Wikipedia:Education noticeboard
Purpose of this page | Using this page | ||||||||
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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:
There are other pages more appropriate for dealing with certain specific issues:
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Request for course instructor right: Dbzam (talk) (course page draft)
- Name
Deborah Zamble
- Institution
University of Toronto
- Course title and description
CHM437S: Bioinorganic chemistry
CHM437S is a lecture-based course that will explore the fundamental principles of bioinorganic chemistry and examine how they are applied in specific examples from our world. We will touch on many of the inorganic elements that are used in biology, but our focus is on the transition metals. Topics covered include the occurrence, distribution, and roles of the essential inorganic elements in nature; the structure and function of naturally occurring ligands; physical methods used to study bioinorganic biomolecules; uptake, regulation, and insertion into metalloproteins; and the discussion of examples including both redox and non-redox metalloenzymes, electron transfer proteins and energy-coupled processes, metallodrugs, etc.
This is a senior undergraduate course, with several junior graduate students enrolled. The enrolment is typically 15-20 students.
In the past, students have picked a topic in bioinorganic chemistry and prepared a presentation for the class about the topic. This year, I am going to add on a wikipedia component, where they translate the general information that they have learned into a wikipedia page.
- Number of students
15-20
- Start and end dates
The class starts January 5, 2015 and ends May 1, 2015.
- Campus ambassador
I am looking for a campus ambassador for support.
@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Dbzam (talk) 17:14, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
- Dbzam I've added the permission for you, please post here if you need any specific help. — xaosflux Talk 03:47, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Thank you Xaosflux.Dbzam (talk) 20:55, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
CaroleHenson Ambassador Request
CaroleHenson
CaroleHenson (talk · contribs)
- Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
- I would like to be an online ambassador for classes like Template:Course link, because this is an area that I've focused on Wikipedia. I have written or expanded articles about Women artistsand other Visual arts articles, like those on Vincent van Gogh and stained glass artists. I like to assist people in making better articles.
- In three sentences or less, summarize your involvement with Wikimedia projects.
- Partially answered above, I have written and edited articles about arts and artists. I have also written and edited articles about Southwestern US prehistory and history. Activities that don't show up on my list of articles, include patrolling for new pages using AWB and New pages feed, being an Adopter in the Adopt-a-user program, and reviewing nominated Good articles.
- Please indicate a few articles to which you have made significant content contributions. (e.g. DYK, GA, FA, major revisions/expansions/copyedits).
- How have you been involved with welcoming and helping new users on Wikipedia?
- I have welcomed many dozens of new users, generally when I see users with red links for their talk page on my watchlist - or new users that appear on the NewPagesFeed or on the AWB new articles list.
- What do you see as the most important ways we could welcome newcomers or help new users become active contributors?
- To post a welcome message and teahouse invite, determine what projects that individuals might be most interested in, and encourage them in their article writing/editing. If I see a person that is interested in articles about women artists, I invite them to that project.
- Have you had major conflicts with other editors? Blocks or bans? Involvement in arbitration? Feel free to offer context, if necessary.
- I have never had blocks or bans. There have been conflicts that have popped up occasionally, but nothing that I can think of in a year or in years. I am an A-type person, and sometimes have needed to realize that I've needed to check my emotions when responding... for instance, if I realize that I am feeling emotions then I need to take a break and come back when my responses come from a clear-headed approach. Often I find that my response is very different than I would have initially posted - and am much likely to extend an olive branch in an encouraging tone. I seem to get most upset when people go directly into personal attacks of me or someone else, I love civility and am at my best when I gently encourage / model it.
- How often do you edit Wikipedia and check in on ongoing discussions? Will you be available regularly for at least two hours per week, in your role as a mentor?
- Yes, I write as much or more than I would be writing for a full-time job and can absolutely commit to two hours per week or more.
- How would you make sure your students were not violating copyright laws?
- By checking their prose to cited source, reading the article to see if tone changes throughout the article, and reading for content that is non-encyclopedic tone that might come from a blog, personal site, or company site. One tool I use is the duplicate checker, which is pretty effective for checking web pages.
- If one of your students had an issue with copyright violation how would you resolve it?
