T195546/NS447:Test

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Feel free to bring up any items for discussion right here on this page. Hit "New Section" above to add a new topic/comment. Indent your responses with a colon (:) at the very beginning of the paragraph. Sign your name with a dash and four squiggly tildes!

Problem watching the video of session 1

Unfortunately, I am not able to watch the video of session one which took place last night from thee to four o'clock a.m. central European summer time. When I follow the link in either Google Chrome or Safari on Mac OS X 10.6.8, a jnlp file is downloaded. And that's all. I gather that this is a course in OER. Could you please upload the videos to Wikimedia Commons in a free format for all to watch? This way we could re-use them in all Wikimedia projects. May I ask why you are using a commercial platform and, what's more, a solution based on Java which is not secure, as we know by now.—Thanks.--Aschmidt (talk) 16:22, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi Aschmidt, thanks for your interest, and sorry for the hassles! We are very eager to migrate to tools that work better and/or are more philosophically aligned with Wikimedia's values. We will be using Blackboard Collaborate for live sessions for the duration of the course, but when we put out specific screencasts we do try to put them in a free format and upload them to Commons. If we can find a good way to convert the archive files to a free format, we would be very happy to do that; I welcome any suggestions (but it might be better to talk about stuff like this on my user talk page, or by email).

Finally, since you are in Europe, you may be interested to take our next session, which will be offered starting in July at a more Europe-friendly time of day. You can get a general overview of the class (which is mainly about Wikipedia, but covers OER as a central topic) here: j.mp/WIKISOO Thanks for your interest! -Pete (talk) 17:04, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

 Done There's now a version of the archive available on YouTube. We still hope to get it into an open format and on Wikimedia Commons, but I doubt we will get to that soon; the 100Mb file size limit on Commons may be a big hurdle. -Pete (talk) 02:27, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

That's really great! Thanks, Pete, for solving this problem. YouTube seems to be a good choice. Pls. also see my response on my personal talk page.--Aschmidt (talk) 19:08, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

I am just trying to note that I also used the Talk to give my appreciation for the archive and also the links to "talk etiquette". I have not found such a link for these types of pages - can you provide info to a link? Or is this just a public (only for the class members though I hope) talk page? thanks Patricia.Loeblein (talk) 19:51, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Archive from 1st webinar is now available!

Visit the Week 1 page at Wikipedia:WIKISOO/Week_1 to watch the webinar, check on week one homework, and more. OER Awesome! :) - Sara FB (talk) 19:13, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

And as Pete notes about, now available on Youtube.... -Sara FB (talk) 02:08, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

Accounts

I created a P2PU identity when I registered, but it did not follow me to this class. How do I get them to play nicely together? I am lgraham in P2PU, but created a new identity for WIKISOO, GramaLorrie30. Both use the same email. Should I delete the P2PU login?

GramaLorrie30 (talk) 15:27, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi GramaLorrie, unfortunately these two systems are not set up to play together. It's not a problem that you used two different names, though! You don't really need to worry about the P2PU system until you complete the course, if you submit your final project to earn a badge. For now, you can just come directly to Wikipedia each week and for your homework assignments. Hope that helps, and hope to see you in the lab session in about 10 hours! -Pete (talk) 15:32, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Pete. Now, another question - How do I contact the other members of my team? The directions say to click on their name & then click "email this user" - I do not see that listed. Your email is under your picture on the right hand side. Whether I attend tonight depends on when my daughter goes home ; )GramaLorrie30 (talk) 16:21, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

GramaLorrie, I have just posted a short instructional video to get you started. Hope this helps -- and if not, keep the questions coming! -Pete (talk) 17:44, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Busco compañeros de grupo

Hola a todos, quisiera unirme a un grupo pero dado que mi dominio del ingles es muy limitado estoy interesado en formar parte de un grupo de trabajo con compañeros que sepan español para facilitar la comunicación en ambos sentidos. Un saludo. - Cazalinks (Talk)

¡Hola! No hablo mucho español, pero espero que usted tenga éxito en la búsqueda de algunos compañeros que hablan español! -Pete (talk) 21:10, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Pete for the minds, a greeting. - Cazalinks (Talk) 19:15, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

Mucho gusto. Yo no hablo español muy bien, pero yo estudio español. Si tu enseñas español; yo gustar traducir su preguntas y clase de WikiSOO ;-) ChristineBushMV (talk) 00:47, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

ChristineBushMV Hi, thanks for your offer. I do not know much English but try to work hard as much as possible. I am at your disposal. - Cazalinks (Talk) 19:19, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

Why am I not on the 'enrolled' list?

