Wikipedia:Education noticeboard/Incidents

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Welcome to the Education Program Incidents page. This page is for reporting and discussing specific incidents related to student editing and/or the Education Program on the English Wikipedia that require the intervention of experienced editors and/or administrators. Topics may include: Content issues created by real or potential student assignments Unresponsive classrooms or those editing with poorly managed or structured courses Classrooms editing without a course page or with an ambiguous page And any other issue that might relate to student assignments Of course, we should remain civil towards all participants and assume good faith.			Before posting a grievance about a user here, please discuss the issue with them on their user talk page. You should generally notify any user who is the subject of a discussion. You may use {{ping}} to do so, or simply link their username when you post your comment. It is not required to contact students when their edits are only being discussed in the context of a class-wide problem. Please include diffs to help us find the problem you are reporting. Please sign all contributions, using four tilde characters "~~~~". Threads are automatically archived after 7 days of inactivity. Where possible and relevant, please include the following information with any report: Article(s), Course, Instructor, Online volunteers, and Student.
See also
Special:Courses (a list of courses using the Education Program extension)		Wikipedia:Student assignments, for information about class editing norms		Wikipedia:Training, to get an introduction to Wikipedia

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Assignment created in mainspace

• SBI4U Emery Wikipedia Assignment (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
• Missgignac (talk · contribs)

A new user has just created an assignment in mainspace. Can somebody assist her with getting this placed properly? —C.Fred (talk) 22:45, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

@C.Fred: Thanks for the heads up. I couldn't find an email address, but left a message on her user talk page and sent an email to the only address on the school's website. Wiki Ed only supports higher education classes, but of course the education resources/materials are suitable for anyone, so I pointed her to them (and to the training). --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:53, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Is this one of ours?

User:SW 6352-090 Heather, Gabrielle, Laurel and Naima
They and others are making a mess of things:

• Chronic conditions
• SW 6352-090 Heather Chase, Gabrielle Ernest, Laurel Mallonee and Naima Mohamed
• Chronic Conditions SW 6352-090
• User:Joshua801

It looks like the online University of Utah has a course by the SW-6352-090 designator, if that helps any. Crow^Caw 23:25, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

@Crow: Thanks for the heads up. No, it's not one we support (nor one I've seen before now). The University of Utah course schedule site hasn't been responding but I found the professor by looking through faculty bios. Sent an email with information specific to her students and general information/resources about Wiki Ed to see if we can get them involved. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:23, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Update: I heard back from the professor. It was a brief email but the gist is that students are supposed to be drafting an article which they'll submit as a Word document rather than working on a live article. It sounds like the class might work with us next time around but for now it doesn't sound like there should be much (if any) more activity here. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:50, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! Crow^Caw 19:31, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

@Ryan (Wiki Ed): I deleted Chronic conditions SW 6352-090 as a clear copyright violation. The editor simply scrubbed out text that made the source text specific to Africa. You might want to let someone know? Keegan (talk) 03:31, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Apparent course deadline

Could someone take a look at User talk:PsychMajor15, and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? Looks like similar editing from one unregistered psych course-- no evidence of knowledge of MEDRS. Editors whose first edit is to drop in a bunch of text, with edit warring. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:24, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Also: [1] SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:48, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

I'd bet PsychLife18 is in the same course. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:16, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

@SandyGeorgia and Adam (Wiki Ed): Thanks. Emailed the prof this morning. --Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:09, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

UT Austin

See Talk:Epigenetics of human herpesvirus latency regarding an (unregistered?) course at UT-Austin, and two sub-par articles at Epigenetics of Childhood Abuse and Trauma and Epigenetics of human herpesvirus latency created by Mfstolm and Jkmayfield.77521? Could someone attempt to contact a professor, and could a friendly admin possibly userfy these articles so we don't have to clean up? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:13, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

SandyGeorgia, it looks like Epigenetics of human herpesvirus latency is being edited by other editors, w/ the childhood abuse article largely only being edited by the students. Might I recommend moving the latter but not the former? I'll try to find the professor. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:58, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Epigenetics of Childhood Abuse and Trauma looks to be copied from various sources.

• "Of these, 96 were maltreated children removed from their parents' care due to reports of abuse and/or neglect within 6 months of study enrollment, and 96 were controls with no history of maltreatment or exposure to intrafamilial violence."[2]
• "Healthcare providers and others charged with caring for this vulnerable population who understand the social setting of foster care and its impact on developmental health may help identify and treat developmental problems earlier, thus potentially reducing long-term effects of abuse and neglect."[3]

And so on. KateWishing (talk) 20:06, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Adam; I don't really care-- I'm just the messenger :) As I explained here to Everymorning and Ozzie10aaaa, if you clean up a poorly written, poorly sourced student article, you just make it harder to userfy it. So I will leave it for others to sort. I have a hard enough time keeping up with student edits on my own watchlist!

And, as pointed out by KateWishing, I'm quite troubled when well-meaning editors clean up student pages without first checking for copyvio. Everyone's time is wasted-- again. This time, I will let it be someone else's problem. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:12, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

The new article search bots popped up a whole bunch of these: Epigenetics of Human Development, Molecular and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Alcoholism, Epigenetics of Plant Growth and Development, Epigenetics of Depression, Epigenetics of male infertility, and Epigenetics of Neurodegenerative Diseases. I am normally willing to support content about fundamental biology that happens to be about humans as distinct from medical content, but these are well past my tolerance level. They look at first glance like decent term papers (though I haven't checked for copyvio/plagiarism). I'd rather move the whole group rather than confusing the issue by treating different students differently, but if you get ahold of the professor maybe they will figure out sandboxes themselves. Opabinia regalis (talk) 22:08, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

I would support a move to userfy all of them. We need to stop this timesink on regular editors that occurs with unregistered courses, and some action may draw the attention of the prof. Every one of us commenting on this problem could be writing valuable content instead. Userfy the lot. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:16, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

@Adam (Wiki Ed):, this course is old, but looks like a good starting place. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:28, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

• Polycomb Group Proteins and Cancer SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:31, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

@SandyGeorgia: Thanks for posting that syllabus. I have just emailed the professor to see if this is his course. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:03, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Were you all able to make any progress here? Helaine (Wiki Ed)? I've got epigenetics going on elsewhere. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 07:38, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

SandyGeorgia I emailed the professor, but have not heard anything back yet. Helaine (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:33, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Have deleted the copyright violations. Not sure what the solution is. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 12:14, 20 June 2015 (UTC)