Show an example of the text in the article - compared to the text from the source - and provide the links, such as close paraphrasing and Copyvio. Then, offer to assist, if needed, perhaps rewording one sentence as an example.... Reworded to clarify: Identify an example of a copyright violation by comparing the text from the article to the source, because sometimes it's not clear how closely paraphrased or copied content is until it's seen side-by-side. Provide helpful links, such as close paraphrasing and Copyvio. Then, offer to assist, if needed, perhaps rewording one sentence as an example.
- In your _own_ words describe what copyright violation is.
- A copyright violation can be a direct copy of material that is not in the public domain - or minimal paraphrasing so that the author's style, word use, and word order are easily discerned.
- What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
- I am a detail-oriented person who loves to write, edit, and coach.
CaroleHenson (talk) 20:08, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
Endorsements
(Two endorsements are needed for online ambassador approval.) - I will save what I've written to check in with a couple of people before I post their names.
- Endorse: The first of answer #9 is little bit unclear to me, but other questions have been answered wonderfully. This editor is also doing fine work herea. --Tito☸Dutta 21:32, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
- Endorse 100%. I've been working with this author on GA reviews (and reviewed one of their articles for GA). They're patient, understanding and diligent. Protonk (talk) 23:32, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
- Thanks, @Protonk and Titodutta:, that was very nice! I reworded item #9 to be a little clearer.--CaroleHenson (talk) 00:22, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
- Endorse: Not strictly needed but I was asked earlier and have only just seen it. CaroleHenson is an excellent contributor and has exactly the type of temperament that would make her an excellent ambassador. I was quite heavily involved with guiding her when she started out, just as all newbies need some guidance, but nowadays I merely find myself patting her on the back for yet another good job done. She knows her stuff and she knows how to use it. - Sitush (talk) 13:49, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
Next steps
- I'm not sure of the timing of the next steps - approve/not approve, training, etc. What happens next? Thanks!--CaroleHenson (talk) 19:04, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
- Normally one of these people will come along and action this. — xaosflux Talk 01:06, 18 October 2014 (UTC)
- Ok, thanks!--CaroleHenson (talk) 01:40, 18 October 2014 (UTC)
- Pinging the usual bunch: @OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: — xaosflux Talk 23:42, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Granted online ambassador. OhanaUnitedTalk page 23:53, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Pinging the usual bunch: @OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: — xaosflux Talk 23:42, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Ok, thanks!--CaroleHenson (talk) 01:40, 18 October 2014 (UTC)
Student Organizations at College
Hey all - while the education program is targeted towards class editing, I was wondering if anyone is aware of any college student organizations oriented around Wikipedia editing (i.e. student-run organizations that promote collaboration and/or training new editors)? Doesn't necessarily have to be associated with the Wikipedia Education Program. The reason I ask is that I'm interested in possibly finding editors (and to-be editors) at my campus to collaborate with, and possibly create a student organization if there happens to be interest (I'd be surprised if I can pull this off, but at a school with 60,000 students I'm hopeful). Would be great to see if anything similar has been done before at other schools. Thanks! ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 05:24, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
- Mount Sinai College of Medicine is doing this. User:Bluerasberry is assisting. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 08:22, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- @SuperHamster: See outreachwiki:Wikipedian Student Organizations; there had been some efforts to organize a few years ago, but they've mostly died out now. I do still think this idea has a lot of promise, and it's something I'd like to see Wiki Ed pursue as a strategy in the future (but, as I said below, we're more focused on capacity-building right now). That being said, I'd love to hear how you go about it and what you discover if you do decide to pursue it! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:08, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- @Jmh649: @LiAnna (Wiki Ed): Nice, thanks for the info! It's nice to see a few other efforts like this. This is all preliminary thinking, but assuming I can get something started, would it be appropriate to create a clubhouse page, seeing that the project is inactive? I might prefer to create a page on Wikipedia (such was done for Wikipedia:Cambridge University Wikipedia Society) and then create a redirect from the Clubhouse page. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 17:58, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- SuperHamster There is not really a good choice to make here, as all options have problems. I opted for a regular course page for the class with which I am doing this. If you like, email me and we can talk by voice about the pros and cons of the options and why one might choose one over the other. I like the club model also. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:03, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Will do, thanks Lane. Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 18:18, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- SuperHamster There is not really a good choice to make here, as all options have problems. I opted for a regular course page for the class with which I am doing this. If you like, email me and we can talk by voice about the pros and cons of the options and why one might choose one over the other. I like the club model also. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:03, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- @Jmh649: @LiAnna (Wiki Ed): Nice, thanks for the info! It's nice to see a few other efforts like this. This is all preliminary thinking, but assuming I can get something started, would it be appropriate to create a clubhouse page, seeing that the project is inactive? I might prefer to create a page on Wikipedia (such was done for Wikipedia:Cambridge University Wikipedia Society) and then create a redirect from the Clubhouse page. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 17:58, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
Yet another apparent stealth class
A professor at University of Michigan appears to have sent his students to Wikipedia. Hopefully, he'll be on-board soon.
