heard from Dan about volunteer rights (ping ping). czar ♔ 02:27, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

@Czar:. Thanks for checking! This program isn't quite optimal yet, in my opinion, and as you can see below where Lukas applied, there is some resistance to giving someone "campus" rights unless they have a classroom. Don't let this hinder you from working with as many professors/students as possible, though. Functionally I have 0 clue whether there's any real difference between the online volunteer or campus volunteer right. Anyhow, you've been assigned the online volunteer right. You can sign up on course pages in the extension. Such a pity it's taken this long! Thank you so much for following up!!! =) Let me know if you'd like to chat sometime about the education program on Skype. Biosthmors (talk) 10:07, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: Kolekar Pandurang

Kolekar Pandurang (talk · contribs)

1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   I have been always keen to learn the new things and share the benefits with the community. I think Wikipedia Ambassador is a great opportunity for the individuals like me to fulfill that urge. Being a teacher, I love to interact and share the topic specific resources with my student. This program will help me to reach the wider audience and help them to do the same through Wikipedia. I will feel it as a great social contribution to enhance the outreach capabilities of person to learn, share and grow together.

2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?

   University of Pune, Pune (INDIA)

3. What is your academic and/or professional background?

   Bachelor of Biotechnology, Master of Bioinformatics, currently pursuing Ph.D. in Bioinformatics.

4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.

   I have explored and benefited from many Wikimedia projects. I find them great resources of knowledge and information.

5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   I have been part of great academic and scientific networks that will help me to promote the goals of this program.

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Kolekar Pandurang (talk) 13:35, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

• Hello Kolekar Pandurang! Thanks for posting here. I'd love to see you make some more edits to Wikipedia so we know you know how things work here. That way you can more effectively be an ambassador for Wikipedia to your region. Please post here, the WP:Teahouse, or my user talk page if you need any help. Best. Biosthmors (talk) 09:57, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: codeie

codeie (talk · contribs)

1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   hi!! I would as a Wikipedia ambassador promote its use in my college to share assignments ,projects info etc.Besides would try

conducting workshops and improve its interface among my peers.

1. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?

   I'am a 3rd year engineering student studying in M.S Ramaiah Institute of Technology(BANGALORE).I would be a campus ambassador in my college.

2. What is your academic and/or professional background?

   Course- Information science .Bachelor of engineering degree. grade points = 9.44(until 2nd year)

3. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.

   I find all the Wikimedia project are interesting and prove necessary for our everyday learning experience.

4. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   I have been a part of various tech events at my college.I have also participated in various IEEE workshops.

>stood 3rd in inter school Maggie quiz etc. @OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Codeie (talk) 11:03, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

• Hello Codeie! Thanks for posting here. I'd love to see you make some more edits to Wikipedia so we know you know how things work here. That way you can more effectively be an ambassador for Wikipedia to your region. Please post here, the WP:Teahouse, or my user talk page if you need any help. Best. Biosthmors (talk) 09:56, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: Lukasaolson

lukasaolson (talk · contribs)

1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   There are many reasons I want to be an Ambassador. Chiefly, I would like to facilitate the development of a substantial Wikipedia Education Program presence at Emory University. I will be working with a faculty advisor for a year to accomplish this. I am passionate about encouraging students to participate in improving Wikipedia because I want school assignments to be meaningful and actually impact the real world. I sincerely appreciate the impact Wikipedia has had on my education, and I would like to proliferate that influence.

2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?

   I live and attend school in Atlanta. I will be working primarily with Emory University, with hopes of influencing Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and other local schools.

3. What is your academic and/or professional background?

   I am a sophomore at Emory University, double majoring in political science and economics.

4. In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.

   I have reaped many benefits from the content of Wikipedia projects, spent a good amount of time reading about how Wikipedia works and how it can be improved, and have developed several plans to improve its functionality.

5. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   I believe I have covered everything important.

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Lukasaolson (talk) 23:47, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

• I spoke with Lukas last night on Skype. He was well prepared, and he's going to follow up with me after he does some more research into the program and Wikipedia. He is looking at getting course credit for being a Campus Ambassador. I'll wait to assign the user right until he follows up with an article he'd like to improve, similar to what happened at Talk:Forty Studies That Changed Psychology. Biosthmors (talk) 08:29, 22 August 2013 (UTC)
  • If we're going to give him any rights, he needs a professor and class to work with, as there is no need to hand someone rights that they won't be using if all they're going to do is outreach. Honestly, if you're going to do outreach, you're better off without the Education Program, because it allows you to be more flexible, but then you can also incorporate the program over time, once you have a class. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 17:46, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation update August update

The Wiki Education Foundation's most recent board meeting was on 8/20/13, and there are some updates I would like to pass along. First, we are temporarily suspending our application to the Affiliations Committee (AffCom) for affiliation. We are doing so because it has become clear from our discussions with AffCom that there would have to be very substantial changes to our bylaws in order to be granted affiliation status. Addressing those issues at this time would draw the Board's time and energy away from its work on other issues that are central to the organization's mission. We still regard affiliation as desirable and plan to revisit this issue in the future.

