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Personality theory class concerns

Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Missouri University of Science and Technology/Personality Theory (Spring 2023)

Hello!

I am a little concerned about the content of this particular class. Many of the articles picked in the past were under the aegis of WP:FRINGE and given previous issues with fringe theories in class assignments (not to mention certain concerns over WP:MEDRS), I am concerned that this class might be straying into dangerous territory. Is there anything we can do to help prevent problems similar to those we had with the Traditional Chinese Medicine class?

jps (talk) 18:12, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi @ජපස. I looked through the past incarnations of this class, and I didn't really find anything that struck me as FRINGE. Their applications of MEDRS wasn't perfect, but I thought it was a good bit better than the average sourcing in psych articles: 2022 class, 2020 class, 2018 class. Am I missing something? Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:19, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

I noticed that students from the class had worked on Enneagram of personality in the past. Perhaps they will avoid topics like that in the future? jps (talk) 17:54, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Topics like that also verge on the Complementary and Alternative Medicine discretionary sanctions aka contentious topics area, which all class projects should avoid. --Tryptofish (talk) 19:16, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Vector 2022

WikiEd advisors might be getting questions from students related to the recent switchover to Wikipedia:Vector 2022. The new layout might be confusing to teachers and their student when they first see it. Perhaps, WikiEd should, if it hasn't been done already, might want to let course participants know about the change and how they can switch back to the old version if they want. -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:53, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks @Marchjuly. I know we updated the screenshots in the relevant trainings last week, and I've been using the new skin for the past several months to familiarise myself with it. I need to check if we've done anything to communicate with the instructors to warn them, but most students won't have started editing before the change, so hopefully it'll be ok. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:25, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Sounds good. There is currently an option for users to switch back to the old vector if they want, but it might be best to suggest to them not to do that if they've got no experience using it because it just may confuse them moving forward. Lots of users are unhappy with the change and tweaks may be made as a result, but I doubt a 100% revert will be made back to the way things were. -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:54, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Course on Caribbean novels

Heads up that a non-WikiEdu course on Caribbean novels led by Redwellie14 has begun submitting their articles. They're following MOS:NOVELS... but seriously falling afoul of WP:OR and WP:SYNTH. I hailed the instructor on their talk page but they do not appear to understand the problem. -- asilvering (talk) 17:40, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Affected articles I'm aware of so far:

• How The One Armed Sister Sweeps Her House (I've cleaned this one)
• Draft:Pleasantview (novel) (I declined at AfC)
• What Storm, What Thunder (Students moved this one to mainspace themselves; I haven't looked at it)

I've dropped a Template:Welcome student on all the students I could find. -- asilvering (talk) 17:59, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Link to CT

I've made an edit to the header at the top of this noticeboard page: [1], that gives a link to the list of Contentious Topics (formerly called Discretionary Sanctions). The concern that students should not edit in these topic areas is a perennial concern here, so I think it is useful to be able to easily find what those topics currently are. --Tryptofish (talk) 16:39, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

I think that's a good idea but I've changed it to Wikipedia:General_sanctions#Active_sanctions because we don't want some students editing, say crypto, either just because it's a community rather than arbcom restriction. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 18:56, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

Thanks. That's why they pay you the big bucks. --Tryptofish (talk) 19:09, 3 February 2023 (UTC)