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)

I'm not going to recommend giving you the rights, as Campus Ambassadors need to be at the school, not half a world away. Your online rights are good enough, so I don't see why you would need anything more than this at this time. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 02:17, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

@Ktr101: My application says that I'm in Madison, WI and not half a world away, so I'm not sure why you'd say that. czar ♔ 15:56, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

You did say that you wanted to work in India, so I am confused as to why you would need that right to do this. If you do have a class in mind in Wisconsin, I would have no problem giving you the right, although I would like to see a demonstrated need for it first, as that is usually the way rights are given on this site. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 16:57, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

I applied well before the Rishi Valley opportunity (which doesn't appear to be going through the education program or using the course instructor rights anyway), and I didn't read any restrictions in the literature ([1], [2]) on having a course queued up before applying for rights, which would seem to put the cart before the horse given the expectations here. czar ♔ 14:31, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

Not true, I did turn away people who applied for campus ambassador when there's no course from that campus. For example, I received an application from spring in another province where we had not expanded to yet at that point. Even though the applicant is very well qualified, I told him that that I kept his information on file and would accept him when a professor from his campus joins the program. This fall, a prof did sign up from his campus and I hooked them up. He is now serving as the campus ambassador for that particular university. To my main point, we do not want to expand too quickly so that the infrastructure and support cannot all the students (think Dot-com bubble) or idling ambassadors for campuses which we don't have a course. So I'm curious why Biosthmors granted you rights for campus ambassador when you expressed your wills to help with the India program (which is obviously an online ambassador toolset). I think this is why Kevin Rutherford was confused. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 20:36, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

User:OhanaUnited, it was for online and not campus ambassadorship. User:Czar you can set up an ambassador profile now by the way. See there for some details! Biosthmors (talk) 21:42, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks czar ♔ 23:12, 14 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)

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)

Course page support is awesome. Thanks. Biosthmors (talk) 15:30, 12 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)

I sent an email too just in case. I'd love to see an honors program establish a good solid assignment or three. Biosthmors (talk) 15:29, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

I didn't hear a reply yet. Does this look promising Rjensen? Any update? Best. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 09:20, 18 September 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)

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)

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)

I'm not entirely sure why you are quoting a diff of one of my posts here. A new instructor requested a user right, and I granted it to him within sixteen minutes of him requesting it, while both directing him to his regional ambassador and stating that I was available to help if he ran in to any issues. OhanaUnited is in a much better position to coordinate on the ground assistance for the professor than I am - I have no freaking idea what ambassadors are active in Canada, whereas Ohana does. On the ground support is one of the most important things for the success of an educational assignment that involves Wikipedia. Kevin Gorman (talk) 01:54, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

I not faulting you for anything. I'm just remarking that the term "regional" might sometimes make one think "well that's not in my region, so I shouldn't help, because I might step on someone's toes." And yes, I agree with Kevin Rutherford below, we should ignore that impulse and help others. Biosthmors (talk) 09:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Why cite a diff that demonstrates the exact opposite of what you are suggesting is a problem? Kevin Gorman (talk) 18:25, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

This is getting a little too drawn out, but you did say "normally I leave the granting of userrights to the regional ambassador a geographic falls under". Biosthmors (talk) 08:22, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Honestly, I don't see the problem with that, as that is completely normal in the process of Wikipedia. Helping out others is something we all do, and I see nothing wrong with that process. This idea is something you can follow if you encounter this issue in the future, as I think you are proposing a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 00:13, 11 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)

The distinctions strike me as unnecessary as well, considering their intended function. To Kevin G's point, credentialism sways those who determine credibility by shortcuts, but a suitable alternative is using your userpage as somewhat of a WP CV, or at least making those dozen+ USEP classes visible where it could be useful. In fact, I think educators would find a brief background on the ambassador more useful than the title of ambassador itself. To B's point, this is more or less codifying how the ambassador titles are currently used. I'm not familiar with the history of the ed program, but such a system without vetted delegates appears to be more in-keeping with WP's principles. Unless I'm missing something, all EP actions are decentralized to discussions on this board anyway, so even considering the pro-distinction arguments above, I'm not sure how systems of ambassadors and hierarchy add value to the project or even the EP effort. (There are either people on a project or not.) Food for thought. czar ♔ 01:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

You are absolutely correct that credentialism sways those who determine credibility by shortcuts. Unfortunately, most university administrators determine credibility by shortcuts. A university administrator will pay more attention to "Hi, I'm the regional ambassador for Wikipedia's US Education Program for California and Hawaii, could we set up a meeting?" than "Hi, I'm Wikipedia user Kevin Gorman. I've helped a lot of classes use Wikipedia based assignments in the past, as evidenced by my userpage. Could we set up a meeting?". Even if we don't like that administrators like titles more than experience, they do and it is something we are unlikely to change. Kevin Gorman (talk) 01:54, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes, but let's separate their needs from ours. Is there an internal function for WP? We can't stop anyone from calling herself a RA, or a contact "on behalf of WP's EP". (Is it not common practice to invent titles in order to make meetings? One could argue we're doing the same, just formally.) Is the goal of the project to mime a bureaucratic entity for the ease of classroom usage, or more to acclimate the classroom to the WP environment? I think the EP will get more traction from maximizing inclusivity and upkeeping the relationship between the classrooms and the other WP editors. I fear that teachers are still finding the role of WP in their classrooms (in use and editing) and are rarely WP-literate themselves (as evidenced by the types of articles produced and graded through their classes), so I question the function of granting a (inconspicuous) user right towards the goals of the EP. Don't want to get off-topic, but I think the role of ambassador titles ties into the purpose of the greater bureaucratic effort. czar ♔ 03:19, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