Second, our bylaws divide the board into Wikipedian members, educator members, and appointed members. In order to begin preparing for elections to the board, we've slotted each current board member as one of these classes: Mike Christie and Richard Knipel are Wikipedians; Bob Cummings, Chanitra Bishop and Diana Strassmann are educators; PJ Tabit and Annie Lin are appointed. Our current plan is to hold elections yearly in July, with two Wikipedian and one educator slot coming up next summer, and the remaining one Wikipedian and two educator slots in July 2015. The appointed board members will have terms that last two years from the last motion on the board appointing them, and will come up for renewal (or not, as the case may be) when the two year term expires.

The board is required to have at least seven and no more than eleven directors. We have exactly seven, so if anyone leaves we will have to immediately appoint someone to fill the vacant slot in order to be in compliance with the bylaws. In order to avoid this problem we're considering appointing more members, but this wasn't fully discussed and no decisions were taken. Any comments on this point (or any of the above) would be welcome.

-- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 09:23, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the update, by the way. Biosthmors (talk) 08:51, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Request a new course instructor

Course from Bowling Green State University - Topic: Feminist, Technology and American Culture (course number ACS 3000/ WS 3000)

Number of students - 30

The class is fully online.

Students will be editing wikipedia - doing at least one edit a week. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cyberdivalive (talk • contribs) 20:40, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

You're going to need to provice us with more information, as this does not explain much. Also, can we have your name so that we can confirm that you are a professor? Thanks. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 23:57, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Bug in updating course info after page creation

I was trying to correct the term section and add field of study for Education Program:Bishop's University/Memory, truth and reconciliation in the developing world (2013). Seems like my actions are logged but they are not saved. I already tried purging the page already. Is there a reason why the information failed to flow through? OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 02:52, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

@OhanaUnited: I think this is the unresolved mystery of Template:Bug. As a workaround, you can try putting in a different term (such as by adding a hyphen instead of a space) and see if it works. I'll look into it further tomorrow, when the patch for page histories gets deployed and we can see whether your edits were creating new revisions.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 14:01, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Ok the term gets updated as per your suggested instruction. But field of study isn't saved. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 02:30, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

@OhanaUnited: I just tried changing the field of study (I took a guess and put "International studies") and it saved successfully. What were you trying to put in as the correct one? I suspect that it's the same bug that makes it accept some values for term but not others.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 16:27, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

I tried putting in "history" today. Again, action was logged but not saved. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 17:59, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Gaya College of Engineering

Looks like there's a project from India -- I'm not aware of it and haven't found any info at WT:INB either, but I'm guessing someone here might be aware of it. This edit is what alerted me to it, there are some creations in project space too, so it appears that there's been some instruction to the students but there's likely a large communication gap. Can someone who has the ability to handle this situation please do so? cheers. —SpacemanSpiff 09:48, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Courses looking for Online Ambassadors

Hey, guys! It's that time of year again, and there are already some classes looking for online support. Some of the classes have very experienced professors or Campus Ambassadors, while some have new profs who are especially hoping for some online support. I figured I'd post some classes here who have specifically requested some online support so far, though please feel free to browse the classes and sign on to a class that you're most interested in!

• Natural Disturbances & Society, LSU
• Memory, truth and reconciliation in the developing world, Bishop's University
• Behavioral Ecology, WashU
• Library Reference, Algonquin

If any of those sound doable, thank you so much for signing up. I'm sure more profs and I will post some other classes over the next week or two. Hope it's a fun semester! JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 22:28, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

PS, if you need any of the professors' contact info, let me know and I'll forward it on to you. Hopefully they're all responsive here and have their email notifications on, though! JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 22:29, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

I've added myself as an online volunteer for History of Torture, North Georgia and Cognitive Psychology, Davidson College. I also introduced myself on each professor's talk page. Frankcjones (talk) 17:02, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

Great Frankcjones, thanks. Sometimes professors are more willing to hear from Wikipedia ambassadors than others. Sometimes students don't ask many questions. Sometimes people are in fact dissatisfied with the "online ambassador" role because students don't reach out. What are your hopes and expectations? Best. Biosthmors (talk) 09:53, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Biosthmors, I don't have any specific hopes or expectations for these courses. I'm just here to help as needed. Frankcjones (talk) 16:21, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Got it! Biosthmors (talk) 17:37, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Huelsmantj (talk)

Name

Tim Huelsman

Institution

Appalachian State University

Course title and description

PSY5672 Advanced Organizational Psychology -- This is a graduate level course that covers organizational psychology, based on classical and contemporary theory and empirical research.

Assignment plan

Groups of 3 students will identify a construct or issue covered in this course and will collaborate to contribute to (or create) the Wikipedia entry for their construct or issue.

Number of students

20 students total; 6 groups of 3-4 students will collaborate to make contributions

Start and end dates

9/3/13 to 12/6/13

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Huelsmantj (talk) 14:08, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Huelsmantj (talk) 14:08, 30 August 2013 (UTC) Return to the Course pages module.

