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Name

Khaled Al-Shehari

Institution

Durham University

Course title and description

The course title is "MA in Arabic-English Translation and Interpreting". It teaches postgraduates theory and methods of translation and train them to translate and interpret different types of texts (including literary, marketing, legal, etc.) between English and Arabic.

Assignment plan

Students will be set assignments to work on in teams to translate articles from Wikipedia from English into Arabic, and then to have them published on the Arabic version of Wikipedia, after being checked and edited by peer students and finally checked, edited and approved by instructors.

Number of students

13 students

Start and end dates

The course started in October 2013 and will end in September 2014. The current assignment started on 20 January and due by March 2014.

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Kshehari (talk) 14:25, 21 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Return to the Course pages module.

• Comment. This looks like no problem from the perspective of the English Wikipedia, as students would not actually be changing any content here. Perhaps the request should really be at the Arabic Wikipedia? --Tryptofish (talk) 20:52, 21 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Based on the description it looks like all the activity will be on the Arabic Wikipedia. However, the tools like the extension and the online training are more active and developed on the English Wikipedia. It would only make sense to have a course page here for an English interface for the course page and trainings, it seems. Alternatively/additionally, we could create a space on the Arab World Education Program area on the Arabic Wikipedia (the current layout/structure is geographic by country but could be adapted). The education extension was recently enabled on the Arabic Wikipedia and is not yet in use. Tflanagan (WMF) (talk) 21:25, 21 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Kshehari: I went ahead and granted you the instructor user right here on the English Wikipedia in case you do want to create a page here for your students to use as a resource. You may also want to have them make their first edits here in English in order to get a feel for editing (and doing so in their first language). Please do shoot me a message if you decide to create one here and want some support in setting it up. @Tflanagan (WMF): Do you possibly have any Ambassadors who you think would be interested in supporting these students (and who is available)? Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:37, 23 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Jami (Wiki Ed): I went to Arab World Education Program area on the Arabic Wikipedia but I couldn't find any way to request to create a course there. Is there anyway to do it? --Kshehari (talk) 12:52, 24 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Kshehari: Tighe will have to help out with that if he has the chance! Otherwise, you're welcome to create your Course Page here and just include the information that your students will be editing on Arabic Wikipedia! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:31, 24 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Jami (Wiki Ed): Thanks Jami. I would rather create the project page on English Wikipedia, since the whole course is taught in English. Of course, translations will be published on Arabic Wikipedia. I also would like to link my current project to another similar project working into Spanish. What do you think, Maria @Mcptrad:? I am still confused. Is the project page different from the course page? Where to start creating the project page. Students already chosen their articles to translate. We would like to start soon. --Kshehari (talk) 17:39, 29 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Name

Padma C.

Institution

University of Michigan

I'm part of a multi-instructor team that needs instructor access to the following course site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Program:University_of_Michigan/SI_110:_Introduction_to_Information_(Winter_2014)

Please let me know if you have any questions.

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Kandeya (talk) 04:22, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Return to the Course pages module.

• Hi @Kandeya: - could you get @Cleeder: to stop by and confirm that you're part of their instructional team? Sorry for the caution, but as there's some potential for damage inherent in granting you the rights if you turn out to be a random malicious person, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Kevin Gorman (talk) 04:33, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]
• Ah, I just granted them the rights, as I didn't see this before I posted here. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 04:35, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]
• I left a note on @Cleeder:'s talk page: I'll leave a link to this request as well. You can go ahead and revert my rights until then.
• Hi, Yes, @Kandeya: is an instructor for this course. There are a couple others. Is there a good way to confirm who they are? Cleeder (talk) 05:01, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Just posting their usernames here is fine. The reason I am being cautious is because there currently is not a working restore function for course pages, and restoring or even reverting edits to coursepages currently takes the direct intervention of a WMF employee. It'd suck for someone to accidentally nuke your whole course. Kevin Gorman (talk) 06:01, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm one of them Zelbinian (talk) 02:46, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Two more: Csenteio and mainvils. That's it. Thanks! Cleeder (talk) 07:15, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Name

JD Mathewson

Institution

Hood College (Frederick, MD)

Course title and description

PSCI 305: American Foreign Policy. The course is an examination of how the foreign policy process works in theory and practice, who the main actors are and what types of interests and values shape foreign policy decisions.