One of the major goals of the EP is to liase between Wikipedia and academia. Sometimes, yes, that involves mimicking practices that are typical of academia and are not necessarily typical of Wikipedia. Where such practices improve our ability to liase with academia they should be encouraged. Kevin Gorman (talk) 18:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

I agree with Kevin. We frequently had to make elevator pitch. If our message does not get understood within 30 seconds, we lose the audience. Responding to Czar, being a regional ambassador (RA) is totally different than just being a campus ambassador (CA) or online ambassador (OA). Since Czar is new to the EP, I think we need to explain things a little bit more in detail. RA oversees CA in their region (but rarely oversees OA since OA often is not physically located in that region and OA could be helping in different courses located in multiple regions). As RA, we recruit and interview CAs (through Skype or in-person). We prepare and provide training to CA. We also do check-ins during middle and end of term to with profs and CAs to ensure that everything's going smoothly. On our own personal campus, some RAs like myself also do active campaigning, give presentations, and liaison with faculty members holding senior positions to encourage higher participation. So while we cannot physically stop someone from claiming to be an RA/CA/OA (or on behalf of EP) without holding that title, that kind of action merits some serious discussion on such behaviour. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 04:56, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

That's for sharing your ideas User:Czar. I think what we're also observing is a conversation mostly dominated by a subset of regional ambassadors. Unfortunately, I've only met one other RA in person from an education event, User:Pharos. The other I've met at a conference was User:Bluerasberry, from a general Wiki conference (Wikimania). I had my RA intro/onboarding Skype interview by User:Kayz911. Four of us in this thread are all listed at outreach:Regional Ambassadors/Current. That might be the updated list, I'm not sure, to tell you the truth. It should be on Wikipedia. I was bold and did this at Wikipedia:Education program/Ambassadors/Regional, but I'm not sure if people consider that the list. So, to be frank, I don't think the RAs have even decided where the RA list is. =) I think RAs are the only group of ambassadors that occasionally get group emails from User:JMathewson (WMF) (the one employee of the WP:WEF as far as I'm aware. Am I wrong?) I don't think I've gotten any lately for being listed at Special:OnlineVolunteers or Special:CampusVolunteers. Personally, I don't have any CA's "under me". Nor have I tried to recruit any. I typically try to invest my time working with professors who roll into this place from God knows where. I'd like to recruit some professors myself one day, to develop sustainable, solid, and repeatable classroom assignments, but I mostly focus on what rolls in. Coincidentally, last night I met with a professor who rolled into this noticeboard from where I'm currently living. But how often does it happen that someone willing is located where the need is? I perceive that managing what we have and what is incoming is where the greatest need is. (I really wish fewer things rolled in, to be honest, because I don't feel like we can adequately educate educators as it is. Boy was Wikipedia a mystery to the professor and TA I talked to last night, before I sat and talked with them a couple hours. I still plan to meet again next week.) If we wanted a more representative Wikipedia sample, we might also try to invite others from Wikipedia:Ambassadors/List of ambassadors/Online. The information being discussed here could also be listed at Wikipedia:ASSIGN#Education_Program. The current hierarchy/organizational structure was one I imagined was created by people at the WP:WMF, such as Frank (User:Frank Schulenburg (Wikimedia Foundation). (I really couldn't tell you the history of it, exactly.) Now it has been, through plain inertia, adopted by the WP:WEF (by the way that page should list employees and board members and I would like to join the board as well, because I think I could help steer it in a good direction). And I still have lingering concerns that it is too "expansionary". Now I'm essentially remarking that we might do better by plotting a new course. Welcome. =) Biosthmors (talk) 09:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Noting your edits to the WEF page, I'm pretty perplexed as to why you inserted a {{how}} tag next to an aspirational mission statement. I'm also pretty sure Jami is currently working for the WMF, not the WEF. If she has transitioned to the WEF, it would still be inappropriate to list her WMF account as the account of an employee of the WEF. She would not be using a Wikimedia Foundation staff account to represent a different organization. FWIW: stuff rolls in that is near existing education program participants pretty freaking often. Kevin Gorman (talk) 18:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

It sounded fluffy. Specifics would be better. I don't know about the WMF/WEF particulars, but given that the WMF funded the grant, I don't see a big problem with one letter being different in someone's user name. Biosthmors (talk) 08:51, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

There's a tremendous difference between someone working for the WMF and someone working for the WEF. The difference has both practical and legal implications. Please do not list Jami as an employee of the WEF unless you know for a fact that she is an employee of the WEF, and if that is the case, please do not list her WMF staff account. Kevin Gorman (talk) 20:31, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

And as I've stated above, I don't think a lack of classrooms is harming the program. So I fail to see why we need impressive sounding titles. I think "Hi, I'm an Ambassador for Wikipedia's US Education Program, could we set up a meeting?" is perfectly fine. Biosthmors (talk) 09:41, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

There are benefits of meeting with administrators other than getting increased numbers of classes to participate. Ex: at least one RA has gotten preliminary approval for a funded position to help support USEP classes through a series of meetings that would've been less likely to occur had they not had a vaguely impressive sounding title/description. Kevin Gorman (talk) 18:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

That's a potential direction I see this program going if we are to be successful (better relationships between ambassadors/academia, Wikipedia/academia, students/Wikipedia, with quality outcomes, and more editor retention). Interesting. I'll ask you about this. Biosthmors (talk) 08:21, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

