4 ms·

What happens when the existing editors decide to block the student's changes, even when they are well referenced and fix existing errors? Would be hard in prac

What happens when the existing editors decide to block the student's changes, even when they are well referenced and fix existing errors? Would be hard in practice to mark. Perhaps the student could submit what they would like the page to look like, and the lecturer could just mark that. Putting even part of a student's mark in the hands of often irrational Wikipedia editors seems unreasonable.

dspillett 12y ago
Unless they really take exception to the changes and properly expunge them, the student's updated version will still be visible in the history (with a diff between it and the previous versions easy to view) - so overly territorial editors wouldn't be that much of a problem unless they were completely fruit-loop. And as a precautionary measure, there is always "File, Save Page As".
- x1798DE 12y ago
  Just to add to this, getting in touch with a Wikipedian who deals with this sort of thing a lot - preferably before starting the assignment, but if necessary after some sort of drama has occurred - probably goes a long way. There are a lot of under-watched corners of Wikipedia where territorial fruit loops sit on guard, but experienced editors usually know how to navigate those rough waters when they come upon them. Generally when people start these courses they just notify everyone ahead of time, get advice from wikipedians, make sure the students are adequately sourcing and documenting their process, etc. You tend to have these conflict issues when a student goes into an article and dumps a whole bunch of changes of varying quality in there at once, then doesn't know where to go to find sympathetic editors who can sort out relevant quality and policy concerns from basic territorial behavior.
  - dspillett 12y ago
    Also as the suggestion was for a learning/experience exercise, running into someone like that is a useful life lesson especially if things turn out well in the end. Being able to work around such problems (often it is a matter of carefully controlling your tone & presentation, including being aware that the person on the other end knows nothing about you and has no body language cues to gauge your behaviour from so you have to be more careful to be very clear in your intent than you would in real life) and find the common ground needed to cooperate is a very useful life skill.

dspillett 12y ago

Unless they really take exception to the changes and properly expunge them, the student's updated version will still be visible in the history (with a diff between it and the previous versions easy to view) - so overly territorial editors wouldn't be that much of a problem unless they were completely fruit-loop. And as a precautionary measure, there is always "File, Save Page As".

x1798DE 12y ago
Just to add to this, getting in touch with a Wikipedian who deals with this sort of thing a lot - preferably before starting the assignment, but if necessary after some sort of drama has occurred - probably goes a long way. There are a lot of under-watched corners of Wikipedia where territorial fruit loops sit on guard, but experienced editors usually know how to navigate those rough waters when they come upon them. Generally when people start these courses they just notify everyone ahead of time, get advice from wikipedians, make sure the students are adequately sourcing and documenting their process, etc. You tend to have these conflict issues when a student goes into an article and dumps a whole bunch of changes of varying quality in there at once, then doesn't know where to go to find sympathetic editors who can sort out relevant quality and policy concerns from basic territorial behavior.
- dspillett 12y ago
  Also as the suggestion was for a learning/experience exercise, running into someone like that is a useful life lesson especially if things turn out well in the end. Being able to work around such problems (often it is a matter of carefully controlling your tone & presentation, including being aware that the person on the other end knows nothing about you and has no body language cues to gauge your behaviour from so you have to be more careful to be very clear in your intent than you would in real life) and find the common ground needed to cooperate is a very useful life skill.