User:1013-josh/archive

Note
This account was created to facilitate a class project on Wikipedia. From April 16 to May 9, 2007, my class of composition students at the University of Minnesota created or expanded 22 articles. I have moved all notes relating to the class project to this archive. Later this summer, when I have some free time, I will write up a summary of the project, as well as some notes for other instructors about what I would do differently next time. In the meantime, you can poke through the archive for information.

Thanks to the students for their hard work and thanks to the more experienced Wikipedia community members who stopped by to help us as we learned our way around.

If you'd like to share your thoughts on how the project went, feel free to email me using the link in the toolbox to the left of this page, or leave a note on my talk page. I will use your comments in writing up my evaluation of the project. (I may not respond immediately, as I am traveling for most of the summer.) 1013-josh 15:01, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Introduction
This is Josh's talk page. Over the next three weeks, my composition students and I are learning how to use Wikipedia. This is where we get together to ask questions, get feedback, and turn in homework. We welcome all members of the Wikipedia community to help with our articles. If you have a question about how to participate, please see the Project Guidelines for student work and this question from a Wikipedia user about how to interact with students or provide feedback on their work.

Project Guidelines
Write a 1500- to 2000-word article on Wikipedia. Your article must meet three basic criteria:
 * 1) It must be a new article on a subject not yet entered into the database or a revision of a stub article that is 200 words or less.
 * 2) It must be related in some way to the course theme of "nature and environment."
 * 3) It must meet Wikipedia’s standard of notability.

Good research topics may include individuals and groups in fields related to nature and the environment; environmental legislation and/or court cases; the physical and cultural geography of neighborhoods, watersheds, and other local places; etc. Give serious thought to choosing your topic. It’s the most important decision you will make in this unit. Can you write 1500-2000 words on this subject, filled with relevant facts, no filler? Will you be able to find authoritative sources, offline and online?

The final draft of your article will include content contributed by your colleagues, and your grade will be a reflection of the process, rather than simply a judgment on the outcome. See the print version of these guidelines for more information. (And, of course, your "final draft" will not be final at all, as it will continue to be edited by other Wikipedia users.)

Please review the grading criteria here.


 * Monday, April 16: Research proposal due.
 * Monday, April 23: First 300-500 words of your “Working Draft” due, plus bibliography.
 * Friday, April 27: Rough Draft due, 1000 words + outline.
 * Friday, May 4: Last day of class. Last day of “workshop,” i.e. last day to contribute edits to your colleagues’ papers.
 * Thursday, May 10: Final Draft due at noon, 1500-2000 words.
 * Thursday, May 10: Reflection Essay due at noon in HARD COPY, 2 to 3 pages.
 * (Note: Final draft deadline changed from Wednesday midnight to Thursday noon.)

What We've Covered in Class
Forget something? An outline of what we've covered in class is archived here. Feel free to follow up in the "Questions for Josh?" section below.

Assignments
Monday, April 16 (Research Proposal) Wednesday, April 18 (Edit Film Article, Reading) Friday, April 20 (Consent to Wikipedia Project, Reading, Get Started on Research) Monday, April 23 (First 300-500 words) Wednesday, April 25 (No Wikipedia assignment) Friday, April 27 (Rough Draft Due, 1000 Words, Footnotes, References) Friday, April 27, in class (Moving Article to Mainspace) Friday, April 27, to Friday, May 4 (Workshop Week) Friday, May 4, to Thursday, May 10 (Final Revisions)

Turning in Homework

 * 1) On your talk page, you should see a heading called "Homework."
 * 2) Beneath that heading, write a note to me that tells me you’ve finished your homework. It could be something as simple as "Done."
 * 3) Include a link to the page on Wikipedia where I can see your work (unless that work is on your talk page).
 * 4) Sign your note with ~, which gives it a signature and time stamp.
 * 5) I will stop by your talk page to "collect" your homework and offer comments as appropriate.

Questions for Josh?
If you have a general question about the assignment or about Wikipedia, ask your question here, and I'll leave a public response. Your question might be helpful to other people in the class! If you would rather keep your question private, feel free to email me or see me after class.

