Wikipedia:USEP/Courses/Social Stratification and Inequality (Rich Ellefritz)

Course information
Oklahoma State University
 * Social Stratification and Inequality
 * Rich Ellefritz
 * Professor's Wikipedia username: Asdimd (talk)
 * Username: Asdimd
 * August 20, 2012

Course description
According to OSU's online course description, Social Stratification (4383) addresses "systems of class and caste, with special attention to the United States. Status, occupation, income, and other elements in stratification" [sic] are also included. The instructor has adopted Christopher B. Doob's (2013) book, Social Inequality and Social Stratification in US Society, as the required textbook, but students will also be expected to access and utilize information from primary and secondary sources on the course topic from OSU's library as well as from the Internet. The overall goals of the course are for students to expand their knowledge of sociology in general, to gain new knowledge about the sociological study of social stratification and inequality, but to also work toward writing a new Wikipedia article on a topic relevant to the sociological study of social stratification and inequality. Standards for writing a Wikipedia article reflect the process of publishing scholarly work in peer reviewed publications: Students will need to identify a "gap in the literature," they will need to write in a way that is informative as opposed to normative or ideological, and their article will need to be significant in a way so as to be acceptable to the community of Wikipedia editors as well as to Wikipedia users.

SOC 4383 Social Stratification addresses the hierarchical structure of society with a special focus on social inequality in the United States. As this course has incorporated the Wikipedia education project, special emphasis has been given to Web 2.0, the digital divide, and the social reproduction of inequality. Students are expected to use knowledge acquired in SOC 4383 and skills developed at OSU to make significant contributions to existing Wikipedia articles as well as to contribute a novel Wikipedia article.

Wikipedia assignment
Students in SOC 4383 will form groups of 3-5 students based upon common interests in the topical areas of social stratification and inequality, and they will work together in online forums to construct a discussion leading session to last from 1-3 class periods. During the time groups spend building toward leading a class discussion they are to gather at least one physical book from OSU's library, at least one peer reviewed article from a scholarly database, and to research one or more Wikipedia articles associated with their chosen topical area and research. Ultimately, students will utilize Wikipedia by adding, updating, revising, and deleting content and references in existing articles, and, if time and opportunity allow for it, students will contribute a new Wikipedia article on their chosen substantive topic within social stratification and inequality.

Student usernames
Student usernames should follow the ExampleUser format below.



Student resources
For on-wiki help, please refer to this student orientation and this brief resource page. Students will need to write text in Wikipedia format, and this involves using Wiki Syntax.

Wikipedia handouts & videos

 * Welcome to Wikipedia
 * Five pillars, a explanation of Wikipedia's basic rules and principles
 * Video on creating an account
 * Talk pages tutorial video
 * Evaluating Wikipedia article quality brochure
 * Account and user page creation handout
 * Wikimarkup cheatsheet
 * Referencing handout, Referencing: Wikicode handout
 * Plagiarism handout
 * Citing sources tutorial video
 * RefToolbar citation tool tutorial video, Sandbox tutorial
 * Uploading images handout
 * Uploading files to Wikimedia Commons video
 * Evaluating Wikipedia article quality brochure
 * Article assessments video
 * Evolution of an article video

Immediate help
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