Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Georgia State University/GLOS 3500 Culture and Change in Africa (Spring 2017)
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- Course name
- GLOS 3500 Culture and Change in Africa
- Institution
- Georgia State University
- Instructor
- Prof. Jennie Burnet
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Global studies, anthropology, African studies
- Course dates
- 2017-01-10 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-04-20 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 50
Assignment Overview
Teams of 5-6 students will work together to research and write a Wikipedia article related to the content of this course. Teams will work together for the entire semester. Your final articles will be posted to Wikipedia.
The Wikipedia Project consists of a series of individual and team assignments. Individual assignments will count towards your participation and homework grade for the course. Team assignments will be graded collectively, but each team member will receive a customized, individual Wikipedia Team Based Learning Grade.
Grading
For the individual assignments, including all the training modules, you will receive completion grades that count towards class participation and homework.
For the team Wikipedia project, your team will receive a grade. In addition, your contributions to your team will be evaluated through peer evaluation. Your individual Wikipedia project grade will be your team’s grade multiplied by your peer evaluation grade as a percentage.
Example #1:
Team grade = 90
Your peer evaluation = 100%
Your individual Wikipedia Project grade = 90
Example #2:
Team grade = 90
Your peer evaluation = 60%
Your individual Wikipedia Project grade = 48
Summary of Assignments
Individual Assignments
Create Wikipedia account (Week 1)
Complete Wikipedia Essentials training (Week 1)
Complete Editing Basics training (Week 1)
Add to an article assignment (Week 2)
Complete Sources and Citations training (Week 2)
Complete Evaluating Articles and Sources training (Week 4)
Complete Sandboxes and Mainspace training (Week 6)
Complete Plagiarism training (Week 6)
Complete the Peer Review training (Week 7)
Peer review and copy edit (Week 7)
Reflection (Week 12)
Team Assignments
Critique your team’s assigned article (Week 4)
Draft your article (Week 6)
In class presentation (Week 12)
Final article (Week 12)
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 17 January 2017 | Thursday, 19 January 2017
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.
Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Create your account & complete Wikipedia trainings
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. Feel free to review Wikipedia's username policy before deciding on a username. You can be as anonymous as you want on Wikipedia.
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 24 January 2017 | Thursday, 26 January 2017
- Assignment - Add to an article
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article or making other small changes to an article related to the course. There are a few ways you can do this:
- Add 1-2 sentences to a course-related article, and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
- For example, add information from one of the course readings to a relevant page and add the reading to the reference list.
- Re-write a sentence or paragraph that is particularly hard to understand. Make sure you keep all links and references.
- The Citation Hunt tool shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.
Looking for ideas of what to work on? Consider finding an article in the list of Africa stubs to improve. Or, add information from one of the course readings to a relevant page and add the reading to the reference list.
- In class - Discussion
- What's a content gap?
Now that you're thinking about what makes a "good" Wikipedia article, consider some additional questions.
- Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
- What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
- Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
- What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 31 January 2017 | Thursday, 2 February 2017
- Assignment - Finalize team & topic assignment / Find your sources
TEAM ASSIGNMENT
You will receive your team and topic assignments in class. To start your online work together, all team members should create a section in their sandbox space listing their team and linking to their other team members' userpages.
TEAM TOPIC / ARTICLE
- Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
- Find the article your team has been assigned from the list of "Available Articles" on the Articles tab on this course page. One team member should click Select to assign it to themselves. Other members of the team should also assign themselves the same topic. Make sure you are all logged into the course page on your own devices and head to the Students tab. Then assign yourself your teams topic.
- Identify one member of your team whose sandbox space you will work in to draft your article. Make a note in each of your your individual sandbox spaces of where your team will be drafting your work, and leave a link to the team space.
- In your team's sandbox, write a few sentences about what you (individually) plan to contribute to the selected article.
- Read through the whole article and quickly come up with one or two ideas of how you might improve it. Next week, you'll do a full critique of the article together.
- Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. These may come from the required reading for the course or elsewhere. Post that bibliography to the talk page of the article you'll be working on, and in your sandbox. Make sure to check in on the Talk page to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about sources and plagiarism
- Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
- What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
- What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
- What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 7 February 2017 | Thursday, 9 February 2017
- Assignment - Critique your team's assigned article
GROUP ASSIGNMENT
As a group, you'll evaluate your Wikipedia article, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.
- Individually complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- As a group, consider the following questions as you evaluate your article (but don't feel limited to these). Make sure you take notes in your group sandbox space about what you learn during this evaluation. (You may consider making a new section called "Article evaluation" in the sandbox space):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- Choose at least 2 questions relevant to the article you're evaluating. Leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Iosaghae1 (talk) 01:02, 13 April 2017 (UTC).
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 14 February 2017 | Thursday, 16 February 2017
- In class - Midterm
- Thursday Feb 16th
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 21 February 2017 | Thursday, 23 February 2017
- Assignment - Draft your article
TEAM ASSIGNMENT
You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to start writing.
Creating a new article?
- Write an outline of your topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia article's "lead section." Write it in your group sandbox.
- A "lead" section is not a traditional introduction. It should summarize, very briefly, what the rest of the article will say in detail. The first paragraph should include important, broad facts about the subject. A good example is Ada Lovelace. See Editing Wikipedia page 9 for more ideas.
Improving an existing article?
- Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in your group sandbox.
Keep reading your sources, too, as you prepare to write the body of the article.
Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about Wikipedia
- What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
- What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
- On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
- If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 28 February 2017 | Thursday, 2 March 2017
- Assignment - Peer review and copy edit
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
- First, individually take the "Peer Review" online training.
- Select another team's article that you will peer review and copyedit. On the Articles tab, find the article that you want to review, and then assign it to yourself in the Review column.
- Peer review your classmates' draft. Leave suggestions on the Talk page of the article, or sandbox, that your fellow students are working on. Other editors may be reviewing your work, so look for their comments! Be sure to acknowledge feedback from other Wikipedians.
- As you review, make spelling, grammar, and other adjustments. Pay attention to the tone of the article. Is it encyclopedic?
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 7 March 2017 | Thursday, 9 March 2017
- Assignment - Respond to peer review & begin moving your work to Wikipedia
TEAM ASSIGNMENT
Your team should have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. It's time to work with that feedback to improve your article!
- Read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.
- Return to your draft or article and think about the suggestions. Decide which ones to start implementing. Reach out to your instructor or your Content Expert if you have any questions.
Once you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the "mainspace."
Editing an existing article?
- NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
- Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
Creating a new article?
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
- You can also review the [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]] online training.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 21 March 2017 | Thursday, 23 March 2017
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
TEAM ASSIGNMENT
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 28 March 2017 | Thursday, 30 March 2017
- Assignment - Polish your work
TEAM ASSIGNMENT
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Content Expert at any time if you need further help!
- Assignment - Prepare for in-class presentation
GROUP ASSIGNMENT
- Prepare for an in-class presentation about your Wikipedia editing experience.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 4 April 2017 | Thursday, 6 April 2017
- In class - In-class presentation
GROUP ASSIGNMENT
- Present about your Wikipedia editing experience.
- In your presentation you should discuss the following:
- What was your article missing when you started;
- What contribution did your group make & why was it valuable;
- What did you struggle with;
- What was the easiest part of the assignment for your group;
- What one or two things did you learn about Wikipedia that you didn't know before?
Due Sunday, April 9. Class presentations to be made April 13, 2017
- Assignment - Final article
TEAM ASSIGNMENT
It's the final week to finish your team's article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Content Expert at any time!
- Assignment - Reflection
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Respond to the assignment on iCollege where you will be asked to summarize your contributions to your team's efforts, highlight the skills you learned, say a few words about how you may use these skills in the future, and give your individual performance a grade.
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.
April 16, 2017