If you have a specific question about your project, you can ask it over at your own talk page. Just write "QUESTION FOR JOSH" in the edit summary box when you hit the "save this page" button. I'll see it in my watchlist, and I'll stop by over there.

Old Questions Archived
References Section Formatting (Whittney and Shannon) Copy Edit (Andy) Disappearing Content (Isaac and Shishi) Adding Categories (Alex and Shannon) See Also Section (Shannon) Citation (Shae) Citation (Shishi) Internal Links (Christi) Time Stamp (Andy) Sandbox (Andy) Underlining/Italics (Andy) Pictures and Tables (Andy/Whittney)

Article Topics
List of possible article topics archived here.

Here is what everybody is working on. If you have comments or suggestions on these articles, leave a note in the "Workshop" section of the author's talk page, or use the discussion page of the article.

Group 1
 * User:1013-David is writing on Bohemian Flats
 * User:1013-shishi is writing on the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences
 * User:1013-_katie is writing on Marine conservation activism.
 * User:1013-luys0001 is writing on the Pillsbury "A" Mill.

Group 2
 * User:1013-Lisa is writing on Itasca State Park with User:1013-Marty.
 * User:1013-shae is writing on Arctic haze.
 * User:1013-Brendan is writing on the Cave of the Mounds.
 * User:1013-rey is writing on Neonatal nursing in the United States.

Group 3
 * User:1013-jessica is writing on EAA AirVenture Museum.
 * User:1013-Isaac is writing on Renewable energy in Iceland.
 * User:1013-christi is writing on Buffalo Ridge.
 * User:1013-Andrew is writing on the book A Plague of Frogs (book).

Group 4
 * User:1013-Nqua is writing on Cefquinome.
 * User:1013-Jeff is writing on Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.
 * User:1013-whittney is writing on Fort Abraham Lincoln.
 * User:1013-Marty is writing on Itasca State Park with User:1013-Lisa.

Group 5
 * User:1013-Dan is writing on Doppler spectroscopy.
 * User:1013-kate is writing on Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
 * User:1013-precious is writing on the Black Belt (region of Chicago).
 * User:1013-andy is writing on the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Group 6
 * User:1013-shannon is writing on the Cross in the Woods Catholic shrine.
 * User:1013-alex is writing on Natural organic matter.
 * User:Brow1901 is writing on Tainter Lake.

Help!

 * Tutorial
 * Cheatsheet
 * Editing FAQ
 * Help:Contents

From a Wikipedian...
Hi, Welcome to Wikipedia.

If you are considering using a wiki in connection with learning projects, you might also be interested in WikiVersity, which is attempting to develop 'free' learning materials on a number of topics ShakespeareFan00 16:48, 13 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I would also recommend that you see WikiProject Classroom coordination (of which I am a member). It is a new project, designed to provide guidance to educators who incorporate Wikipedia writing assignments into their classrooms. You can leave a message on the talk page for the project if you would like to participate, I've already started a new discussion thread there. Also, feel free to contact me or any of the other project members with any questions you may have. Mr.Z-man  talk ¢ 16:54, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

thanks, I'll check both of these things out. 1013-josh 17:27, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Template:1013
I have moved your header to User:1013-josh/1013 as it is a personal-use template and should be in your user space, not the main Template: name space. You can link to it using User:1013-josh/1013. &mdash;dgies tc 17:03, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

I have also modified your template to add the articles to Category:Wikipedia articles as assignments. This will also add a few user talk pages but it should be worth it so we can easily monitor the articles. Good luck with your project!↔NMajdan &bull;talk 21:02, 13 April 2007 (UTC)


 * thanks, Dgies & Nmajdan. I removed the category label, because I don't want to put our talk pages in the category, but I will add a category label when we are ready to begin writing new articles and editing articles on the mainspace. 1013-josh 21:18, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Feedback
When you're done with the course, can you give us some feedback on how it went? We will use any comments or observations you have (including page histories, etc) to learn more about how we can best help with courses in future. --Kim Bruning 17:04, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Will do. 1013-josh 17:26, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