Most of the students will be juniors and seniors (with some sophomores). The Wikipedia component of the course will be teaching media literacy in terms of foreign policy, research skills, and concise writing.

Assignment plan

My students will start out by contributing some comments to an existing Wikipedia article's talk page before moving on to their own research. They will suggest a number of articles they would like to improve that need improving. Their first edits will be small edits, 1-2 sentences. After compiling research on the topic, they will develop a draft of the improved article in the sandbox and post their proposed edits on the talk page. Once I have approved them, they will move their drafts out of the sandbox and into the live space. At this point, students will peer-review and -edit some of their classmates articles. The final goal will be getting an article on the "Did you know" page. At the end of the course, they will submit reflection papers on their experiences.

We will be discussing students progress in class on a daily basis. We will not have any class presentations.

Number of students

15

Start and end dates

January 27

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Jdmathewson (talk) 23:04, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Return to the Course pages module.

Granted. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 03:30, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Per WP:INSTRUCTORS, Jdmathewson, the DYK process is strongly discouraged (note to Kevin Rutherford, just in case). I'm curious if there is a quantity metric for the sandbox material. Is there? Best. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 00:14, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's discouraged, but that does not mean that people aren't encouraged to go that way if they are feeling motivated. If that's the goal of the class, then it wouldn't hurt to have an article or two in this realm, but the discouragement is to prevent hundreds of potential articles showing up on the page, many of varying qualities. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 00:39, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's fine so long as they walk through the requirements in depth and commit to submitting articles that seem to meet those standards rather than all articles or if Professor Mathewson (that sounds weird to say :)) or a volunteer reviews the work before the students submit. We don't want to recommend it for every class by any means, but I think it's ok for a few students to do so. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 03:37, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

DYK isn't just discouraged for reasons of quality. Honestly, plenty of cruddy articles get through DYK on a near-daily basis as it is. As far as I know probably the biggest concern regarding DYK in the past has been that DYKing classes usually result in a lot of articles showing up near deadlines from people who are not subject to the quid pro quo reviewing requirement yet, which results in both a big backlog for DYK (because their reviewing capacity for non-QPQ submissions isn't terribly high,) and potential concerns over student grades being held up by a community process that won't complete on their grading timetable. I think it's okay if individual students want to go for DYK for them to do so, but as a class-wide requirement (or even strong suggestion) is problematic unless students are also required to review DYK's. (And, since people often object to students reviewing each others DYKs, even with a reviewing requirement it's still potentially problematic.) Kevin Gorman (talk) 04:16, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've been talking to the professor via email, and he never intended to require or even recommend to the whole class to submit DYKs. He wants to suggest the students whose work stands out and meets the requirements submit as a way of acknowledging their hard work rather than as a means to grade it. It sounds like it will be just a few articles, especially with the rather limiting 5-day turnaround. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:05, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the late reply--I'm still figuring out the proper way to respond to other people on my talk pages. I should have been more clear. Like Jami said, I don't intend for all students to submit DYK articles. I am encouraging students to make articles of DYK quality with the incentive that, if it's good enough, I would instruct them to submit it. If none of them look good enough, I won't be asking them to. I certainly won't be suggesting that they should initiate the process on their own. This is what I meant by "goal." Thank you all for your input. JD Mathewson (talk), Adjunct Professor, Hood College 21:18, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. It certainly will not figure into their grades. JD Mathewson (talk), Adjunct Professor, Hood College 21:20, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Cristian Opazo (talk · contribs)

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

   I became a Campus Ambassador in 2011 but became inactive in 2013 because of a new job. Now I would like to be reactivated.

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

   New York University

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

   Experimental physics, computer science, instructional design

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

   In the past I've served as campus ambassador for several courses, among them:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Courses/Conceptualization_of_Latin_and_Latino%28a%29_America_%28Katherine_Hite%29

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Courses/Advanced_Organic_Chemistry_%28Sarjit_Kaur%29

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

   I'll be working with this course this Spring 2014 semester:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Program:New_York_University/Copyright,_Commerce,_and_Culture_%28Spring_2014%29

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Cristian Opazo (talk) 21:31, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Granted, looking forward to your course at NYU.--Pharos (talk) 04:58, 28 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Cristian Opazo: Cristian, glad to have you back in the program working with this class! Just wanted to also send you this link so you can create a CA profile and appear on this list of CAs! Glad to have you back—always feel free to reach out with any questions or if you need anything. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:32, 29 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Name

Kathleen D.

