Talk:Athabasca University

message: I think the inclusion of the list of programs at the university is non-encyclopediac. I think it would be more appropriate if it included a few sentences comparing its programs to those of other universities, and make mention any unique programs it has. If people want to know about individual programs they should go to the website, which is provided on the page. Benw
I re-introduced the reputation section, while I like the other edits that were made, I feel this section is important, as AU has to talk a bit about its reputation, and most articles on a university, for example, McGill University and University of Toronto do it, just in another manner, this article simply has a reputation headline. -- Spinboy 02:20, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: List of programs

message: What is your source for the statement that you must be 18 to study there? According to the Maclean's guide, the minimum is 16. Carolynparrishfan 17:34, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: You're right, according to AskAU, the age is 16. -- Spinboy 17:37, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Age

message: The Good article nomination for  has failed
:This article does not meet Good Article crierion.  There is not enough substance here.  Many headings are only one paragraph, sometimes one sentence.  It is riddled with lists, which in and of themselves aren't bad, but are inferior to prose that would put this information in context.  The references are not cited properly.  Many of the "facts and trivia" are unverified.  The headings are in caps for each word.  The reputation section is wholly POV.  All in all, it needs a lot of work.
 Esprit15d 19:32, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Wikipedia:Good articles|Good Article]] [[Wikipedia:Good articles/Nominations|nomination]] has failed 

message: :Image:AthabascaUniversity.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:AthabascaUniversity.gif

message: :GA review (see here for criteria)
#It is reasonably well written.
#:a (prose):  b (MoS): 
#It is factually accurate and verifiable.
#:a (references):  b (citations to reliable sources):  c (OR): 
#It is broad in its coverage.
#:a (major aspects):  b (focused): 
#It follows the neutral point of view policy.
#:a (fair representation):  b (all significant views): 
#It is stable.
#:
#It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
#:a (tagged and captioned):  b lack of images (does not in itself exclude GA):  c (non-free images have fair use rationales): 
#Overall: 
#:a Pass/Fail: 
=== Comments ===
Since the last time the article was nominated for GA it has definitely improved. Good work on some of the things that were mentioned before. However, some of the same things that plagued the article before remain. Namely, the article's substance is too concentrated in one area: history. There is very little about academics and research (although there were small sections just added today). There is also very little (in comparison) about student life and athletics. The history section could be largely condensed; a long subsection on the first course is probably not necessary. If that much history is important to the article I would suggest condensing it anyway and breaking it off into its own article. 
There are still problems with Prose and sections not following the Manual of Style. The quote templates need to have an attributed author, the Differences header should be more descriptive (differences between what?), and image descriptions could be more descriptive (front entrance to what building?). In addition, some sentences seem awkward and have minimal flow (although this could be my American bias). For example, the last few sentences of the header seem to have no relation to each other. And sentences like "A course "World Ecology" was the first course, and was the core of the pilot project" read awkwardly. There were also a number of instances with improper capitalization. "University" should only be capitalized if referring specifically to Athabasca.
References are pretty decent, although (as always) they could be improved. Instead of citing the book reference 15 times you can name the ref tag (see WP:REF) and use it multiple times so that in your references list it only appears once. A couple references (#46, #31, and any that only references the university as the publisher) could include more information such as which office published it or when the work was published. If you can find any authors, that is always helpful. Some claims in the article, however, do need citations (like "Athabasca University is also recognized as one of the fastest growing universities in Canada." in the header). 
There appears to still be original research and/or non-neutral point of view throughout the article. Uncited sentences like "The university is especially popular with students who are...", "The university has become a leader in distance education", and others should be reworded or cited with sources actually give a point of view. There doesn't appear to be any criticisms of the university in the article (or anything that could potentially appear negative). Because of this, certain sections look like boosterism. 
Although the images you have are very good (and free :) ), adding more images would be beneficial. Look on some of the public domain image search engines and you'll be surprised what you find! 
In general the article is well on its way, it just needs to be more broad and include more info about academics, rankings, research, budgeting, athletics, and student life. For some great examples of university pages, check out University articles rated as 'Good Articles'. If you have any questions feel free to contact me! -- Noetic Sage 02:22, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  GA fail 

