User talk:Erhall

Greeting Winona State POLS 410 Students!

Hello!

Hi Erhall, welcome to Wikipedia! I look forward to our virtual training tomorrow. Annie Lin (Campus Team Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 06:25, 2 February 2011 (UTC) Thank you very much.Rungaroon (talk) 22:01, 1 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject: United States Public Policy

Campus Ambassador

Online Chat

Questions and Answers

Q:Editing in Sandbox Pages- Hide portions (such as in html code) A:

Q:Online Mentors A:

Choose mentors?

Hi there! I'm the coordinating ambassador for the Winona Political Research Seminar.
I noticed that the students should have chosen mentors by now. They don't have to, not yet at least, but I just felt like notifying you, as you are their on-campus ambassador. If you want me to, I can notify them (on their talk pages) that they can choose their mentors now. Otherwise, we can assign them ourselves.
As a side note, you might want to see what the students are doing in their sandboxes. They're making quite good progress! Cheers, ManishEarthTalk • Stalk 15:33, 3 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Manish- I have been following the emails sent for the past few months and the thread of emails from today (April 13) are especially important in regards to some of my findings and the instructors findings during the mid-semester assessment. This includes:

  • Assessment and feedback versus "assignment"
  • Expectations of the campus stakeholder need to be more clearly defined (that is during the project start-up phase). After going through this project once, I have a much better sense of how to redirect next time.
  • Overall communication and better time management

I will share on the Winona State course page which students need online ambassadors and which students may edit an existing article based on their research project. Since the students have not yet contacted online ambassadors is it possible for online ambassadors to contact the students noted on the course page continuing with article development? Thanks for your support and your guidance. Erhall (talk) 17:41, 13 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've asked the other Ambassadors to choose mentees from this project. If you or any of the students have any doubts, feel free to contact me on my talk page. Thanks, ManishEarthTalk • Stalk 13:00, 14 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! Not all students will need online mentors (as noted on the course page) and may not do anymore than what is posted to their sandbox page. If any of those listed as working with online ambassadors have doubts, I will contact you immediately. As the online mentors will see, some student have not created necessarily a new article, but have some new information in their sandbox to add to an existing article. Again, I appreciate your assistance and the opportunity for this learning experience. Erhall (talk) 15:09, 14 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

One of the mentors wanted to know exactly what his mentee was working on. Do you have a list of what articles the students are working on? The page titles on their sandboxes sound more like essays and less like articles, so I'm not sure if I should note those down as the article name. Oh, and do you know when the students are going to resume editing? They're rather inactive now. ManishEarthTalk • Stalk 03:32, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also, could you specify exactly how you want the ambassadors to interact with the students? We have a few choices for the students working with ambassadors:
  • Individual mentorship: Here, we have a one to one correspondence of mentors. The mentor views the student's work and gives feedback on it. He also helps solve any difficulties. The students can choose mentors themselves from here (make sure the ambassadors don't have a FULL next to their name). Or, we can ask ambassadors to choose mentees. This will take longer, and there is no guarantee that all students will get mentors (though we'll try to make sure that doesn't happen)
  • Collective mentorship: The students can ask any ambassadors for help. A few ambassadors and I will keep tabs on their work.
  • Let them choose: We can let them choose if they want to choose mentors, have them assigned, or not have an individual mentor at all.
Please let me know which way you want to go about it, or if you have another idea which you want to follow. Thanks, ManishEarthTalk • Stalk 10:27, 22 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your feedback. I do know that one student wants to move forward with the project at this time. I have visited with the instructor, but have not heard back in regards to what other students are going to be continuing on with the project.

Wikipedia Ambassador Program Newsletter: 21 March 2011



This is the third issue of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program Newsletter, with details about what's going on right now and where help is needed.


Delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 22:22, 21 March 2011 (UTC) [reply]

Wikipedia Ambassador Program Newsletter: 22 April 2011



This is the fourth issue of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program Newsletter, with details about what's going on right now and where help is needed.


Delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 16:32, 22 April 2011 (UTC) [reply]

Please take the Wikipedia Ambassador Program survey

Hi Ambassador,

We are at a pivotal point in the development of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program. Your feedback will help shape the program and role of Ambassadors in the future. Please take this 10 minute survey to help inform and improve the Wikipedia Ambassadors.

WMF will de-identify results and make them available to you. According to KwikSurveys' privacy policy: "Data and email addresses will not be sold, rented, leased or disclosed to 3rd parties." This link takes you to the online survey: http://kwiksurveys.com?u=WPAmbassador_talk

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments, Thank You!

Amy Roth (Research Analyst, Public Policy Initiative) (talk) 20:38, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ambassador Program: assessment drive

Even though it's been quiet on-wiki, the Wikipedia Ambassador Program has been busy over the last few months getting ready for the next term. We're heading toward over 80 classes in the US, across all disciplines. You'll see courses start popping up here, and this time we want to match one or more Online Ambassadors to each class based on interest or expertise in the subject matter. If you see a class that you're interested, please contact the professor and/or me; the sooner the Ambassadors and professors get in communication, the better things go. Look for more in the coming weeks about next term.

In the meantime, with a little help I've identified all the articles students did significant work on in the last term. Many of the articles have never been assessed, or have ratings that are out of date from before the students improved them. Please help assess them! Pick a class, or just a few articles, and give them a rating (and add a relevant WikiProject banner if there isn't one), and then update the list of articles.

Once we have updated assessments for all these articles, we can get a better idea of how quality varied from course to course, and which approaches to running Wikipedia assignments and managing courses are most effective.

--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 17:24, 27 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Come hang out with us online!

Hi! I wanted to let you know that we have created an IRC channel for "countering systemic bias one new editor at a time", aka closing the gender gap! Come hang out at #wikimedia-gendergap if that subject interests you. We hope this channel can serve as a safe haven to hang out, talk about Wiki, brainstorming, women in Wikimedia, article alerts and foster friendships. I hope you join us! (And if you need any IRC help, just let me know!) See you there! SarahStierch (talk) 13:22, 13 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Survey

Hi Erhall!

I have put together a survey for female editors of Wikipedia (and related projects) in order to explore, in greater detail, women's experiences and roles within the Wikimedia movement. It'd be wonderful if you could participate!

It's an independent survey, done by me, as a fellow volunteer Wikimedian. It is not being done on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation. I hope you'll participate!

Just click this link to participate in this survey, via Google!

Any questions or concerns, feel free to email me or stop by my user talk page. Also, feel free to share this any other female Wikimedians you may know. It is in English, but any language Wikimedia participants are encouraged to participate. I appreciate your contributions - to the survey and to Wikipedia! Thank you! SarahStierch (talk) 21:47, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to Wikipedia - Stop by the Teahouse for help anytime! :)

Hello! Erhall, you are invited to join other new editors and friendly hosts in the Teahouse. An awesome place to meet people, ask questions and learn more about Wikipedia. Please join us! SarahStierch (talk) 20:43, 28 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please fill out our brief Teahouse survey!

Hello fellow Wikipedian, the hardworking hosts and staff at Wikipedia:Teahouse would like your feedback! We have created a brief survey meant to help us better understand the experience of new editors on Wikipedia. You are being selected to participate in our survey because you either received an invitation to visit the Teahouse, or edited the Teahouse Questions or Guests page.

Click here to be taken to the survey site.

The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. We really appreciate your feedback, and we look forward to your next vist to the Teahouse!

Happy editing,

J-Mo, Teahouse host, 15:26, 20 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Message sent with Global message delivery.

WikiWomen's Collaborative

WikiWomen Unite!
Hi Erhall! Women around the world who edit and contribute to Wikipedia are coming together to celebrate each other's work, support one another, and engage new women to also join in on the empowering experience of shaping the sum of all the world's knowledge - through the WikiWomen's Collaborative.

As a WikiWoman, we'd love to have you involved! You can do this by:

We can't wait to have you involved, and feel free to drop by our meta page (under construction) to see how else you can participate!