Institution

College of William and Mary

Course title and description

Course Title: Pink Noise: Women making electronic music
Student level: Undergraduate
Course Objectives: This interdisciplinary course explores the hands-on creation of electronic music through the lens of feminist critical frameworks, activism, and collective action. We will explore the work, struggles, triumphs, and techniques of pioneering composers including Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Ruth Anderson, and Annea Lockwood as well as examine contemporary innovators such as Maria Chavez, Andrea Polli, and Kaffe Matthews. Techniques and topics include Composing with Texts; Activist Sound; Live Sampling and Delay; Turntablism; Soundscape Composition; the Occult Voice; and Meditative Synthesis. Students will compose electronic music individually and collaboratively in small groups. No prior knowledge of music theory, composition, instrumental technique, or sound software is necessary.

Assignment plan

Following the sample syllabus provided by the Wikipedia Education Program, I will create a series of semester long assignments examining entries of women electronic music composers on wikipedia and identifying areas for improvement of notable biographic entries on the site. Students will be guided through training, examining articles and understanding the five pillars, and considering their course material in the context of a tertiary source rather than the comparative analytical lens they are accustomed to.

What do I expect to accomplish (beyond the course objectives, media literacy, critical thinking, collaboration, citation, etc.):

• think critically about information sources and how they function
• gain public writing skills for a specific audience
• examine how resources like Wikipedia present information by and for historically underrepresented communities.

Number of students

8

Start and end dates

February 26-April 30, 2014

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @Jami (Wiki Ed), Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --DrX (talk) 15:28, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Deloebrenti: Hi, Kathleen. I granted you the user right, so you should be able to create your Course Page from [bottom of this page]. Your assignment sounds like it will bring some really interesting content to Wikipedia. Be on the lookout for an email from me with some useful resources for you and your students! Thanks! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:26, 29 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I thought it was only regional ambassadors that granted the course instructor right. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 00:16, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone with the rights can do it. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 00:41, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