I also don't think "regional ambassadors" should have to state their real name, if they don't want to publicly. (But only to professors and other RAs in emails.) I think that serves as a disincentive for participation. Can we change that? Biosthmors (talk) 11:03, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

If you want to coordinate real world regional outreach to educational institutions, there's no reason you should not state your real name. Universities do not have the same expectations as Wikipedians, and to expect them to conform to our norms on stuff like comfortability with pseudonyms is pretty silly. Kevin Gorman (talk) 18:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Of course you would, in real-life. But that doesn't require wp:outing on Wikipedia. Biosthmors (talk) 08:51, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

One of the purposes of some of the regional ambassador pages (like the one on outreach) is so that academics looking at the page know who to contact for support in their region. An academic is going to feel a lot more comfortable contacting someone with an actual name rather than contacting someone with a pseudonym. If someone has such pressing privacy concerns that they are uncomfortable revealing their name on wiki, I do not believe that they are in a position to be coordinating education program work within a region. Kevin Gorman (talk) 20:31, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

In my experience, I've never had a professor contact me from being listed as an RA. So I don't see this as very convincing reason. And I disagree. Biosthmors (talk) 10:09, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

We would also do well to explain a bit at Wikipedia:Education_program/Ambassadors#Regional_Ambassador, which is an empty section. Biosthmors (talk) 12:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

And Wikipedia:Education_program/Ambassadors/Join#Campus_Ambassadors is an empty section as well. And there's nothing there about RAs. I think there are too many subpages in these spaces. Why do we need Wikipedia:Education_program/Ambassadors and Wikipedia:Education_program/Ambassadors/Join, for example? Biosthmors (talk) 12:28, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

I think pages that haven't been populated with information is because they were supposed to be transitioning from outreach to here. Plus we do have instruction for the Canadian page. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 15:00, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

• The original thought a couple of years ago was that this program would scale up by an order of magnitude. Although the program has grown, it has not grown that much. The distinctions would make more sense if a lot more people participated. I still think the program has a lot of potential but it needs a funded backend with several staff coordinating outreach and developing tools much more quickly to make it easier for ambassadors to do their thing. What has been done with existing resources is fantastic. I still wish that this could be one of the world's most supported educational efforts, and it is definitely not there yet. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:08, 11 September 2013 (UTC)
• Re: RA titles again and OhanaUnited's experience above, I don't see why the title of RA is necessary for fulfilling the same role (especially as those tasks are not universal among RAs, but for those who have the time and so choose), and wouldn't it be a priority for the program to encourage multiple non-RA editors to do the same outreach (with or without the title)? Maybe more than the question, I'm making a rhetorical statement about the point where distinguishing with user roles distracts from what I understand to be the purpose of the ed program. czar ♔ 01:32, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

It should absolutely be a priority to encourage multiple non-RA editors to do the same sort of outreach. I conducted such outreach *long* before I was titled as an RA. I eventually asked for the title because I found it useful to have a foofie sounding title in interactions with administrators. Before I had the RA title, the professors I was working with would frequently fall back to describing me as "someone who has worked for the Wikimedia Foundation," and although I have done contract work for WMF before, I was uncomfortable with using an unrelated past accomplishment to get in the door. If an editor is conducting the sort of outreach where having a fancier title would be useful, I see no problem with just giving it to them, and doubt anyone else would either (as long as they're willing to work collaboratively with others in their area.) Kevin Gorman (talk) 20:31, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

That's good to know that the title was of functional use. I still feel like we have three levels when we don't need three levels... JMathewson (WMF), sorry if you share any of the legal concerns Kevin did above. How often do you receive requests for individuals to be a regional ambassador, by the way? Biosthmors (talk) 10:21, 13 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)

Granted. Biosthmors (talk) 14:46, 11 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)

@Biosthmors: Please do add a bug for it in bugzilla. :) --Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 14:38, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

And when I do maybe I'll make it two! Biosthmors (talk) 15:32, 12 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)

We are keeping an archive on our own site here. Wadewitz (talk) 18:11, 11 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)

A number of mentions are and will be at Wikipedia:Press coverage 2013. Also see Wikipedia:Wikipedia in the media. czar ♔ 03:50, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Czar. Biosthmors (talk) 08:27, 12 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)

And the only advantage I see in the extension to professors is that they can see the last several edits made under accounts of the class. But to really evaluate students individually, wouldn't one still need to click on the contributions history of individual students? Biosthmors (talk) 11:35, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

The fact that Wikipedia:School and university projects page was created long before the creation of this noticeboard and the education program answers your question. It is not mandatory for them to inform us or to sign up for instructor user right. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 03:11, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

I generally grant the course instructor userright to any instructor who asks for it, even if I disagree with their assignment. I will certainly express my disagremeent with their assignment and offer my advice about how to improve it, but being able to track someone's students is INFINITELY preferable to having an under the radar class where we cannot keep track of the damage their students may be doing. Kevin Gorman (talk) 00:16, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

User:OhanaUnited, sorry to waste your time with a rhetorical question. I was just generally dreaming of an idealized wiki-world. Yes, of course, anyone can edit. Kevin Gorman, I understand your logic. But... can all Wikipedia editors actually track classes by clicking the "View Activity" tab from an extension course page that I see here, for example? Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 09:18, 18 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)

