Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Berkeley Sociology Poverty Course (Sandra Smith)/Timeline

Week 1: Wikipedia Essentials

 * In class
 * Overview of the course
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Handout: Welcome to Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wikimedia Foundation)


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

Week 2: Editing basics
It is important to get students editing Wikipedia right away so that they become familiar with the MediaWiki markup ("wikisyntax", "wikimarkup", or "wikicode").


 * Read Five pillars, an explanation of Wikipedia's basic rules and principles.
 * Create a Wikipedia account, create a user page, and sign up on the list of students on the course page.
 * 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.

Week 3: Exploring the topic area

 * 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 will consider working on as your main project.

Week 4: Using sources

 * Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.

Week 5: Choosing articles

 * Select an article to work on, removing the rest from the course page.
 * Compile a bibliography of relevant research and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources.

Week 6: Drafting starter articles

 * If you are starting a new article, write a 3–4 paragraph summary version of your article (with citations) in your Wikipedia sandbox. If you are improving an existing article, write a summary version reflecting the content the article will have after it's been improved, and post this along with a brief description of your plans on the article's talk page.
 * Begin working with classmates and Online Ambassadors to polish your short starter article and fix any major transgressions of Wikipedia norms.
 * Continue research in preparation for expanding your article.

Week 7: Building articles

 * Expand your article into an initial draft of a comprehensive treatment of the topic.

Week 8: Getting and giving feedback

 * Peer review one of your classmates' articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages. See "HOW TO SUCCEED AT YOUR WIKI PROJECT".

Week 9: Responding to non-substantive feedback

 * Make edits to your article based on peers' feedback.

Week 10: Substantive peer review

 * Substantive peer review. See *HOW TO SUCCEED AT YOUR WIKI PROJECT" and "The Perfect Wikipedia Article".

Week 11: Responding to substantive feedback

 * Substantive peer review. See *HOW TO SUCCEED AT YOUR WIKI PROJECT" and "The Perfect Wikipedia Article".

Week 12: Responding to substantive feedback

 * Add final touches to you Wikipedia article. Try to address issues from Good Article reviews.