Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Carnegie Mellon University/Communication in Groups and Organizations (Fall 2015)

Most of management is communication. You communicate to get information that will be the basis of decisions, coordinate activity, to provide a vision for the people who work for and with you, and to sell yourself and your work. The goal of this course is to identify communication challenges within work groups and organizations and ways to overcome them. To do this requires that we know how communication normally works, what parts are difficult, and how to fix it when it goes wrong.

The focus of this course is on providing you with a broad understanding of the way communication operates within dyads, work groups, and organizations. The intent is to give you theoretical and empirical underpinnings for the communication you will undoubtedly participate in when you move to a work environment, and strategies for improving communication within your groups. Because technology is changing communication patterns and outcomes both in organizations and more broadly in society, the course examines these technological changes as well. Readings come primarily from the empirical research literature supplemented with case studies and exercises.

Course syllabus is at http://orgcom15.hciresearch.org/content/syllabus.

Week 1

 * Overview of the course
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.

Week 2

 * Basics of editing
 * Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
 * Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
 * Tips on finding the best articles to work on for class assignments

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Handouts: Handout: Editing Wikipedia,, Evaluating Wikipedia


 * Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
 * Create a User page.
 * To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to another student on their user talk page.
 * Explore topics related to your topic area to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized. What areas seem to be missing? As you explore, make a mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.

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Resources: Online Training for Students

All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 3
Handouts:

Week 4

 * List 3 to 5 course-relevant Wikipedia articles that need work and that you might like to work on to the [course discussion forum] (http://orgcom15.hciresearch.org/forums/explore-possible-wp-articles-topics-and-partners). Include each potential Wikipedia article as a new forum topic. For each article, provide a brief description of what you think is needed. Look through other students' suggestions to find other articles you might work on and to identify an editing partner.
 * Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class. Look through articles from Current Directions in Psychological Science or a similar reference source for interesting articles relevant to the course published in the last 5-7 years. Add one idea or fact from this research to a relevant article in Wikipedia, preferably one of the articles on which you'd want to work. Be sure to include an inline citation to the original source. One way to find a Wikipedia article appropriate for this new information is to identify some keywords from the title or abstract of the Current Directions' article and conduct an advanced Google search of the form keywords site:Wikipedia.org,, which will restrict the search to the wikipedia.org domain. For example, a Google search on &quot;person perception thin slices site:wikipedia.org&quot; returns articles on &quot;interpersonal perception&quot;, &quot;Blink (book)&quot; &quot;Nalini Ambady&quot; and &quot;Thin-slicing&quot;, all of which are relevant to this topic. Alternatively, you could start with a Google scholar or Psych Info search for a topic from Wikipedia to find relevant scholarly articles. For example, to find relevant, recent scholarly articles on this topic, you could conduct a [Google Scholar search] (https://scholar.google.com)]], with the key words &quot;person perception&quot; and &quot;thin slice&quot; and a custom date range from 2008-2015. --- Handouts: Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

Week 5

 * Select an article to work on and partner to work with. Add your topic on the course page. In addition, include your name, partner's name, sandbox and article URL on [this spreadsheet) (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jMngAYfCL6RzqfB_4EmGy2hYzOWx_HqFkPCOyYfI1-s/edit#gid=1155350670)

Schedule an appointment with Professor Kraut to get your article approved and discuss your plans for improving it.

Week 6: Conduct research & plan your improvements

 * Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
 * If you are improving an existing article, create a detailed outline reflecting your proposed changes, and post this for community feedback, along with a brief description of your plans, on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check back on the talk page often and engage with any responses.
 * If you are starting a new article, write a 3–4 paragraph summary version of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox.

All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.

Week 7
 Move your sandbox articles and edits into main space. If you are expanding an existing article, copy your edit into the article. If you are making many small edits, save after each edit before you make the next one. Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article. A general reminder: Don't panic if your contribution disappears, and don't try to force it back in. Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article's talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.  Contact your instructor or Wikipedia Content Expert and let them know.  If you are creating a new article, do NOT copy and paste your text, or there will be no record of your work history. Follow the instructions in the &quot;Moving out of your sandbox&quot; handout. == Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic. ==

Handout: 

Week 8

 * Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copyedit. Add your names next to the articles you will peer review in [this spreadsheet) (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jMngAYfCL6RzqfB_4EmGy2hYzOWx_HqFkPCOyYfI1-s/edit#gid=1155350670). (You don’t need to start reviewing yet.)

Week 9

 * If you are revising an existing article, continue to improve the article by rewriting and/or adding new material.
 * If you are creating a new article, expand your article into a complete first draft.

Students have posted their first, complete round of edits to their article, so that other classmates and the Wikipedia community can review their improvements.

Week 10

 * Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the articles' talk pages.
 * Copy-edit the two reviewed articles.

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

Week 11

 * Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use the artical talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.

Week 12

 * Return to your classmates' articles you previously reviewed, and provide more suggestions for further improvement. If there is a disagreement, suggest a compromise.
 * Do additional research and writing to further improve to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.

Week 13

 * Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.

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Handout:


 * Write a reflective essay (2–5 pages) on your Wikipedia contributions.

Week 14
Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.