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Statistics about use of sandbox vs Draft space, and about Afc

A couple of statistical questions about where Wiki Ed students develop their articles, and their release process:

1. Dev location: What number or percentage of students use a sandbox (theirs, anybody's) vs. Draft space for pre-release development?
2. Release method: What number or percentage of articles developed by students are submitted for Afc review, vs. released directly to main space (either by themselves or someone else like their instructor or WP expert)? If there is a third category, such as remaining stalled in their sandbox, please include that as well if possible.

This is to inform a question (diff) by Piotrus about the release of new articles by new editors which is a tiny part of a long VPP discussion unrelated to Wiki Ed about paid editing. Thanks for any light you can shed on this. Mathglot (talk) 00:43, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

@Mathglot From the paper me and Shani are working on and that will be presented on Wikimania next week (do stop by :>):

• Q15 Did the students work in drafts, directly on Wiki or using any other method?
• A (N-~200): user sandbox (65%), copied to mainspace from Word (17%), directly in mainspace (5%), draftspace (~2.5%), other/I don't know/they can do whatever (~10%)

PS. Do note that our study goes beyond Wiki Ed, and concerns all educators, not just those in US&Canada which is where Wiki Edu operates (although majority of our respondents come from US...).

_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 11:46, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

I'd love to hear feedback from folks involved with Wiki Ed about this, as my impression from occasional interactions is that the percentage using user sandboxes is very high (basically, every case I have encountered, but numbers are low), likely because their training modules instruct them to do so, and some of the exercises begin to create data there. Whether they are actually developing their prospective articles in the user sandbox or copying into it from an offline location, I don't know. More solid data about this would help. Mathglot (talk) 17:59, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

Hi Mathglot! It sounds like this is a question just about new articles written by students supported by Wiki Education? If so:

1. Dev location: I'd say nearly 100% use sandboxes to draft first. Some may start in Word or Google Docs but they all copy it over to their sandbox at some point and add citations using VE's cite tool. If they *don't* draft in sandboxes, they typically don't have enough edits to be autoconfirmed so they technically cannot create one in mainspace in English Wikipedia.
2. Release method: It's also close to 100% that go directly to mainspace. None of them go through AfC first (unless they somehow find it on their own -- we strip out the encouragement in their sandbox template to go through AfC, as our volume would overwhelm the AfC volunteers). Here are our training slides for creating new articles for students. For our process, our Dashboard creates a ticket each time a student creates a new article (this was one that broke this spring, causing us to not realize we weren't seeing all the new articles anymore for a few weeks; that's now fixed). Our Wiki Experts (Ian and Brianda) then take a look at the article; if it has problems, they'll move it back to the student's sandbox. Sometimes another Wikipedian will catch the article first and either move it to draft space or elsewhere, but that's not our typical process. At the end of the term, Ian and Brianda go through student work left in sandboxes and move anything that's ready for mainspace live; they leave half-formed drafts in sandboxes. If there's just minor cleanup needed, they'll also do that and then move it, but if the article draft would require substantive work we just leave it in the sandbox. I don't have a good sense of what percentage of the articles get left in sandboxes (many students start a topic and then abandon it to change to something else if they discover there aren't enough sources, for example, so will leave a few sentences behind on their old topic but will successfully add a different one).

I'd also add here: Overwhelmingly, our students edit existing articles. In the most recent term (Spring 2024), our students created 426 new articles but edited 5,660 existing articles. So only about 7.5% of articles we're supporting edits to are new articles. Hope this helps! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:27, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Mathglot

1. Dev location: In our case, 100% use sandboxes. Because the sandbox doesn't easily support collaborative editing and our students work in pairs on their articles, our programme also advises students to work collaboratively in cloud documents before moving it to the sandbox.
2. Release method: 100% go directly to main space. None go through AfC. Many do not know about Afc review, vs. released directly to main space. We do have an experienced wiki editor in our location that we consult when it comes to moving articles to main space. This editor was not available in our last semester but we will return to this process going forward as teachers are not equipped with time or knowledge for this side of Wikipedia. One issue we encounter is that students frequently struggle to locate the sandbox after logging in, and as a result, they draft on their User Pages. When in the sandbox, some mistakenly believe that by clicking the "Submit your draft for review", the assignment will be sent to their teachers not realising it initiates a review process within the Wikipedia community. This often leads to premature submissions, especially before we have conducted necessary steps like plagiarism checks through Turnitin. If there are alternative spaces within Wikipedia that could simplify the drafting process and reduce these misunderstandings, I am eager to learn about them.

