Category talk:Courses

I think a lot of these courses are far better known by their long names, like Frontiers of Science or Principles of Econ. The current list is a meaningless pile of numbers to me. Only math & science courses seem to use the course number shorthand, and I think WikiCU should reflect campus practice as far as this goes. Pacman 14:45, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

Hmmm. Courses are known by many names, so it can get confusing. I think we should use the course numbers, and have redirects for the names... Principles of Economics.  − Reaganaut  14:47, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

I agree with Pacman. I prefer "Course Title (Bulletin Code)" as the main article title and then if it has alternate titles, we can redirect to the main article. We can also make redirect pages for "ECON W1105" to go directly to "Principles of Economics (ECON W1105)". Also, stellar work on getting in all these course outlines, Reaganaut. Nonsensical 15:01, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

There's only occasionally a problem with conflicting names, though, whereas most of these course codes are completely obscure and unknown to the general student body. I agree with Nonsensical's proposal. Pacman 15:08, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

Thanks Nonsensical! I just hope this repository of syllabi gathers some momentum. As for article names, I still strongly believe it makes sense to have the main articles under the course numbers. Some reasons:

• Some courses have multiple names. For example: "Masterpieces of Western Art", "Art Humanities", "Art Hum".
• Some course have one name but people would still type different things to get to the course page. Example: "History of the City of New York", "History of New York City" "History of NYC", "NYC History".
• If you want to quickly go to a course page, you're probably on the bulletin, the directory, or Courseworks, so you have the code at hand.
• Some courses have horrible names. It's much more of a pain to type "Theoretical Foundations of Political Economy" than "ECON X3041". You think that's not too long a title? What about "Topics in the Black Experience: Black Civil Society, International Affairs and United States Foreign Policy" or "Comparative Study of Constitutional Challenges Affecting African, Latino and Asian American Communities"? Even worse, some courses have punctuation which could necessitate a dozen redirecting articles (& , ; : . ?).
• Articles named according to their code will be alphabetized in the courses category.

Just a thought - if we precede titled names with numbers the categories will organize just as nicely... Pacman 16:57, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

• Update: Also, another confusion could be courses like Calculus II... it has variously been known as "Calculus 2", "Calculus II" and "Calculus IIA".  − Reaganaut  15:59, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

 − Reaganaut  15:22, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

I understand where you're coming from, but I feel like redirects solve a lot of those problems. If people want to go quickly to "Theoretical Foundations of Political Economy", then they can type "ECON X3041" and get redirected. The alphabetizing thing I agree is unfortunate, but I feel like if courses are further subcategorized at the level of departments, it won't be that bad. Nonsensical 15:39, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

OK, well let's have a vote to settle it. If the majority of people want long titles, I'll go along with it. But I won't be responsible if duplicates start cropping up! :)  − Reaganaut  15:57, 4 May 2007 (EDT)

Vote

Should articles about courses use their number as the title (e.g. "HIST W3535") or their name as the title (e.g. "History of the City of New York")? This vote is being held to resolve the above discussion.

• Number - Some titles are too long or can be confused due to their punctuation. Worse, some courses have several titles. Also, if we use numbers, courses will appear alphabetically in categories. Course titles can redirect to the actual articles. For example, Masterpieces of Western Art, Art Humanities, and Art Hum will all redirect to HUMA W1121.  − Reaganaut  15:57, 4 May 2007 (EDT)
• Name - Theoretically, WikiCU exists for referential purposes. Someone looking up said course will more closely identify with any variant of the course name than with its rarely-remembered course number. Most class names, moreover, are not that ambiguous. There would be far less work to do creating redirects for name variants after choosing one acceptable version of the course name than creating redirects for EVERY SINGLE class which is titularly referred to by number. Pacman 16:02, 4 May 2007 (EDT)
• Name - I find the jumble of letters & numbers aesthetically displeasing. Nonsensical 16:54, 4 May 2007 (EDT)