Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Georgia State University/GLOS 3500 Culture and Change in Africa (Fall 2019)

Africa is large continent, with diverse regions, societies, histories, and cultures. This course introduces the ethnography of Africa, explores the historical and cultural conditions underpinning current predicaments facing African societies, and highlights change and resistance to change since European colonization. In this course, we will come to understand that tragedy is only one facet of African lives and experiences.

Teams of 5-6 students will work together to research and write a Wikipedia article related to the content of this course. Students will be making significant additions to Wikipedia related to African culture, history, and politics. Teams will work together for the entire semester. Your final articles will be posted to Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia Project consists of a series of individual and team assignments. Individual assignments will count towards your participation and homework grade for the course. Team assignments will be graded collectively, but each team member will receive a customized, individual Wikipedia Team Based Learning Grade.

Week 1
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

Week 2
Individual assignment:

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 3
Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Exercise
Individual assignment:

Add a citation

Looking for ideas of what to work on? Consider finding an article in the list of  Africa stubs to improve. Or, add information from one of the course readings to a relevant page and add the reading to the reference list.

Week 5


TEAM ASSIGNMENT



Team assignments are posted in iCollege under Groups. You can see your team assignment and list of teammates there. You will see your team's assigned topic in the iCollege discussion forum for the Wikipedia project. A hard copy of your team topic will also be in your team's folder for use in class. To start your online work together, all team members should create a section in their sandbox space listing their team and linking to their other team members' userpages.

TEAM TOPIC / ARTICLE


 * Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
 * Find the article your team has been assigned from the list of &quot;Available Articles&quot; on the  Articles  tab on this course page. One team member should click  Select  to assign it to themselves. Other members of the team should also assign themselves the same topic. Make sure you are all logged into the course page on your own devices and head to the My Articles section on the home tab. Then assign yourself your team's topic.
 * Identify one member of your team whose sandbox space you will work in to draft your article. Make a note in each of your your individual sandbox spaces of where your team will be drafting your work, and leave a link to the team space.
 * In your team's sandbox, write a few sentences about what you (individually) plan to contribute to the selected article.
 * Read through the whole article and quickly come up with one or two ideas of how you might improve it. Next week, you'll do a full critique of the article together.
 * Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. These may come from the required reading for the course or elsewhere. Post that bibliography to the talk page of the article you'll be working on, and in your sandbox. Make sure to check in on the Talk page to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.

Week 6
No new assignments for Wikipedia project this week. Catch up on any missed Wikipedia assignments or trainings and study for the Midterm Exam.

Exercise
Team assignment:

As a team, evaluate your chosen article. Complete the evaluation in the designated user sandbox by launching the Evaluate an Article template in the following exercise. In your evaluation, use the relevant guides in the block below to help identify areas for improvement.

Evaluate an article

Books

Cultural Anthropology

Films

History

Political Science

Women's Studies

Thinking about Wikipedia

Week 8
Team assignment:

Be sure to take the Drafting as a Group training module and begin drafting your article in the designated user sandbox.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
This assignment is canceled as of October 23, 2019. Please work with your groups to get back on track. Don't forget to send Dr. Burnet the URL of the sandbox your group is working in or post the link to the Team Discussion Forum on iCollege.

Guiding framework

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

Team assignment:
Complete a first draft of your team's new content in the team sandbox.

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.

Resources:


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

Team assignment:

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

Exercise
Team assignment:

Add links to your article

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.

Week 12
Team assignment:

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 13
Team assignment:

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 14
Team assignment:

Guiding questions

Individual assignment:

Guiding questions

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