I'd love if we had the volunteer hours to check all the sources in GA proposals. I don't think we do. I try to just do a representative random sample. User:Bluerasberry, would you mind posting that idea at WT:GA to see what people say, and pinging me there? I wonder if we could alter the good article criteria perhaps to include a recommended quantity of fact-checking. Thanks. Biosthmors (talk) 10:24, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

@Biosthmors: I posted the idea. Please comment, Biosthmors. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:55, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

A second problem with quality is the fact that after a student has finished their work, there is no automatic regrading. We have done assessments using volunteers, who look at two versions of the article, before and after; if those volunteers are generally agreed to be unbiased that's a good approach but it requires large scale volunteer labour and is not scalable and probably not sustainable even as a partial answer. Those volunteers are not going to check sources either; they only have time to do what most Wikipedians do -- eyeball the article, look at the references, check a few places for readability, and consult their own knowledge of the topic to make a guess at comprehensiveness. Without some unbiased mechanism for grading the articles after the students complete their work there is no way to systematically determine if the students are adding quality material. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:08, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

I admit, it's not systematic, but I was able to recently get a reply from Special:Contributions/Biolprof on the talk page of an article their student worked on, because a comment on the talk page offered what seemed to be a significant criticism. The student actually replied to me as well (I need to respond as well), and edited the article to address an old point. My impression is that it could be a mistake to abandon the "editor retention" goal; that might just be a tacit admission the program you're running isn't doing the job it should be doing, really. (That's my impression of what the WMF did, does anyone have a link?) Long story short, actually having an expert engage at the talk page is much more meaningful suggestion of quality than a B vs. C or start vs. C quality ratings, in my opinion. Biosthmors (talk) 14:49, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

I do not have an opinion about whether editor retention should be a goal or not but I would like it tracked if that were not unreasonable to ask. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:03, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Literacy

If I can propose a useful tangent based on the above dialogue, I think of these classroom assignments more as an exercise to proliferate knowledge of WP's internal processes (WP literacy? Wikiliteracy/WL). It's good if the article is improved, but it's more important that more people have the experience of editing with other editors, adding verifiable and objective info, determining article notability, adhering to the pillars, knowing reliable sources (cross-referencing), becoming a citizen of WP regardless of their contribution. Few people I know IRL can use WP (that is, read it properly) as a tertiary source because they are more familiar with the quasi-truths of unfinished, unsourced pages (and, consequently, add content in this way) than, say, FA articles. Instead of adding little but verifiable information, we get inconsistent tomes: a reflection of (at least U.S.) schooling's prioritization of paper length and grader overwhelm over clarity and concision. In this way, the EP can be an extension of what we should want for all editors, just facilitated through the community of a classroom. Anyway, wanted to propose that when the methodology is unclear (measuring student progress in C-Class articles, finding volunteers to "grade"), sometimes it's more sensible to re-evaluate the original intent (raise WL foremost, or otherwise only "evaluate" based on articles that reach GA/FA-Class—WP community standards that measure quality and literacy). Sort of related to retention, but I think more on target. tl;dr: measure quality in footnoted additions, not article class, measure quality in surveys of WP literacy (which I feel should be the EP's goal), measure quality in the given higher and easier community standards (GA/FA instead of B/C). czar ♔ 14:57, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

@Czar:, I think wiki-literacy should be an important side-effect of running a good classroom assignment. However, from working with User:Biosthmors/Intro Neuro, I learned that many comments and suggestions I made weren't addressed. This made sense, because I don't think the students were trained to engage on the talk pages, nor were they graded for "integrating" into the WP community by responding to talk page comments, etc. So I'm working to get that incorporated into the grading rubric this year. That should be one of the most important goals of a Wikipedia ambassador in my opinion: to establish relationships with instructors so they can help the grading system reflect Wikipedia's aims. More references are certainly in order for many articles here, such as that one. Many instructors seem to gravitate to the "expand a stub" mentality because then they can see a block of text that the student contributed easily. It eases grading. (This "expand a stub" mantra characterizes the instructions in WMF materials, in my opinion.) But maybe that article was a stub for a reason. Maybe there wasn't much to say. Meanwhile, our diffs don't help ease the grading burden for instructors. In that diff, I changed no words or ordering of words in sentences. All I did was shift around a sentence up into another paragraph, then break a paragraph off... Try telling an instructor that that's easy to grade... It's not. But I think that's why it's crucially important to get the topic selection process right. If people pick a bad-quality article, it's harder to mess it up. Biosthmors (talk) 16:29, 13 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:

• Aphanoascus fulvescens
• Apophysomyces variabilis
• Aspergillus ochraceus
• Aspergillus penicilloides
• Aspergillus terreus
• Aspergillus ustus
• Aspergillus versicolor
• Cephalotheca foveolata
• Chrysosporium keratinophilum
• Cladophialophora bantiana
• Cochliobolus lunatus
• Exophiala jeanselmei
• Gymnascella dankaliensis
• Lecythophora hoffmannii
• Malassezia pachydermatis
• Microsporum audouinii
• Microsporum gallinae
• Microsporum nanum
• Myceliophthora thermophila
• Mycocladus corymbifer
• Nannizziopsis vriesii
• Neofusicoccum mangiferae
• Onychocola canadensis
• Onygena equina
• Paecilomyces variotii
• Paracoccidioides brasiliensis
• Phialemonium curvatum
• Phialemonium obovatum
• Scopulariopsis brevicaulis

I'm open to modifying this list depending on suggestions.