Sent Tim an email to offer some more support. He may have attended a workshop in Asheville with User:Kayz911 and User:Frankcjones this summer. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 19:01, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Sent Tim an email to offer support. Instructor rights already provided. Offered to assist with creating a course page. Frankcjones (talk) 16:32, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

need help in Oklahoma

Here's a request I received today from a prof in Oklahoma--I'm eager to help him as a regional ambassador but he'll need more than that, How can we help him? "From: Kacaliendo <kcaliendo@rose.edu> I am a professor of English at Rose State college in Midwest City, Oklahoma. I teach medieval literature courses and also have a background in digital humanities. I am considering replacing the term paper in my Early English Literature course with a Wikipedia project. Students would locate underdeveloped Wikipedia pages (with guidance) and update and enhance them. I recently attended a colloquium hosted by the University of Oklahoma History of Science program on this topic. I have seen the syllabus template provided by Wikipedia and am excited to apply it to my course. I also coordinate the Honors Program on campus and I see applications for this Wikipedia initiative for our Honors students in a number of disciplines. I look forward to consulting with you further on applying the program to my course. Thank you, Kevin Caliendo English Professor Rose State College " Rjensen (talk) 04:15, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

He might find it helpful to read Wikipedia:Assignments for student editors. You can point him to this noticeboard to apply for the course instructor designation. --Tryptofish (talk) 19:59, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for sharing this, Richard! Hopefully you just got the email I sent you and Kevin about some possible ways we can help support him. User:AndrewN is actually in Stillwater (I was thinking OKC), so he will be unable to drive that far to help the class, but hopefully we can find some online support or even help Kevin train a campus faculty member. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 17:53, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Atavel (talk)

Name

Angelica Tavella

Institution

University of California Berkeley

Course title and description

title: Politics of Digital Piracy subjects covered: copyright law, power, surveillance, hacking, p2p technology, art and free culture, code, science, government, and the future. students: all year of undergraduates, occasional graduate students work with Wiki: the course will have projects, one of which is to make a significant contribution to a Wikipedia page of a related topic or create a new one. Also, all assignments and responses will be turned in via the course wiki.

Assignment plan

They will get their assignments, post responses and current events, and get feedback from their instructors on the course wiki.

Number of students

20 + (max. 20 online)

Start and end dates

09/04/2013- 12/04/2013

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Atavel (talk) 04:27, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

You already have the necessary userrights to set up your course page from last semester. Ping me if anything seems to be broken. Kevin Gorman (talk) 05:50, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: arashtitan

arashtitan (talk · contribs)

1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   Wikipedia has pushed the boundaries and became the top source for quick searches without charging a cent. Participating as a volunteer contributor and monitoring the articles is how we pay our tribute to this community which brought a world information together that available for everybody. In addition, research is a priority in the contemporary era; knowing the fundamental of research methods and contributing in writing articles whether scientific or about local matters is very important.

2. Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?

   I live in Iran and I would like to spread the contribution to WP community among students and staffs at Shahid Chamran University and Iran Language Institute.

3. What is your academic and/or professional background?

   I have a BS in Business Information Technology from Staffordshire University and a BA in Language Translation & Interpretation from Shahid Chamran University.

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?

   In addition to business life, I am a researcher (with major interest in communication, management, and critical analysis) and complied various articles and papers about research methods, which means I am familiar with proper referencing and distinguishing plagiarism in different forms.

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Arash Titan 08:32, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

Hi, User:arashtitan. I'm not aware of a Wikipedia Education Program that exists in Iran yet, but you may be interested in getting one started. I recommend you reach out to User:SOsterberg (WMF) to see if she (Sophie) can connect you with any relevant resources for starting an Education Program. Good luck! JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 18:45, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

User:arashtitan, thanks for posting here. Feel free to go out and start talking to professors or anyone in your community about Wikipedia. If you need help learning about Wikipedia, please don't hesitate to ask at the WP:Teahouse, here at WP:ENB, or at my talk page. Biosthmors (talk) 08:31, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: dray

Name

Darla Anderson

Institution

California State University Northridge

Course title and description

Argumentation COMS 225 (course) and COMS 225L (lab)--This course is an introduction to cooperative argumentation, where collaboration and being open minded are considered necessary to critical thinking and reasoning. This course satisfies a CSU (system-wide) general education requirement. While the majority of enrolled students are freshmen and sophomores, about a quarter of the class are juniors and seniors.

The process of examining Wikipedia entries and contributing to Wikipedia fits in well with the student learning outcomes for this course and with the Communication Studies department's mission to "held students develop skills in human communication and civic engagement relative to diverse groups."

Not sure about the rest (what experienced editors or WikiProjects we'll be working on, etc.).

I'm new to Wikipedia, but my motivation to participate grew from a research project last semester arguing that contributing to Wikipedia is a form of feminist activism. After an email exchange with I spoke to Adrianne Wadewitz in April 2013, about the project last semester. She was extremely helpful about both technical and philosophical issues. That conversation and my subsequent research prompted me to attempt this project.

Assignment plan

I'm using "The Syllabus: A 12 week Assignment to write a Wikipedia article" as my basic plan, and will start with the first assignments in two weeks. At this point, the topics are open because I'd like some of that to be generated by the class.

Number of students

26

Start and end dates

The class meets once a week on Fridays for 3 hours beginning Friday, August 30, 2013,and ends Friday, Dec. 13, 2013.

