Wikipedia:Education noticeboard
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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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Index 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
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This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by ClueBot III when more than 4 sections are present. |
Informing instructors and students about contentious topic restrictions
I just came across User:Etherab/Palestine Queering the Map, created as part of a WikiEdu assignment, and saw that it included a discussion of how the Gaza war affected LGBTQ+ people in Palestine. Since Etherab is not extended-confirmed, this is technically a violation of the extended-confirmed restriction that ArbCom applied to the Palestine-Israel conflict. This was done in good faith and doesn't seem disruptive, but I think it would be better (for everyone involved) if instructors and students knew about this restriction before deciding on course/project topics. jlwoodwa (talk) 21:11, 1 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for bringing this to our attention @Jlwoodwa. I will reach out to the student and the instructor to let them know of the restrictions on this topic area. It's unclear to me what they plan to do with their contributions, but I'll touch base. We do try to steer classes away from contentious topics. In our trainings for instructors and students, we cover controversial topics and a provide a link to the Wikipedia:List of controversial issues, so they know what topics to avoid. Brianda (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:23, 2 April 2025 (UTC)
- Brianda: It may be more appropriate to link to the current rules on WP:Contentious topics, which explains the restrictions, instead of the "Controversial issues" page which is clearly marked as "historical". CTOP also lists the topics that have active restrictions. — ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · email · global) 20:56, 2 April 2025 (UTC)
- Excellent point @ClaudineChionh. I'll share this with the team to update our training. Brianda (Wiki Ed) (talk) 00:05, 5 April 2025 (UTC)
- Brianda: It may be more appropriate to link to the current rules on WP:Contentious topics, which explains the restrictions, instead of the "Controversial issues" page which is clearly marked as "historical". CTOP also lists the topics that have active restrictions. — ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · email · global) 20:56, 2 April 2025 (UTC)
- User:Noormalfoof/Culture of Palestine/Bibliography is similar. jlwoodwa (talk) 05:41, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
@Brianda (Wiki Ed) -- it looks like you're supporting Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/San Diego State University/US History to 1865 Section Three (Spring 2025). Editors from that class are currently making a mess of Followers and supporters of William Walker's filibustering in Nicaragua, adding tons of section headings with no content or references. Please help. Jay8g [V•T•E] 21:56, 22 April 2025 (UTC)
- On it. Thanks for flagging this @Jay8g. Brianda (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:20, 22 April 2025 (UTC)
Yet another class creating resume-like/promotional articles
This time it's Bio 4030 Biological Clocks 2025 (@Ian (Wiki Ed)). I've cleaned up a few of them, but this is an ongoing systemic problem with student editors, which indicates that there needs to be more specific training on NPOV and how Wikipedia articles aren't intended to promote their subjects. Jay8g [V•T•E] 20:06, 24 April 2025 (UTC)
- Who's doing that in this class, @Jay8g? While they tend to go a bit overboard on things like publications, they generally produce great work (for newbies) on chronobiologists. In fact, over the years they've produced almost all our articles on chronobiologists, which was great for Wikipedia when a group of chronobiologists won a Nobel Prize. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:08, 24 April 2025 (UTC)
- I've just noticed some of them making a real mess at Traditional Chinese Medicine. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:34, 24 April 2025 (UTC)
- @Tryptofish - yes. Fortunately Bon courage pinged me when the second student repeated the first student's addition, and I was able to email the instructor. I trust that they will deal with it.
- It's entirely on me for not redirecting those students when they picked the article. I got an alert that they had assigned themselves it, and though I saw it and intended to intervene, I didn't. Sometimes life needs higher priority than work, and in this case it happened as my wife's uncle was dying.
- My manners, upbringing, and the fact that I spent a good chunk of my childhood in Canada all tell me that I should apologise for the inconvenience caused by my mistake (both to community members and to the students who wasted their time creating something that could never work on Wikipedia), but the truth is I don't regret my choices. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 12:54, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you, Ian, for taking care of this, and please don't worry about your role in it. I appreciate and value the work that you do, and please accept my condolences for your loss. --Tryptofish (talk) 19:17, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
- I've just noticed some of them making a real mess at Traditional Chinese Medicine. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:34, 24 April 2025 (UTC)
Class demanding published/reviewed articles for a grade
I just had a conversation on #wikipedia-en-help with a student who's evidently being required to submit a draft for a grade; the draft they gave me was Draft:Le carreau des halles, 1880. The course is HART 1300 at Vanderbilt University, and the professor is Matthew Worsnick. —Jéské Couriano v^_^v threads critiques 23:11, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
- This one isn't one of ours, but we'll reach out and see if we can offer our support in the future! (Being graded on content actually appearing on Wikipedia is not allowed in Wiki Education's program.) Thanks for flagging it! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:45, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
Unknown class at Jenny Lind
A number of brand-new editors have been making massive cuts at Jenny Lind today; one has identified this as a class assignment. Not sure what class this is but one is blocked and more may be headed that way. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:26, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
- If you're able to find more information about which school they're at, please let us know! They're not one we're aware of. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:55, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
Class creating articles on very narrow topics directly in article space
See Ecological immunology and traditional adaptation (which I draftified but was then unilaterally undraftified and also recreated as a duplicate at Ecological Immunology and Traditional Adaptation) and Draft:Syndemics and Health Hazards in Informal E-waste Economies. This is Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Washington State University/Evolutionary medicine (Spring) (pinging @Ian (Wiki Ed)). These articles appear more like essays and are on topics that seem very unlikely to make good stand-alone articles (at most, a shorter version may be appropriate as part of a related article). Can you help work with these students to figure out what's going on here? Jay8g [V•T•E] 20:13, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
- I agree with you on these, I was thinking the same thing. I need to dig more into the literature here to figure out what might a viable topic (either as a stand-alone article, or as a target to merge some of the content). Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:12, 7 May 2025 (UTC)
- Another class, same problem but even more of a narrow topic. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Effects of Climate Change on Homeless Populations in Omaha, NE. Jay8g [V•T•E] 04:22, 8 May 2025 (UTC)
Are instructors allowed to breach NPOV in their class descriptions?
Neutral point of view is one of the bedrock principles of Wikipedia. Are educators in Wiki-Ed projects allowed to break that principle? In this Wiki-Ed project, the instructor describes 11 "Wicked" problems that will be addressed in the Wiki-class. The list includes "1) Democratic government 2) Settler-colonialism and Truth, Reconciliation and Decolonization". Characterising democratic government, and truth and reconciliation as "wicked" hardly seems NPOV to me. Can the instructor ignore NPOV on a wikipedia page? Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 02:39, 8 May 2025 (UTC)
- Which course is this? The instructor probably means Wicked problem:
In planning and policy, a wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.
Not an NPOV issue at all. StarryGrandma (talk) 03:28, 8 May 2025 (UTC)
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Visual Culture of the Nation of Islam § Requested move 8 May 2025. Thanks, Bobby Cohn 🍁 (talk) 16:59, 8 May 2025 (UTC)
- I have identified the issue with the instructor, but it would also be nice if additional instruction could be given on MOS:AT as well as {{essay-like}} without having to hound all the pages listed in the RM. This course in particular may benefit from having articles reviewed at AfC in the future. Bobby Cohn 🍁 (talk) 16:59, 8 May 2025 (UTC)
- Quickly to clarify that I'm referring to Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Oberlin College/Modern and Contemporary Islamic Art (Spring 2025), as none of the talk pages identify it as such. Bobby Cohn 🍁 (talk) 17:01, 8 May 2025 (UTC)