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)

We've had a lot of pages like this in the past, but took an effort to minimize the number of pages and number of duplicated pages. I think the space within the extension for OAs and CAs is probably the best place for people to list their experience/interest. Of course, we still need to "advertise" those lists more to profs so they can connect better. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 20:08, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

I'm thinking of one place that's much more comprehensive. Even volunteers who aren't active with the Education program but might want to know what's going around in their region, for example, could use the list. It could serve as a much more effective tool of the community than the OA and CA lists, in my opinion.

Something like Wikipedia:List of editors interested in or affiliated with assignments. There could be listings of people from every region, country, and even a subsection for people who just want to remain anonymous with "no region" specified. Biosthmors (talk) 08:07, 12 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)

The linked article seems to describe a coincidence and nothing more. The WP page mentioned isn't actually very high-quality—it's extremely jargon-laden and not footnoted well (though obviously in the right direction). I'm somewhat surprised that it was assigned as reading, unless perhaps it was meant for cursory understanding. I agree with you on the ideal outcome, but from my experience profs are too busy to add WP-editing to their already overbooked schedules. (But if you asked me, I'd shoot for getting grad students and teaching assistants to fulfill that role.) czar ♔ 19:18, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

I can't think of a definite example of what you're asking for, but plenty of professors assign the same group of articles (or recommend them) to students in another semester. This helps them build upon the work other students have started. Is there something you're hoping to do with any profs who do this, or are you just wondering if it happens? Or do you want to recommend it to professors? I agree with User:Czar that most professors working in the program already spend way more time developing/following/grading this assignment and do not have extra time to edit. JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 20:06, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Ah yes, improving upon a previous semester's work is a great goal as well. Yes, Jami, I'm wondering if anyone knows of it happening, because if it does happen, it's worth another blog post in my mind. I'm personally going to start recommending it as an idea in the topic selection process. I guess I'm not looking for much User:Czar, just the occasional revert or talk page comment would be great. =) I saw an example of that recently. Biosthmors (talk) 08:01, 12 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)

Thanks for your input, both of you. I just ended up updating the banner here. Klortho (talk) 02:10, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for Course Instructor rights: Alas i am

Name

Lori Askeland with User:Kenirwin 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.

It is possible that some students will decide to do some editing as part of their final research project, but I will encourage only students who have a genuine engagement with their topic and a serious commitment to the project. There are several other possibilities for their research project, not just Wikipedia work.

Number of students

20

Start and end dates

Sept 2013 until Dec 2013. Lori Askeland 17:03, 10 September 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alas i am (talk • contribs)

Hello User:Alas i am! That sounds like a wise and measured approach. Will they be posting their observations on article talk pages? That could help any future editor of the article. Are you familiar with article talk pages and how to get there? I honestly don't recommend you use the course software if you're not going to be doing much editing in article space. Just start a WP:Course page in your user space, such as User:Alas i am/Fall 2013. There, you can list all the students, which article talk pages they will post on, and any articles they edit. Click on the red link there to turn it blue, and you can write there whatever instructions you'd like. How does that sound? Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) 13:10, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Granted! Who's this stupid guy talking above me? If you'd like to use the course page software, please feel free! If you'd like to do a simple list, please feel free! But either way, please pick one. =) I'll send you an email to try and make this process easier User:Alas i am. Best! Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 09:25, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Antineutron (talk)

Name

Rodrigo Ochigame

Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Course title and description

• Education_Program_talk:University_of_California,_Berkeley/Politics_of_Digital_Piracy_(Fall_2013)/Timeline
• Course description (UC Berkeley School of Information) [1]

Assignment plan

University students, mostly undergraduate. They will edit articles related to piracy (e.g. court cases).

Number of students

There are 25 students enrolled. Wikipedia is one of the suggested assignments.

Start and end dates

Fall 2013 (September to December)

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Antineutron (talk) 22:13, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

• Hi Antineutron. Are you co-teaching the course with Angellica, or are you a student in the class? If you are only a student in the class, you don't need a course instructor userright. If you are co-teaching the course with Angellica, please have her ping me on Facebook or email just to confirm. Thanks, Kevin Gorman (talk) 00:12, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

Maybe ambassadors could write about a paragraph after each semester

And publish it on Wikipedia, summarizing their goals, what they did, what worked, what didn't, and what they hope to try in the next semester. Or they could say they might not continue to volunteer and why. Or they would like to do something but are trying to figure out how and would like help. There could be subpages that are then transcluded into one page. Does anyone think this voluntary action might help things along? Biosthmors (talk) 10:10, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Not sure. The education program now is different than it was a year ago and will be different a year from now. The information that an ambassador might share might not have lasting relevance. Something ought to be documented but I am not sure what. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:11, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

One of the ideas the initial WEF working group aspired to was to establish a curated library of “best practices” resources widely available to educators, students and Wikipedians. Dumping one experience at a time (good or bad) randomly, without structure, into the bowels of Wikipedia almost ensures no one (especially those outside the day-to-day Wikipedia community) will ever benefit from them. I still hope the WEF intends to pursue a “curated resources library” strategy to will make all the learnings from using Wikipedia in the classroom widely available outside the confines and limitations of the Wikipedia wiki. --Mike Cline (talk) 17:23, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Hey Mike Cline! I thought it was M. Christie posting. I was hoping WP:Student assignments would be a one-stop-shop kind of place. I think we should have a suite of nice course pages that we present there. Maybe you have some ideas for how it could improve? Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) please notify me (i.e. {{U}}) when you sign your reply, thx 08:48, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

@Biosthmors – My personal view is that the Wikipedia Wiki is a very poor place (functionally, format wise, and stability) to build a curated library of peer reviewed “best practices” as it relates to using Wikipedia in the classroom. Although WP:Student assignments is an interesting read, it does not even come close to providing the kind of curated resources that the average university professor could use to plan and execute a Wikipedia assignment in their classroom. Plus, it is doubtful the average professor interested in using Wikipedia would ever stumble across it on their own. When I was part of the WEF project I wrote this about “curated resources”.