I just looked at the Enrolled list and I'm not on it. So I went back through the instructions & clicked on "Enroll" and it says I need a token from the instructor. But I signed up through P2PU. Of course, I frequently skim through things until I get to the doing part & then go back to see what I've missed - which usually works just fine. Also, what is the Barn badge thing - I think it says assignement complete?Lorrie (talk) 16:12, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi Lorrie, sorry we didn't explain this more clearly. It's not a big deal that you're not showing up in the list, but it will become important as we get to the final project for the class, so it's a good idea to take care of it now. When you're looking at the main course page, there's a tab at the top that says "enroll" (and also an "enroll" button further down -- it does the same thing). You can actually shortcut to it by clicking here. When asked for a token, enter "WIKISOO" (without the quotes). That's it! -Pete (talk) 20:22, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

The token is WIKISOO!

Pete says this above, but I wanted to add it in BOLD text. :) To appear on the class list at the bottom of the Wikipedia page, simply click "Enroll" on the main course page and use the token WIKISOO. Welcome!!! = Sara FB (talk) 18:46, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

Editing your signature line?

A student asked me about how to sign her real name instead of her username when signing a post, e.g. when using - ~~~~ on a talk page. I do this myself; when I sign my name you see "Sara FB" even though my login is "snarfa." Here's what I did to make this happen - there may be other ways, so feel free to jump in (Pete?).

• Log into your account (top right)
• Choose Preferences (top right)
• Scroll down to "Signature" and paste this into the blank line under Current Signature:

[[User:YourUsername|NameYouWantPeopleToSee]] ([[User talk:YourUsername|talk]])

• Tick the box that says "Treat the above as wiki markup"

That's all! Then when you type - ~~~~ after something you comment, your preferred name will appear, with a bonus link to your talk page. These are great questions to post RIGHT HERE in this tab by the way, or bring to Thurs/Fri lab sessions. - Sara FB (talk) 21:56, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

Sara, that method works fine, but it's slight overkill for this purpose (clicking "treat as wiki markup" is intended to allow you to do stuff like specify a color or font, etc.) A slightly simpler way to do it is simply type in what name you want, and don't click "treat the above as wiki markup." -Pete (talk) 01:13, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Example of how to use color here? - Sara FB (talk) 21:37, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Shortcut or redirect for class home page

Can there be a redirect from the old class page to our current class page, like the redirect to the current class talkpage? Or a new shortcut altogether, like WIKISOO2, for our class? --User:Litjade (talk)

Hi Litjade, good suggestion -- but unfortunately, the "Education Program" pages we are using have some weird bug, so that redirect pages don't work properly. (I did create WP:WIKISOO2, you can click that to see what I mean.) This is a known bug, and it's being worked on…but probably won't be fixed during our course unfortunately! -Pete (talk) 01:11, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

How to add a new "Contents" category?

I am on the Talk tab, not the Education Program tab, and wanted to see if this is how to add a category to the "Contents" box. It appears that the nomenclature is "New Section" . I realize this is not a discussion thread, but am not sure how else to get discussion for the class since there is no blog and not everyone on my team has made a User Page, so I don't know their email. Anyone have a better way? Patricia.Loeblein (talk) 19:58, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

I found a great article called Help: Using Talk Pages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Using_talk_pages and there is information about adding "Sections" Patricia.Loeblein (talk) 21:42, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi Patricia! This is indeed the discussion page for the class. It's in the same format as the various talk tabs for all Wikipedia articles. So please do discuss everything right here on this page. Creating other pages for other purposes is also very easy, so I will ask Peter to address this in class today. And see the new section below on contacting other users directly... - Sara FB (talk) 21:45, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Contacting other users

Re Patricia's question above, to contact other users directly, leave a message on their User talk page - even if there is no content on the user page (yet!), if they have linked their account to an email address, they will be notified of the message. For example, feel free to contact me on my talk page anytime. :) Or if you prefer to contact them privately, go to their user page (whether they have added content or not), click on the Toolbox in the panel at left, and select "email this user." Hope that helps. - Sara FB (talk) 21:45, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Is this page only visible to class members?

I am thinking that at last weeks webinar, we were told this is a space for learners. Is that right?Patricia.Loeblein (talk) 20:01, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Petty much everything on wikipedia is globally visible, transparency is how we work. If you do/say something that you later regret you can remove it. If you do something with a strong negative impact on third parties, it can be removed from the page and page histories using Wikipedia:RFO. Probably what was meant by 'a space for learners' is that it's a forgiving place to experiment, which it is. Stuartyeates (talk) 20:15, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I am not worried about being rude, but I do need to practice - I guess I will delete all my edits sometime during this class. Do you know if there is a way to start a Talk page for our team?Patricia.Loeblein (talk) 20:24, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Patricia, let's ask Pete to address this issue of WP talk pages for individual teams in class today. It's a great idea! If you are very concerned about privacy, you can always use an account which does not reveal your real name. But most users' first edits are kinda silly (mine were *especially* silly). It's all part of the learning process in this wild new medium... -Sara FB (talk) 21:50, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

How do we get credit (badges) for viewing and reading?