More ideas for articles
Your students might be interested in some of the ideas at Requested articles, particulary the biology section and the environmental policy section.--Pharos 03:58, 14 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Good ideas, Pharos. Thanks for your suggestions. I'll add some more links above. 1013-josh 04:34, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Welcome
Thank you for signing up with WikiProject Classroom coordination. Your help with this course sounds exciting and I hope it goes well. Keep in touch. Durova Charge! 01:38, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Did you know...
A fair number of your students' articles may qualify for the "Did you know..." section which highlights the best of our new articles on Wikipedia's Main Page. The articles would have to be submitted no more than five days after they were created (preferably before this, of course they can be further improved in the interim). There are somewhat stronger requirements for articles that already exist as stubs; these require at least a fivefold expansion to qualify for DYK.--Pharos 19:56, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Interaction
Hi there. How much interaction/feedback would you mind your students receiving from other users? And how much editing of their assignment articles would you mind? For example, would adding unreferenced and cn tags where applicable be ok? --Geniac 21:39, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the question. The level of expected interaction/feedback varies as we progress, so let me outline a few stages here.


 * Currently, students are drafting new articles (or expanded stubs) in their userspaces. I'd welcome you to stop by their user talk pages and offer research suggestions or general support, etc., but I wouldn't really expect anything more than that. You're also free & encouraged to leave notes about their contributions to existing articles. (For example, yesterday they all made small edits to existing articles, some of which will survive & some of which won't. If you have a comment about one of those edits, feel free to strike up a dialogue.)
 * When they move the new articles over to the mainspace on April 27, they will continue editing in collaborative four-person groups, but I think the articles are fair game at that point for unreferenced and cn tags. Hopefully, the students themselves will come up with references and citations, and it would be good for them to have a sense of what the community believes should be cited. Comments on the article talk pages with feedback about content, organization, etc., would also be very helpful & welcome. I would encourage Wikipedians to hold off on deep editing or reorganizing at that time, but of course I have no control over what happens, and I'm encouraging my students to be okay with a certain amount of chaos. There will be a tag to mark these articles, so I'm hoping that may discourage deep editing by the Wikipedia community.
 * On May 4, we will be opening up the articles and actively inviting the Wikipedia community to make larger changes. I plan to encourage students to post on Requests for feedback at that time. (Also on associated WikiProject pages, per Elkman's and Matthew's comments below.)
 * On May 9, students tell me which version of their article they would like to be considered as the "final draft" for grading purposes, and then our project ends. The new articles live in Wikipedia indefinitely, subject to all the usual processes.
 * The grade is more about the process than the final product, and it accounts for the fact that some content in the "final draft" may be generated by Wikipedia users other than the students.
 * Does that sound good? 1013-josh 22:15, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the detailed reply; the timeline explaining what they'll be doing when is most helpful. --Geniac 00:35, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

