User:Ryan McGrady/395proposal

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Important! Read First!
This page is currently designed to serve four functions for five audiences (one hypothetical):
 * 1) as a proposal for COM/ENG 395
 * 2) *the Justification section on the main course page, for example, is intended for this audience
 * 3) as a course design project for CRD 704
 * 4) *the Scholarly Narrative and Assessment Plan sections are intended for this audience
 * 5) as means for other educators and Wikipedians to provide feedback on what I have planned
 * 6) as a personal workspace
 * 7) *before this course is opened to students, a lot will be moved to my personal (private) wiki that I already use for organizing my COM 110 teaching materials
 * students are the fifth (hypothetical) audience for which several of these sections were written, but this page will be redesigned before actual use by students

=Justification=

Wikipedia, the 5th most popular website in the world, has had a dramatic influence on popular culture and the ways in which we think about how knowledge is produced and consumed. With the recent announcement of Wikipedia Zero, a lightweight version of the site service carriers will deliver to phones free of charge in developing areas of the world (even without a paid plan), its significance only stands to grow.

Unfortunately, students' interactions with the site remain largely superficial, reading the text on the surface of articles, perhaps with some vague sense of responsible skepticism but failing to take into consideration the incredible and complex processes and systems occurring behind the scenes which shape and color the text. Complicating the issue, educators and policymakers have been slow to move past wholesale rejections of Wikipedia's value and misunderstandings of its problems. The ability to bring a critical eye to the evaluation of information is a crucial skill for which Wikipedia is only one application. The approaches I will take with students in this course draw from rhetoric and media studies, informed by my extensive experience using, editing, exploring, contextualizing, and researching Wikipedia, which has been the subject of two of my publications as well as the starting point for my dissertation. Furthermore, I regularly utilize it in my teaching and have held multiple workshops for educators who have sought to teach with, teach about, or otherwise better understand it.

A class about Wikipedia presents unique opportunities for practice. Students will be given a semester-long collaborative writing project for which teams will have to adapt to a particular encyclopedic writing style, learn generic forms and conventions, and consider a range of audiences. They will need to communicate not just with physically present peers but with those in the larger Wikipedia community, on the one hand negotiating somewhat traditional inter-team feedback during class exercises, but on the other also assimilating to a new sense of transparency-driven accountability and peer-review processes unique to the semantic web.

All exercises, assignments, workshops, weekly reflections, and the large group project take place entirely on Wikipedia, as will a large part of communication outside class and all course documents. We will have a presence on the School and university projects initiative, whereby others can observe, draw from, or provide feedback on the course as it proceeds online. By situating class activities in practice I hope to give students the tools they need to understand Wikipedia in a deeper, more holistic way, better equipped to make meaningful connections with the discussions and readings that raise questions concerning, for example, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales's unflappably utopian-altruistic rhetoric he projects onto the encyclopedia.

=Weekly Schedule=

=Syllabus=

Course Description
Students approach Wikipedia, the free and open online encyclopedia, from media studies and rhetorical perspectives. Includes assessment of popular arguments of credibility, authorship, expertise, and the site's role as information source, as well as critical discussion of collaborative knowledge production, the codification of knowledge, the encyclopedia genre, access and the digital divide, Web 2.0 and participatory culture, systematic bias, and free culture. Assignments take place largely on Wikipedia, developing firsthand experiential understanding informed by and informing class concepts.

Student Outcomes
By the end of the course, a student who attains a grade of C or better will be able to:
 * 1) use Wikipedia in an informed way, understanding an article in its deeper, often obscured context
 * 2) critically evaluate sources of information using a rhetorical approach
 * 3) synthesize ideas for fact-based encyclopedic writing
 * 4) write collaboratively and negotiate points of view in both online and face-to-face contexts
 * 5) write according to specific sets of conventions that take multiple audiences into account
 * 6) demonstrate familiarity with wiki technology, its role within the larger context of Web 2.0 and participatory culture, and its strengths and weaknesses for writing and learning

Humanities GEP
''Note: I was unclear about the role of the humanities gen ed requirements in this proposal. It seems between my justification, schedule, and outcomes I get at everything the humanities outcomes are expressing, but I can't tell if I should be copying them in. So, for good measure:''

