Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/September 2016

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Email[edit source]

I recently asked our email server to notify me when any resource on my Watchlist has been changed. My email address has been confirmed but I am still not receiving these notifications. Anyone have a suggestion or idea why the emails are not being sent. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 01:08, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I recently received email from ""Wikiversity" <wiki@wikimedia.org>" stating "A page you created was linked on Wikiversity" on "Sunday, August 7, 2016 11:45 AM". --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 01:15, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Before sending an email test, my preferences stated: "Your email address was confirmed on 11 August 2016 at 16:35."
  2. I sent a test email to another Wikiversity user with the message: "This is a test of the email server."
  3. I checked the box to send myself a copy.
  4. I received "Your email message has been sent."
  5. After sending the email, I received this under Preferences:
  6. "Your email address is not yet confirmed. No email will be sent for any of the following features."
  7. On the line below this is "Confirm your email address". By clicking on this link, then inserting the coded link into my browser, either one, the cycle starts over at number one above.
Suggestions, comments, your own tests to confirm would be much appreciated. I believe this needs a Phabricator fix. Please confirm. I do receive messages like the one dated "Sunday, August 7, 2016 11:45 AM". --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 23:33, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Phabricator task T146281: "Interwiki email" has been created. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 14:44, 21 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Add withJS, withCSS and withModule parameters[edit source]

Hi, I'd like to add the code below to MediaWiki:Common.js so that new gadgets can be demoed without the user having to enable them. The code is standard throughout Wikipedia and other Wikimedia wikis, it was taken from mw:Snippets/Load JS and CSS by URL. I have the necessary permissions to add it myself, and I think it can do no harm, but because I'm new in the English Wikiversity I'd like to announce it first. Anyone agrees? Anyone objects? Thanks! --Felipe (discuss • contribs) 22:35, 13 August 2016 (UTC)[reply] 

/**
 * @source https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Snippets/Load_JS_and_CSS_by_URL
 * @revision 2016-03-26
 */
mw.loader.using( ['mediawiki.util', 'mediawiki.notify'], function () {
	var extraCSS = mw.util.getParamValue( 'withCSS' ),
		extraJS = mw.util.getParamValue( 'withJS' ),
		extraModule = mw.util.getParamValue( 'withModule' );

	if ( extraCSS ) {
		if ( /^MediaWiki:[^&<>=%#]*\.css$/.test( extraCSS ) ) {
			mw.loader.load( '/w/index.php?title=' + extraCSS + '&action=raw&ctype=text/css', 'text/css' );
		} else {
			mw.notify( 'Only pages from the MediaWiki namespace are allowed.', { title: 'Invalid withCSS value' } );
		}
	}

	if ( extraJS ) {
		if ( /^MediaWiki:[^&<>=%#]*\.js$/.test( extraJS ) ) {
			mw.loader.load( '/w/index.php?title=' + extraJS + '&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript' );
		} else {
			mw.notify( 'Only pages from the MediaWiki namespace are allowed.', { title: 'Invalid withJS value' } );
		}
	}

	if ( extraModule ) {
		if ( /^ext\.gadget\.[^,\|]+$/.test( extraModule ) ) {
			mw.loader.load( extraModule );
		} else {
			mw.notify( 'Only gadget modules are allowed.', { title: 'Invalid withModule value' } );
		}
	}
} );
I don't have any objections. The code itself is fine. The only issues would be whatever it tries to load, and that should also be standard mw content. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:59, 13 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Also support adding it (see also link to en.wp usage). --Michael Billington (talk • contribs) 12:22, 14 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
checkY Done See here for a working example of the HotCat gadget being loaded with the withJS parameter. --Felipe (discuss • contribs) 23:32, 27 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Software/extension to increase functionality of courses[edit source]

Hi,

Is Extension:Quiz the only extension used specifically for Wikiversity? Has there been any discussion/work on any other extensions? I would really like to have the ability to "assign" work and then mark it as complete. So a user could be able to "subscribe" to a course, and then perhaps have a way of marking each subpage in the course complete, to keep track of progress through the course. Thoughts about how best to do this or what would comprise a good minimally valuable extension are welcome. (And also if anyone is interested in helping build it!)