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --dray 21:25, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

I've emailed Darla via her Wikipedia email address to seek more information/offer some support for the term. She still needs the course instructor user right for User:Dra onWP. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 18:52, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

To update the curious, that was granted the same day as shown at Special:UserRights/Dra_onWP. Biosthmors (talk) 10:14, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor rights: Spitzer

Name

Brian Spitzer

Institution

University of Redlands

Course title and description

Biological Evolution (BIOL 353): This course covers modern evolutionary theory at the molecular level, the level of organismal structure and function, and the level of the species and above. It emphasizes the use of reasoning skills and evolutionary concepts to solve problems. This is a writing-intensive course, so it will also cover how to find relevant scientific papers and extract information from them, how to write an article following the norms of scientific discourse, and how to revise one's own writing.

The writing-intensive part of this course will involve writing and revising two short articles or parts of articles for Wikipedia, on minor evolutionary topics that are currently inadequately covered in Wikipedia.

I haven't found a Wikipedia Ambassador and would appreciate guidance on how to do that.

Assignment plan

I'm following the progression of assignments in "The Syllabus: a 12-week assignment to write a Wikipedia article", with one major change. I'd like the students to get two chances to do the entire article-writing process (so that they can immediately practice whatever lessons they learned while writing the first article). For that reason, I'm choosing smaller, more specific topics, and compressing the writing process from eight weeks to five. Then we'll repeat the process of choosing a topic and writing an article for the final five weeks of the course.

I've compiled a list of about fifty potential topics: stubs, topics without any Wikipedia entries, and articles or parts of articles that are very undeveloped.

Number of students

The class is capped at 20; so far, I've got 16.

Start and end dates

The class meets for 80 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, starting on Sept. 4 and ending on Dec. 9.

I've posted on Brian's talk page, but he still needs the course instructor user right (User:Brian spitzer). Thanks! JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 18:58, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

One thing that I want to make sure the instructor is aware of is that, where evolution crosses paths with creationism and intelligent design, it encounters one of the more contentious POV disputes on Wikipedia. Thought should be given to avoid putting students in the middle of such disputes unless they are really prepared to deal with it. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:43, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Good reminder. When I hear back from him (or if he communicates here instead), we can talk him through this. Any OAs interested in helping navigate this should definitely sign on. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 21:42, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Tarcho325 (talk)

Name

Institution

Course title and description

Assignment plan

Number of students

Start and end dates

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Tarcho325 (talk) 01:58, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

Please fill in the requested information. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 03:38, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Let's do away with online ambassadors, campus ambassadors, and regional ambassadors

Let's just have one group: ambassadors. That way we can simplify things and have one list of ambassadors instead of three. And then we can have one approval process. As demonstrated above, we had campus ambassador applications languishing around with no comment. We should consolidate to promote efficiency and participation in one spot, in my opinion! Biosthmors (talk) 17:13, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

There is at least some point, imho, in some of the differentiations. I have thousands of Wikipedia edits and have assisted at least a dozen USEP courses; I think that it is good for me (and people like me) to have some level of 'official' (which isn't really official anyway) credibility greater than someone with fifty Wikipedia edits who is assisting one particular course. I'm not too fond of the titles in general and rarely mention them and the trust I enjoy with academics mostly comes from my reputation within their schools, but I do think RA vs CA serves at least some benefit. Kevin Gorman (talk) 05:45, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I agree that it is good to indicate our experience for whoever is interested in a potential ambassador, but I say we should just let our experience speak for itself. We can put it in an ambassador profile we write for ourselves. To be honest, I don't think the distinctions created by OA/CA/RA are real or meaningful. I was just an "OA" while I was helping a Professor on Skype with a Syllabus/course page. And above, we have #Campus_Ambassador_application:_czar where a RA is MIA. Shouldn't their user rights be removed, at least temporarily, until they re-apply? And I interacted over at User talk:Frankcjones yesterday to welcome a new ambassador to discover that they were already a OA/CA/RA. We might feel these terms have meaning, but I don't think they indicate anything. I think we should just write up our experience in a profile if we think it is valuable for others to know. I recommend we set one clear transparent process about how to be "in" or "out". Biosthmors (talk) 08:20, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I don't think it's a bad idea to have "Wikipedia Ambassadors" with various distinctions within (for internal purposes, since it doesn't always make a lot of sense to instructors and students anyway. Especially since CAs and RAs often work virtually, which convolutes the 'online' designation a bit). I do think RAs tend to do a lot more administrative work with numerous classes instead of just one or a few. Many RAs take on the CA role or the OA role because they're interested in supporting classes in that way, but I definitely see a distinction. What do you guys think is best? We could make a transition to "Wikipedia Ambassadors" and come up with a lot of roles within it for people to participate. This could help increase volunteer support, since somebody may be interested in reviewing student sandboxes and offering suggestions to fit into Wikipedia but has no interest in advising a professor on their assignment. Also, as a side note that I think is relevant here: let's try and remember that these are volunteers. Let's be inclusive and try to help mentor people into improving their support rather than always increasing the barriers for participation. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 18:08, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

