Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Indiana University of Pennsylvania/Research and Practice in Wikipedia (Fall 2022)

Now over 20 years old, Wikipedia is the world’s largest and most widely-used knowledge archive, the “free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” As you read this sentence, Wikipedia develops at a rate of over 1.9 edits per second, performed by editors from all over the world. In the English language version alone, which boasts nearly 6.5 million articles on every topic imaginable, an average of 600 new articles are created every day. That’s over 91 times larger than Britannica. Not only has Wikipedia grown in terms of size over the last two decades since its founding, but the encyclopedia has also matured in terms of accuracy and reliability of its content into what some have called the “Internet’s good grown-up” (Harrison), a community that “exists to battle fake news” (Forsyth), and “the last best place on the Internet” (Cooke). So while the encyclopedia has certainly had its fair share of critics in the past, we can no longer ignore its impact on education and public knowledge. In this course, you'll learn about how Wikipedia actually works by (1) engaging with recent research such as the works listed below (2) conducting your own, and (3) learning how to contribute to the encyclopedia on a topic related to your studies. Finally, while we will celebrate what Wikipedia has accomplished, and the opportunities it enables for education and open knowledge, our stance will also be critical as we examine systemic biases that have prevented the encyclopedia from accomplishing its goal to gather and share the sum of all human knowledge.

Week 2
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 6
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 9
Guiding framework

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

Week 10
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.

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

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 11
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 12
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 13
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.