UPDATE: We've "gone live." Most of the articles have now been moved to the mainspace of Wikipedia. They are still in a rough draft state, and students would welcome comments about how to improve them. A good place to leave comments is in the "Workshop" section of the author's talk page, where students will be conferring about what needs to be done. You can also use the article talk page, of course. 1013-josh 22:59, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * You might also want to have your editors post requests for feedback on the appropriate WikiProject pages. For example, WikiProject Minnesota can provide help on the Minnesota articles.  WikiProject Wisconsin and WikiProject Chicago can provide feedback in those areas as well.  Other projects can be found by searching the directory at WikiProject Council/Directory.  You also had a couple students asking about images.  The article Wikimedia Commons explains how to search the Wikimedia Commons for images and how to link them into articles.  Good luck with the project!  --Elkman (Elkspeak) 18:17, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks! I'll have the students post feedback requests on May 4 at the WikiProject pages. That's a good idea. And I'll include a link to the Wikimedia Commons in the image section of the homework assignment. 1013-josh 22:53, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Let me know if you need my help on the EAA AirVenture Museum article. I live a one hour drive away from the museum, and I am a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. I uploaded the pictures that are used in the article. I am vaguely familiar with the museum and more familiar with the Oshkosh area. I commented on a few glaring problems with the article. It needs more help with the encyclopedic tone (several areas sound like marketing), but I will give the students a chance to update it by waiting until after the class has ended. Happy editing! Royal broil  18:47, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks! I'm sure they would love your feedback, especially about the encyclopedic tone. I see you've commented over at User talk:1013-jessica, which is a good place to grab students' attention. I'm not sure that they will see notes left in this section. 1013-josh 22:53, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * If you need any guidance or assistance don't hesitate to contact me or WikiProject North Dakota. I think this is a cool project. --Matthew UND (talk) 00:42, 28 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Matthew! Home base for the workshop group revising Fort Abraham Lincoln is at User talk:1013-whittney. I'll be sure that they know they can ask questions of you and the ND WikiProject. 1013-josh 00:47, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Re: Question about template for class project
Unfortunately, a template like that should go on the talk page. If a banner is identifying an article as part of a project, then it should go on the talk page. I understand it would be best on the main page, but we can't limit who authors a page regardless of the circumstance as that goes against Wikipedia's policies. There are some templates that may get the point across that can be placed on the article's main page. See Template messages/Maintenance. For instance, you can use underconstruction for articles that are being worked on and/or inuse for an article that is being worked on at that specific moment.↔NMajdan &bull;talk 17:09, 28 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay, thanks. I'll move our template to the talk pages and use underconstruction on the articles. 1013-josh 17:33, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I really appreciate your initiative, but I think the template you've been adding to the talk page may indicate some reservations about the editing of the articles. I know you are concerned about the work of your students and how it can be completely transformed, but I think you and them must understand that this is what Wikipedia is about. Thousands of people improving articles, in a bold way. Once you've moved to the mainspace, that's it, people should be encouraged to edit the articles to the extent that they can be improved. Even though Wikipedia can be a most powerful learning tool on how to create scientific articles, that's not it's primary purpose. It is supposed to be an encyclopedia, as accurate as it possibly can.The fact that these articles have been appearing on the did you know section is yet another reason to make sure they are as accurate as the community can make them. --Ezadarque 11:31, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The template said, "Feel free to participate, but please be respectful of students' work." I'm not trying to discourage transformation by the community, only trying to make the experience good for students as articles are transformed. We've had some editors write things like "BLECH" in the edit summary box, which doesn't seem civil to me. But bold is fine. I changed the template to address your concern: user:1013-josh/workingarticle. Does that work a little better? 1013-josh 17:24, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I think it's really nice now. Congratulations on your and your students work!--Ezadarque 11:43, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

"Moving" drafts to the main article space
It's probably a bit too late now, but I've noticed your students "moving" their drafts from their user spaces to main space by just copy-pasting the whole thing. While that works, it means the entire revision history of the article is only present in their user spaces. In the future, could you please instruct your students to use the move function so as to preserve the full page history? See also Help:Moving a page.

