Wikipedia:Education noticeboard

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    Welcome to the education noticeboard
    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:


    Of course, we should remain civil towards all participants and assume good faith.

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    Genetically modified food controversies[edit]

    Genetically modified food controversies is under CTOP, and I just had to revert a massive sandbox-to-mainspace copy-paste of content that was inappropriate, and undo a page move. The class is this one. Facepalm Facepalm --Tryptofish (talk) 22:29, 30 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Sorry this situation happened @Tryptofish. I messaged the student last month to choose another article to work on but... here we are. I've reached out to the instructor and the editor to no longer edit that page. Brianda (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:46, 1 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @Brianda (Wiki Ed), there was also another one that just popped up from a different class at Genetically modified maize I had to revert. That got especially bad when the student was posting information contradictory to the scientific consensus on the subject.
    I know in the past Wiki Ed folks have mentioned it's hard to keep track of all the potential CTOPs out there, but when it comes to the GMO subject, possibly adding some sort of blacklist for keywords might be helpful since many of the more prominent article title terms in this subject are going to contain "genetically modified". KoA (talk) 18:31, 1 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Brianda (Wiki Ed), this student at Genetically modified maize is now edit warring in violation of 1RR at the page. Edit warring like that has been very destabilizing in the topic, which is why 1RR was imposed there, especially things that touch on WP:GMORFC. That's a large part why student editing is heavily discouraged in this topic because of how often they try to reinsert content (and if I recall correctly, grades should not be dependent on if their edits remaining in mainspace, which should negate the need for edit warring).
    Is there any required guidance the course instructors get (and give to students) on edit warring? In another class I had to deal with some problem student editing (Ian (Wiki Ed)'s domain on this one), their class dashboard practically has guidance encouraging edit warring or WP:MEAT with language like this on how to respond to student edits being removed: If it is because the others felt the material did not fit, and you disagree, argue with them. Get help from others in the class to participate. Do your best to keep your material up there, even if modified.
    It seems like a simple statement to both groups would help to the effect that:
    If a student edit is reverted, do not try to reinsert it. This is considered edit warring and can result an an account being blocked for disrupting a page. Instead, a student, like any other Wikipedia editor, should use the talk page to propose a fix or learn what problems were present that may not have been clear in the edit summary. Generally, disputed content needs WP:CONSENSUS on the talk page in order to be reinserted unless the problem is straightforward to fix based on other editor's comments or edit summaries. If there is any doubt, propose edit modifications on the talk page first. KoA (talk) 14:57, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks, Brianda. I did see that you had left a message at the student's talk page a pretty long time ago, clearly telling her that she should choose another article. But it's obvious she never looked at it, even when coming to make the edits I had to undo, or she disregarded it. I feel that it's a failure on the instructor's part not to have made this an expectation. I know it's hard for WikiEd staff to keep track of so many students all at once, and I recognize that students are going to slip through the cracks, even when given the right advice. Maybe after giving students such a message, staff could check back after a while to see if the assigned page has been changed to another. I also see that the instructor hasn't edited here since January, when the course started, and that's always a recipe for problems. Another thought: maybe we should make it standard practice to put Template:Contentious topics/alert/first on the talk pages of students (and maybe instructors?) when CTOP pages are selected. --Tryptofish (talk) 21:22, 1 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @KoA I noticed the GMO maize article talk page is missing the typical Discretionary Sanctions template, and I think this is why our dashboard didn't notify us of this article assignment. Yesterday, I contacted the instructor and the student and explained the specific discretionary sanctions on this article. And they got it and were apologetic about the disruption, and won't be editing the page.
    In our trainings, we instruct students to look at the talk pages to get a sense of what's going on with that article. We also instruct them to engage in discussions, especially if their edits have been reverted, to avoid edit warring. I know it's been mentioned on this noticeboard before, but it's expected for student editors to be treated like other Wikipedia editors, and learn that they're responsible for their edits. They might still miss the messages on a talk page, or move forward with edits without taking the proper considerations. When that happens, editors can always ping one of the Wikipedia Experts, and we'll do our best to contact the student and instructor.
    As for the template, @Tryptofish, I feel like it serves the same function as the message I left and might get the same results (student not reading it). Brianda (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:48, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Brianda, thanks. I had looked at several of the GMO-related talk pages, and noticed the same thing that you did: that we have notices about the WP:GMORFC language, but we don't have the overall CTOP message for GMOs. I saw that first at the GM maize talk page, and thought it was an oversight that I could correct, but then I looked around and found it to be the case at numerous other topic-area talk pages. I'm not sure – maybe this happened at the DS-to-CTOP conversion?
    As for your message on that student's talk page, I saw that too, and I agree with you that it likely will go unread. In general (not for student editors in particular), ArbCom requires that the "official" templates be used, unmodified, for anyone to be "aware" such that WP:AE can enforce anything. But for a student editor, and particularly one who is likely not coming back here, that may be a moot point. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:06, 4 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    CIA class assignment[edit]