Can't wait to have you involved! SarahStierch (talk) 04:04, 10 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Ambassadors update

Hi! You're getting this message because you are or have been a Wikipedia Ambassador. A new term is beginning for the United States and Canada Education Programs, and I wanted to give you an update on some important new information if you're interested in continuing your work this term as a Wikipedia Ambassador.

You may have heard a reference to a transition the education program is going through. This is the last term that the Wikimedia Foundation will directly run the U.S. and Canada programs; beginning in June, a proposed thematic organization is likely to take over organizing the program. You can read more about the proposal here.

Another major change in the program will take effect immediately. Beginning this term, a new MediaWiki education extension will replace all course pages and Ambassador lists. (See Wikipedia:Course pages and Help:Education Program extension for more details.) Included in the extension are online volunteer and campus volunteer user rights, which let you create and edit course pages and sign up as an ambassador for a particular course.

If you would like to continue serving as a Wikipedia Ambassador — even if you do not support a class this term — you must create an ambassador profile. If you're no longer interested in being a Wikipedia Ambassador, you don't need to do anything.

Please do these steps as soon as possible

First, you need the relevant user rights for Online and/or Campus Ambassadors. (If you are an admin, you can grant the rights yourself, for you as well as other ambassadors.) Just post your rights request here, and we'll get you set up as quickly as possible.

Once you've got the ambassador rights, please set up at a Campus and/or Online Ambassador profile. You can do so at:

Going forward, the lists of Ambassadors at Special:CampusAmbassadors and Special:OnlineAmbassadors will be the official roster of who is an active Ambassador. If you would like to be an Ambassador but not ready to serve this term, you can un-check the option in your profile to publicly list it (which will remove your profile from the list).

After that, you can sign on to support courses. The list of courses will be at Special:Courses. (By default, this lists "Current" courses, but you can change the Status filter to "Planned" to see courses for this term that haven't reached their listed start date yet.)

As this is the first term we have used the extension, we know there will be some bugs, and we know the feature set is not as rich as it could be. (A big wave of improvements is already in the pipeline. And if you know MediaWiki and could help with code review, we'd love to have your help!) Please reach out to me (Sage Ross) with any complaints, bug reports, and feature suggestions. The basic features of the extension are documented at Wikipedia:Course pages, and you can see a tutorial for setting up and using them here.

Communication and keeping up to date

In the past, the Education Program has had a pretty fragmented set of communication channels. We're trying to fix that. These are the recommended places to discuss and stay up-to-date on the education program:

  1. The education noticeboard has become the main on-wiki location for discussion of the Education Program. You can post there about broad education program issues as well as issues with individual courses.
  2. The Ambassadors Announce email list is a very low-traffic announcements list of important information all Ambassadors need to be aware of. We encourage all Ambassadors (and other interested Wikipedians) to subscribe to the list; follow the instructions on the link to add your email address.
  3. If you use IRC regularly, or need to try to reach someone immediately, the #wikipedia-en-ambassadors connect IRC channel is the place to find me and fellow Ambassadors.
Ambassador training and resources

We now have an online training for Ambassadors, which is intended to be both an orientation about the Wikipedia Ambassador role for newcomers and the manual for how to do the role. (There are parallel trainings for students and for educators as well.)

Please go through the training if you feel like you need a refresher on how a typical class is supposed to go and where the Ambassadors fit in, or if you want to review and help improve it. If there's something you'd like to see added, or other suggestions you have for it, feel free to edit the training and/or leave feedback. A primer on setting up and using course pages is included in the educators' training.

The Resources page of the training is the main place for Ambassador-related resources. If there's something you think is important as a resource that's not on there, please add it.

Finally, whether or not you work with any classes this term, I encourage you to post entries to the Trophy Case whenever you see excellent work from students or if you have great examples from past semesters. And, as always, let students (and other editors!) know when they do things well; a little WikiLove goes a long way!

--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 20:43, 14 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]