Hi Nemo,
I am happy to clarify! With "staff" I included university teachers and
professors. I intentionally wrote it a bit more blurry as I figured that this might differ
between different countries. :-)
In Sweden we have so far worked directly with teachers and professors to formulate an
interesting topic and they have added themselves - or colleagues - as supervisors.
Wikimedia Sverige's staff is involved as external experts that will help guide the
students.
To make it more concrete I have included an example of a thesis topic that we have added
to the university's database below:
What role can Wikipedia’s material have in Sweden’s prisons? It is possible to provide
prisons with an offline version of Wikipedia so that the prisoners can read and
continuously educate themselves? This has already been tested in Switzerland in 2013-2014.
It would be interesting to evaluate the possibilities for similar projects in Sweden and
to find out what the possibilities and the obstacles are.
Supervisor Henrik Hansson, DSV, John Andersson, Wikimedia Sverige
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kiwix_-_Wikipedia_Offline
https://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Projekt:Wikipedia_i_fängelser_2015
If there is interest from a student then the discussion continues in
order to narrow down the topic - in a way that is good for both us and
for the student. The result can then, hopefully, be used for an external application to
fund a project.
In Sweden many universities also offer the possibility for external
organizations/companies to send in suggestions on thesis topics even without the contact
with a professor/teacher in advance. The professors/teachers at the university will then
decide if they care to be supervisors or not.
A few months from now we will see if this works out well for us or not.
John
From: wiki-research-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Wiki-research-l Digest, Vol 111, Issue 7
To: wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:57:40 +0000
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Today's Topics:
1. List of student research assignment (John Andersson)
2. Re: List of student research assignment (Kerry Raymond)
3. Re: List of student research assignment (Federico Leva (Nemo))
4. Re: List of student research assignment (Kerry Raymond)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 20:48:25 +0100
From: John Andersson <john.andersson(a)wikimedia.se>
To: "Wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org"
<wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Wiki-research-l] List of student research assignment
Message-ID: <DUB131-W90D8F08860280D1CFAD4BDBF800(a)phx.gbl>
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Hi,
The last year Wikimedia Sverige has deepened the cooperation with a
number of universities in Sweden and we have recently started providing
them with research assignment for students' thesis work (to work on for
either during 10 weeks (Bachelor) or 20 weeks (Master)). As a small pilot I gave a
presentation about this a couple of weeks ago and we have seen a great interest in this
opportunity from staff and student - with around 10 students (out of ~300) deciding to do
their thesis work about our movement and projects next year!
I was wondering if there is a list of possible thesis assignments compiled
somewhere (of course many different structures for thesis work exist - but anything would
help)? We would especially like more ideas regarding technical assignments that the
students could do - and investigate the effect from - during their thesis course. I.e.
not just the Phabricator/Bugzilla bugs, but something a bit more
comprehensive and structured. Is there anything out there? (Kind of like GSoC - but
during the semesters.)
If no such resource exists - and if more people/chapters/WMF would find this approach of
involving universities interesting - perhaps we could create the necessary structures for
this in the future?
PS. Wiki Education Foundation do not have one - I already asked.
Best,
John
- - - -
John Andersson
Wikimedia Sverige
Project Manager
Phone: +46(0)73-3965189
Email: john.andersson(a)wikimedia.se
Skype: johnandersson86
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