But wasn't it a former WMF practice that interpreted the former RfC as needing community members to grant this right? I've seen it stated on this board that Wiki Ed (WP:WEF) is not a part of the Wikipedia community. Has the WEF developed a new interpretation of the RfC? Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 18:32, 31 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Not that I am aware of, but do we necessarily always have to follow the rules? Kevin Rutherford (talk) 14:54, 1 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps Jami (Wiki Ed) could clarify. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 22:38, 2 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever technicalities there are around the status of WEF as an organization (I haven't followed that closely enough, perhaps), Jami herself is most certainly a part of this community, and I think it's pretty obvious that she can and should be trusted with the course coordinator tools (which is why she was given them).--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 02:54, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Although WMF employees frequently choose not to exercise any userrights they may have on ENWP (or other 'production wikis',) Jami is no longer a WMF employee - she works for the WEF. She's also a long-time participant in the education program, and her user account has (quite intentionally) been granted the necessary userrights to grant course instructor rights. Additionally, barring an RfC stating otherwise (which I don't believe has happened, although I could've missed it,) not only could anyone with the course coordinator userright rightfully grant course instructor rights to people, any administrator could as well. (For that matter, barring community consensus that says otherwise, admins are also able to give the course coordinator user rights out as they see fit.) Kevin Gorman (talk) 03:07, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I apologize for misstating that the new features would be available a week ago; the weekly deployment schedule was put on hold during a Wikimedia "architecture summit" last week. Anyhow, the new features are now live, so you can contact an entire class via Notifications by posting on the talk page, instructors and volunteers can add students to courses and add articles to students, and Special:Contributions will show if a user is enrolled as a student in a current class.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 19:09, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In related news, if you edit one of the course page wizard subpages for a course, you're likely to get a MediaWiki error (because the system is trying to send a Notification for the corresponding non-existent course page). The edits will still save, though. We'll try to get that fixed quickly.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 19:17, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There's also a bug with Special:Contributions, if you are enrolled as both a student and an online volunteer. Likewise, we'll try to fix that quickly.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 22:46, 30 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Fabulous -- thanks Sage! -Pete (talk) 22:02, 31 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Sage Ross (WMF): Just checking to see if you have an estimated time that the error message bug will get fixed. I've received a lot of concerns about it, but most people do realize that their changes are saving. Just wanted to follow up so I can let them know. Thanks so much! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:02, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Jami: We have the patches, and we're hoping to deploy them this afternoon.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 18:13, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Sage! Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:14, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sage - am I correct in assuming that this is the same bug that currently seems to be preventing new classes from being created? I hadn't created one of mine until today because students aren't going to progress to actually editing Wikipedia until this week, but just got thrown a weird Mediawiki error upon trying to create it (and unfortunately, even though edits do go through with the error, creating a new course didn't stick.) Kevin Gorman (talk) 22:06, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Kevin, both bugs should be fixed now. The bug you encountered was because when you create a course talk subpage through the wizard template, the system was trying to send a Notification to people in the corresponding course subpage (which does not exist). That should not prevent the create of course pages, though. If you are still having trouble, please let me know.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 22:14, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sage - it's still throwing an error for me - [088bf6cc] 2014-02-03 22:15:16: Fatal exception of type MWException. Since it looks like the course isn't saving at all, this is a potentially serious issue for anyone who hasn't created their course pages yet. (I can make do without one for as long as needed - I've tracked classes via other means before, but it'd be convenient to have one for this course.) Kevin Gorman (talk) 22:18, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Kevin, what course are you trying to create? I was just able to create one without a problem. Also, please email me all the error info that shows up, and more detail about exactly what you did on which pages.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 22:31, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That was sadly, the error message in it's absolute entirety. I was trying to create a course page titled "Ethnic Studies 21ac: A Comparative Survey of Racial and Ethnic Groups in the U.S." for the Spring 2014 term. I literally didn't get off the first page; it has been consistently erroring out for me as soon as I hit the submit button on the first "Adding course" page you see once you select an institution/course name/term. The error has been consistent except for the timestamp and the memory location it's referencing. It's a bit odd that it's working fine for you and not for me - perhaps there's some sort of conflict between being +sysop and +coursecoordinator that means that having both rights at once messes up? I'll strip off my coursecoordinator right temporarily and see if that helps anything. (Need to run to give some edu presentations shortly, but I'll be back later on tonight.) Kevin Gorman (talk) 22:45, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Stripping my coursecoordinator right temporarily still had the same error show up when I tried to create the course. I'll poke around more later tonight. Kevin Gorman (talk) 22:51, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I was able to create it without a problem. Education Program:University of California, Berkeley/Ethnic Studies 21ac: A Comparative Survey of Racial and Ethnic Groups in the U.S. (Spring 2014). That's quite the page title! Anyhow, I'll look into it more.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 22:57, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I was actually able to get the error when I pasted in the title you have here, which seems to contain multiple spaces after the colon (or some non-standard space character).--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 22:57, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, that didn't occur to me to check, and probably should've, sorry about that. Thank you for figuring out what it was. I copy/pasted the course title straight from UCB's course management system, which is called Telebears - because it's literally the telephone dial-in course registration system Berkeley has used for ages with an ugly poorly functional web UI put on top of it. Kevin Gorman (talk) 23:00, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's good! You've discovered a bug that we never discovered until now. (I'm guessing it's been in the extension since the beginning.) It turns out that what you pasted included a space and a tab. Tabs are not allowed in course titles, but there was nothing to check for them.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 02:50, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Suz.ydv123 (talk · contribs)

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

   I have always been searching in Wikipedia for information about everything which were required. It is always helpful to me so I want to make everyone know about Wikipedia.

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

   PSNA College of Engineering and technology(Anna University)

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

   I am pursuing computer science and engineering at psna college of engineering and technology in 3rd year.

