Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/State University of New York, Plattsburgh/Communication and Culture (Spring 2019)

On 30 January 2018, Wikipedia celebrated its 17th anniversary. One of the world’s most widely read websites, with approximately 550 million unique visitors per month, Wikipedia articles are often the number one hit when using a search browser.

For our Culture and Communication class, students will edit or create an article related to the topics we discuss in class. For this semester long project, students are to think about whose interests are best served by Wikipedia and which people or groups currently have the authority to make rules and to adjudicate conflict on Wikipedia. The key question to answer in this project is: How does Wikipedia shape or influence public knowledge and culture?

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

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.)  If you need to get some ideas of topics, please check out the two stub lists:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sexuality_stubs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gender_studies_stubs

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Exercise
Evaluate an article

Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Week 3
Choose your topic / Find your sources

What's a content gap?

Films

LGBT+ Studies

Sociology

Women's Studies

Exercise
Add a citation

Copyedit an article

Week 5
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 6
Thinking about Wikipedia

Week 7
Guiding framework

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

Week 8
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

Exercise
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 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!

Guiding questions

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!

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