One of the primary functions of the Wiki Education Foundation is to make available digitally curated resources to a wide audience (students, instructors, professors, administrators, librarians, etc.) in institutions of higher education and volunteers from Wikimedia communities in the U.S. and Canada that encourage and support the effective use of English Wikipedia in support of classroom learning objectives and information fluency.

Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation establishes, maintains and adds value to repositories of digital data for present and future use. This is often accomplished by archivists, librarians, scientists, historians, and scholars. Enterprises are starting to utilize digital curation to improve the quality of information and data within their operational and strategic processes. Successful digital curation will mitigate digital obsolescence, keeping the information accessible to users indefinitely. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_curation)

Curated resources may include but are not limited to: case studies, general and discipline specific curriculum and lesson plans, Wikipedia training, tutorials and best practices, scholarly studies, etc.

Curated resources may be in the form of presentations, PDF and Word documents, videos, images, etc.

Curated resources must be stored and organized in ways that allow easy access and use by all levels of users in the Wikipedia and Academic communities.

Another primary function of the Wiki Education Foundation is to provide a collaboration platform where geographically separated staff, program volunteers, Wikipedians and participating academics, librarians and students can connect and collaborative on specific Wikipedia in education initiatives, events, classes and scholarly activity.

I doubt seriously that the Wikipedia Wiki could ever aspire to make the above types of resources widely available to educators. I hope the new WEF will pursue a more universally accessible, comprehensive and functional off-wiki approach to building and making such a library of best practices available. --Mike Cline (talk) 14:06, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

"I doubt seriously that the Wikipedia Wiki could ever aspire to make the above types of resources widely available to educators." Mike, can you explain why you think this? I agree with you that a curated library of the sort you indicate would be a very good idea. But I'm not entirely sure why you think that "functionally, format wise, and stability," Wikipedia is not the place for it. I agree that the Wikipedia pages on the WEF are a mess, but that mess is only made worse by the decision go to off-wiki and essentially neglect Wikipedia. In any case, on-wiki or off what's important is that effort is made to (precisely) curate such a list of resources. I don't see any such effort invested off wiki. On wiki at least the WEF could draw upon the good will and enthusiasm of people who are actually interested and engaged in the project. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 17:18, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

@Jbmurray, in my view, the structure and norms of the Wikipedia Wiki are fine for an online, collaboratively built encyclopedia, but are ill-suited for building and maintaining a curated library of best practices resources (especially if you want systematic peer/crowd sourced review of those resources to identify the best and most widely used) focused on the productive use of Wikipedia in achieving classroom learning objectives. Most Wikipedians think the Education Program is all about “Getting Students to Edit Wikipedia”. In my view, that’s 180° from what the program is really all about—using Wikipedia to help instructors in higher education courses to achieve learning objectives—whatever they might be. Editing Wikipedia may be a by-product of achieving learning objectives that indeed improves Wikipedia, but it is not the end all-be all of the Education Program. We use Wikipedia in freshman writing and University Studies classes at MSU in ways that don’t involve any editing. Yet, there’s no way (at present) to share those lesson plans and learning objectives with the global educator community on the Wikipedia Wiki and in turn get the feedback from the educator community on the efficacy of any given lesson plan.

I personally have aspirations as to what a “curated library of best practice resources” might look like, but in no way do I believe I have the perfect solution. On the other hand, I am confident that the Wikipedia Wiki is ill-suited, and would be extremely ineffective in making a “curated library of best practices” widely available to educators across the US and Canada.

As a matter of example, I submit that Educause is a style of curated resources and associated collaboration that would suit the WEF well. Wikipedia should focus on being the best online encyclopedia it can possibly be. The WEF should focus on finding ways to promote the most effective methods of using Wikipedia in classrooms of higher education to achieve learning objectives in undergraduate and graduate classrooms. Should Wikipedia benefit from those methods, all the better. --Mike Cline (talk) 02:04, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Mike, thanks for sharing that perspective. I am of the opinion that you could document some great ideas on Wikipedia. Could you please share your knowledge at WP:Achieving learning objectives with Wikipedia? I think it would be a great place for you to share (it could be a Wikipedia essay, if you'd like), then everyone will be able to see your ideas as well. Please share your knowledge and thoughts about things the WEF could focus on there! Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 07:50, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Course page complications

Last night I accidentally created two courses for Education Program:Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, when I only intended to do one. And should the software not be used in Safari? Things like "Graduate" and "Undergraduate" were popping up as choices for things such as "Term". I thought the performance was so poor, that I'm considering not even recommending its use. =( To me, it defeats the point of a wiki (or teaching people how to edit Wikipedia) because it is so clunky and unlike Wikipedia. I don't want the first thing I show professors to be something that has nothing to do with how Wikipedia is edited... (And doesn't work well!) it's hard enough teaching "user space", "user talk space", "article space", "article talk space", "Wikipedia space", vs. "Wikipedia talk space", etc. One also can't see in user contributions when the course page is created, only its sub talk pages? (As demonstrated with contributions 2, 3 and 4 (me) with Special:Contributions/Elisabeth_Prügl.) And the software also asks students their gender (male and female are the only choices, aside from saying I'd rather not say), which I found rather creepy. At least it provided for a good laugh, given that it's a gender course, as an explicit WMF affirmation of gender binarism. Intersexuality or pansexuality anyone? Can we ditch that are you male or female thing? Biosthmors (talk) 12:49, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T47506

The wrong options popping up in the pulldowns is not specific to Safari; I think it's a bug in the javascript for those pulldowns. (If anyone good with javascript wants to take a look, I suspect the fix is relatively simple; the pulldown entries for the last call to the pulldown script are basically overwriting the others.) Creation and edits to course pages show up as log entries instead of conventional contribs (for example, Special:Log/Elisabeth_Prügl). Fixing that is definitely something we want to do.

