Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Courses/History of Design and Digital Media (Michael Mandiberg)/Timeline

Week 1, September 1

 * DDM - Defining Design & The Origins of Writing


 * Egyptian Hieroglyphics
 * Chinese characters & paper
 * Roman characters
 * Illuminated Manuscripts

Meggs, Chapters 1-5. Chapters 1-4 will be review from lecture. Chapter 5 will be new material.
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP:Wikipedia Essentials


 * In class
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Handout: Welcome to Wikipedia


 * Assignment (due week 2)
 * Read Five pillars, a explanation of Wikipedia's basic rules and principles

Week 2, September 8:

 * DDM - The Printing Press, The Rennaissance & The Reformation



Meggs, Chapter 8
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP - Editing basics


 * In class
 * Intro to term assignment. Students who by that time have created a Wikipedia account and made at least one constructive edit to Wikipedia will receive an point (1P) (please share this edit with the class during the lecture, after I introduce the Wiki assignment)
 * Campus Ambassadors introduce:
 * Basics of editing
 * Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good & bad articles
 * Tips on finding the best articles to work on for class assignments
 * Handouts and videos: Video on creating an account, Talk pages tutorial video, Evaluating Wikipedia article quality brochure, Account and user page creation handout, Wikimarkup cheatsheet


 * Assignments (due week 3)
 * Create a Wikipedia account, create a user page, and sign up on the list of students on the course page. The handouts here and here will help you in this process.
 * To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to one of the class's Online Ambassadors (via talk page), and leave a message for a classmate on their user talk page.


 * Start. Get familiar with Wikipedia. Make some trial edits, however minor. Demystify the process. Leave behind any sense of intimidation. As Wikipedia puts it, learn to be bold. Learn basic editing skllls. The three students who have made the highest amount of constructive edits to Wikipedia before next Thursday (the 15th) (mainspace edits or constructive talk page comments count) will receive an extra two credit points (2P).


 * Before Thursday, September 15, everyone should have created a Wikipedia account, finished the Wikipedia Tutorial (including making an edit in the Wikipedia Tutorial Sandbox), made at least one constructive edit to a Wikipedia article (outside the sandbox - subject doesn't matter) (1P), make a constructive comment to a Wikipedia's article discussion page (1P) (make sure to add a constructive edit summary), and inform the course instructor (Michael Mandiberg - User:Theredproject (User_talk:Theredproject) about your account name, and the edit(s) you made (1P). You should do so before leaving a message on the course instructor talk page. Finishing this assignment on time is worth 5% of the course grade. If you successfully post a diff of your edit to the instructor's Wikipedia talk page you will earn one point (1P).


 * Milestone:
 * All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 3, September 15:

 * DDM - The Enlightenment & Typography


 * Anatomy of Type from [| Thinking With Type]

Meggs, Chapter 9
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP - Exploring the topic area


 * In class
 * Handout: Advice for choosing articles


 * Assignments (due week 4):


 * Critically evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's discussion page.
 * Research and list 3–5 articles on your Wikipedia user page that you think would make good articles for the main assignment, and you would like to work on. Link them (so they are blue links like this one). Share them with other class members by posting the link to your userpage on their talk pages, and ask your class's Online Ambassadors for comments. Posting this question to your instructor and five classmates or Online Ambassadors on their talk pages (don't forget to sign and link your userpage) is worth one point (1P)

Week 4, September 22:

 * DDM - The Industrial Revolution & The Invention of Advertising



Meggs, Chapters 10 & 11
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP - Using sources


 * In class
 * Handouts and videos: Referencing handout, Referencing: Wikicode handout, Plagiarism handout, Citing sources tutorial video, RefToolbar citation tool tutorial video


 * Assignment (due week 5)
 * Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.
 * Post a 4-5 paragraph summary of two different article choices from your initial 3-5 choices on your talk page, and post on my talk page to let me know it is been completed. You should evaluated each of the two for their historical relevance, and how much information is available about them. You should do a search in the CSI Library search for books, as well as looking for scholarly articles and newspapers/magazines. Please list 5 to 10 potential sources; make sure you have looked at each of these articles/books in order to confirm it is useful.


 * For next week
 * Instructor evaluates student's article selections, by week 5.

Week 5, October 6:

 * DDM - Arts and Crafts & Art Noveau



Meggs, Chapter 13
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP - Choosing articles


 * In class
 * Discuss the range of topics students will be working on and strategies for researching and writing about them.
 * Student groups and article assignments will be announced.


 * Assignments (due week 6)
 * Plan. Minor edits alone won't get us much closer towards Good Article status. We need to have a sense of what more needs to be done, and an overall plan for the article. Look at models and guidelines (e.g. Manual of Style or the Guide for nominating good articles). What sections are required? What will be the article structure? What information is needed? Who in your group will write what?
 * Compile a bibliography of relevant research and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources.
 * Establish mechanisms for communicating, and plans for meeting in person.