One issue that occurs to me is that an instructor might sometimes want a local ambassador who could come and speak to the class in person, and doing away with the distinctions might make it harder to accomplish that (as when the ambassador turns out to be someone far away from the campus). --Tryptofish (talk) 19:20, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I know it sounds crazy, but having order is what we need here. I know we're a pretty anarchic site, but if we don't present order to the outside world, no one is going to understand us. The distinctions are there for a reason, because they help to explain to the world what we do, and if we rolled everything into one right, we risk abuse from people we don't know, and it would be harder to grant rights if everyone could do the granting and there is abuse. On the flip side, if no one can grant, then we have to bug administrators for this stuff, and that defeats the whole point of having rights in the first place. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 20:00, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

It hasn't happened often, and it has pretty much only happened in conversations with administrators, being occasionally able to describe myself as a regional ambassador has lent credibility to my words in a way that 'ambassador' alone wouldn't and gotten me further than I would've otherwise been able to go. So, I do think that there's at least some advantage to keeping the word 'regional'. I normally don't even describe myself as an ambassador when talking with professors or students because the title is meaningless to them (unless they already have some familiarity with the program,) but administrators tend to be annoyingly credential-centric. Kevin Gorman (talk) 20:04, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

But don't we also have to consider the potentially harmful effects of this bureaucratic "order"? For example, it can discourage regional ambassadors (RAs) from helping other professors, as was done here. If I had bothered to 1) check who was the RA 2) wait for the RA to respond 3) then decide how to proceed, the whole process of actually helping someone could have been lost. Biosthmors (talk) 12:47, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Elisabeth Prügl (talk)

Name

Elisabeth Prügl

Institution

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

Course title and description

Gender and International Affairs: This course surveys salient issues of injustice pertaining to gender and other status distinctions on a global scale. It introduces students to theoretical approaches from feminist and post-colonial theory. Combining factual information and theoretical approaches, students will gain an understanding of topics such as the racialized and gender faces of poverty, the intersections of masculinity and war-making, and gender-based violence. Emphasis is placed on exploring how international organizations, governments and civil society organizations have participated in defining and addressing these injustices. It is a graduate-level course. Students will be required to either improve existing entries or create new entries on the topical of gender and international affairs. They also will be required to write a reflective essay on the experience, which will form the basis for their evaluation. This is the first time I am using this assignment and, although my teaching assistants are currently training themselves, I hope to be able to identify a Wikipedia ambassador to make herself or himself available as a resource. (The Graduate Institute is located in Geneva, Switzerland, so this probably will have to happen online).

Assignment plan

Students will be required to either improve existing entries or create new entries on the topical of gender and international affairs. They also will be required to write a reflective essay on the experience, which will form the basis for their evaluation. This is the first time I am using this assignment and, although my teaching assistants are currently training themselves, I hope to be able to identify a Wikipedia ambassador to make herself or himself available as a resource. (The Graduate Institute is located in Geneva, Switzerland, so this probably will have to happen online).

Number of students

50

Start and end dates

September 23 to December 16

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Elisabeth Prügl (talk) 19:47, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

Hello Elisabeth Prügl! Thanks for posting here. I'm in Geneva until December, I anticipate. So perhaps I can help somehow. I can send you an email to your University listed address. To enable Wikipedia editors the capability to send you email to an address, you can do that by (when logged in) clicking the "Preferences" tab at the top and then the "User profile" tab. That's good your graduate assistants are preparing themselves with WP:Training (there are trainings there). Best. Biosthmors (talk) 20:30, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

Sandbox link in education extension

Hey User:Sage Ross (WMF), I was wondering about that again. It went off to the archives, but I was asking again if we can't just use the one link to make things more efficient. I think it would help students find their own sandbox more easily as well. It would also focus professor attention to the each student's personal sandbox. And it would be red/blue... Can we not just make it go to the one sandbox? Thanks. Biosthmors (talk) 21:13, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

When we have dedicated developer support for the extension again, I'll try to make sure this functionality improves by displaying the link only if the student has at least one user subpage (and maybe display a redlink to the default sandbox if there are none). Unfortunately, I can't devote time to hacking on this myself for the time being. (Although I had a bit of success, such as implementing the current sandboxes link feature, I'm a novice and it takes me a *long* time to get anything useful done with MediaWiki code.)--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:58, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

That sound great. Thanks for your efforts! Do you want me to submit a feature request at bugzilla stating this? Or does one already exist? I might as well submit my first one someday. Biosthmors (talk) 15:35, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Feminist "Wikistorming" program

This isn't my specialty but I was told the Education noticeboard is the place for this. This program has recently attracted some media attention. It was brought to my attention after a non-wikipedian I know showed me this FOX News article, which presents the program in a very negative light. There should probably be an effort from the WEP to engage with these people and avoid a bad outcome. Coming into wikipedia with an explicit ideological goal is tricky business, especially for inexperienced editors. Thanks! -- LWG ^talk 01:05, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I appears that this program is being headed up by User:Wadewitz, who is involved here, so I apologize if this was old news. -- LWG ^talk 01:45, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