G.J.ThomThom (talk) 23:52, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

G.J.ThomThom, thanks for this, it is helpful. I hope you get more feedback here from the regulars, but your comments spur some questions or comments:

• With respect to sandboxes: what is the difficulty you see in collaborating in a sandbox? As it is a named page on Wikipedia, I don't see why collaborating in a sandbox is any different from collaborating in, say, a published article? I'm not sure if there is any reason why students shouldn't collaborate at first offline in a cloud document, other than the fact that Wikipedia editors will not be able to mentor them there or correct any mistakes or misunderstandings of offline material. For that reason alone, if I had my druthers, I would urge all students to collaborate within the pages here (sandbox, or not) for better transparency, and so that experienced editors here can better help them.
• Release method: is the editor at your location there fortuitously, or is this something like the WP:Wikipedian in residence program?
• Locating the sandbox: again, I do not understand; can you describe the difficulty in locating it? The location of a student's user sandbox is linked from literally *every page* at Wikipedia. In my device and skin, it is top right between the links for 'Talk' and 'Preferences'. In mobile view, click the person icon top right, and it is the third item in the drop-down.
• Meaning of 'Submit your draft for review': I do understand, and do you think a simple change to the wording of the prompt to make it clear it is a Wikipedia submission and not a class submission would help? This might be amenable to a fix either through an enhancement to an existing template, or a wrapper template around the existing one which would alter the wording, but only for students, to clarify the target of the submission.
• Alternative spaces: I assume you already are using Draft space, but if not, that is the dedicated space for developing articles in relative peace and quiet, with full transparency and the possibility of collaboration from anyone.

Hope this helps. Mathglot (talk) 04:52, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

@Mathglot. Here are the answers to your questions:

What is the difficulty you see in collaborating in a sandbox?

Lack of real-time, synchronous editing capabilities. In cloud-based platforms, multiple users can edit simultaneously whether physicslly together or at a distance whereas you can only edit a wiki space, one at a time. We stage all the processes with the students. Using a cloud doc provides a space for the pre-writing stage: brainstorming ideas, outlining, planning roles and contributions, making decisions about a topic, compiling sources, using the annotation feature for communicating decisions on the document. Once they have built some content, they then move it to the sandbox to apply all the wiki features.

As for mentoring provided from outside experienced Wikipedia editors while their drafts are in the sandbox, I have not observed this in practice. The only actions we have encountered from outside editors is account cancellations due to misconceptions of sock puppetry when students inadvertently duplicate content across their accounts. We've tried to mitigate this by assigning one sandbox per pair of students for the draft itself and ensuring they clearly state their intentions on their User pages. Both students still need accounts to access each others sandbox since they're working in pairs. Arguably, the cloud doc comes in handy in preventing students violating Wikipedia protocols in the early stages.

Is the editor at your location there fortuitously, or is this something like the WP:Wikipedian in residence program?

Neither. The editor lives in our location and is a seasoned Wikipedian editor.

Can you describe the difficulty in locating the sandbox?

It's not a huge problem. The students are coming to Wikipedia spaces for the first time. We get them set up with opening their accounts etc. For new Wikipedia users, distinguishing between different user spaces like the User Page, Talk Page, and Sandbox can be confusing at first. I have discovered over time too that landing pages of new accounts have different components to accounts that have been going for a while (like mine). I have noticed that now, new accounts even have an assigned mentor to ask questions to and some links to help a newcomer get started. This is great! When was this feature added? When students return to their accounts after absence from it for a few days, some assume they have logged back into or have arrived in their sandbox when they enter their accounts. Or they assume the User page is the sandbox. The tabs for User Page and Talk Page are visible immediately on entering but yes you have to navigate to the drop down menu along the side to locate the account sandbox which is where they place the drafts. This is straightforward for me and you but not always for a newcomer. This issue is with a minority of students though. Most students understand it and we get there in the end.

Do you think a simple change to the wording of the prompt to make it clear it is a Wikipedia submission and not a class submission would help?

