Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

From UMassWiki

Welcome to the Class namespace on UMassWiki. A namespace is a way to group related pages. This namespace is for pages used by faculty and students in connection with particular classes.

The Class namespace provides a separate area for high-traffic class pages which may be edited by many students. It is free of most advertising.

List of active classes

If you want to add a page for a class, just link it here and the page will be created for you to edit.

• Class:COM250 - Interpersonal Communication - Summer II 2008 (Continuing Education)

• Class:COM352 - Group Dynamics - Spring 2008

• Class:ENG112 - Section 36 - Spring 2007
• Class:COM375 - Lecture 4 - Spring 2007
• Class:Honors 491G - Fall 2007

List of archived classes

• COM375
• CMPSCI 383 - Fall 2006
• ENG112 Section #68, Fall 2006
• Class:Section 71 - ENG 112 - Spring 2007
• Class:Consecutive Interpreting Techniques - Spring 2007 - never used

FAQ

What goes here?

General articles about classes go in the Main namespace with all the other articles. Articles and pages connected with specific ongoing (or prior) wiki classes go in this Class namespace.

Please read Help:Namespaces for more information on namespaces.

How do I use it?

To create pages in the Class namespace, just put "Class:" in front of the page name. For example, if you're creating a link to a new page called "Psych 101 - Spring 2006 - Section 12" which your students (or classmates) will use in connection with Section 12 of Psych 101, you'd create the link as [[Class:Psych 101 - Spring 2006 - Section 12]].

Please read below for instructions on how to name your class page.

Subpages

If you're creating a page that will have a lot related pages, for example, essays posted by each student in your class for peer review and editing, you can use the subpages feature of MediaWiki. Once your class page is created, any link within it that starts with a slash ("/") character will become a subpage of your class page. This will reduce clutter and confusion within the namespace, particularly if you have many students creating many pages!

Example: [[/BSmith - Essay 1]] would create a subpage called "BSmith - Essay 1" in our imaginary "Psych 101 - Spring 2006 - Section 12" page.

Unfortunately, Mediawiki shows the slash at the beginning. If you think it's ugly, you'll need to specify an alternate name: [[/BSmith - Essay 1|Bob's First Essay]] will yield a link that reads "Bob's First Essay" but points to "Psych 101 - Spring 2006 - Section 12/BSmith Essay 1."

Please read Help:Subpages for complete information on subpages.

Linking to subpages

As noted above, linking to a subpage from its parent is simple, [[/like this]]. If you want to link to the subpage from another page, however, you need the full link.

Conveniently, this is the title of the subpage (the bold text at the very top of the page). You can just copy and paste it into a link.

For example, if BSmith wanted to link to his essay from his user page, he'd form the link as [[Class:Psych 101 - Spring 2006 - Section 12/BSmith Essay 1]].

Editing markup

For a reference on various aspects of page editing, see Help:Contents. This page contains quick "cheat sheets" and more detailed references. It's likely a good idea to include a link to Help:Contents in your class page for students who are new to Mediawiki.

Naming Conventions

Although naming standards are fairly loose in the Class namespace, here are some suggestions you should follow to keep things orderly and avoid collisions, or pages with the same name.

Class Page Names

Name your page with the class name on SPIRE, say CMPSCI 105, followed by the semester, say Spring 2006, followed by (if necessary) the section, say Section 2. This would yield a name of "CMPSCI 105 - Spring 2006 - Section 2." As a wikilink, this would look like [[Class:CMPSCI 105 - Spring 2006 - Section 2]].

Using this naming scheme will prevent problems in case other sections of the same class also wish to use the wiki.

Subpage Names

If your class going to create many subpages, try to give them sensible names. One example is having students post essays to the wiki in subpages.

A suggested naming scheme is "Wiki Username - Assignment Number - Title" or similar. Since each student will need a unique username to log in, this is a good way to identify their subpages. If Bob Smith is writing Essay 2 on Kittens and the Media, he'd name his subpage "BSmith - Essay 2 - Kittens and the Media." As a wikilink, this would look like [[/BSmith - Essay 2 - Kittens and the Media]].

If Bob wants his link to look prettier, say "Bob Smith - Kittens and the Media", he can specify alternate link text as follows: [[/BSmith - Essay 2 - Kittens and the Media|Bob Smith - Kittens and the Media]].

How do I get my class into the UMassWiki classes link?

If you want your class to appear when users click the UMassWiki Classes link in the navigation bar, simply add the following text to the bottom of your class's page:

[[Category:Wiki Classes]]

Add this text only to the main page for your class -- not to each subpage.

Why can't I edit pages?

You must be logged in to edit pages in the Class namespace. If you are seeing a 'view source' link, make sure you are logged in properly.

Do you provide technical support?

UMassWiki is technically a commercial project, but it is maintained in the spare time of the operators. As such, we do not offer official technical support and cannot make any guarantees of support availability. That said, if you ask questions in talk pages and user talk pages, we'll likely respond.

Most problems and questions can be resolved by reading the documentation. You cannot get by without reading the documentation, so please do so before jumping in and running a wiki class. See Help:Contents and Template:MandatoryClassReading.

Help! I have more questions!

I'd be happy to help you. Please contact me using one of the methods on my user page. --Neurophyre 00:29, 22 March 2006 (EST)