On a related note, at what point does this project begin blanketing colleges with the message that we have an outreach program and ought to be contacted? I'm getting ready to spam the University of California system as soon as I get my act together. It might be time to look at getting articles into campus papers or college websites for the sake of awareness. Chris Troutman (talk) 00:24, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- I'd suggest The Chronicle of Higher Education. I submitted one there about five years ago and they were interested but in the end decided not to run it. Anything submitted directly from Wiki Ed might get picked up. But it will draw criticism too. My sense is that much of the academic community is still not impressed with this place. fwiw. Victoria (tk) 00:31, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Blasting the UC system as a whole is harder than you would expect - UCOP won't send individual faculty blasts to all campuses about stuff like this. Even Berkeley, which has sent full faculty blasts about the USEP, has had a number of off the radar classes. Blasting US colleges as a whole would need a couple fulltime staff at least dedicated to handlingjust that. (Sorry for my recent absence; very, very significant health issues.) Best, Kevin Gorman (talk) 02:00, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Best route is going to be contacting a campus's "educational innovations" or dept of teaching & learning for dissemination. Their equivalent of a faculty senate might be another avenue. Otherwise, realistically, profs don't read their email. Such a campaign would be a success if it even manages to get as far as dept heads for a brief faculty meeting mention. czar ♔ 02:58, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Talk to the universities' educational technologists. I've said this before, but this is somewhere the WEF could indeed be useful; its focus to date has been almost entirely on faculty (and to some extent on librarians), but the people on campus who are paid to support and proselytise for novel uses of technology in classes are the technologists. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 04:22, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Speaking for Wiki Ed here: While we are absolutely happy to have "stealth" classes who are already using Wikipedia sent our way, we also don't want to do a massive blast to all universities announcing our presence quite yet. Here's why: I don't think we have the capacity to support the number of classes that would result from such outreach. At the end of the day, Wiki Ed's goal is to improve Wikipedia's content. Our current support systems couldn't handle a massive influx of new student editors that would come from a nationwide blast announcing Wiki Ed's programs, and the likely outcome would be that many of the students would not be adding content that improved Wikipedia. Our current goal is to improve those support systems so that in the future, we could support more classes.
- One example of how we're improving support systems is the work Sage has been doing with the Assignment Design Wizard. We know from working with more than 500 classes that good assignment design is key to providing student editors with a great learning experience and having their content improve Wikipedia. Currently, Jami, Helaine, or one of our volunteers spends a significant amount of time explaining assignment design to every new instructor who joins our program, ensuring the instructor isn't asking students to, say, make an argument in their Wikipedia articles. This one-on-one discussion with each new instructor is a bottleneck to increasing the number of classes, and so we're creating a technical solution to this bottleneck. Once we've improved these support systems to the extent that we believe we can support significantly larger numbers of classes while still maintaining the quality of work student editors are adding to Wikipedia, we'll definitely be open to doing nationwide (US and Canada) outreach.