The Wikipedia component of their courses is indeed headed up by Adrianne Wadewitz. I've been in significant contact with her, and will be helping out. The fox news piece about the classes is possibly the worst "journalism" I've seen come out of fox news within the last few years, and that's really saying something. It completely misrepresents the purpose/aim of the assignment. I'm sure that as with any other group of 15 or 16 classes, we'll have a few classes perform poorly, but Adrianne definitely understand Wikipedia pretty freaking well, and most of the professors also seem to grasp the goal of Wikipedia quite well, and want only to help Wikipedia. Kevin Gorman (talk) 05:38, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Excellent. Glad to know this is in capable hands. -- LWG ^talk 14:41, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Please ask any questions you have! I'll gladly answer any of them! Wadewitz (talk) 16:32, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Are you keeping a list of media mentions about the program anywhere? If so, where could it be found? Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:51, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

This is another reason I think we need a project-wide Wikipedia:VPI#Public_relations_noticeboard.3F (permalink). Maybe I'll be bold and create it soon. Biosthmors (talk) 07:47, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for Course Instructor Rights

I am teaching two sections of Global and Cultural Perspectives at Duquesne University.

I have previously had students edit Wikipedia as an assignment without Instructor rights. http://www.ellencavanaugh.com/2012/10/28/assigning-wikipedia-entries-for-a-college-classroom/

I would like to assign a similar assignment: "Students are to access a contemporary (within the last ten years) theological article on Hinduism from a peer reviewed journal from the ATLA or Proquest Database. The student should summarize the main concepts addressed in the article with either a 2000 word essay with a correctly formatted bibliography or a four (or more) sentence edit to a Wikipedia article with a correctly formatted bibliography. Help is available on request and examples will be addressed in the classroom."

Please let me know what further steps to follow to best serve the Wikipedia community and my students Isumataq 04:04, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for Course Instructor Rights

I am teaching two sections of Global and Cultural Perspectives at Duquesne University.

I have previously had students edit Wikipedia as an assignment without Instructor rights. http://www.ellencavanaugh.com/2012/10/28/assigning-wikipedia-entries-for-a-college-classroom/

I would like to assign a similar assignment: "Students are to access a contemporary (within the last ten years) theological article on Hinduism from a peer reviewed journal from the ATLA or Proquest Database. The student should summarize the main concepts addressed in the article with either a 2000 word essay with a correctly formatted bibliography or a four (or more) sentence edit to a Wikipedia article with a correctly formatted bibliography. Help is available on request and examples will be addressed in the classroom."

Please let me know what further steps to follow to best serve the Wikipedia community and my students Isumataq 04:05, 9 September 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ellencavanaugh (talk • contribs)

Speaking of quality outcomes

Wouldn't it be nice if we only gave out course instructor user rights when we could see that the professor was able to complete the assignment they are assigning their students? Just a thought. Biosthmors (talk) 10:10, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

This is not reasonable. A large percentage and often the majority of people who sign up for anything never even begin to do anything with their registration.

It would be useful to know how many professors attempt a class then fail to follow through, but at this time, the technical barriers and time commitment for the program is high and volunteer support is low, so I can understand how it could deter a lot of people. I am happy with the minimal analytics which has already been done, and would like to see an expansion of outreach before an expansion of further collection of data if resources are scarce and both interests would compete for the same funding. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:16, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

A huge benefit of the extension is not only to help professors keep track of student contributions but to give the chance for volunteers and other interested parties to come a long and offer help after reviewing the student edits. Even if you don't grant somebody the user right, they're going to continue their Wikipedia assignment in the classroom. I think it's better to know what the classes are doing and have somebody as a point of contact rather than see the concept of using WP in the classroom expand but "under the radar", as some professors put it. The "request a course instructor user right" process seems to me to be one that gives us the opportunity to hopefully assist more classes rather than not know they even exist. And, yes, the process encourages more profs to describe their assignment, which gives us the chance to provide feedback. That's great, but I don't think it's the only way to help a Wikipedia assignment that's going to happen anyway. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 18:18, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't volunteers and interested parties have to 1) have the right user right and 2) sign up to follow the course in order to follow it? Biosthmors (talk) 11:21, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

How does the WEF define quality?

I raise the point here on how I define quality. As I was responding to the grant applicant for the WP:WEF, how does the WEF define quality? Biosthmors (talk) 10:48, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Although I think the WEF should have a working definition of quality, I think the community's definition is more important. The existing grading schemes (A/B/C/Start/Stub and FA/GA) aren't bad, but the assessments for most of those levels don't require a subject matter expert and don't ensure there is no mis-use of sources (plagiarism/close paraphrasing/copyvio). It's not expected that a Wikipedian classifying an article as B knows the subject well enough to evaluate it as an SME, or has checked the sources to compare the language.