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
 * 1) Interpret human experience through the lenses of rhetorical and digital media theories.
 * 2) *Means of evaluating: Throughout the semester, students will read and discuss a wide variety of texts that introduce, analyze, and utilize rhetoric and digital media theories to come to a deeper understanding of how we understand and interpret human experience in a digital age. Students will engage in class discussion and reflective writing on reading assignments as a means to generate productive and critical thinking about the impact of technology on the study of rhetoric.
 * 3) Explain theories of rhetoric and digital media as frameworks for interpretation.
 * 4) *Means of evaluating: In class discussions about readings, short written assignments, and informal in-class writing assignments, students will be asked to demonstrate their theoretical understanding of rhetoric and digital media. Students will use theories of rhetoric and digital media as interpretive frames for understanding specific aspects of human experience. Students may engage in the production of digital texts as a means of understanding and applying interpretive theories of rhetoric and digital media.
 * 5) Construct academic arguments grounded in rhetorical ways of knowing and support those arguments with evidence appropriate to their rhetorical situations
 * 6) *Means of evaluating: Students will construct academic arguments about rhetoric and digital media in a final paper for the class and in shorter journal, blog, and/or discussion board writing assignments throughout the course. These arguments will be grounded in students’ knowledge of rhetorical and digital media theories and practices. Students will incorporate evidence from contemporary scholarship in rhetoric and digital media to support their arguments.

Required Course Materials
In the spirit of free content, students will not be required to purchase any materials. Readings that aren't available through library databases will be drawn from Wikipedia and its sister site, WikiBooks, or from other freely accessible online sources. See the schedule for a list.

Correspondence
Email and Wikipedia will be the primary modes of communication outside of class. You are responsible for checking both your email and your Wikipedia account talk page regularly and for notifying me if your address or username changes. I do my best to respond quickly, but note that since I often respond through my phone, my responses will frequently be very brief and to the point, without formalities.

Attendance Policy
Class participation and attendance are essential to the learning process. 15% of your grade is dedicated to attendance and participation, which will be affected by a pattern of absences. Additionally, I will not be available outside of class to go over what you missed except in cases of a university excused absence. An excused absence will be issued according to NCSU policy, which you can find here. Make up work will only be allowed for excused absences.

Electronic Devices
While I don't explicitly prohibit any particular kind of device, distracting use of technology (to me or to others in the class) will directly affect your participation grade. This always includes ring tones, talking on the phone, playing games, and listening to music (unless somehow relevant to an exercise we're doing), but can also include conspicuous texting and visiting websites that aren't class-related.

Incompletes
A grade of "Incomplete" is reserved for exceptional situations where students are prevented from finishing course work on time. The University policy in regard to incomplete grades may be viewed at the Academic Affairs website.

All grades of incomplete will be left to the discretion of the instructor in regard to the student's needs and performance. If you experience a problem during the semester that may require an incomplete grade please see the instructor as soon as possible.

Academic Integrity
The Departments of English and Communication are committed to upholding the University's honor code. To read the University policy on academic integrity please see the Code of Student Conduct

The University and the Depts. of English and Communication assume all students are familiar with these standards and procedures. If you have any questions about academic dishonor or doubts about what constitutes a violation please see your instructor.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
 * Using papers or speeches from another class.
 * Using another student's paper or speech from any class.
 * Copying a speech or a paper from the internet.
 * The egregious lack of citing sources or documenting research.


 * If you're not clear on what is or is not plagiarism, ASK. The BEST case scenario if caught is a zero on that assignment, and ignorance of what does or does not count is not an excuse. That being said, I'm a strong supporter of Fair Use doctrine. Just attribute what you use.

Disabilities
Your instructor will do their best to accommodate any reasonable request from students with verifiable disabilities. In order to take advantage of available accommodations offered by the University and the department, students must register with Disability Services for Students at 1900 Student Health Center, Campus Box 7509, 515-7653.

While your instructor will help, it is the student's responsibility to tell/notify instructors of any problems. Please make instructors aware of known problems as early as possible for the most efficient and adequate help. If you encounter problems during the class let your instructor know as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made to help you get the most out of the class.