- As Czar and Jbmurray mentioned teaching and learning centers and educational technologists, I will say that these are absolutely our targets for the current growth we're doing. Jami's role as Educational Partnerships Manager is to establish partnerships with universities' teaching support staff (what this role is called and where it is housed is different across different universities, hence the "teaching and learning center staff"/"librarians"/"educational technologists" references) to scale the program at specific universities, as well as through academic association partnerships. Training staff on campus who support instructors with incorporating technology into their teaching is something we've been doing since 2010 on a small scale, and one of Jami's current goals is working with the university staff we already have as program participants to determine what we can do to grow the program at their universities.
- I'm happy to answer any questions about our strategy if anyone has them. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:02, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- It was brought to my attention that there's a stealth class at UC Irvine and since that's in SoCal it's my primary concern. I only want faculty to know this program exists and that they should use it. I doubt seriously that my outreach would result in the flood WEF readily admits it can't handle. By the way, the lack of can-do attitude throughout Wikipedia is troubling to me. Chris Troutman (talk) 23:49, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
Request for course instructor right: Taweetham (talk) (course page draft)
- Name
Taweetham Limpanuparb
- Institution
Mahidol Univeristy
- Course title and description
ICCH 444 Environmental Chemistry
Introduction to chemical aspects of problems and solution in the environment; field trips and practical exercises included.
This is a senior undergraduate course, with several junior graduate students enrolled.
I have learnt about this Education program at Wikimania 2014 in London. Anna Koval (@AKoval (WMF) and Msannakoval:) came to Thailand, discussed further details of the program with me at Mahidol University (2014-10-20) and agreed to help. Details of the project can be found on Wikimedia Outreach.
- Number of students
8
- Start and end dates
15 September 2014 - 9 December 2014
@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Taweetham (talk) 15:47, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Verified I have carefully considered this proposal and Taweetham's pilot is one that I endorse. Taweetham is a tireless advocate of and contributor to the Wikimedia movement in Thailand. As a former Admin and CheckUser on Thai Wikipedia, he frequently handled what were clearly contributions from unsupported students for classroom assignments (tens of brand new users all editing on the same topic and doing so not in accordance with project policies). He understands the harm that can be done. Taweetham and I had a long and frank discussion about the challenges of international students working on English Wikipedia, and I asked all the tough questions that you would have asked. He is aware of the challenges and that's why this is such a small and manageable pilot project. My hope is that his students will also begin to contribute in their native languages, too. But that can't happen if they're not exposed and encouraged and instructed, which they will be. I have agreed to be an online ambassador, to help Taweetham monitor his students' contributions. Please don't hesitate to contact me for more information or clarification. I hope his request will meet with your approval. Yours sincerely, Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 23:26, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Done per Akoval's endorsement. — xaosflux Talk 23:40, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- Thank you, Xaosflux. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 02:38, 21 October 2014 (UTC)
- Done per Akoval's endorsement. — xaosflux Talk 23:40, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
Request for Course coordinator rights: Sara Mörtsell (WMSE) (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
Name
- Sara Mörtsell
Organisation
- Wikimedia Sweden
Rationale
- I have this user right on Swedish Wikipedia, and since I'm also working with university professors instructing mainly in English, it would be great to also be able to help them out on English Wikipedia as well.
- This normally requires endorsement by existing staff. Do you actually plan on coordinating instructors and ambassadors here on enwiki, or do you just need online volunteer access? — xaosflux Talk 00:37, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
- Since getting course pages set up for new professors requires +CC and Sara is staff at a movement affiliate, I don't see any problem with her having the right, and will probably grant it to her soonish unless someone points out a problem with the idea. If we want to, we can eventually make a policy dealing with handing out +CC, but until then "movement staff of a movement entity with an active education program" sounds reasonable to me. Kevin Gorman (talk) 21:40, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
- Sounds fine to me, I just help out as a enwiki admin here so didn't want to make the assumption. I would like to see on epcoords have an endorsement from at least ONE existing epcoord though for tracking. — xaosflux Talk 22:17, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
- Since getting course pages set up for new professors requires +CC and Sara is staff at a movement affiliate, I don't see any problem with her having the right, and will probably grant it to her soonish unless someone points out a problem with the idea. If we want to, we can eventually make a policy dealing with handing out +CC, but until then "movement staff of a movement entity with an active education program" sounds reasonable to me. Kevin Gorman (talk) 21:40, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
- This normally requires endorsement by existing staff. Do you actually plan on coordinating instructors and ambassadors here on enwiki, or do you just need online volunteer access? — xaosflux Talk 00:37, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
Campus Ambassador application: SuperHamster
SuperHamster (talk · contribs)
- Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
- As a current undergraduate student and Wikipedia editor, I'd love to get involved with helping fellow students becoming accommodated to the wiki. A big chunk of my time on Wikipedia is spent helping new editors through the help desk, Teahouse, and OTRS, and I'd love to expand on that by offering assistance at my university. My school currently has a few courses involved with the education program (which I expand on below), and with a good general knowledge of editing Wikipedia (formatting, article quality, point of view, copyright, etc.) I believe I can be of help.
- Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
- I'm currently attending the Ohio State University in Columbus as a sophomore undergrad. OSU's education programs with Wikipedia are slowly growing: at the moment, we have Template:Course link running, in addition to a few other professors who are including Wikipedia into their course materials separate from the Education Program. We currently appear to have a lack of campus ambassadors, and the programs we have are new and include some first-time instructors. I'd love to join the ambassador program and reach out as a potential resource for these instructors and students.
- What is your academic and/or professional background?
- As stated above, I'm currently attending the Ohio State University in Columbus as a sophomore undergrad, majoring in Computer Science and Engineering.
- In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
- I primarily edit the English Wikipedia, which I detail a bit more on userpage. My second home is the Commons, where I've uploaded pictures and occasionally deal with licensing and copyvios. On the backend, I'm also a member of the Wikimedia OTRS team, answering emails sent to the Foundation.
- What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
- I think I just about covered everything! Looking forward to expanding OSU's integration with Wikipedia.
@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 20:32, 22 October 2014 (UTC)
- Discussion
- Seems to me to be an excellent candidate for this position. --Tryptofish (talk) 23:22, 22 October 2014 (UTC)
- Looks like an experienced editor to me. Stuartyeates (talk) 02:01, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
- I like to see initiative. Way to go, Ohio. Chris Troutman (talk) 21:19, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
- What a nice song. "I went back to Ohio" was his first mistake... I kid, I love my state ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 05:09, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
- To editor Helaine (Wiki Ed): Unless you have concerns, this candidate is ready to be a campus ambassador. Chris Troutman (talk) 23:02, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- What a nice song. "I went back to Ohio" was his first mistake... I kid, I love my state ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 05:09, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
- @SuperHamster: There seems to be community consensus about this, so I went ahead and granted you campus volunteer rights. Please email me so I can put you in touch with the professor of the evolution course. Thank you for your help! Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 00:10, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
- Thanks @Helaine (Wiki Ed): I did already get in touch with the course instructor at his talk page, but let me know if there's anything else you wished to discuss! Thank you. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 03:24, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
- @SuperHamster: If you don't mind, send me a quick email so we can discuss your role in this course a little further. thanks.Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:25, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
- Thanks @Helaine (Wiki Ed): I did already get in touch with the course instructor at his talk page, but let me know if there's anything else you wished to discuss! Thank you. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 03:24, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
Request for course instructor right: Staciemap (talk) (course page draft)
- Name
Stacie Widdifield
- Institution
University of Arizona
- Course title and description
ARH 480/580 Topics in Art History: Art History for the 21st Century. Small, project-based seminar. Two projects: develop Wikipedia page and research "digital art history" and reshape an existing research paper into an ideal digital art history project.
- Number of students
10 undergraduates and 5 graduates
- Start and end dates
January 14-May 14, 2015 Staciemap (talk) 19:32, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Staciemap (talk) 19:32, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
- @Staciemap: Thank you for filling out your course draft page. I have granted you course instructor rights. I will go ahead and create your course page. I will be following up with more information about Wiki Ed's resources. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:31, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
Request for course instructor right: Mstanfill (talk) (course page draft)
- Name
Mel Stanfill
- Institution
University of Illinois
- Course title and description
Queer Lives, Queer Politics is a sophomore-level course serving as an introduction to Queer Studies. Wikipedia fits into the course because it focuses on the ways certain people, communities, and cultural objects take action on the world (are political).
