Wikipedia talk:Communicate OER/SOO Course

Please feel free to use this page to ask questions about the course, the homework assignments, etc. -Pete (talk) 20:40, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Editing on the german wikipedia site
Hi Pete I think it is more easy for me to make the edits on the german site, since it is really hard to me, to make textcorrections in english (no native speaker). I already made some edits: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spezial:Beiträge/Andre.Spang Questions: For me, it makes sense to have 2 Userpages (for example to describe things in different languages), but it would be nice to have all contributions merged together. --Andre.Spang (talk) 13:19, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
 * 1) is it possible to do this for the homework?
 * 2) is it possible to show all edits/contributions under the same account? It appears that I have the same Username (Andre.Spang) for the german and the english site, but the contributions and the content of the user pages are separate.
 * This ist the german user page: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Andre.Spang
 * This is the english-page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Andre.Spang


 * I believe I answered #1 in the lab session, but just to keep a record of it here -- certainly! You are welcome to do the homework in any language version of Wikipedia.
 * For #2, sorry for the delayed response! Unfortunately, there is no way to easily track your contributions (or your watchlist either) across language editions in one place. -Pete (talk) 15:01, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Doing 1st week homework on own userpage
I couldn't find an article to edit (no native speaker English) so that I did my homework on my own userpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:YelliorangeCologne#Doodle --YelliorangeCologne 14:38, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

So, every wikipedia language version has its own userpage content? I edited my userpage in english; after few days I thought the edition was cancelled, or something. But Sara made me think about the language version, I mean, the userpage is edited in the english version of Wikipedia, but it still appears as a red link in the catalan version (Viquipèdia). I would appreciate any comment about this. Thanks, Maura (Mauralerga (talk) 09:05, 12 April 2013 (UTC)mauralerga)


 * Yes Maura, this is correct -- every Wikipedia is an entirely separate site. Your username and password are the same, but all the pages (including your user page) are different. If you want a user page on multiple language editions of Wikipedia, you must set them up separately.
 * You may want to create what is known as a "soft redirect" -- that is, a page that suggests to the reader that they click a link and view the page elsewhere. For an example, see my userpage on German Wikipedia. I don't speak German, but I wanted my German colleagues to be able to easily find me. I hope this helps! -Pete (talk) 15:07, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Week 2 homework
Hey, Pete! So the homework for this week suggests reviewing a topic related to OER in which we are experts. I don't think I'm an expert in any of those topics, so it's tough to reflect on thoroughness. Do you suggest I review through a different lens (one of a reader trying to learn about the topic rather than an expert), or do you think I should research one of those topics outside of Wikipedia and then compare based on my learnings? Just wondering what you think is an appropriate step at this point in our course. Thanks! Jami430 (talk) 04:43, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Jami, I am quite late in this reply, so it is probably not very helpful for you. My apologies. I think the first suggestion is the best: review an article from whatever perspective makes the most sense. It would not have to be an article about OER; but if you do choose an OER article, certainly a review from the perspective of somebody trying to learn about the topic would be worthwhile as well. We clearly need to rewrite this homework assignment, I appreciate you pointing out that it was confusing. -Pete (talk)

Week 3 homework
Just checking in. I'm caught up on lab and class archives now. Will miss class this week but will catch up on archive. I think my project will be to work on Viktor Hamburger trying to move from stub to good article or better. I did find a CC-By image and uploaded it. I will look at OER-related pages too as time permits.Rulew (talk) 18:16, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Nice! We have a new section on the P2PU site for archives only... - Sara FB (talk) 05:17, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
 * It looks like you have gotten off to a great start, Rulew! Thanks for sharing that. -Pete (talk) 15:13, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Week 4 homework
I'm not clear on the interview a Wikipedean assignment from Week #4. Was the round table supposed to fulfill this requirement? Should I post a "review" of that class in our Sandbox or somewhere else? Christine Bush in Mountain View, CA 05:40, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi Christine, the problem is my doing -- I never properly prepared that homework assignment, or introduced it to the class. The original idea was to encourage individuals or small groups to ask some questions of a Wikipedian on their own (not in the class session), but this is a loose end I never finished before starting the class. I apologize for the confusion. There is of course no requirement that you complete a homework assignment that I did not completely prepare :) (Also, the individual homework assignments are not formally required to earn the badge, but are more for your own learning; the main project and the 200 edit threshold are the significant bits.) More later on this -- I'm juggling in-person students at the Connexions conference right now! -Pete (talk) 17:33, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