As to gender, MediaWiki uses it (although only in a few cases in English, but much more in some languages) so that it can display messages with preferred pronouns and such. (This is a setting in Special:Preferences, which the education program extension gives students the opportunity to set during the enrollment process.) I'm not sure what discussions have happened in the past about making MediaWiki more accommodating for users who don't identify as male or female, but I'll ask around. The purpose in prompting students to set that preference is that it gives us a more complete picture of the gender breakdown of students for research purposes; it's not crucial, but it is useful, so I'm interested to see other perspectives (from students, educators, and other editors) about whether it's objectionable.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:30, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Sage Ross (WMF), right now there are two course pages listed under Education Program:Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. Sorry I haven't gotten around to filing bugs yet. Maybe you could file this one? It seems that there are two courses listed for the institution, but they have the same title. I'd like to delete one, but I have no way of knowing if by deleting one I'll delete the other. Best. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 07:40, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T45782

Biosthmors, thanks. We thought this was fixed, but clearly it is not so I've reopened the relevant bug.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:47, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: Mattvest

Mattvest (talk · contribs)

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

   To support faculty and students at Davidson College.

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

   North Carolina, Davidson College.

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

   Librarian

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

   I have created one wikipedia page.

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

   N/A

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Mattvest (talk) 18:29, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

• Mattvest, I am a regional ambassador, so I can get you started! We interview people on Skype. I'll either email you or write a note for you on your talk page, unless someone beats me to this process. Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) 11:50, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Should we change the list of who gets pinged?

It seems like some of the RAs are inactive, such as one who didn't respond to a potential CA for weeks. Biosthmors (talk) 08:56, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

We're not inactive. School has just started for many of us, so we are busy working on other things first before we respond to on-Wiki requests. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 19:56, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Every listed RA is active? Biosthmors (talk) 20:01, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes. Just because we don't answer, doesn't mean that we don't see it. We all have real lives outside of Wikipedia as well, so we're not all going to respond when we see notifications. If you want to, then by all means do it, but that does not mean that there are inactive RA's out there. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 02:06, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Actually not, I just got an email confirmation that Dan left the program in July (so FYI, User:Czar). Biosthmors (talk) 16:41, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Okay, but that does not mean that everyone is inactive. We also watch the pages of other RA's, but I was not watching that page, so I did not know that there was a request that was inactive for that long. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 07:09, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

See? I'm not always wrong. ;-) (I jest.) I've never intended to suggest everyone was inactive. I know that would be false. Thanks for your reply Kevin. Biosthmors (talk) 08:32, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

So we at least need to remove Dan. I wonder if there are any others... Biosthmors (talk) 08:32, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

Let's have Jami make that call, as that is not our job to decide who no longer is going to be on that page. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 06:04, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

? I'm confused. Are you cautioning against any Wikipedia volunteer from removing an inactive RA from the list? Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 07:35, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Campus Ambassador application: Siddharth Rao

sidnext2none (talk · contribs)

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

   In one sentence, I would say "Wikipedia is an awesome resource which is helping me to know many many stuffs in the internet for FREE and also, I consider Wikipedia to be my first reference source when I am suing internet. Since I am a free software enthusiast and volunteer, I rely upon Wikipedia which is again a free encyclopedia to gather information about anything and everything. Thus I want myself and all the people around to help Wikipedia grow better and awesome, especially the students like me.

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

   I am based in Finland as of now doing my master's as Part of Erasmus Munudus NordSecMob(Security and Mobile) at Aalto University, Finland and also in University of Tartu, Estonia. I am planning to work for both and if possible in India for my university(College) where I did my bachelor's - BMS Institute of Technology- Visvesvaraya Technological University.

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

   I have a bachelor's in "Computer Science and Engineering(B.E)" and currently pursuing my master's in "Security and Mobile Computing" with a plan to pursue doctoral studies and be in the research field. Before starting my master's I worked for Fidelity Management and Research, India for around 2 years.

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

   Though I have not created much Wikipedia pages myself, I am eager to contribute to it. I try to quote Wikipedia articles where and when possible and hence I have been promoting Wikipedia in an indirect way.

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

   I would like to organize as many as "Wikipedia Hackathons" for my fellow student friends at least to edit as many as data which might be more accurate, add or append the missing information in Wikipedia articles. I would like to involve my friends to come up with Wikipedia articles about their "Favorite Professors"( As many of the researchers and Professors in my university are very much deserve a Wikipedia entry) and about their "Favorite Exchange Study Program".

