User:Jackson Peebles/Adoption/Introduction

Introduction
Welcome to my adoption program! I am a bit of a pioneer with my hybrid Education Program and User Page approach, but I'm optimistic that this will be a great success and a way to incorporate as many users as possible into the inner workings of Wikipedia!

This course is an introduction for Western Michigan University and any other students to Wikipedia and the basics of some of the many options that users have at their disposal. It primarily addresses how to communicate with other editors (of all statuses) and how to edit pages. I am thrilled to be able to incorporate the Adopt-a-user program into the Education Program, allowing users to make positive contributions to the encyclopedia itself while learning its inner workings. Almost all of the credit for this content goes to Go Phightins! and Worm That Turned. I plan on continuing this course with gradual developments for some time. Enrollees must be simultaneously enrolled in my adoption program.

This course is, in my view, the most rigorous adoption option available on Wikipedia. It includes exams for every section (many of them applied) and a final examination as well as a final practical. This program is not a joke. There are much easier ways to hat collect. For this reason, this course may be a good indicator of dedication to the encyclopedia and may be taken into consideration by administrators if applying to be a reviewer or rollbacker for the betterment of the project.

It is worth mentioning that one can cheat on this course, but this is far different from saying that one should. The objective here is to learn. If you "fail" an exam, you may retake it until you know the content. There is absolutely no point in cheating. I've made it somewhat tricky, but any autoconfirmed editor should have the knowledge to see previous students' answers on their respective pages or to pull up an exam ahead-of-time. My recommendation is to come to your own conclusion, look at others' answers (with my responses), and come up with a better answer. There's nothing wrong with that so long as you read the lesson and understand the content. If you don't understand the content, don't cheat - just ask!

This course is a work in progress. It will be continued in future terms and will be built with additional content creation in mind as well as additional emphasis on anti-vandalism while using screencasts. If you would like to volunteer with this project, please contact me directly.

Please enjoy this course, and let me know if you ever need anything. It is my objective to be a mentor, not just a grader!

Next Steps
Please ask any questions at my talk page and then visit Education Program:Western Michigan University/Wikipedia (2013 Q2) to continue to the first lesson (or just click here). --Jackson Peebles (talk)