Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Education Program extension
 | The following is a draft working towards a proposal for adoption as a Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal must not be taken to represent consensus, but is still in development and under discussion, and has not yet reached the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as policy, guideline, nor yet even as a proposal. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Wikimedia Foundation has built the Education Program extension to make it easier to keep track of classes where students are assigned to edit Wikipedia. Should this be enabled on English Wikipedia? If so, who should be able to use it? |
Purpose of this request for comment
This request for comment is asking whether to turn on the Education Program extension that the Wikimedia Foundation has been developing to make the activity of Wikipedia Education Program courses—and potentially other educational assignments as well—more transparent and easier for the community to track.
The request for comment is scheduled to run [typical 30 day RfC length]
Background and possible outcomes
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The Wikipedia Education Program has developer support for improving this extension for the next 1-2 months, so if this extension is enabled, we have some opportunity to improve it based on feedback from the community. It's a starting point that could later be taken in different directions depending on the needs of the community. Large-scale changes will not be feasible in this time period, however, so the scope of this request for comment is simply whether or not to enable it, and options for how restricted the use of the extension should be (i.e., how to configure the user rights) if it is enabled. Overview of the extensionThe central function of this extension is to keep track of which users are part of a Wikipedia editing assignment—as an instructor, a student, or a volunteer helping the class contribute effectively. It lets users create a standard course page for each class; through an enrollment token (which the instructor would typically send to the students), users can sign on as students in the class. Students can then list the article(s) they are working on, and sign up to review the work of classmates. Course pages, as well as Institution pages listing all the courses at the same educational institution, are displayed in a new namespace called "Education Program:". The Course and Institution pages are not conventional wiki pages—they only display structured information about the participants in the class as well as a course description that is editable by the instructor—but the associated talk pages are normal talk pages (which can be started or edited by anyone, like any other talk page). The extension also includes a number of new special pages for listing and filtering courses and participants, and for making student activity on wiki more transparent. These include:
The extension will have almost no impact on the normal order of things on Wikipedia. Aside from the Course pages, Institution pages, and special pages, the extension will create new log entries for when students enroll in classes and for other events related to the course pages. Possible outcomes
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Turning the extension on
Turning on the extension will make it easier to see what courses are going on and what students are doing, and provides a software starting point for developing better ways of supporting and regulating Wikipedia assignments. If it is enabled, developer support is available to make improvements that the community wants for the next several weeks. A secondary benefit is that the extension makes it easier for Wikimedia Foundation to collect and analyze data about student contributions, although if necessary Wikimedia staff can manually compile lists of participating students as they have in the past. The extension could also potentially be used in other ways, such as for organizing participation in edit-a-thon events.
It is designed to have minimal impact on the rest of Wikipedia, for those who don't want to use it. The new "Education Program:" namespace doesn't overwrite any existing Wikipedia articles (sorry, Course: Oblivion (Star Trek: Voyager), for the first version!), although obviously it would prevent the creation of articles with titles beginning "Education Program:".
Support — the extension should be turned on
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Oppose — the extension should not be turned on
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Discussion
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Configuring the extension
The configuration and naming of user rights for this extension is easy to change based on the how the community wants to use it. Bigger changes and feature requests are out of the scope of this request for comment. The basic functions that can be controlled by user rights include:
- Assigning and removing user rights related to the extension
- Creating new course pages
- Creating new institution pages
- Listing a user as an instructor for a course
- Listing a user as an online ambassador for a course
- Listing a user as a campus ambassador for a course
- Deleting and mass-deleting course pages
- Viewing or changing the 'enrollment token' for a course
- Removing a student from a course
Configure for exclusive Wikipedia Education Program use
user rights configuration details
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This option would use the following user rights:
Education Program coordinators are the education program participants who manage the use of the Education Program extension. The user right would be given to volunteer Regional Ambassadors in the United States and Canada Education Programs, individual volunteers and Wikimedia chapter representatives running education programs in English-speaking countries, and Wikipedia Education Program staff. Users in the ep-coordinator usergroup have full access to the "Education Program" namespace, including removing a reviewer or student from a course, and granting (and removing) user rights for new (or former) instructors and ambassadors. Coordinators can bulk-delete course pages. Users in the ep-coordinator usergroup can assign any of the user rights for the Education Program extension, including adding new coordinators.
Education Program campus ambassadors is the user right for participating Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors, who guide students face-to-face in courses affiliated with the Wikipedia Education Program. At present, on English Wikipedia this only includes the United States and Canada programs, although Wikimedia U.K. is in the process of developing a Campus Ambassadors program as well. Users in the ep-campus-ambassador usergroup may edit course pages and institution pages and may sign up on a course page to be a campus ambassador for a course.
Education Program online ambassadors is the user right for participating Wikipedia Online Ambassadors, experienced Wikipedians who are selected by the community to guide students remotely in courses affiliated with the Wikipedia Education Program. Users in the ep-online-ambassador usergroup may edit course pages and institution pages and may sign up on a course page to be an online ambassador for a course.
