Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Research in Personality (MaryBeth McGavran)/Timeline

Week of 1/22: Wikipedia Essentials

 * Read Five pillars, an explanation of Wikipedia's basic rules and principles

Week of 1/31: Evaluating Wikipedia article quality, what makes a good article, anatomy of articles
Create a Wikipedia account and create a user page. Link to course page.

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: Create useraccount and provide user name to instructor.  Sign up on course page.
 * Milestone:
 * All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Optional Information: Editing basics

 * Handouts and videos: Talk pages tutorial video, Evaluating Wikipedia article quality brochure, Wikimarkup cheatsheet
 * Assignments

Week of 2/21: Using sources

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


 * Assignment
 * 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 of 3/6: Exploration of articles

 * Research and list 3–5 articles on your Wikipedia user page that you will consider working on as your main project. Ask your class's Online Ambassadors for comments.

Week of 3/20: Choosing articles

 * In class
 * Handout: Advice for choosing articles
 * Assignments: *Critically evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's discussion page.
 * In class
 * Discuss the range of topics students will be working on and strategies for researching and writing about them.


 * Assignments
 * Select an article to work on, removing the rest from the course page.

Week of 3/27 (due 3/29): Work on Resource/Reference List

 * Assignments
 * 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.


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

Week of 4/3: Finalize choice of article

 * In class
 * Handout: Moving into main space, Submitting articles to Did You Know
 * You should have received feedback about your possible article choices. If you have not submitted some choices and received feedback, you should do that immediately.  The handout about choosing articles in on Blackbaord.*
 * Begin lit search for your topic.
 * Review grading rubric so you know what you need to be doing on the Wikipedia project this month.

Week of 4/9: Use Resources to Build Articles DRAFT ARTICLE DUE BY 9 A.M. on TUES. APRIL 17th

 * *Resources: 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

Complete First Draft of article. (due April 17th at 9 a.m. PLEASE COME TO CLASS ON THIS DAY TO DISCUSS THE REVIEWS)
 * Enter your username and topic into our sandbox list on the class page.
 * Expand your article into an initial draft of a comprehensive treatment of the topic. Be sure to include your changes in your edit summaries.
 * Be sure you are logged in when you make your changes.

Week of 4/16: Peer Reviews Due April 20th at Noon
Complete two peer reviews by April 20th at noon
 * Peer review two of your classmates' articles, as described in assignment timeline and rubric. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages.
 * Copy-edit the two reviewed articles.


 * Milestone
 * All articles have been reviewed by others. All students have reviewed articles by their classmates.

Week of 4/23: Complete work for class DUE DATE APRIL 26th BY THE END OF CLASS TIME
You made it!
 * Complete responses to editor feedback.
 * Add any final edits.
 * Submit user page with your editing summary and article for instructor for grading by the end of class on Thursday April 26th.

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