quality/style question
I will likely miss lab April 5 so I'll post here; at some point I would like some discussion of WP:No_original_research - this is the policy my students and I run up against mostly; in some areas of science, published peer-reviewed primary sources is all there is and certainly this is what faculty want students to use if they have a wikipedia writing or editing assignment; it's a real problem for having students use Wikipedia for assignments.Rulew (talk) 16:23, 2 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Rulew, this is certainly an area -- maybe the principle area -- where the kind of writing Wikipedia seeks and the kind of writing a university instructor seeks can be highly divergent. If I may slightly nitpick your question, I think the topic you are asking about is better covered by WP:PRIMARY than WP:No original research. NOR is primarily about research conducted by the Wikipedia writer him or herself; I think what you are discussing still involves citing independent sources (that is, sources independent of the Wikipedia writer), so it's generally not a violation of NOR. Please take a look at WP:PRIMARY and if you still have questions, bring them up here, or at the lab this week. I hope this helps! -Pete (talk) 05:29, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Whoops, I see that WP:PRIMARY is actually a sub-section of WP:NOR. So I suppose you've already read it. Let's be sure to discuss in the lab session! -Pete (talk) 06:48, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Questions About the WikiSOO Course
Q: Why is this course is being taught in the Wikipedia namespace instead of through Wikiversity? Christine Bush in Mountain View, CA 18:02, 26 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Christine, can you brief us on the role of Wikiversity and why that might have been a better choice? For us this project is under the umbrella of the Communicate OER project so this was a natural fit. Pete may have more info. - Sara FB (talk) 17:17, 1 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Sure. Wikiversity is the sister project to Wikipedia described as:


 * Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. We invite teachers, students, and researchers to join us in creating open educational resources [emphasis mine] and collaborative learning communities. To learn more about Wikiversity, try a guided tour or start editing now.


 * In other words, Wikiversity is intended as a place where OER are actually crafted and used. A course about OER seems more like an OER than an encyclopedia article, so I wanted to suggest it might be helpful to consider future classes on this topic be held through Wikiversity (even though it is a class about using Wikipedia) because it is still a class. I don't mean this to sound overly critical. I realize that the WikiSOO class is using P2PU.org, a corollary to Wikiversity. I was just curious about the process, really.


 * For more on teaching: Creating educational content at Wikiversity
 * For more on learning: Tour for newcomers


 * Thanks! - Sara FB (talk) 22:40, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

WikiEducator and OER

 * I've also just learned of Wikieducator OERu. I'm now really curious about the purpose of WikiEducator vs. Wikiversity. An article at Wikiversity about WikiEducator offers this:


 * WikiEducator is an education-oriented wiki that aims to produce a free version of the education curriculum. WikiEducator has a collection of learning content in a variety of disciplines, with a unique approach to developing learning content. The project has a strong focus on users contributing free content resources, often linking incentives to the process of contribution to encourage users to participate; as a result, WikiEducator has built up a strong content database.


 * ....The founder of WikiEducator, Dr. Wayne Mackintosh, sits on the Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation, and has a Wikiversity account.


 * WikiEducator is not a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Christine Bush in Mountain View, CA 16:07, 4 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Christine, there is no simple answer -- Wikiversity and Wikieducator are similar in many ways, but different in many others. The simplest explanation is that I wanted to choose a place where there are not too many rules, where it is possible to just do your work and nobody will interfere, and my sense of Wikieducator is that it is a good choice for that. I am not as familiar with Wikiversity, and it's difficult to assess whether or not what we wanted to do would be considered in scope. It may have been a great choice, but at the time I was less sure, and just needed to get started building pages. -Pete (talk) 15:16, 12 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Pete, I am both satisfied with and appreciative of the response to this question. Keep calm and carry on. :-) Christine Bush in Mountain View, CA 23:37, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Questions from OER Panel Discussion Session

 * One thing I'm interested in, as an academic librarian: the role librarians can/do play in promoting OE and OER. Some ideas in circulation: data curation, connecting learners with resources, creation of OER. Any of these of highest priority? Anything else we can be doing?Nafpaktitism (talk) 16:37, 16 April 2013 (UTC)


 * More generally: Do all OER have to have been created from the outset explicitly as *educational* or are they anything that is used by learners to educate themselves?Nafpaktitism (talk) 16:37, 16 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Hi Nafpaktitism -- for your first question, I think you will find some good ideas in Chapter 2 of the book I mentioned in class, A Basic Guide to OER. For your second, I think the latter; OERs are generally resources that can be used for learning or education. It's possible there are people out there who take a more strict view, but I don't think I've encountered any! -Pete (talk) 21:16, 16 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Also wondering if the webinar archive for today's session will be up soon? So many fantastic suggestions/critiques for developing the OER page - would be nice to listen to it again.Nafpaktitism (talk) 04:16, 17 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Nafpaktitism -- did you see it is now live on our archive page? -Pete (talk) 14:23, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

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