Also, it is possible for an administrator to perform a history merge on the article, moving all the earlier revisions to the new article. I'd like to do that, but since you may have your own reasons for keeping the student's revisions in their user areas, I will hold off unless you give your OK. &mdash;dgies tc 21:02, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
 * On further reflection, you started with stubs and probably wanted to work in draft spaces to keep the larger Wikipedia community from doing people's homework for them, and since you started with stubs you couldn't perform a regular move. A history merge is probably a good idea though once you no longer need to view what contributions were specifically made in the sandboxes.  &mdash;dgies tc 21:08, 30 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Students worked on their rough drafts by themselves, so it seems to me that it's not important to preserve the history of that work. Isn't it only the history of the original stub article and its expansion to a full article that's important? How is this different than me coming along, finding a stub, expanding it to 1000 words in my edit window (or offline in Microsoft Word), and then hitting save page? I'm not opposed to merging the histories if that's what admins think should be done, but as the students' work in their userspace was not edited wiki-style, it doesn't seem to me relevant and will actually confuse the existing page history more than clarify. 1013-josh 21:20, 30 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I agree with you Josh, I don't think it's necessary. I never bother to move the histories of articles that I've created in my sandbox.--Pharos 21:28, 30 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Another problem with merging histories is that the history of some of those userspace pages includes sandbox-style practice work that would not be appropriate to include in the page history of the actual article. Reading back over your comment, I think the source of your concern is that students may have referred to the process as a "move" in the edit summary box. If the edit summary just said "significantly expanded stub" would you be concerned? 1013-josh 21:31, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
 * It's more that these articles appear to instantly jump from 3 sentences to 3 paragraphs plus citations. It makes it a bit hard to understand in the page history, but I see your point about test edits as well...  I guess I'd say gaining a useful page history outweighs picking up a couple test revisions, but it's your call.  &mdash;dgies tc 21:39, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't think we'd gain a useful page history, as even in the userspace many students made the jump from 3 sentences to 3 paragraphs in one swoop (using an offline editor, for example). So I think we hould keep it as is for now, though I will definitely think about this concern next time I do a project like this. 1013-josh 21:43, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Internal links
I've noticed that a lot of the articles created don't have many internal links, arctic haze being one example. It's standard form to fill up articles with internal links to pretty much anything a reader might not know about or might have further questions about, so it would be nice if you could encourage your class to make lots. - Oreo Priest  15:37, 1 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Oreo Priest. It's on their homework for this week, but I will reiterate it in class. Also, feel free to jump in and do anything that needs doing. They're learning much from the changes that Wikipedia editors are making to their articles. They are in groups of four, and they're all watching each other's article, so if one article gets a heavy dose of internal links with a note about what you're doing and why in the edit summary box, it may spur them to get the other three into shape. 1013-josh 15:54, 1 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Still, editors shouldn't "wikify" every word they come across. Usually, only the first instance of a word should be linked to. In other words, if I'm writing the Fort Abraham Lincoln article, I shouldn't link to Mandan or earthlodge every time I come across it. Once per section that it is found in is actually more than enough. --Matthew UND (talk) 09:10, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


 * A good reminder. Thanks. Best way for students to get the point is to make some changes in the article and leave a note about why on the talk page or in the edit summary box. 1013-josh 17:26, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Or you could have them read WP:CONTEXT if they wish to learn more about what to link and what not to link. KillerChihuahua?!? 19:18, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


 * WP:CONTEXT is on their homework above, but I think they've been overwhelmed with the number of things they are learning in a short amount of time. If you can point out specific problems to students as you come across them -- and put WP:CONTEXT in the edit summary -- that would be best. 1013-josh 19:52, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Apologies, I missed it on the reading list. I currently have 1,618 articles on my watchlist, and I am an administrator, so I am rather busy - but I will take a look when I can, and of course if anyone has any Policy, Guideline, or MoS questions they can ask on my talk page, and I will help if I am able. KillerChihuahua?!? 19:57, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

DYK
This is your first batch of nominations appearing on the Main Page. There will be more forthcoming as they get posted.

Here's the next batch: --  howcheng  {chat} 03:54, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

You have a busy class! --ALoan (Talk) 11:26, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I have just been reading the above - interesting work. You may be interested in a recent story on a similar project in the Signpost.

I removed the underconstruction templates from the ones that I put on DYK on the Main Page today - they all looked finished enough, and authors of articles in the main article space should expected them to be "edited mercilessly", as the blurb says. Wikipedia is inherently a work-in-progress anyway. -- ALoan (Talk) 14:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

And the last group (we couldn't squeeze in the remaining articles and the nominations have now passed the 5-day mark): --  howcheng  {chat} 19:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Good Article
You may want to have your students try and push their articles to "Good article status". You can find details here: WP:GA. I belive a few of them are pretty close already. Also I left a message on wikiproject Minnesota about your project -Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Minnesota. -Ravedave 18:09, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Category
I added a category to your page template - Category:1013 Project Members. Feel free to remove it if you don't appreciate. Hipocrite - &laquo; Talk &raquo; 19:21, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Future on Wikipedia?
Josh, I'm curious if you've heard your students talk about becoming regular contributors to Wikipedia after the class is over? I think a project like your's is great and I think it would be wonderful to see your students become long-term Wikipedia editors. --Matthew UND (talk) 23:10, 4 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Not sure. I think at least a few of them are hooked. I certainly hope they will go on to become regular contributors, but at the moment they're just trying to get through finals week :) 1013-josh 23:47, 4 May 2007 (UTC)