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Sidnext2none (talk) 17:44, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

Hi Sid. I would highly encourage you to organize events of the nature you describe. The campus ambassador right is only necessary if you intend to work directly with classes that are contributing to Wikipedia as part of a classroom assignment; it's not necessary for most forms of outreach. You might find some useful resources about how to conduct things like editathons at outreach.wikimedia.org, and you might also benefit from coordinating with Wikimedia's Finnish chapter. Kevin Gorman (talk) 00:09, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

@Sidnext2none:, yes please help Wikipedia! And may I suggest an alternative? You can always apply to be an Online Ambassador once you've made some edits! You might find WP:VPT and mw:How to become a MediaWiki hacker interesting as well. Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) 09:43, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

And @Sidnext2none:, for more links on hackathons, I did notice some at mw:User:Sharihareswara (WMF). Best. Biosthmors (talk) 10:10, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Shrnirish (talk)

Name

Sharon Irish

Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Course title and description

Dialogues on Feminism and Technology is a graduate seminar and is part of FemTechNet's Distributed Open Collaborative Course: we are covering eleven themes and students are required to engage with Wikipedia in some way, whether reviewing articles, working on stubs, or participating in a discussion. The students will specify what they intend to do by October 7, 2013. We are working with Adrianne Wadewitz and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Feminism/Students

Assignment plan

The key goal is to have students experience basic interaction with Wikipedia community by identifying a small task. We will know more on October 7.

Number of students

18

Start and end dates

August 26 to December 16, 2013

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Shrnirish (talk) 23:15, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

Where are the default course pages that are automatically uploaded into the extension?

Thanks. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) when u sign ur reply, thx 10:13, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

I've tried to document all the pages that are relevant to the extension at Wikipedia:Course pages. The default course pages are part of the {{course page wizard}}; see Template:Course_page_wizard#Components. In particular, the default timeline is here: Template:Course page 2/Timeline/preload.

The default content loaded by the extension itself is just the course page wizard itself, from the this page: Mediawiki:Course description.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 13:57, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Thank you Sage. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) when u sign ur reply, thx 14:04, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: NewmanComm (talk)

Name

<Dr. Suzanne V. L. Berg>

Institution

<Newman University>

Course title and description

<Group Communication!-COMM 1033 will provide a practical study of communication principles and interactions which occur in small group and interview settings. Focus will be on theory, analysis, application and group communication skill development. The use of Wikipedia is a way to build group/organizational concepts into the course.>

Assignment plan

<The students will develop the pages associated with Newman University and the Adorers of the Blood of Christ.>

Number of students

<Four>

Start and end dates

<August 26-December 6, 2013>

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --NewmanComm (talk) 16:08, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

Request for course instructor right: Vaparedes (talk)

Name

Veronica Paredes and @AnneMBalsamo: Anne Balsamo

Institution

The New School

Course title and description

LCST 3705: Dialogues on Feminism and Technology & NMDS 5292: Practicum in Experimental Networked Learning Design -- These two courses are part of the FemTechNet 2013 DOCC (Distributed Open Collaborative Course) effort. The first is an advanced undergraduate course in the Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts. There are 18 students registered in this course. Course topics address a range of issues and themes drawn from the history of the feminist engagement with science and technology and from contemporary feminist work in technology and media.

The other course (NMDS 5292) is a small graduate seminar composed of only four students, based in the School of Media Studies at The New School for Public Engagement. Unlike the undergraduate class, the four graduate students enrolled in this class will explore issues of networked infrastructures for learning, learner-centered pedagogies, collaborative knowledge creation, and transformational practices of design and media making. They will take active roles in shaping their own research agendas in FemTechNet's research and projects.

A key assignment for the undergraduate course is engagement with Wikipedia. Throughout the first half of the semester, students will become familiar with the policies, protocols and community of Wikipedia. In this assignment, they will ultimately contribute to, or begin, articles related to the themes of feminism, science and technology.

In coordination with the FemTechNet community, we will be working with Adrianne Wadewitz @Wadewitz: and the WikiProject Feminism.

Assignment plan

The midterm project requires that all students contribute to Wikipedia -- though we are hoping a number of students will continue their work throughout the semester, carrying into their final projects. The midterm assignment will require students thoroughly document their process. In the following weeks they will begin choosing topics, creating reference lists and writing short summaries for these topics. We are using assignment and workshop suggestions from The Sample Syllabus guide and the Instructor Basics brochure to reach these milestones. This week we have covered Wikipedia's key policies in class and have assigned the online training for students. We are hoping to have all students' user accounts listed by the end of the week, once we have permission to set up the course page.

Number of students

22

Start and end dates

The date range for the class began August 26, 2013 and ends December 11, 2013.

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Vaparedes (talk) 03:47, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.

My apologies

My apologies to everyone (in particular Kevin Gorman, Kevin Rutherford, and OhanaUnited) if I've struck too negative a tone (and irritated you) at times on this noticeboard. I just want things to improve so sometimes that involves me making observations that are critical in the hopes we can create something better. I was reminded recently that this is largely a volunteer endeavor, so that helped me put things in perspective. Thanks for all your contributions. Best. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 10:24, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

• Thanks for staying with the project. Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:40, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Request for course instructor right: Ayaita (talk)

Name

Ltholnes (Instructor) and Ayaita (Course coordinator)

Institution

Technological University of Panama

Course title and description

Course title: Design and analysis of computer networks. The course is given to undergraduate Systems Engineering students. The instructor will be working with an experienced editor who will help with the assignment plan and student training.

Assignment plan

Students will write, improve and/or translate (from English to Spanish) existing articles related to computer networks.

Number of students

26

Start and end dates

The assignment will run from September 23rd to November 15th, 2013

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Ayaita (talk) 21:17, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Return to the Course pages module.