- Number of students
There are 27 students, but they are working in groups and may assign a single person to be Editor for the group, so minimum 6.
- Start and end dates
August 25-December 9
@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Mstanfill (talk) 23:23, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
- @Mstanfill: I granted you course instructor rights, and I will go ahead and create your course page as well. I will be following up with more information about the Wiki Education Program. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:24, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
TheTrabiMechanic Campus Ambassador UK request
TheTrabiMechanic (talk · contribs)
- Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
- Wikipedia gives tutors and students a chance to work out in the world rather than students submitting essays to one person who probably has 15 minutes to spend thinking about it.
- Where are you based, and which educational institution(s) do you plan to work with as a Campus Ambassador?
- UCL, London - Raya Sharbain is another Campus Ambassador there.
- What is your academic and/or professional background?
- E-Learning Facilitator, which means I work strategically with academic departments (particularly in the arts, humanities, social & historical sciences, languages and laws). I have a doctorate in web-based health promotion for high blood pressure.
- In three sentences or less, summarize your prior experience with Wikimedia projects.
- Fairly early days for me but I've been meaning to get involved for a long time. Jointly organised a translatathon (with Roberta Wedge from WMUK and a translation academic at UCL, Rocio Banos Pinero) to take place on 18th Nov 2014; attended first UK Campus Ambassadors meeting at UCL; attended my first London Wikimedia Meetup in Sep 2014; participated in my first editathon - Women in Classics in Sep 2014; have been attempting to organise a Global Women's Health editathon (to precede the translatathon) but not quite managed that yet... At time of writing, following UCL's MSIN1003 Information World with interest, which I plan to evaluate with Raya, and actively advocating for academic colleagues to experiment along similar lines. Attending EduWiki 2014 this week in Edinburgh.
- What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
- Nothing and everything comes to mind.
@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --TrabiMechanic 00:30, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
- Discussion
Assignment Design Wizard: please test!
Wiki Education Foundation has been working on a new tool to help instructors design good assignments, and I'm happy to report that the prototype is ready for testing. The basic idea is for this tool to replace parts of the current process of setting up a course page (ie, the {{course page wizard}} template). This new Assignment Design Wizard is intended both to explain best practices for good Wikipedia assignments and to let an instructor make choices about each of the elements of a typical assignment to customize it to their own needs. At the end, the wizard posts a timeline to userspace, which an instructor can then edit further if they want to.
There are a few things that are still placeholders, but it's very close to the "1.0" version.
The output is mostly controlled by a bunch of template (which I'll document soon) so that we can continually refine the details. I'm really interested in feedback on the Wizard itself: whether it makes sense, what you find confusing or buggy about it, and whether the explanatory text is accurate and complete.
Any feedback will be appreciated, but if you want to be extra helpful, this would be perfect:
- Put yourself into the mindset of a college professor--a reader of Wikipedia but not an experienced editor--who is interested in running their first Wikipedia classroom assignment.
- Go through the assignment design wizard, and think through each step from that professor's perspective. Take notes about any interface problems you encounter along the way.
- At the end, look through the assignment plan that gets posted to your userspace.
- Leave me a message about any suggestions you have for improving the content of the wizard, the assignment plan that it generated, and any interface problems you found.
--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:26, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
Feedback from Tryptofish
This is just a quick, preliminary try. I clicked the button and then tried to see what would happen if I went to the next page without filling in the information on the first page. On my display, there's a black box with white letters at the top right that says "Wiki Edu" with the rest of it cut off. Scrolling around and having the display on the right change when I move the cursor over the left side was a little confusing. I could not get to the third page by clicking on "next" or on the series of circles. Perhaps all of that is because I was (intentionally) non-compliant with the request for information on the first page, but I imagine many intended users may want to look it over before providing information. --Tryptofish (talk) 00:18, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Tryptofish: Thanks much. What size of screen were you using, and what browser? We still have a bit of work to make it go more smoothly for smaller displays, and validation for the first step before you move on to the second should also be done soon.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:00, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- 19 inch, Firefox 33.0.2. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:45, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Tryptofish: Do you know the resolution?--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:46, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- 1024 x 768. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:52, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Thanks. This should work after the layout fixes that are in progress.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:02, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- 1024 x 768. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:52, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Tryptofish: Do you know the resolution?--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:46, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- 19 inch, Firefox 33.0.2. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:45, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
Feedback from xaosflux
- Technical Feedback
- Not sure why, but it took multiple attempts before the page would work, complaining about unified account issues.