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

   YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)

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

   YOUR ANSWER (OPTIONAL)

@OhanaUnited, Neelix, Ktr101, Pharos, and Pongr: @Sleuthwood, Etlib, Daniel Simanek, Biosthmors, and Kayz911: @DStrassmann, Rjensen, Bluerasberry, and Kevin Gorman: --Suz.ydv123 (talk) 00:52, 31 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Hi all, I'd like to draw your attention to some suggestions I just made for improving the "Courses" page layout. The basic idea is I'm suggesting the existing view (see the image to the right) with something like the table below. Click the link above for my more detailed explanation.

Thoughts? -Pete (talk) 22:12, 31 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

• The change is better. Thanks User:Peteforsyth. I hardly know what to say. The current version should be revised and this proposed version seems better. I see no fault with the proposed changes, and a lot of fault with the existing version. ≤I think many people here would like to see many things revised. It seems to me that the proposed changes are not just layout changes, but also would need to have MediaWiki integrate to do automatic tracking and reporting of student activities, which is beyond what people on this board typically imagine. LT910001 and I have been talking lately about software support for helping WikiProjects, and when I see this proposal, I can imagine some overlap in how a class should be tracked and how a WikiProject might want to track certain articles and users. We put our thoughts at meta:Grants:IdeaLab/WikiProject management suite. If these changes are to be implemented, I would want to participate in talks about them and also talks about how tracking could be done in WikiProjects for users who want to be tracked in this way. Blue Rasberry (talk) 11:12, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Pete and Bluerasberry! This good stuff, and I'll be sure to circle back to it when we get to the point of working on the activity feed. We're in the process of settling on a roadmap for moving the related technology forward. To sum up briefly, the plan is to begin working with the Growth product development team to make more general systems that will replace what the extension does. None of this is set in stone, but the order that we tackle that in will basically be:

1. Signup (a system for signing up newcomers through 'campaigns', which will be relevant for courses as well as edit-a-thons, and other types of contribution campaigns)
2. Onboarding (a system for walking newcomers through the steps they need to go through to get started, which may vary based on what campaign they signed up through)
3. Tracking and communication (this is the big bucket that will eventually be a replacement for course pages and the course activity feeds)

The upshot is that it may be quite a while before we see any significant improvements to the activity feed. Then again, maybe not. We'll see. --Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 15:50, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Tanuyeiro (talk · contribs)

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

   I'm a volunteer from Ecuador, and I'm helping 2 Universities from Ecuador to start using Wikipedia as teaching tool.

2. In three sentences or less, summarize your involvement with Wikimedia projects.

   I'm leading a group of volunteers from Ecuador

3. Please indicate a few articles to which you have made significant content contributions. (e.g. DYK, GA, FA, major revisions/expansions/copyedits).

   I'm involved in Wikiproyecto Ecuador (Spanish Project)

4. How have you been involved with welcoming and helping new users on Wikipedia?

   I've been pointing out the differences between Visual Editor and the old one to new comers on Spanish Wikipedia

5. What do you see as the most important ways we could welcome newcomers or help new users become active contributors?

   As far that we are making easier for them with the new visual editor, we should get a mentorship project to shape new users.

6. Have you had major conflicts with other editors? Blocks or bans? Involvement in arbitration? Feel free to offer context, if necessary.

   No, I have never been block or reported

7. How often do you edit Wikipedia and check in on ongoing discussions? Will you be available regularly for at least two hours per week, in your role as a mentor?

   Yes

8. How would you make sure your students were not violating copyright laws?

   Teaching them the proper guidelines and laws of copyright and after that making sure their edits are not in any kind of violation.

9. If one of your students had an issue with copyright violation how would you resolve it?

   Remove the content where the infringement is occurring, talk to the student explaining or refreshing the basics of copyright laws.

10. In your _own_ words describe what copyright violation is.

    When you use, copy, derivatives, reproduce, distribute or similar paraphrasing of works that you are not the holder or have no authorize permission to do it.

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

    As a volunteer on Ecuadorian soil, where I'm helping gathering a group of Wikipedians to promote edits on the Spanish Wikipedia, I believe we as Ecuadorians can learn so much from this Education Program.

(Two endorsements are needed for online ambassador approval.)

