Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/La Salle University/Modern African History (Fall 2020)

Africa is not a country, but a continent that is home to over a billion people. The relevance of Africa to modern global and U.S. history is evident, yet the region is often ignored or depicted in reductive, flattened ways that often obscure history and power. In this course we will explore the reasons for this historical erasure, while deepening our understanding of the continent and its history today.

The course covers the history of Africa and Africa in the world since World War I. We'll discuss Pan-Africanism and other solidarity movements and the role of World War II in galvanizing political change across the continent. We’ll ask how processes of decolonization and national independence unfolded in different places, with an emphasis on context and contingency. We will reckon with the impact of the Cold War on Africa, and how it shaped Africa’s place in the world in the 20th century. More recently ideas of development and humanitarian crisis have come to characterize and pigeonhole the continent, and we’ll revisit these with a critical lens. Throughout we will pay special attention to how the idea of Africa is constructed within and beyond the continent, and how this is used to justify and explain how the world interacts with Africa and Africans. And we will counter and complicate these narratives by examining primary sources, art, and culture from the continent.

Students will edit wikipedia pages related to recent African history drawing on scholarly articles, to translate academic work for a non-expert audience. This assignment dovetails well with key questions in the course about how narratives about Africa can reinforce bias, and silences in the archives obscure power relations. Given that this is an online course, I am particularly interested in students deepening their digital literacy and using their knowledge and research skills to contribute to something bigger than our classroom. I love the idea that they will join a larger community at a time when they may be feeling isolated. And as a teacher of writing, I am eager to encourage students to write for audiences beyond their college instructors.

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 4
History

Week 7
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.

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.

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