Learning patterns/Using the education extension

Learning Pattern Library

Using the education extension

problemAs an education program leader, how do you manage course pages, facilitate community engagement with students, monitor user contributions and evaluate your program?

solutionThe Education Program Extension is a tool that will simplify these processes.

creator• KHarold (WMF)

created on18:27, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

status:in progress

What problem does this solve?

The Education Program Extension has many functions that will simplify the process of managing education projects. Many program leaders have found that the education extension is a valuable project management tool because it automates several processes they used to do manually or through multiple tools.

Less administrative work:

• Automatically creates course pages for registered courses.
• Manages student enrollment using tokens.
• Monitor changes by students in chronological activity feed.

Simplify evaluation and reporting:

• Export lists of students from one or multiple courses to upload as a cohort to WikiMetrics.
• Anyone can view course statistics, such as number of students, classrooms and institutions by term.

Prevent conflict with the community:

• Automatically puts course banner on student user pages.
• Helps to facilitate article review by online ambassadors and other students.

There are many other ways that students, Wikimedia volunteers and educators can benefit from using the education extension. Follow this link to learn more about functions and features of the education extension.

What is the solution?

1. Check here to see if the extension is enabled on the Wikimedia project in the language you will be working on.
2. If the extension is not enabled on the Wikimedia project you will be working on, follow these steps to enable it.
3. Consult help pages and training videos to get started.
4. Add Outreach:Education/Extension to your watchlist to learn about updated resources and information about the education extension.

Things to consider

If the extension is not or will not be enabled on the Wikimedia project that you will be working on in time for the start of your program, you should:

• Create a course page for each group of students. See here for examples.
• Once there is more than one course on the project, create a category to organize course pages by instructor, institution, term or year.
• Decide what tools you will use to measure and monitor student contributions before a course begins.

When to use

• An educator does not need to be working with a program leader or other Wikimedia volunteer to use the education extension.
• Program leaders have reported that using the education extension is a useful way to manage groups of users who participate in workshop series' and multi-session editathons.

Endorsements

• The Education Extension is a vital tool for everyone involved with Wikipedia in education. This learning pattern helps explain why. :) Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:53, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

See also

Education Toolkit Learning Pattern This learning pattern is part of the Education Program Toolkit. Go to the toolkit.

External links

• Education Program Extension overview on Outreach
• Education Program Extension documentation on MediaWiki