Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Derby/5PU506 Content Development (January 2019)

This is a second year module on the University of Derby's BA (Hons) Writing and Publishing degree. Students will be using Wikipedia to: enhance their knowledge of decision making and editing in a dynamic and changing environment; conducting research into the writing and editing process, negotiating with others in a collaborative environment and using this knowledge to edit a live work; and learning effective written communication and appropriate formatting and referencing.

The module involves elements of formal teaching, group-led and independent study, weekly reading and preparation, and peer review; and a range of assessments, including the editing of Wikipedia pages, creation of Wikipedia articles and a portfolio project.

Week 1: Course introduction

 * Overview of the course content and module guide
 * Ice-breaker/getting to know you activity
 * Paper-based copy-editing exercise
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course and key assignments
 * Start the online student orientation. During this training, you will create an account, learn about the Dashboard, and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.

Week 2: Wikipedia essentials
'''*Assessment Brief A will be distributed '''
 * Continue the online student orientation. During this training, you will create an account, make edits in a sandbox, and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
 * Create a user page.
 * Practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, leave a message for a classmate on their user talk page.
 * Learn to make minor edits - spelling mistakes, grammar, adding links, tidying structure.

Week 3: Evaluating articles and sources

 * Continue the online student orientation. During this training, you will learn about evaluating Wikipedia articles.
 * Understand Wikipedia's article grading scheme.
 * Learn about evaluating articles for readability, tone, bias, accuracy, reliability.
 * Begin evaluating and improving a particular article in class.

Week 4: Sources and citations

 * Continue the online student orientation. During this training, you will look at how to manage, source and cite sources in Wikipedia.
 * Learn about Wikipedia's criteria for reliable references.
 * Find articles that are missing citations.
 * Research using Library resources to supply references for missing citations.

''*Richard Swift from the Library will be delivering a workshop on exploring e-resources and using the Library for research. ''

Week 5: Plagiarism and copyright

 * Continue the online student orientation. During this training, you will learn about avoiding plagiarism in Wikipedia.
 * Understand the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement.
 * Understand the importance of copyright compliance online
 * Learn how to avoid plagiarism on Wikipedia.


 * In preparation for the following week's class, between Weeks 5 and 6 you will be required to take images of landmarks in Derby to contribute to their Wikipedia pages. Buildings/landmarks can be chosen from the list, Category:Derby - look for articles that lack images.

''*Matt Gilooly from the University's Technology Enhanced Learning team will be on hand to talk about how to take good photographs, and we will have some hands-on activities taking photographs around the Library and University campus. ''

Week 6: Using images and media files

 * Continue the online student orientation. During this training, you will learn how to contribute image and media files to Wikipedia.
 * Learn the importance of media files in accompanying articles
 * Discover sources of copyright-free or open access images
 * Learn to upload images to Wikimedia Commons

''*Matt Gilooly from TEL will again be on hand to help you select the best photographs from those you have taken, and will be demonstrating some basic image editing techniques using photo-editing apps. ''

Week 7: London Book Fair
'''
 * No class this week, due to the London Book Fair.

Week 8: Cyber-safety, online etiquette, and dealing with harassment

 * Learn about digital dangers and cyber security
 * Learn about online harassment and Wikipedia's ways to combat it
 * Discover some communication best practices

Week 9: Peer review and feedback skills

 * Peer review each other's articles, make suggestions for improvement or alteration.

'''*Assessment A deadline is this week - 21 March at 5pm.  *Assessment B brief will be distributed. '

Week 10: Criticism of Wikipedia

 * Explore some of the controversies and criticism relating to Wikipedia
 * Learn about the issues of systemic bias in information sources, including Wikipedia
 * Think about ways that lack of information and representation affects individuals and groups
 * Discuss how to address and overcome these issues

Week 11: Portfolio work

 * Learn to edit content you know - please bring 3-5 books of your choice to form the basis of this editing
 * Opportunity to work on your portfolio

Week 12: Recap, tutorials and feedback

 * Opportunity to work on your portfolio
 * One-to-one tutorial availability
 * Module recap and feedback

Article banners
To mark each article the subject of a student project, add the course assignment template at the top of the talk page for each article: That will result in the following banner (which lets other editors know that you're working on it):

Also ensure you have a student editor template, student editor on your user page:

That will result in the following banner (which lets other editors know you are a student):

Help
Help is available from the course instructors (details below), or by posting a question at the Teahouse. The Teahouse is an area specifically for new users to get help with editing, article creation, and general Wikipedia use, in a friendly environment.

You can also get help on your own talk page by copying and pasting the text below into your own talk page (preferred), or into an article's talk Page:

Then click the blue button to post it. A Wikipedia volunteer will reply to you there.

You can also just try Googling whatever you're stuck with - there is a huge amount of guidance out there.