I have been doing lots of the homework, but sticking to the readings and videos after finding nothing to edit on Community Portal. Can I still get a badge at the end of the course? I plan to attend all the webinars too Patricia.Loeblein (talk) 21:00, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Related question: how do you or myself keep track of the 200 or more edits, starting a new Wikipedia article, and/or improving an existing Wikipedia article? Redwellie14 (talk) 21:12, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi Patricia, Hi Redwellie. These are great questions and it's great that you're using this talk page for them!

• On the community portal, if you scroll down to the "Today's articles for improvement" section you can usually find something that needs a little help. If this isn't doing it for you we can look into other options - please let us know. (Personally I also like the "random article" link at left for finding things to work on.)
• Pete can review the process for obtaining the WIKISOO burba badge in class today. You can also read about it on the class home page or the P2PU web site.
• When you are logged into your user account, there is a link at top right called "Contributions" - if you (or any user) click(s) this, you can track all of your past contributions. Pete and I will review these when you apply for the burba badge.

Hope that helps! - Sara FB (talk) 22:00, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

I can't speak to how the course evaluators will be evaluating the course, but there are some pretty straight-forward links to see who's edited what. For example all my edits are listed at Special:Contributions/Stuartyeates and there's a birds' eye view on toolserver. If you substitute your own name (or anyone else's) into those URLs you'll see their work. Certain things are not shown (edits on other language wikipedias; deleted edits; edits on deleted pages; and maybe oversighted edits), but most are. Stuartyeates (talk) 22:47, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Are the Instructors contacting participants?

I am wondering since there is no P2PU blog, how instructors are helping the new learners. There are people on my team that have not made users accounts.I totally understand why they may have not yet done this because I have spent several hours doing my homework. It seems taking a class by using the thing you are trying to learn has benefits and pitfalls. I have used guided inquiry as an instruction model for three decades, so I believe in learners owning their path to knowledge. Having no way to contact the instructor directly does feel somewhat overly difficult. Although I am a self-directed learner, I do feel the need for some feedback. How will that happen? I can't attend the lab, but will attend the webinars. Respectfully,Patricia.Loeblein (talk) 21:32, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi Patricia, these are all great points. I thought I had greeted all new students on their TALK pages but it looks like I missed yours - my apologies! It is true that most of the 1:1 feedback is given during the labs, but you should feel free to contact me or Pete anytime on our talk pages. We'll also contact you on your own, or using the email option detailed above. Hope that helps. BTW, we'd love to have your ongoing feedback about communications as we are new instructors ourselves. - Sara FB (talk) 22:15, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

I cannot get into session 2

I have been trying since 30 minutes before the class started, but it keeps taking me to the week 1 Blackboard Collaborator session.Lorrie (talk) 01:19, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Dear Lorrie…this is our fault…I am very sorry to waste your time like that! Please expect an email explaining, and with a link to the archive of the class session, in the next 10-12 hours. (The archive will also be linked here when available: WP:WIKISOO/Week 2) -Pete (talk) 02:54, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

What does it mean to be reviewed?

I got an email notification that "User:Litjade was reviewed by Wikipedia user DragonflySixtyseven:". I've no idea what that means, nor who DragonflySixtyseven is. When I went to my userpage, I couldn't see anything different. Any ideas? User:Litjade (talk)

I'm not sure why you got this message, but User:DragonflySixtyseven is an experienced editor, if it bothers you, you can ask him about it on his talk page. Stuartyeates (talk) 02:23, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

All new pages are reviewed as part of new pages patrol to ensure that they're not spam or vandalism or other bad content. You created a user page here on the English Wikipedia on May 18, 2013. DragonflySixtyseven reviewed your new page (User:Litjade) on May 20, 2013 and marked it as "patrolled" (i.e., it was marked as being acceptable to be here). Hope that helps. --MZMcBride (talk) 03:07, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

beep boop

open education articles

Just to clarify, Is it okay to edit/add articles that are not about open education for homework?MJMcGowan (talk) 02:11, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes, you can edit any article you like -- especially in these early stages where it's more about getting a feel for Wikipedia than anything else. We encourage, but don't require, students to take on articles in the open education realm for your final projects. -Pete (talk) 02:47, 22 May 2013 (UTC)