Week 6, October 13:

 * DDM - Modern Art, Cubism, Conceptualism, an DADA.



Meggs, Chapter 14 & 15
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP - Drafting starter articles


 * In class
 * HOMEWORK: post 10 sources to the talk page of your article, and annotate these (note what is on them, and how you will use them). 4 points
 * HOMEWORK: Meet with research librarian (due Nov 3rd). 1 point
 * HOMEWORK: Input your article name and your username into the table of all students (that include the review schedule). Mandatory.
 * Q&A session with instructor and/or Campus Ambassadors about interacting on Wikipedia and getting started with writing
 * Video resource: Sandbox tutorial
 * Assignments (due week 7)
 * As yet another 5P (!) activity, before Wednesday, October 27, you can nominate your article for Did you know. A key factor is that for DYK, a certain amount of the writing has to be done in a certain period of time, so time your submission according to your progress. All group members who were involved with significantly improving the article up to this point will receive 5P each IF the article is approved by the Did You Know reviewer. You are more then welcome to see me during the office hours to talk about how to get your article passed for the Did You Know. Getting an article to appear on the front page is cool, and it has been done many times by other student wikipedians. Why not give it a try? (Here is a link to a useful handout])


 * Milestone
 * All student groups have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.

Week 7, October 20:

 * DDM - Plakatstil



Meggs, Chapter 16
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP - Did you know


 * In class
 * Handout: Moving into main space, Submitting articles to Did You Know


 * Wiki assignments (due week 8)
 * HOMEWORK: Work on your summary and outline of the changes you will make to your page. This must be at least 250 words. Due Nov 3rd.
 * As another 2P activity, post a constructive question, related to your project, to Reference desk. Report what answer you got on your article talk page and notify the instructor about your report with a diff. (Note: it may take a day or so for a reply to be posted to your question at the reference desk)
 * Also, revisit your first edits. Have they been retained? Have they been improved by others? Post a report on your userpage, and notify the instructor for another point (1P). If you improve the edit yourself and discuss it with other editors that might have disagreed with it previously, you may receive another  point (1P).

Week 8, October 27:

 * DDM - The Bauhaus



Meggs, Chapter 18 & 19
 * Read for Next Week:

Tutorial on moving images from Flickr
 * WP - Adding Images


 * In class or outside of class
 * Campus Ambassadors lead Wikipedia lab/workshop, covering:
 * Article ratings on Wikipedia & how to get there
 * Uploading images, and adding images to articles
 * Handouts and videos: Uploading images handout, Uploading files to Wikimedia Commons video, Evaluating Wikipedia article quality brochure (handed out originally in week 2), Article assessments video, Evolution of an article video


 * Wiki assignments (due week 9)
 * HOMEWORK: Finish your summary and outline of the changes you will make to your page. Add 20 sources to talk page. This must be at least 250 words. Post this to the talk page for your article. 5 points

Week 9, November 3:

 * DDM - High Modernism



Meggs, Chapter 20
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP - Getting and giving feedback


 * In class
 * As a group, students will offer suggestions for improving one or two of class group's articles, setting an example for what is expected from a solid encyclopedia article.


 * Wiki assignments (due week 10)
 * HOMEWORK: Add at least 500 words to your article. This is the first quarter of your contribution to it. 5 Points

Week 10, November 10:

 * DDM - Corporate Identity Systems



Meggs, Chapter 23
 * Read for Next Week:


 * WP -
 * Wiki assignments (due week 11)
 * Peer review one of your classmates' articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages.
 * Copy-edit the reviewed article.
 * You should read and comment on the feedback your article received. Incorporate constructive suggestions into your article.
 * 2 Points for all

Week 11, November 17:

 * DDM - Postmodernism



Chapter 24
 * Read for Next Week:


 * Wiki assignments (due week 12)
 * Address issues from first review.
 * HOMEWORK: Add at least 1000 words to your article. 5 Points

Week 12 TUESDAY, November 22nd: Due date

 * DDM - Net.Art


 * WP - Perform second peer review of the article. (3 points)

Week 13, December 1st: Class presentations

 * DDM - The Power of the Database, and Computational Aesthetics


 * WP -


 * Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. Try to address issues from second peer review.
 * Finish the Wikipedia article. The word count range to be considered for full credit (25 points) is 1200-2000 words. Good Article will be closer to 4000-5000 words.

Week 14, December 8th

 * DDM - Social Media and Activism


 * WP -


 * Article Due!
 * 1200-2000 words added from the original state.


 * Milestone
 * Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading, and have submitted reflective essays.
 * Course instructor (Michael Mandiberg) will do the final assessment of your work after December 15 (beginning of the finals week), but all work for credit on the articles must be complete by December 8th.

Week 15, December 15th: Final Exam

 * Exam will be administered.

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