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- For all information about online ambassadors in the education program see Wikipedia:Education program/Ambassadors
Online Ambassadors serve as mentors, advisors, and helpers to the professors and students who are using Wikipedia in the classroom. The "Online Ambassador Program" has been coordinated by WMF through the Wikipedia Education Program. Their role is to keep the newcomers from being "bitten" and help them learn both the how and the why of editing Wikipedia and participating in the community. Wikipedians from around the globe are invited to apply to become an Online Ambassador. If you are interested in supporting students in countries other than Canada and the United States, please visit the WMF Outreach program for more information.
The Online Ambassador program supports instructors and their classes, where the classwork includes a requirement for the students to edit articles on Wikipedia. Each of the classes will have a class page where the instructor describes what the Wiki-assignment is for each student. Each course will have 1-3 Online Ambassadors assisting students in the course, and students will be able to ask technical questions of any Online Ambassador through an IRC chat room. The program is growing rapidly, and there are dozens of classes involved this term. Some of the students will create or greatly expand several articles during the semester. Others may make a substantial edit or addition to just one article.
If you're interested in recruiting new Online Ambassadors for the coming term, please join the Online Ambassador Recruitment Team.
About the Online Ambassador role
editExperienced Wikipedians who like working with newcomers or have an interest in reaching out to the academic community can apply to join the Wikipedia Ambassadors program as Online Ambassadors.
Wikipedia Online Ambassadors will:
- mentor students who are assigned to edit Wikipedia in their classes.
- work with Campus Ambassadors and professors to support and manage Wikipedia assignments.
- work with other Ambassadors and the Wikimedia Foundation to develop new ways to help newbies.
- answer questions on the wiki, and (if you like) by email, on IRC, and other media as well.
- for those who use IRC: train students via IRC on the technical and social basics of editing Wikipedia.
- help students learn the key processes of Wikipedia.
- explain Wikipedia policies, guidelines, and norms, and guide new users to the appropriate resources.
- help shape the future of the Wikipedia Ambassadors program.
The Wikipedia Online Ambassador role is a volunteer position. The estimated time commitment is 2 hours per week or more. Ambassadors should have experience with the basics of Wikipedia—particularly creating quality content and giving detailed feedback on others' work—a record of being friendly and helpful with newcomers, and a desire to make Wikipedia better.
Time commitment
editActive Wikipedia Online Ambassadors will be expected to be available at least two hours per week during a given university term. Since the students follow an academic schedule, their involvement at Wikipedia is sporadic, so some weeks, your student mentees may be completely inactive on Wikipedia, and other weeks, they may have a burst of activity that needs review, especially the last couple of weeks in the school term. Ambassadors are not expected to be online at the same time as their students, but should be responding to queries and requests for feedback in a timely manner as well as regularly monitoring student's contributions. Also, if Ambassadors are online and use IRC, extra time can be spent helping students in other courses.
Becoming an Online Ambassador
editThe criteria used, in a nutshell, are: whether the applicant is competent and friendly enough to make an effective ambassador. For more detail on what types of things may be relevant, see the guidelines for evaluation of applications.
If you're an experienced and friendly editor, apply now to become an Online Ambassador.
On June 30, 2018, the Education Extension will be shut down so that this user access will be useless in Wikipedia but it will reserve it's importance at real Wikipedia education program activities.[1]
Active ambassadors
editAll active ambassadors are Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors/Mentors. There may be a few recent additions that have yet to be added; see Wikipedia talk:Online Ambassadors for recently admitted Online Ambassadors.
(Former or inactive ambassadors are listed here: Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors/Mentors/Inactive.)
Guidelines and lessons
editUserbox
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For those that are interested, the userbox shown to the right is available for use:
{{Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Userboxes/Online ambassador}}
Top Icon
edit- {{Online Ambassador}} a top icon template to indicate you are an Online Ambassador.