    I encountered a class assignment that initially appeared to be a sockpuppet farm. It looks like at least one other person had the same initial impression because it was the subject of a sockpuppet investigation in February. There's some more information about the class on that page. I'm somewhat concerned about WP:PRIMARY and WP:NPOV based on some of the edits. There are also some more typical new user issues such as overuse of the minor edit flag. I directed several of the students to Wikipedia:Student assignments for guidance and asked them to consider passing that link along to the instructor. It might be a good idea for someone from Wiki Ed to reach out and offer support. I'm open to contacting the instructor myself, but I wanted to get input here first. Thanks. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 08:00, 1 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Hi, thanks for letting us know about this. It's a course we supported in 2017. I've reached out to the instructor who taught it with us back then to see what's going on. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:54, 1 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks! Daniel Quinlan (talk) 22:31, 1 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Osher Lifelong Learning Institute students[edit]

    I used Wikipedia assignments in a 2012 course for undergraduates and in a 2019 course for graduate students. I'm now considering a course on editing Wikipedia for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute students. OLLI students are typically older than college students. Although things like grades and tests are frowned on, and required homework might not fly, these students are highly motivated learners. If anyone has embedded Wikipedia into an OLLI course, I'd like to learn from how that went. Cecile McKee Cecilemckee (talk 22:30, 8 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Topics relating to deaf people and Nazi Germany[edit]

    Hi. This is my first time posting here. When reviewing AfC submissions, I noticed a similar pattern between the drafts I linked above. All of them seemed to be essays about similar topics, which felt like a education assignment of some kind. Following a discussion at WP:AFCHD, I decided to come here and ask. What can be done about these drafts? The users don't have WikiEd notices on their talk pages, so I'm not sure if this is really an assignment. Thanks. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 07:31, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    I have posted the following notice where participants, if participants they be, can see it: "If this is an education project please ask your tutor to contact the Wiki Education Foundation for guidance" 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 07:40, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks! I replied on the AFCHD thread -- not much that can be done unless we can find the instructor. Hopefully if they are students they pass along your message! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:32, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    AI -related assignment?[edit]

    I've reviewed at AfC three drafts today, all by different users (seemingly, at least), and all copyvios from https://www.mygreatlearning.com/blog/expert-systems-in-artificial-intelligence/ , plus another by one of these users which was copied from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349449607_Design_of_an_expert_system_architecture_An_overview instead. Anyone know if there's a student assignment/project going on somewhere? -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 13:54, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Said users:
    -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 13:57, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    add Artificial Intelligence MLIS DAY 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 14:08, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Could this be linked? @DoubleGrazing @Timtrent Draft:R.B.T.S_Ruwange Qcne (talk) 17:57, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I think it might be, @Qcne, I'll ask the creating editor. {{Education project}} (SUBST essential) makes this easy 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 18:25, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    If you want to get really fancy, you can {{subst:education project}}. Primefac (talk) 12:04, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I reviewed another, User:Place_of_AI_in_Information_Retrieval/sandbox. I tagged it for G12. I have also tagged the one remaining copy for G12. Obvious copyvios should be tagged for G12. Even if no one else on the Internet takes copyright seriously, Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously. DoubleGrazing says that these are all by different users, seemingly, at least. I think that a sockpuppet report may be in order. They may be one troll. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:58, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Sockpuppet report filed. Only a Checkuser will know whether they are coming from the same IP address block. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:04, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    They were all confirmed by Checkuser and blocked. This was not a class project but some sort of misconduct. These were stupid copies, copies of web pages created by copying and pasting, losing the formatting. We see some of these stupid copies at MFD, found after having been sitting in a user page or user sandbox page of a user who came several years ago, created an account, left the coprolite, and departed. We don't know why they do this, but the stupid copies get deleted seven days after being nominated for deletion. This was a slightly different subspecies of a species of misconduct. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:47, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @Robert McClenon another one? User:Tokyo5359/sandbox Qcne (talk) 14:53, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    User:Qcne - Likely another. SPI submitted. MFD submitted. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:59, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Denmark related assignment[edit]

    Two drafts so far by editors:

    It would be lovely to help these students, the more so if their grades depend on it 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 16:38, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Medical drafts[edit]

    In the past couple of hours there's been a flurry of drafts, probably some sort of (pre-med? medical sciences?) student assignment. So far I've spotted at least:

    A few of these have noted on their user pages that they are studying at the University of Hong Kong.

    BTW, should we be pinging these users when filing such reports, or not? -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 13:36, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Pinging @Venuslui:, who used to help support education work in Hong Kong. Also pinging @無聊龍: and @だ＊ぜ:, who are listed as contacts for tutorials at m:Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong, so might be able to help. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:32, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you, User:DoubleGrazing. You and User:Jlwoodwa and I have looked at these drafts. I have posted the Student welcome on these user pages of the ones whose drafts I saw. The instructor may be User:G.J.ThomThom. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:32, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Hi there! Yes I'm the instructor. The topics for these articles came from Wikipedia's own list of requested articles for medicine. We consult one of the Wiki contacts in Hong Kong. What I'm learning is that some of the topics on the list of requested articles may already exist but use other terminology. This may explain why some of the articles the students draft don't make it to the main space. I'd be grateful for tips for how to navigate this better. Happy for any advice and guidance. G.J.ThomThom (talk) 18:03, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @G.J.ThomThom: Please read WP:ASSIGN if you have not read it already. Thanks. --Tryptofish (talk) 23:03, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Also Draft:Shortening of the eye muscle by Aalpaca92, possibly? jlwoodwa (talk) 17:36, 29 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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