Inclement Weather Policy
In the case of severe weather, the university will notify students according to the Adverse Weather Policy. If the situation is such that your instructor cannot make it to class or cancels class due to severe weather, the instructor will notify both the Communication Department office and you via e-mail. If class is not canceled and you cannot make it due to severe weather, you will be counted absent and should notify your instructor regarding your situation.

Class Evaluations
Schedule: Online class evaluations will be available for students to complete at the end of the session. Exact dates will be announced.

You will receive an email message directing you to a website where you can login using your Unity ID to complete evaluations. All evaluations are confidential; instructors will not know how any one student responded to any question, and students will not know the ratings for any instructors.

Evaluation website [Mailto:classeval@ncsu.edu Student help desk] More information about ClassEval

Equity Policy
All persons regardless of age, race, religion, gender, physical disability or sexual orientation shall have equal opportunity without harassment in the Communication Department courses and program. Any harassment should be reported immediately to either the classroom instructor or the course director.

=Assignments and Grading=

Participation - 20%
In the spirit of collaboration and community, this will not be a course with many unidirectional lectures. It is therefore imperative that you do the readings and come to class prepared to enter into the discussion or activity of the day. A pattern of unpreparedness and/or absences will significantly affect your grade.

Online Discussion - 20%
The first item on the schedule for each week is a link to a discussion prompt (see the schedule). Edit the page, add a new section with your name (or handle if you prefer) at the bottom (e.g. ===Ryan McGrady=== ), and post a response of 300-500 words by the start of class that week.

During the week, respond to at least one of your classmates' posts by again editing the page and writing your comment at the bottom of his or her section. When commenting, remember to indent (by starting your line with a colon) to distinguish it from the original post.

Group Project - 35%
Using the tools and techniques covered in class, groups of 3-4 will be responsible for finding and choosing an article on a topic related to this course which either does not exist or only exists as a stub. Throughout the course each group is responsible for writing and developing that article toward the goal of attaining Good Article status. Good articles are well-written, a proper length, accurate, verifiable, comprehensive, neutral, stable, properly formatted, organized well, follow style guidelines, and use media when appropriate. An article must be nominated for this designation, whereby outsiders will review it and provide feedback before approving or rejecting.

This project will require an understanding of not just suitable writing techniques and technical competency with a wiki, but also familiarity with the processes and conventions of the Wikipedia community.

A step up from Good Articles are Featured Articles, judged according to the Featured article criteria. As I write this, 1 in 286 articles have the Good Article label, but only 1 in 1,120 have been awarded Featured status (and the Good designation is much newer). You are not expected to attain Featured Article status, but if you do your group will automatically receive an A for this assignment.

Wikipedia has a number of resources that might be helpful to find an article that needs to be created or needs to be developed: Most wanted articles, which lists pages that don't exist but have a lot of links directed to them; Articles for creation, where anonymous editors can request pages be added; Most wanted stubs, listing stubs with the most inbound links; Requested articles; and Stub categories.

Final Paper - 25%
The final paper should be based on your group project, but written individually. Describe the process of writing, developing, editing, and otherwise crafting your article. Go into the processes your team undertook, including struggles you or your team felt with different aspects of the assignment: writing, organization, formatting, sourcing, style, group dynamics, outside contributors, peer-review processes, and so on. What kinds of skills did you have to learn that may be valuable? Did your opinion of the site change? As Wikipedia is completely transparent, I will be looking for links to challenges and interactions you describe, so it may be useful to keep a weekly or biweekly journal of activity to look back on when writing this paper.

As some of these questions only take definition as the project gets underway, we'll talk about this paper more down the road.

=Resources=

=Participants=

=What This Course Is NOT=


 * this is not a course on computer science or programming
 * although you will be responsible for familiarizing yourself with basic Wikitext
 * this is not an introductory composition course
 * although you will learn new genres of writing and will be writing a lot
 * this is not a course on organizational communication or knowledge management (in the disciplinary senses of those terms)
 * the course itself is not a wiki and this wiki is not the course
 * this course is not multidisciplinary but interdisciplinary
 * in other words, this is not a combination of courses on writing, composition, new media, media studies, rhetoric, epistemology, critical theory, group communication, communication theory, cultural studies, research methods, and online communities, but rather a fusion of elements typically categorized under these and other disciplinary headings