Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/American Political Systems (Marc Thomas)/Timeline

Wikipedia Essentials & Editing Basics

 * In class
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Handout: Welcome to Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wikimedia Foundation)
 * Campus Ambassadors introduce:
 * Creating an Account
 * 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, Referencing handout, Referencing: Wikicode handout, Plagiarism handout, Citing sources tutorial video, RefToolbar citation tool tutorial video, Uploading images handout, Uploading files to Wikimedia Commons video, Evaluating Wikipedia article quality brochure, Article assessments video, Evolution of an article video

POLS 120 – Wikipedia Project Guidelines
First Steps:


 * 1) Create a Wikipedia user account (use LCC TUID)
 * 2) Sign into our Wikipedia course page:  wp:USEDmarctho
 * 3) Enter your Wikipedia user name into the Articles and Students sections of this Wikipedia course page
 * 4) Send a message to Chris, Anna, Marc, and Mike Christie that you signed into the course page.

Assignment: Introduction [up to 10 points]
Due Monday, September 19 Write a paragraph on your Wikipedia user page. Tell the world something about you and info on your project topic. Use good grammar and spelling, which will set the tone for the edits and articles you post throughout the semester.

Assignment: Minor Edit [Up to 20 points for each of two edits]
To get started, edit an existing Wikipedia article in a small way – either within your group’s course Learning Outcome topic or in another political science topic. Find an article online that needs fixing -- either more complete information, correction of errors, or additional references. Each contribution should be about one paragraph (at least 30 words but probably not more than 200 words) and include a corresponding citation.

Monday, September 26 – first entry due Monday, October 3 – second entry due

Here examples of political science articles that need some work. If you do some searching yourself, you will find additional topics that need help.
 * Separation of powers
 * Representative_democracy
 * Unitary government
 * Politics of the United States

Assignment: Major Edit [Up to 150 points total]
This is the meat of your project and will involve editing or adding articles about the Course Learning Outcomes you and your group have selected. You should record these major edits in the Articles section of our Wikipedia course page.

Due Monday, October 24 You should have researched and written at least 500 words of information that are contributed online to Wikipedia. This may include substantial edits or additions to an existing Wikipedia article, or the development of a new article. This information should be well-written and peer-reviewed (your group members should offer feedback before you post)

Due Monday, November 28 You should have researched and written at least 1000 words of information that are contributed online to Wikipedia. This may include substantial edits or additions to an existing Wikipedia article, or the development of a new article. This information should be well-written and peer-reviewed (your group members should offer feedback before you post)

Monday, December 5 Class Presentation on the project from each group.

([ Click to return to your main course page and continue.])