Wikiversity:Naming conventions
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These naming conventions describe useful rules for naming pages. Naming conventions help Wikiversity participants quickly locate and understand the topic of each learning resource. This policy describes Wikiversity's page and page-section naming conventions. For information on how to organize pages see Wikiversity:Namespaces.
Keep names simple and concise
[edit source]Educators often know more than learners do about a topic. For example, although an educator might know what "Vulpes vulpes" means, "red fox" is more likely to be immediately understood and found by the majority of English learners who wish to learn about red foxes.
By using simple and concise page and section names that avoid undue expectations, learners should be able to quickly locate learning resources and understand what to expect.
It is suggested to title pages with the subject name followed by the descriptor after a comma or between a parenthesis such as:
Subject, descriptor
or
Subject (descriptor)
Another common temptation is to include course and lesson numbers ("Biology 101", "Biology/Lesson 2", etc.) in resource names. However, learners may either have preexisting expectations about the content of numbered resources from their experiences at specific brick and mortar schools, or may be completely unfamiliar with their meaning. For newer projects try to keep chapter or lesson numbers out of names for sub-pages, however, it is acceptable to title the link with a chapter or lesson number.
For older pages it is easier and acceptable to leave them as they are, as trying to fix it might cause broken links.
Casing
[edit source]You can use title or sentence casing for pages and section names:
- Title Case: Advanced Multivariable Calculus
- Sentence case: Advanced multivariable calculus
Please be consistent with all pages that are part of the same course or curriculum. Note: that Wikipedia uses sentence casing.
Acronyms and abbreviations
[edit source]Spell out abbreviations and acronyms in page names. Many acronyms have more than one possible meaning and are not universally understood. For example USA could be "United States of America" or "Union of South Africa". By avoiding acronyms and abbreviations in page names, learners are more likely to find exactly what they expect.
English dialects
[edit source]You can use whatever dialect of English you want for page and section names (e.g., American English or British English), but be consistent. For example, if you use American English spelling for a page name, you should also use American English throughout the page.
Summary
[edit source]- Keep it simple
- Use descriptive titles for the learning resources not lesson codes
- For resources in the main namespace, don't capitalize, so that it can be linked naturally from running texts from other pages
Namespaces
[edit source]- Wikiversity: is the project namespace
- Help: are for helps with MediaWiki techniques
- Portal: A portal is a door to Wikiversity; It helps participants explore according to their interests and organize the resources they want. Portals are also equivalent to Wikipedia's Wikiprojects.
- School: is for cross-department Wikiversity community projects.