Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Vanderbilt University/Introduction to African Politics (Fall 2020)

This course introduces students to key topics in African politics and development. We take a chronological tour of broad political and developmental themes from the pre-colonial era, colonial era, post-colonial era, and “3rd wave” transitions to democracy (for some countries). Students have a &quot;term project&quot; to individually improve wikipedia regarding a political topic related to their country. In the past, students have picked to create pages on a particular election, a piece of legislation, a coup, a battle, a political activist, a politician, foreign relations between their country and the US, and health policy.

Week 2
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.  (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.)

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

What types of pages are &quot;missing&quot; for your country's politics? One way to think about this is to examine what pages exists for other countries in the Global North, where pages are more developed and compare to your country. Further, think about your career, interests, passions - what general topic area could you choose that unites something important to you as well as important, that might also be missing on wikipedia for your country?

Exercise
Evaluate an article

Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Exercise
Choose a topic

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

What's a content gap?

For each idea, list at least 4 scholarly resources that you could use to create your page; also list why it is important to do the topic for the country, and why it is a good topic based on building on your personal interests

Exercise
Add a citation

Finalize your topic / Find your sources

Week 6
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

Biographies

History

Political Science

Women's Studies

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 10
Guiding framework

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.

Thinking about Wikipedia

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

Week 11
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.

Nominating your article for Did You Know

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
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
Guiding questions

Guiding questions

Week 16
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.