Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/California State University, Sacramento/Art of the Ancient Mediterranean (Fall 2021)

In this assignment, students will choose a Wikipedia article that is in need of improvement, edit and expand the article using reliable academic sources, and actually publish their improvements on Wikipedia. Student should select articles that are related to the themes and topics of the course, but are rather short, poorly researched, and/or contain incomplete/incorrect information. There will be several stages to this project, including the completion of tutorials on Wikipedia best editing practices and Wikipedia’s editing interface. We will start this project early during the semester and work on it steadily through the entire course. Small assignments will be due on a weekly basis. After publishing their articles, students will also turn in a reflective essay about the experience.

Course Description: This course is a chronological exploration of art and architecture created in the area around the Mediterranean between ca. 800 BCE and ca. 500 CE. We will begin with art created in the Greek Iron Age, around the time that the Homeric epics were written down and conclude with the fall of the Roman Empire. The title of the course, “Art of the Ancient Mediterranean,” was selected to emphasize the interconnected nature of the lands around the Mediterranean at this time and we will study art that was created and circulated throughout what are now the modern-day nations of Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Turkey, Cyprus, Croatia, Egypt, Syria, and Spain, to name only a few. Our discussions on the impact of Greco-Roman art on other places in Eurasia will take us even further afield, to places such as Afghanistan, Iran, and India.

Week 3
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 4
For this assignment, you'll be reading two Wikipedia articles selected by your instructor and evaluating them. One is an example of a well-written, informative article and the other is an example of an article that needs a lot of work.

Strong article: Laocoön and His Sons

Weak article: Munich Kouros

You will turn in this assignment via Canvas. More instructions are posted in Canvas in the &quot;Week 4 Wikipedia Assignment&quot; page.

Week 5
For this assignment, you'll be selecting the article that you spend the rest of the semester working on for your project. To do so, go to Articles --&gt; Assign Myself an Article on this dashboard. When you've selected an article from the list, click &quot;Select&quot; to claim it.

After selecting an article, go to this Canvas discussion and complete an evaluation of the article you have selected, following the instructions on that page.

Week 6

 * Watch the tutorial video on Canvas
 * Find a peer-reviewed article on the topic of ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN ART usingJstor. You can search Jstor for an artist or work of art that is interesting to you.
 * Find a Wikipedia article on the topic of ANCIENT art that is relevant to this article.
 * Find information in the Jstor article that is missing in the Wikipedia article.
 * Write one or two sentences paraphrasing that information (be careful not to plagiarize!) and add a citation to your article from Jstor.
 * Check and double check your addition to make sure of the following:
 * It accurately represents the information in the article.
 * It is a grammatically correct sentence and everything is spelled correctly. Get someone else to read it over or send it to me to check! This is important because this information is going out to the public.
 * You have added a complete citation to the sentence. The citation is formatted as a journal article, NOT a website, and does not just lead to Sacramento State's library.
 * You placed the sentence in a logical place in the article.
 * The sentence does not repeat other information that is already in the article.

Complete the quiz on Canvas, which will help you find sources on your topic to get started.

Week 7
Art History

Do the three trainings listed above and then copy the existing Wikipedia article that you're going to work on this semester in to your sandbox. Go to Canvas to get step-by-step instructions for this assignment! There is also a video tutorial.

Your assignment is to make an appointment with me to meet one-on-one to talk about Wikipedia at some point between Week 7-12. Use this Calendly link to make an appointment during my office hours (Mondays, 9:00-10:30 am in person or via zoom and Thursdays, 1030am-12:00pm (via Zoom only).   If you can't make any of these times, send me an email to arrange for a time outside of what is available on this link.

Week 8
Spend this week reading your sources, finding more sources, and begining to edit your sandbox.

Go to Canvas and read the instructions and resources for this week. Click &quot;reply' on the discussion thread on that page and tell your classmates about one heading you plan to add to your article. What will you call it? What content will go in it? Why do you think your article needs that section?

Edit the article in your sandbox so that it has headings for all the sections and subsections that you plan to organize the information into. In addition, add five sources (books, journal articles, etc) to the Sources/Resources/Further Reading section of the article in your sandbox. If your article doesn't already have a Sources/Resources/Further Reading section, add one and make sure it has at least five sources.

Week 9
By this point, you should be accomplishing basic tasks like checking and correcting the existing facts in your article, adding citations to uncited facts, fixing the grammar and organization of the article. You must have added at least 500 words of new content to your article by this point.

Week 10
Guiding framework

Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 11
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.

There is an assignment on Canvas where you respond to your peer review feedback and report on what you did this week.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
 * Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media. If you are behind, use this as an opportunity to catch up. If not, use this time to make sure you meet next week's goal of 1000 words and are getting close to a polished article!

Week 12
You must have added at least 1000 words of new content to your article by this point! Other tasks to keep working on:  '''doing more research and finding missing information, rewriting the lead section to represent all major points, reorganizing the text to communicate the information better, adding images and other media. '''

After last week's assignment, you will recieve detailed feedback from your instructor. You must pay careful attention to this feedback and address all areas of concern for this week. You will not be allowed to move your work from the sandbox to the main Wikipedia space until these concerns are addressed. You may need to go through several rounds of feedback.

Once your instructor feels your article is ready to be moved, you must complete the final checklist, which your instructor will send you via email. Once you have checked over this list and taken care of the final details, you may move your article to the main Wikipedia space!

Week 13
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!

Week 14
It's the final week to develop your article.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
 * Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!

Week 15
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.