Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Newsletter/2

Userboxes and profiles
We now have userboxes, and corresponding categories, for both Campus Ambassadors and Online Ambassadors: user campus ambassador and user online ambassador. If you use userboxes, feel free to add the relevant ambassador userbox (by typing in that exact code above, the one with the double curly brackets). Or, for the latter category, you can use the more discrete &#123;{Online Ambassador topicon|icon_nr=1}} (icon_nr is only needed is you already have a topicon.) Failing that, you can just add the relevant category to your userpage: Category:Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors and Category:Wikipedia Online Ambassadors.

Be a coordinating ambassador for a class
Over the next week or two, we want to try to find a "coordinating ambassador" for each course, or at least all the courses that don't have a seasoned Wikipedian as a Campus Ambassador. This role has traditionally been filled by Online Ambassadors, but Campus Ambassadors and Online Ambassadors-in-training are more than welcome and encouraged to take this on as well. The main role of a coordinating ambassador is to make sure none of the students are slipping through the cracks, e.g., with an unresponsive mentor. For the classes that want us to assign mentors directly to the students, rather than having students choose mentors, the coordinating ambassador should also choose a mentor for each student and inform the mentors of the pairings. And in general, the coordinating ambassador should try to keep up with the progress of the course and let others know about any large-scale problems that come up.

If there is a particular course you'd like be the coordinating ambassador for, please sign up on the courses page (here or here). If you've volunteered for the role but don't sign up yourself, Sage will ask you to coordinate one of the remaining classes.

New screencasts
Our set of tutorial screencasts for newcomers is growing, including a whole batch by Basket of Puppies.

We found last term that few students seemed to be using watchlists, and so missed activity they would have been interested in. If you're looking for a quick way to introduce students to the watchlist, and how and why to use it, try one of the two watchlist videos! We've been collecting other instructional videos that may be useful for instructors and ambassadors on the ambassadors resources page.

Suggestions for revising or replacing screencasts are also welcome. And if you want to try your hand at a screencast, go for it!

Updates from Campus Ambassadors
A slew of Campus Ambassadors have reported on how things are going in the classrooms. Most of these are going to the Google Group (if you aren't subscribed and would like to be, contact Sage or Annie), but some ambassadors are also posting their updates on the course pages. Check out the progress reports from the Federal Indian Law and Policy course for a great example. If you've done an update from your class(es) and would like to share it on-wiki, please do!

Other news

 * An on-wiki application option for the Online Ambassador role is now being tested out, in addition to the previous process. See Online Ambassadors/Apply.
 * Our first Editing Friday was a success! We had 15 people working on Tradition, with 179 edits, bringing it from a rather bad Start-class article to a solid B-class article.  We'll try to do these regularly; the second Editing Friday is today!  Ambassadors will be working on Theatre from late Friday (today) UTC into Saturday.  Feel free to pitch in before or after, if you can't make it then.
 * Guys, when you work on Theatre, please look at Drama, as there is substantial overlap between the two articles, and the relationship between the two articles should be clarified. Best regards, -- Ssilvers (talk) 07:22, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Things you can do

 * Do things from the last newsletter.
 * Give feedback on the ambassador resources. We're looking to maintain a great collection resources for helping students and for designing and running Wikipedia assignments. If you see some critical need, make a suggestion or jump in and address it.
 * Do GA Reviews. Currently the backlog stretches all the way back to early November and includes more than 280 articles. Many of our students will be asking for their articles to go for GA review, but reviewing will fall to Online Ambassadors if the backlog is long and normal reviewers are looking at other articles. This could unfairly expedite student reviews, prioritizing them over other contributors. Give it a try, and if you want a second opinion feel free to ask a fellow ambassador.