Mvolz (discuss • contribs) 16:08, 22 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

What about your students adding the course to their watchlist? ---Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:09, 22 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There is also a MOOC extension loaded here. The challenge with marking off content is where that data is stored. You could do it with a client-side cookie, but that only helps the user. To accumulate the server-side data, you need a place to store individual results. Perhaps a user page? You might also ask over at Wikidata and see if that's something that could be stored in the Wikidata database. The users with the most experience on add-ins are User:Renepick and User:Sebschlicht. Check with them if you get to the point where you want to do development on this. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 19:11, 22 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We have just received a grant to redo the development of the mooc extension as a real media wiki extension and not just as a bunch of lua scripts as well as css and js files which are stored as wikipages. Then we can also extend the database and build more complex processes. there is a stub of a wikipage describing this project: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MOOC feel free to ask User:Sebschlicht who will be leading the development. -- Renepick (discuss • contribs) 07:40, 23 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Mvolz: @Renepick: FYI, I am currently working on software that converts the quiz extension that will allow a sort of open source testbank. The idea is to store quizzes on Wikiversity that can also be stored on an instructors server in order to create randomized exams for classroom use. For problems with random numbers, the software writes a long list of identical problems with different numerical values. It's still very much in beta-stage, but Special:Permalink/1589813 contains an example. For a listing of the entire bank, see Quizbank/Entire_bank. I have been loosely involved with so-called "education reform" for several decades, but the only idea that ever excited me was the w:Flipped classroom, which differs from previous ideas in that it is based on technology. I believe that someday, all courses will have a preliminary stage where students are required to demonstrate mastery of basic vocabulary and analytic methods before the instruction begins. This reform could essentially cut the cost of education in half, since it is my observation that instructors spend close to half of their time reviewing basic material and introducing facts that students should be capapble of mastering on thier own.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 21:24, 23 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Great news about the MOOC grant @Renepick:, @Sebschlicht:! Feel free to add me as a reviewer on gerrit (Username Mvolz there as well). @Guy vandegrift:, @Atcovi:, @Dave Braunschweig:, there is currently a potential Outreachy project related to Extension:Quiz that's being discussed for this round. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T89761 If you have any thoughts about the suitability of the project or are interested in mentoring feel free to comment there. Mvolz (discuss • contribs) 13:27, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Also if any of you have ideas for Outreachy/GSoC projects that works too. Probably not for Extension:MOOC right now since it's likely not the mature but no harm in putting them in for Discussion right now https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/view/1042/Mvolz (discuss • contribs) 13:32, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think I have a phabricator account, but I strongly support this effort. I am not a computer person, and didn't create this Quizbank because I wanted to become a Matlab programmer. I did it as an educator who believes an open source bank of exam questions will permit autodidacts to not only learn from the internet, but also establish their expertise in any given subject at near zero cost. I fully support this effort to make a better bank of quizzes than the one I am attempting to construct. I hate academic conferences, but plan to go to some (in physics) in order to promote this concept. In a related vein, I am currently exploring a means by which students can do homework and other projects privately in wikitext (including the storage of handwritten work as pdf files) on a new non-profit wikifarm that hosts private wikis. See https://wikiversity.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 14:41, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Guy vandegrift: You can log in with Oauth through MediaWiki; you don't need to create any new accounts. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:29, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I have added a phabricator task for this idea: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T146366 Mvolz (discuss • contribs) 13:47, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Further research shows there actually is a course extension, but it's been blocked from further installation: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T111630 Mvolz (discuss • contribs) 18:46, 26 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Further *further* research reveals some externally hosted course software which allows you to use oauth to do courses: https://github.com/WikiEducationFoundation/WikiEduDashboard . Not a *huge* fan of this approach. But worth looking into perhaps? Mvolz (discuss • contribs) 19:48, 27 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Utilizing miraheze.org for private wiki writing[edit source]

I think miraheze.org can solve three problems that were vexing me:

  1. m:Wikijournal is a proposal to promote open source refereed journals through the WM foundation. It would be nice if editors, referees, or even authors could communicate in private.
  2. Exams like this one should never be on Wikiversity. In the past, I created them and immediately hid them after printing out the pdf. Now instructors could create their own mirahexe.org site and allow me to access it through their password.
  3. I would like to assign wikitext assignments for my students in a way that precludes them from copying each other's work. This would require that each student have an private wiki on mirahexe.org, something I don't plan on doing in near future. But this is a step in the right direction.