I forgot to mention how the word "publish" causes confusion too at first. Some new users think they are moving their work to main space by clicking this. I tell them to consider this button as a "save" button. As for a change in the wording of the 'Submit your draft for review' prompt, this would definitely help but only if it is considered a big problem for many and if we insist that the sandbox is where they draft. If they are better off drafting in another space to avoid the issues, then we can also guide this. But then this raises the question of how we pass the article to the main space without causing headaches for everyone. I feel the 'Submit your draft for review' is an important step we need to take which is not, as far as I can tell, in other drafting spaces. G.J.ThomThom (talk) 12:16, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Alternative spaces: I assume you already are using Draft space, but if not, that is the dedicated space for developing articles in relative peace and quiet, with full transparency and the possibility of collaboration from anyone.

I have not actively encouraged the use of the Draft space as you mentioned since we always target the sandbox. But some drafts do end up scattered across various spaces, which complicates the review and grading process. Ideally we would like to aim for a work flow that is standardised so that both students and teachers can follow and find the drafts etc. Is the Draft space a better space for students to draft in? What do you recommend is the best way to handle moving the drafts to main space? From where? G.J.ThomThom (talk) 13:53, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Students editors at Gregory Clark (economist)

Per Talk:Gregory Clark (economist)#WP:DUE weight and WP:TONE of recent edits there's a least 5 student editors wanting to edit that article for a project. It's not clear if that's the only article which might be involved nor which institution or even where but I think it might be the US. Nil Einne (talk) 18:16, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! I just posted a note there offering our assitance. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:03, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

IIT Varanasi

Hi, just making this board aware of the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Articles for creation#Student projects where we are seeing a pattern of scientific drafts from students of IIT Varanasi. Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 11:02, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

@Lahariyaniyathi: Is this something CIS-A2K could help with? --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:59, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

@Rodent21, Poseidonsaan, Harshita mandava, Im chirag18, CognifyEdits, Vinny0001, Mitanshu17, SaiRev, Sahilsingh0, Amitdhamm, Ishadh12, Dhananjay1142, Garry571, and Mk21134018: hello and welcome to Wikipedia! It looks like you've all created your Wikipedia accounts in the last few days and have tried to create your first articles but they have been declined by other Wikipedia editors who volunteer to review 'articles for creation'. You may be wondering why your articles were declined. It is largely because Wikipedia isn't a place to publish essays. Wikipedia articles have to be written in a particular way. It is also because it is unclear where the text in your drafts came from. Is it from your own research? Or copied from somewhere? You'll all need some help and advice if you want these essays to become Wikipedia articles. Are you all students at IIT (BHU) Varanasi? If so, do you have a tutor who has asked you to publish these articles? Are they a user here on Wikipedia? Can they reply to us here?

Some of the articles are:

• Draft:Dependence of Thermal and Hydrodynamic Boundary Layers on Prandtl Number
• Draft:Scale Analysis of Air and Water Interaction in Urban Drainage Systems
• Draft:Scale Analysis on Phase Change Process.
• User:Im chirag18/sandbox
• User:CognifyEdits/sandbox
• User:Vinny0001/sandbox
• Draft:Dependence of Boundary Layer on Rayleigh Number
• Draft:Scale analysis for Couette Flow and between one fixed and one moving plate
• User:Sahilsingh0/sandbox
• Draft:Scale Analysis of Viscous Rotational Flow
• Draft:Scale analysis of natural convection in tall enclosures
• Draft:Scale Analysis of External Natural Convection
• Draft:Scale Analysis of Flow Through a Woven Mesh
• User:Mk21134018/sandbox
• User:Aditya gupta456/sandbox
• User:Govindsahaya/sandbox
• And others

Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 19:22, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Teahouse discussion about students creating articles on medical topics

Alert: could some folks here please monitor and/or contribute at the discussion going on at WP:Teahouse#Medical article creation for students - Topic selection and audience level ?

First sentence there:

Hello, I'm an instructor guiding students in creating Wikipedia articles on medical topics. We use the list of requested articles for medicine as a starting point. I am now planning the semester 2 syllabus and would like to establish best practice around 2 areas: ...

(Cross-posted at WT:MEDRS.)

Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 15:37, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Mathglot

Thank you for directing me to this page. I've already found some of the conversations here to be useful and informative. I have a lot to learn! G.J.ThomThom (talk) 23:02, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Edu student repeatedly disrupting an article

• Wiki vaani (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Conflict of interest (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

This student has repeatedly (1, 2, 3) edited Conflict of interest to remove large portions of the article (seemingly at random) and replace them with brief, poorly-written sentences (e.g., it occurs in personal intrest like family friends and intrest thast as a workplace to judge them). Are they being instructed to do this? jlwoodwa (talk) 16:13, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

@Jlwoodwa - Sorry this happened. Since it doesn't look like they're seeing talk page messages I'll get in touch with their instructor and ask them to intervene. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:17, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Best Practices for Teaching Students to Write Effective Lead Sections

Hello everyone,

I am an instructor guiding students in composing medical articles for Wikipedia. Currently, I am focused on updating our guidelines and have several questions that I hope you can help with. My questions here are generic questions concerning the lead section.

In our academic setting, we emphasize the importance of supporting claims with citations, and our grading reflects this by marking down submissions that lack adequate citations. However, the Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section suggests that while the lead should be well-sourced, citations are commonly found in the body of the article rather than the lead.

Q1: Are we being too stringent expecting our students to include citations in the lead section since this is not an expectation from Wikipedia? Is it a major problem if they do provide citations throughout the lead? What justification can we provide for not including citations in this section?

My second question is on structuring. We currently teach our students that the lead section should not only summarise the main content but also reflect the order of that content as presented in the body of the article. We use Wikipedia's "featured articles" as exemplars and models for this. However, we recognise that Wikipedia articles are subject to ongoing edits and updates that may shift the content and structure over time. This dynamic nature can lead to discrepancies between the lead and the body of an article, especially if the lead does not consistently mirror updates made to the article's main content.

Given this:

Q1: Are we guiding students correctly on the arrangement and order of information in the lead?

Q2: When significant changes are made to the body of an article, is it a common or recommended practice to revise the lead accordingly to ensure it remains an accurate and concise summary of the article and mirrors the order of the content?

Thank you in advance for your advice and suggestions! G.J.ThomThom (talk) 01:25, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

@G.J.ThomThom I personally enjoy the essay Wikipedia:How to create and manage a good lead section, I highly suggest you take a look at it as it covers a lot of these smaller details. In general if content is sourced in the body of the article it does not need to be cited in the lead. The exeption to this is controversial material. However quite a few medical articles will have citations in the lead because pretty much anything in the feild of medicine can be considered controverial in a way. As far as order I do typically follow the order of the body of the article but I don't think that is a strict rule. If siginificant changes are made to the body the lead should reflect that as well. IntentionallyDense (talk) 02:15, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Firstly, thanks for the link! We've had disagreements as teachers about what we mark down re citations. We understand that citations are required if the points being made are controversial but alas it's not always easy to identify if the content is controversial. So far we have told them, if in doubt, cite! Secondly, I take on board your suggestion regarding stubs. This is something I will bring to the team G.J.ThomThom (talk) 02:26, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

I would generally agree that with medical content it's better to cite than not to cite. IntentionallyDense (talk) 02:39, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

First, your course on medical topics is relevant to two boards, this one, and wP:MEDRS, but given that most of your questions are about citations, WP:MEDRS is the governing principle here and this discussion would have been much better placed at WT:MEDRS, and not here, in order to get definitive answers to your citation questions. I urge you to move it there (see {{Discussion moved to}}; if you agree to move it but need technical assistance to do so, just ask).

Briefly:

• Too stringent? – maybe, but they don't hurt, and no one will complain unless you pile up five at a time. There is no guideline saying you cannot place citations in the lead, so your are not violating anything by doing so.
• Order: the lead need not follow the same order as the body, though often it does. Editing order is: body first, lead second (because it is a summary of the most important points of the body).
• Discrepancies: Yes, revise the lead after altering the body if the changes there significantly alter the most important points of the body. A great many body edits will not be in this category, and require no changes to the lead. A typical newbie mistake is to head straight for the lead and start altering it (or worse, the lead sentence, with no consideration for the body. I have often thought it would be useful to programmatically prohibit lead changes from new users, but there is no general support for that view that I am aware of, though it would save many experienced editors lots of time undoing edits to the lead by new users.

Think about moving this. Mathglot (talk) 05:36, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

@Mathglot Happy to move this and yes to technical assistance please G.J.ThomThom (talk) 12:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)