Education Program instructors are instructors at learning institutions who have affiliated a course they teach with the Wikipedia Education Program. As of August 2012, all instructors with the Education Program instructor user right will have successfully completed an online orientation that covers the basics of Wikipedia policies and tips for designing assignments that meet Wikipedia's needs. Users in the ep-instructor usergroup may create and edit course pages and institution pages and may sign up as an instructor for a course. They also may remove a student from a course they instruct. |
This configuration would involve limited risk of misuse, and have extremely little impact on existing community process. The current design of the extension matches with "online ambassador" and "campus ambassador" roles used in the United States and Canada Education Programs. However this would limit opportunities for involvement of community members not formally affiliated with the Wikipedia Education Program, since it wouldn't be used beyond the limited number of classes that will officially be participating in the United States and Canada Education Programs in the Fall 2012 (August to December) term, and additional programs that develop in English-speaking countries in the future.
Support
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Configure for any use by anyone, subject to approval by an admin or other trusted user
user rights configuration details
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This option would use the following user rights:
Course coordinators (ep-coordinator usergroup) are trusted editors who are given full access to the education program extension. They can create and delete course pages and institution pages, assign the ep-instructor right to users leading courses, assign the ep-campus and ep-online rights for users who are assisting the course (respectively) in-person or online, and remove a reviewer or student from a course. Administrators have access to all the rights of the ep-coordinator usergroup, and can grant the right to trusted editors according to community-determined criteria. (As a starting point, the Regional Ambassadors participating in the Wikipedia Education Program should be given the course coordinator right to use for Wikipedia Education Program courses.)
Campus volunteers (ep-campus usergroup) are users who are working with courses in person to help instructors and/or students learn to contribute to Wikipedia. For courses in the Wikipedia Education Program, these are the Education Program campus ambassadors; the user right can also be assigned to those who are helping in-person with courses that are not part of the Wikipedia Education Program. Users in the ep-campus usergroup may edit course pages and institution pages and may sign up on a course page to be a campus volunteer for a course. Admins and course coordinators should grant the campus volunteer right to Campus Ambassadors working with Wikipedia Education Program courses as well as editors in good standing who wish to volunteer in person helping other courses.
Online volunteers (ep-online usergroup) are users who volunteer to help specific courses on-wiki. For courses in the Wikipedia Education Program, these are the Education Program online ambassadors; the user right can also be assigned to those who are helping online with courses that are not part of the Wikipedia Education Program. Users in the ep-online usergroup may edit course pages and institution pages and may sign up on a course page to be an online volunteer for a course. Admins and course coordinators should grant the online volunteer right to Online Ambassadors working with Wikipedia Education Program courses as well as editors in good standing who wish to volunteer on-wiki helping other courses.
Course instructors are users who are running Wikipedia assignments and other organized editing events using the course pages through the Education Program extension. This includes, but is not limited to, instructors who are participating in the Wikipedia Education Program. Users in the ep-instructor usergroup may create and edit course pages and institution pages and may sign up as an instructor for a course. They also may remove a student from a course they instruct. Admins and course coordinators should grant the course instructor right to everyone who seems to be leading a legitimate course. |
This configuration would give us a chance to better manage and monitor classes both within and outside of the Wikipedia Education Program. Depending on how it's used, it also provides an opportunity for interaction with and vetting of classes and assignment design before they get started from community members not already affiliated with the Wikipedia Education Program. (As an example, the community could create a process similar to Articles for Creation to make sure instructors have a basic understanding of what is acceptable and feasible before allowing them to create course pages; note that all instructors affiliated with the Wikipedia Education Program will need to go through an online orientation before receiving the instructor user right.) Opening it up more does increase the potential for misuse, such as fake courses clogging the system. It also adds the burden of reviewing course and assignment design for editors not affiliated with the Wikipedia Education Program, although it potentially decreases the cleanup burden for badly done assignments that are only discovered after the fact.
Support
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Configure for use by any autoconfirmed user
user rights configuration details
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This option would use the following user rights:
Course coordinators (ep-coordinator usergroup) are trusted editors who are given full access to the education program extension, including deleting course pages and institution pages, removing an instructor, a campus or online volunteer, a reviewer or student from a course, and adding the ep-instructor right to users who are leading courses. Administrators have access to all the rights of the ep-coordinator usergroup, and can grant the right to trusted editors according to community-determined criteria.
Course instructors (ep-instructor usergroup) are users who are recognized as legitimate instructors for a course. Any autoconfirmed user may create a course and add him or herself as an instructor for a course. Those with the ep-instructor right may also remove a student from a course they instruct.
All other functions of the extension are available to any autoconfirmed user, including: signing on to a course as an instructor or a campus or online volunteer; and creating and editing (but not deleting) a course or institution page. |
This type of setup would be the most accessible and the most likely to draw in more classes that would otherwise attempt Wikipedia assignments without community involvement or on-wiki documentation, but it would also have most potential for misuse and would limit opportunities for requiring community interaction and vetting of classes before they get started. A community process would need to be developed for how the "course coordinator" right should be assigned, although in the meantime admins would be able to handle administrative tasks such as distributing the "course instructor" right and deleting unused course pages.
Support
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Configure some other way
If you would like to suggest some other configuration of the rights for the extension not listed above, do so here.
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Discussion
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