I started a wiki called privatewikiversity at https://wikiversity.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page . The only page is called "My first page" and it is password protected. Does anybody know about this? If so, I could use some coaching, especially with the registration of new users.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 17:24, 4 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Are you an administrator of this wiki? Is there any documentation available for how they are managing permissions. All I can see so far is that they are using Special:UserRights to manage group membership. I'm not sure what mechanism they are using to go from groups to pages. Check and see what groups are available, and also what page permissions are available. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 23:16, 4 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Apparently I am a User, Bureaucrat, and Administrator. I am listed as the only User, so it's hard for me to manage permissions.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 03:18, 5 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal for official collaboration with miraheze.org[edit source]

Proposed logo. This will appear in the upper left corner of all Miraheze pages that are affiliated with Wikiversity.

I propose a collaboration between Wikiversity and Miraheze, which is a wiki farm that hosts private wikis. Non-members can see only the main page of a private wiki. All other pages (and permalinks to them) are invisible to non-members (see the sample page I created called wikiversityprivate). Miraheze automatically links to all image files stored on Wikimedia Commons. A Miraheze administator informed me that I cannot post the image shown to the right onto Miraheze without permission from the Wikimedia foundation. Once permission is granted, this image can replace the Miraheze logo in the far upper left corner of the page (i.e. where the Wikiversity logo appears on all Wikiversity pages). If you look at wikiversityprivate, you will see that I copy\pasted and entire draft of a Wikiversity page into Miraheze. All the equations and all the images were automatically imported into Miraheze. The copy/paste was faithful, except for the templates. And, templates can be easily imported from Wikiversity into Miraheze.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 19:31, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I must confess that I have limited knowledge of whose permission I actually need in order to create and use this logo, but a good place to start is right here. Please vote! Because of this proposal's ramifications for the Wikijournal effort, I am pinging its members: @Diptanshu Das, Mikael Häggström, Part, Taketa, and James Heilman:--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 19:31, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion[edit source]

Questions and comments[edit source]

Does anybody know of another non-profit wikifarm besides Miraheze.org that allows private wikis? I am now looking through w:Comparison_of_wiki_hosting_services.

Also see mw:Hosting services. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 23:02, 10 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
After inspecting both w:Comparison_of_wiki_hosting_services and mw:Hosting services, I have concluded that Miraheze is unique in being suitable for this collaboration. And, Wikipedia has Miraheze listed only in it's history. An attempt to produce sufficient documentation to verify it's notability failed. See also https://wijoumed.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page (formally called the Wikiversity Journal of Medicine and still hosted by Wikiversity--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 00:16, 11 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

In favor[edit source]

  • I will mention only two of the many reasons why Wikiversarians would want to write pages only they can see:
  1. Instructors could design writing assignments so specific that students should not see each other's work. An example would be a lab reports when the entire class performs the same lab.
  2. Wikiversity permits original research, and we could better recruit serious research if researchers could develop their research in private. While this might lead to publications in journals without a Creative Commons license, it would also greatly help the Wikijournal effort because authors could write the articles in wikitext and decide which license to use at a later date. I believe that the widespread use of private wikis might someday lead to the routine use of wikitext as a writing platform. This would be very good for Wikipedia and Wikiversity.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 19:31, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

In opposition[edit source]

Vote[edit source]

Introduction[edit source]

From Wikiversity:Getting involved My name is redberry76 i love to be on wikipedia i like to know more about wikipedia.Redberry76 (discuss • contribs) 21:58, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome User:Redberry76! -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:07, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Redberry76: Thanks for visiting us here--we're happy to have you. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 00:46, 8 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

RevisionSlider[edit source]

From September 13th on, RevisionSlider will be available as a beta feature in your wiki. The RevisionSlider adds a slider view to the diff page, so that you can easily move between revisions. The feature fulfills a wish from the German Community’s Technical Wishlist. Everyone is invited to test the feature and we hope that it will serve you well in your work!

Birgit Müller (WMDE) 14:56, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hiding Title Parts[edit source]

Based on a user request, I worked out a way to hide parts of a page title. The following will hide the base page name and display only the subpage name:

{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="font-size:0">{{NAMESPACE}}:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/</span>{{SUBPAGENAME}}}}

Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 13:36, 13 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Open call for Project Grants[edit source]

Greetings! The Project Grants program is accepting proposals from September 12 to October 11 to fund new tools, research, offline outreach (including editathon series, workshops, etc), online organizing (including contests), and other experiments that enhance the work of Wikimedia volunteers. Project Grants can support you and your team’s project development time in addition to project expenses such as materials, travel, and rental space.

Also accepting candidates to join the Project Grants Committee through October 1.

With thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 14:49, 13 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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