If we're going to use quality as a metric for results from the EP, I think some sampling has to be done on the evaluated articles to verify that there are no problems with the use of sources. Without that the existing quality scale is not enough: most students don't misuse their sources, but the problem has come up often enough that any discussion of student article quality has to address it. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:27, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I think you might, unfortunately, be right when you say "It's not expected that a Wikipedian classifying an article as B ... has checked the sources". But to me, that doesn't make any sense. If the article doesn't represent what the sources say, then I don't think we can classify anything; because if you don't check the sources, just about anything could be under the hood. I would just expect that a certain level of fact-checking each other should be part of any assignment. Given that that hoax was a good article, and that it only takes one person (perhaps your friend) to pass a GA, I think any Wikipedia quality metric other than featured isn't particularly meaningful on face value. And even then, a FA could degrade in quality and still be falsely advertised. Biosthmors (talk) 13:36, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Certainly, you shouldn't unequivocally trust the assessment for any given article (even an FA, as that process can and does fail at times as well, especially when there isn't enough subject matter expertise among the reviewers). But on average, the assessments correlate pretty well with the actual quality of an article. (This is not to contradict what Mike said. I just mean that a rough metric of quality is much better than none at all, and this existing scheme has the massive advantage of being widely adopted, so that it's possible to do a lot of comparative analysis without a huge amount of effort to generate the data.)--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:47, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

I am happy for an article to get up to a B rating with no one checking the sources. For A, GA, and FA, all of the sources should be checked. The amount of hoax content on Wikipedia is so small that WP:AGF is good for all introductory ratings assuming that someone puts a source at all. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:13, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Tamar Carroll (talk)

Name

Tamar Carroll.

Institution

Rochester Institute of Technology.

Course title and description

History 190: American Women's History. This is an undergraduate introductory survey course on U.S. women's history.

Assignment plan

Students will contribute to article stubs and/or write new biographical articles related to U.S. women's history.

Number of students

31 students

Start and end dates

8/26/2013-12/13/2013

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Tamar Carroll (talk) 19:07, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

The user right has been granted per productive collaboration at User talk:Tamar Carroll. Biosthmors (talk) 20:34, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Medmyco (talk)

Name

James Scott

Institution

University of Toronto

Course title and description

HMB436H - Medical and Veterinary Mycology -- This 4th year undergraduate course will familiarize students with fungi of public health importance, particularly those that cause disease in humans and other animals. The course will focus on the clinical presentation, pathophysiology, and treatment of fungal infections, as well as the ecology, physiology and evolutionary biology of the agents responsible. The course will also address other ways in which fungi influence human and animal health. I frequently use Wikipedia and noticed that many of the important medical fungal species either lack an entry or have only a stub. Instead of the typical written assignment I include in the course, I was thinking to have students prepare Wikipedia entries for some of these fungi.

Assignment plan

In the past, I have asked students to write a fully-referenced "biography" of a fungus in the style of a meaty encyclopedia entry. Based on a quick look at what's currently available on Wiki, I've identified the following entries that either should be created or need to be expanded:

• Absidia corymbifera
• Aphanoascus fulvescens
• Apophysomyces variabilis
• Aspergillus ochraceus
• Aspergillus penicilloides
• Aspergillus terreus
• Aspergillus ustus
• Aspergillus versicolor
• Chrysosporium keratinophilum
• Cladophialophora bantiana
• Exophiala jeanselmei
• Gymnoascus dankaliensis
• Malassezia pachydermatis
• Microascus brevicaulis
• Microsporum audouinii
• Microsporum gallinae
• Microsporum nanum
• Nannizziopsis vriesii
• Onychocola canadensis
• Onychocola kanei
• Onygena equina
• Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

I'll come up with a few more, but this should provide a rough idea.

Number of students

~30 students

Start and end dates

September 11, 2013 - December 1, 2013

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Medmyco (talk) 00:14, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

• Hi MedMyco - normally I leave the granting of userrights to the regional ambassador a geographic falls under... but I saw a mycology class, got all excited, and granted you the right (especially because you have previous wiki experience.) You should now be able to set up a course page - since you've successfully created Wikipedia articles previously, I don't imagine it will be too hard for you. Stop by here again if you need a hand with it. I imagine that @OhanaUnited: will drop by shortly to talk to you since he's the RA active in Toronto, but if you run in to any trouble at any point this semester, feel free to drop me a note as well. I want more fungus on Wikipedia and more students on Wikipedia, so this sounds about perfect :) Kevin Gorman (talk) 00:30, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Hello Medmyco, thank you for your interest in helping Wikipedia improve! I went ahead and added links to the content, so we can see what's red (uncreated but should be created) and blue. I just want to caution you, in case you're not already aware, and as explained at WP:AFSE, that biomedical information has a strict sourcing guideline: WP:MEDRS. Perhaps you're already familiar with User:Sasata's work. You could direct your students to User:Sasata/Reviewed content as guides for what well-developed fungi articles look like, if you haven't already. Sometimes volunteers here get very perturbed when medical information is not presented in accordance with our normal style/sourcing guidelines. Best of luck, and please contact me if you have any questions. Thanks! Biosthmors (talk) 07:44, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

And I do expect @OhanaUnited: will be your first point of contact but feel free to ask if you have any questions about MEDRS, in which case you could also ask at WT:MEDRS. Best. Biosthmors (talk) 07:55, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Hello! I spend less time talking about mushrooms these days but I used to be a member of the local mycology society in Seattle. I could meet you online to give you a tour of Wikipedia and to talk about ways to integrate Wikipedia into classes, if you liked. user:OhanaUnited is at the University of Toronto and he is active on WikiSpecies, so I expect he may have something to say also. Blue Rasberry (talk) 10:58, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Also, User:Casliber is a busy person but Casliber is Wikipedia's resident expert on fungus and a fan of health information as well. Perhaps that person would have something to say about your class and developing mycology articles. Blue Rasberry (talk) 11:14, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