message: Since the last time the article was nominated for GA it has definitely improved. Good work on some of the things that were mentioned before. However, some of the same things that plagued the article before remain. Namely, the article's substance is too concentrated in one area: history. There is very little about academics and research (although there were small sections just added today). There is also very little (in comparison) about student life and athletics. The history section could be largely condensed; a long subsection on the first course is probably not necessary. If that much history is important to the article I would suggest condensing it anyway and breaking it off into its own article. 
There are still problems with Prose and sections not following the Manual of Style. The quote templates need to have an attributed author, the Differences header should be more descriptive (differences between what?), and image descriptions could be more descriptive (front entrance to what building?). In addition, some sentences seem awkward and have minimal flow (although this could be my American bias). For example, the last few sentences of the header seem to have no relation to each other. And sentences like "A course "World Ecology" was the first course, and was the core of the pilot project" read awkwardly. There were also a number of instances with improper capitalization. "University" should only be capitalized if referring specifically to Athabasca.
References are pretty decent, although (as always) they could be improved. Instead of citing the book reference 15 times you can name the ref tag (see WP:REF) and use it multiple times so that in your references list it only appears once. A couple references (#46, #31, and any that only references the university as the publisher) could include more information such as which office published it or when the work was published. If you can find any authors, that is always helpful. Some claims in the article, however, do need citations (like "Athabasca University is also recognized as one of the fastest growing universities in Canada." in the header). 
There appears to still be original research and/or non-neutral point of view throughout the article. Uncited sentences like "The university is especially popular with students who are...", "The university has become a leader in distance education", and others should be reworded or cited with sources actually give a point of view. There doesn't appear to be any criticisms of the university in the article (or anything that could potentially appear negative). Because of this, certain sections look like boosterism. 
Although the images you have are very good (and free :) ), adding more images would be beneficial. Look on some of the public domain image search engines and you'll be surprised what you find! 
In general the article is well on its way, it just needs to be more broad and include more info about academics, rankings, research, budgeting, athletics, and student life. For some great examples of university pages, check out University articles rated as 'Good Articles'. If you have any questions feel free to contact me! -- Noetic Sage 02:22, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comments 

message: Wikipedia:Footnotes is silent on how often in-line citations should be used, so since most of the origins section is from the same source, I simply cited at the end of each paragraph. Me-123567-Me 17:17, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Origins section

message: I oppose a merge. Many other Universities have articles on their various faculties, I don't see why this one can't as well. Me-123567-Me (talk) 16:27, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge

message: I still oppose a merge. Many other Uni's all have articles on their various faculties. This one is no different. Me-123567-Me (talk)  —Preceding comment was added at 23:56, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Athabasca University Centre for Distance Education]]

message: is it possible for me to get admission in this school  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.204.224.41 (talk) 14:12, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  ADMISSION 

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thread_title: Image copyright problem with File:Uarcticlogo.gif

message: Why is a "minor" issue of plagiarism by one of its students listed as a controversy here? It is not a controversy dealing with the university, but with the person. If the issue is important enough, it should be in the article for Ralph Klein, not here.Stearnsbrian (talk) 14:21, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Controversy section

message: Someone "merged" this in with the main article a while ago without discussion. The summary was "non notable" but how is this article any less notable than, for example, University of Calgary Students' Union? What is the standard? What needs to be done to the article to satisfy the merging author's untold standard? --Me-123567-Me (talk) 21:13, 28 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Athabasca University Students' Union]] 

message: Issues to address
*Promotional undertone
*Peacock, weasel words.
*Stop falsifying the references!
-Reconsider! 12:44, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I've listed this on WP:30. I haven't seen any falsified references as you call it, I'd like an example, please. --Me-123567-Me (talk) 15:39, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

text: Thank you, TransporterMan. I value your feedback, and it seems like a good solution. Me-123567-Me (talk) 00:29, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Clean-up

message: An image used in this article, , has been nominated for speedy deletion at Wikimedia Commons for the following reason: Copyright violations 
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thread_title: File:AU books 2.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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*Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.athabascau.ca/programs/outcomes.php
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: During the 1990s and 2000s, AU hosted a number of broadcasts on the ACCESS TV education station in Alberta (now CTV 2 Alberta) connecting ACCESS' broadcasts of various TV series and films to the university's media studies programs. I don't have a source handy, but maybe someone can locate one and add this to the article? 136.159.160.122 (talk) 21:30, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: ACCESS TV