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Program guides/Education/Student support

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Student support

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Training

Teach important lessons in class: Regardless of how students learn to use Wikimedia project, make sure to teach a few key lessons about copyright, rules and norms, and the 5 pillars in class.

Make it easy to identify students and their work. This will make it easier for the community of Wikimedia volunteers to work with students.

Help students produce quality work

Make sure students know where to find help

  • Tell students about the Teahouse or local equivalent, where new editors can post questions.
  • Post links to places where students can find help or answers to commonly asked questions on the course page.
  • Programs with local portals can add a directory of information to answer student questions. The Catalan education portal includes a 'help' button to that will direct a question to an online volunteer.
  • On English Wikipedia: If you place {{Help me}} "then your question" on your talk page, a volunteer will visit you there!
  • Ask volunteers to help students by being online mentors, joining an IRC channel for student questions or by visiting the Teahouse or local equivalent regularly.

Monitor student work: Catch and fix mistakes in student work and identify participants who may need extra support to begin editing.

Improve student retention: Converting students to regular editors should not be a primary goal for an education program. Some programs have been successful in doing this, but is not a common outcome.

  • Invite students to participate in contests and local events.
  • Ask students who have completed a course to become Ambassadors who can help teach and mentor students online and in person in the next term.
  • From working with senior citzens: After the lesson ends, send every participant an e-mail summarizing what has been done during the class (and ask them to try something at home on their own). This improves the retention of your participants.[1]

References

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