• Support This user promotes the concept of open access, has participated in Wikipedia:School of Open course, has visited the WP:TEAHOUSE, and although is a new user has visited the places that the Wikipedia community wishes for new users to visit. This user seems like the kind of person which would be good for the education program. Blue Rasberry (talk) 11:18, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

MrScorch6200 (talk · contribs)

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

   I want to be able to help new Wikipedians learn the ways of the 'pedia while doing it all in a new environment for me.

2. In three sentences or less, summarize your involvement with Wikimedia projects.

   I am a new page patroller, DR/N assistant, on the Guild of Copy Editors and am a rollbacker and a reviewer on the English Wikipedia. I am most involved in content disputes and discussions.

3. Please indicate a few articles to which you have made significant content contributions. (e.g. DYK, GA, FA, major revisions/expansions/copyedits).

   King of the Hill, North Shore Medical Center, Bigfat

   Thesurvivor2299.com Note: I created; deleted (redirected) per a second nomination after an undeletion

4. How have you been involved with welcoming and helping new users on Wikipedia?

   I occasionally welcome I.P./new editors and assist when needed.

5. What do you see as the most important ways we could welcome newcomers or help new users become active contributors?

   New users need more motivation. Most are single purpose accounts. If we can show new users that Wikipedia has a great environment and they can contribute to the sixth most visited site, they can become active contributors.

6. Have you had major conflicts with other editors? Blocks or bans? Involvement in arbitration? Feel free to offer context, if necessary.

   I have not had anything major; I have an occasional edit skirmish (not exactly an edit war) just like any other editor. I have never been blocked, reported, etc.

7. How often do you edit Wikipedia and check in on ongoing discussions? Will you be available regularly for at least two hours per week, in your role as a mentor?

   I check and edit Wikipedia everyday and have every page that I have ever edited on my watchlist. I try to reply to discussions and inquiries within six hours. I will be able to assist regularly as a mentor.

8. How would you make sure your students were not violating copyright laws?

   I would check their edits with the sources provided and other major sources that can be easily accessed via a simple Google search.

9. If one of your students had an issue with copyright violation how would you resolve it?

   First, I would immediately remove the copyrighted content. I would then talk directly with the student regarding the issue then with the course instructor. Afterwards, I would work out a resolution depending on the situation.

10. In your _own_ words describe what copyright violation is.

    A copyright violation is plagiarizing any text, image, audio, etc,. from a non-free source. Some close paraphrasing is also likely to constitute as a copyright violation.

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

    I am calm, able to work things out with editors, and overall very civil. I enforce all policies no matter my stance on a situation.

(Two endorsements are needed for online ambassador approval.)

• I support this user. This user just helped me on the dispute resolution noticeboard and I looked him up and read about him. He is an able moderator and says the right things, and seems likely to continue his good habits. He is a new user with limited editing experience, but what he has he has picked up in quite a hurry and with a lot of devotion. If he does not burn himself out I expect everything to be fine with him. MrScorch6200, you live in New Jersey, right? If possible, do you think that you could come to the national Wikipedia conference in NYC at the end of May? Among other things we will have education program trainings. It is not publicly announced yet and the site is not turned on entirely, but details are at http://wikiconferenceusa.org/ Scholarship applications will be taken in about a week. If you want to engage more deeply then it might be useful if you could meet some others in person. Thanks for your interest. Blue Rasberry (talk) 02:46, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Bluerasberry, thanks for the endorsement and kind words. I do live in NJ but I do not plan to attend the Wikipedia Conference this year. Regards, --MrScorch6200 (t c) 02:58, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Scratch that. I may attend. --MrScorch6200 (t c) 22:41, 28 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In this recent blog post, a 2012 link is being used to tell us that 2013 contributions are high-quality. How is this not fanciful? Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 19:17, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We conducted quality studies for the 2010-11 academic year, and then again for the spring 2012, and both studies showed similar results in terms of student quality. We have not reason to believe that the quality has diminished at all, since our support for students has been consistent. Such quality studies take an incredible amount of volunteer time to evaluate articles by hand, and I do not think it is a good use of volunteer time to continue replicating the quality study when what we've done has shown consistently that student editors in the United States and Canada program improve articles. That being said, if you would like to organize another research quality study to see if there has been a change in article quality, the metric is here and more information on the research design is here. -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 19:38, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]