We should ideally personally welcome all of those who take the training feedback seriously

We might do well to welcome the ones who take Wikipedia:Training/For_students/Training_feedback seriously with personalized messages. Aside from being a nice gesture for them giving thoughtful feedback, it might convince a few to stick around. Post here please if you've started (or have already been) doing so. Best. Biosthmors (talk) 08:46, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

FWIW, I think this is an excellent idea, and might even be a good opportunity for a controlled experiment where personalized messages are left for only every other student who leaves substantive feedback (and the others do not get a message).--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:29, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Very cool. Let me know how we might plot the future. Biosthmors (talk) 15:27, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

We should have a list

Of all ambassadors, potentially interested active editors, librarians, professors, etc. by region/username. Biosthmors (talk) 11:17, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Bug/feature request already submitted?

Would that issue be fixed in successive iterations, based on what we've already requested at WP:Bugzilla? Thanks. Biosthmors (talk) 11:06, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the issue is, except for confusion about the namespace. It won't be possible to move pages from the talk namespace into the main education program namespace, as they have different and incompatible data structures (just a plain wiki page versus a structured course page). We definitely do want to improve the extension (by building in a wizard and enabling section editing, etc) so that we don't need the current hack of creating and transcluding talk subpages via the {{course page wizard}}.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:25, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Professors keeping an eye on articles their students have edited, because they assign it as required reading?

I do remember seeing this blog post, which is awesome. Along those lines, is anyone aware of an instructor keeping an eye on articles their students edited, because they assign it as required reading? If professors are actually engaged on Wikipedia making occasional reverts, contributions, and talk page comments, to the same articles their students have developed for course credit for course uses later, then I'd say that's the perfect outcome. If that ever happened, and if it spread, we'd have groups of guaranteed readers, expected quality content, engaged expert parties, etc. Biosthmors (talk) 11:29, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Template for students' talk pages?

Is there a template I can use for new students, to put at the top of their talk pages, to identify them as members of the program? I've been using {{WAP student}}, but it says "Ambassador program", so I assume it is out-of-date. Klortho (talk) 12:45, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Hey Klortho, Template:Course assignment is one. Did you get the class set up with an OA? Thanks for your contributions here. Biosthmors (talk) 12:50, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

{{educational assignment}} is another. I've also suggested simply placing something like <center>{{fontcolor||#CEF2E0|''This article is part of an [[WP:Assignment for student editors|assignment]] from Saint Louis University in Spring 2013 (see the [[Education Program:Saint Louis University/Signal Transduction (SP13)|course page]] for more details)''.}}</center> before. Best. Biosthmors (talk) 12:55, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

One could put is/was to not worry about the time details. Biosthmors (talk) 12:55, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes, got two OAs, thanks, and thanks for the links. Klortho (talk) 13:00, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Great. You're welcome. Biosthmors (talk) 13:02, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Hmmm, those seem to be for article talk pages. I want something for the student's talk pages, like what I put here. Klortho (talk) 13:04, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Yeah I should read what's written hunh? Let me think. Biosthmors (talk) 13:06, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Well it's not what you were asking for, but for one class I asked they copy and paste this as the beginning of their user page: I'm editing Wikipedia as part of [[Education_Program:Saint_Louis_University/Signal_Transduction_(SP13)|this assignment]] and here's a link to [[User:Your user name/sandbox|my sandbox]]. What kind of functionality were you hoping to get with the template? Biosthmors (talk) 13:12, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

I wonder if that chat channel is active. That seems like a very useful/potentially useful template. Biosthmors (talk) 13:15, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

The #wikipedia-en-classroom channel is not active any more; it wasn't reliably peopled enough to give a better experience (on average) than #wikipedia-en-help, so the latter is where we've been pointing students for a while. (For those of you hang out on IRC, there's also #wikipedia-en-ambassadors, which is where I and other WMF education program folks can often be found.)--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:37, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

@Klortho and Biosthmors: There's {{welcome student}}. (Naturally, feel free to make improvements.)--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:19, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Name

Lori Askeland, with Ken Irwin assisting.

Institution

Wittenberg University

Course title and description

English 101: Expository Writing. Required First Year composition course.

Assignment plan

Students are not required to edit any Wikipedia article. They are only required to evaluate an article of their choice, in an area that they feel they have some expertise in. They will use both Wikipedia's standards and their own knowledge to evaluate that article. This will be due in about two weeks, and would not actually require a course page. Most students will stop there.

However, if they are engaged with this project, a few students may choose to edit a Wikipedia article of their choosing as part of the final project in this course. I have completed the course instructor training and will offer guidance. I will only allow students who are very individually driven and engaged to select this option.

Number of students

20

Start and end dates

Sept 2013 until Dec 2013. Alas i am (talk) 16:46, 10 September 2013 (UTC)