- "Application Connection Error / To use Connected Apps on this site, you must have an account across all projects. When you have an account on all projects, you can try to connect "wikiedu.org Assignment Design Wizard" again. / Unified login needed, E008 / Return to Main Page."
- xaosflux: I believe this is because the account you were using had never visited another project beyond en.wiki while logged in, so it was not a global SUL account yet. I *think* this shouldn't be an issue in the near future, but in the meantime I plan to get around it by adding a step of visiting another wiki before users launch the wizard.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:00, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Once connected, nothing happened. Was due to high security settings on browser for these issues:
- Unexpected scripts being executed from a third party web site (wikiedu.org)
- Encryption state change, wikiedu.org
- Context change from SSL to non-SSL for wikiedu.org
- Note: SSL version of wikiedu.org has an invalid SSL certificate belonging to *.asmallorange.com
- Good to note. For now, we'll probably not try to get proper https working, but it's on the longer-term todo list.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:00, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Content Feedback
- The user interface for Research and write an article has a required selection box, however the selector indicator is box shading and if clicked multiple times it is easy to get lost as to the current state; suggest changing this to a CHECK/unchecked toggle instead of shading
- Here is the page that got created User:Xaosflux_ep/ABC_123
- Minor error in the top, looks like a missing line break between the last screen text and the section header marker
- Yep. There are actually no line breaks being put in at all at this point, but intention is to have the output spaced in a way that makes it as readable as possible, so something more like this (with the substitutions in effect). This is high the priority list to fix.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:00, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Minor error in the top, looks like a missing line break between the last screen text and the section header marker
There you go; if there is a chance to move the technical integration away from Wordpress (?) it may resolve many of the those issues. — xaosflux Talk 02:22, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- It's not integrated with WordPress; presently we have wizard.wikiedu.org on its own (virtual server), so the only connect is that it's on a subdomain of wikiedu.org (which has WordPress as its main service).--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:00, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
Escape from L.A.
To editor Kevin Gorman: I am leaving Los Angeles for good, Saturday. I appreciate the opportunity the Education Program and Bluerasberry had afforded me. I will continue supporting my three courses online through the rest of the semester. I encourage the WEF and Los Angeles Wikipedians in particular to support Tobyhigbie, Benkarney, and Nafpaktitism all at UCLA as well as Urbanature at USC. When I'm able to serve as campus ambassador again I'll post here. Chris Troutman (talk) 04:10, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
- Chris troutman Good luck in your travels. I put those people on my watchlist. Message me if you ever want to chat by voice or video and thanks for what you have done. Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:32, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
A page apparently related to an educational project landed up at AFC
Please help to find where Draft:JMS 210: Case Study Project - TED Talks should actually be located. It seems to be part of an educational project's "information/instructions for participants" page. It can't be an actual article draft as we already have a well developed article about TED Talks. (I have removed the AFC submission templates from the page to get it out of the reviewing process.) Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 18:37, 1 November 2014 (UTC)
Request for course instructor right: Bd1896 (talk) (course page draft)
- Name
Bethany Holmstrom, PhD. Assistant Professor of English.
- Institution
LaGuardia Community College, CUNY
- Course title and description
ENG 295 / World Literatures in English. In our section of the major's capstone class, we will explore postcolonial adaptations of ancient Greek tragedies. We will create a collaboratively written Wikipedia entry on one of these postcolonial plays for our final class project. We will be working with the Theatre WikiProject and will consult with the campus ambassador Ann Matsuuchi. Class blog: http://worldlitlagcc.wordpress.com/
- Number of students
12
- Start and end dates
The project starts November 3rd and ends December 15, 2014.
@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Bd1896 (talk) 20:48, 2 November 2014 (UTC)