Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Skidmore College/Asian Religions in America (Spring 2021)
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- Course name
- Asian Religions in America
- Institution
- Skidmore College
- Instructor
- Eliza Kent
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- History
- Course dates
- 2021-02-02 00:00:00 UTC – 2021-05-04 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 12
Our course investigates the history of Asian Religions in the US from the 18th century to the present day. Among the core learning goals of the course is to understand the history of (mis)representation of Asian Americans - from the racist caricatures that helped bolster support for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1824 to the romanticized views of Eastern spirituality that informed 1960s counter-culture. Although they have a long history, they continue to inform culture and policy in the US today. This Wikipedia assignment presents us with an invitation to reflect on whose knowledge about Asian American religion is centered in Wikipedia. By contributing to existing articles, we will contribute to more responsible knowledge production about Asian religions in the US.
Timeline
Week 2
- Course meetings
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- Thursday, 11 February 2021
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
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
- Assignment - Get started on 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.)
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 15 February 2021 | Tuesday, 16 February 2021 | Thursday, 18 February 2021
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
- In class - Discussion
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 22 February 2021 | Tuesday, 23 February 2021 | Thursday, 25 February 2021
- Assignment - Exercise
- In class - Discussion
- Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 1 March 2021 | Tuesday, 2 March 2021 | Thursday, 4 March 2021
- Assignment - Add to an article
Week 6
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 8 March 2021 | Tuesday, 9 March 2021 | Thursday, 11 March 2021
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 15 March 2021 | Thursday, 18 March 2021
- Assignment - Send Prof. Kent Your Revision Plan and Bibliography
By 3/19 please send me a short essay (1-2 pages) with your plan for how you will improve the page you have selected. In addition, please include a bibliography with your sources (at least 8).
The short essay (1-2 pages), to be submitted via theSpring, should answer:
- Which Wiki page you chose (include URL) and where and why it is problematic.
- How you will use at least one of the sources you have collected to make the Wiki page better. What you will do to make it better: Will you add content? Rearrange content? Delete content? Add references to existing content? Be concrete regarding specific changes you will make ("I'll make it less biased" - that's vague. "I'll add information on Pandita’s social activism in the 1880s” - that's concrete). Make sure you explain why these changes are important.
The bibliography should contain at least 8 sources, with all the necessary publication information in whatever format you know best (MLA in-text citation format is the default for our class). These sources may be:
· An entry from specialized scholarly dictionary or encyclopedia
· A scholarly book
· A scholarly journal article
· A scholarly essay from edited volume of essays
· No more than 2 sources may be on-line sources (blog, media report, on-line popular reference such as the Pluralism Project pages, etc.)
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 22 March 2021 | Tuesday, 23 March 2021 | Thursday, 25 March 2021
- Assignment - Tell the Wikipedia Community What You Will Do
By now you have gathered relevant sources, received feedback from me and have a clear idea of what you will edit. The next stage is to inform the Wikipedia community of your plans.
By 3/26: Communicate your plan to the Wikipedia Community on the Article’s talk page
In the article’s Talk Page, write several sentences on what you intend to do. How to find the Talk Page? Every Wiki article, on the top left, has an "Article" tab and a "Talk" tab. You need the latter. If you're still confused, go back to the initial tutorial, which speaks about Talk Pages in general.
- Be detailed regarding what needs adding, what needs correcting, and what sources you'll add. This is a shorter description than in the paper you wrote for me, but aim for a meaty paragraph with concrete details. State your exact references. State who the author of your secondary source is and why that author is credible (professor of... a peer-reviewed publication... an expert on...).
- Be courteous (not "this article is rambling" but "this article could use some clarification").
- Be neutral (not “this is biased and I’m going to fix it,” which suggests you have the opposite bias – but rather “there is wrong or missing information here and I’m going to correct or add it”).
- State the scope of your changes ("altogether I'll add about 200-300 words"; “ altogether I’ll add five sources”)
- End your plan with an invitation to other Wiki editors to weigh in on your changes, e.g. “If anyone wants to comment on these changes, please let me know on this Talk Page or on my Talk Page.” Make sure you do this while you’re logged in, and sign after your post (Ziegenbalg66 (talk) 18:40, 12 April 2021 (UTC)).
Week 9
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 29 March 2021 | Tuesday, 30 March 2021 | Thursday, 1 April 2021
- Assignment - Warm up exercise for Peer Review (which will take place next week)
When you are logged in, leave a message on the Talk page of a classmate. How? Go to the list of enrolled students; under/next to each student name you'll see a username in parentheses (e.g. Ziegenbalg66) Copy-paste that name at the end of this url: https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/user_talk: (e.g. https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/user_talk:Ziegenbalg66. On upper right, select Edit tab. Add your sentence at the bottom of editable box. Keep it anonymous and neutral (e.g. “Hi, I’m a new Wikipedia user”). At the end of your sentence, add 4 tildes Ziegenbalg66 (talk) 18:40, 12 April 2021 (UTC). That ties the contribution to your username, like a signature.
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions
By 4/2, you will have drafted in your sandbox at least 200-300 words of new text and added at least 5 new citations or references. Recall that ultimately, you will have to add 10 new references, so if you can do more, keep going!
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
- In class - Discussion
Week 10
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 5 April 2021 | Tuesday, 6 April 2021 | Thursday, 8 April 2021
- Assignment - Peer review two articles
Guiding frameworkOnce you've done the training module that describes the guiding framework for peer reviewing your fellow students' work, go and read their article very carefully. Also, read they plan they have communicated on their Wiki article's talk page (Week 8), and read the section(s) they have edited in their sandbox. Then, leave a message for them on their user talk page (at least 100 words), indicating: 1) what they did well, 2) what changes you would suggest, 3) what is the most important thing they could do to improve the article, 4) something that you learned from reading their article and plan for revising it that you could apply to your own work.
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
- In class -
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 12 April 2021 | Tuesday, 13 April 2021 | Thursday, 15 April 2021
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
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 12
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 19 April 2021 | Tuesday, 20 April 2021 | Thursday, 22 April 2021
- Assignment - Continue improving 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.
- Assignment - Polish your work
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!
- Assignment - Final article
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
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 26 April 2021 | Tuesday, 27 April 2021
- Assignment - Reflective essay
Guidelines coming to this space soon!
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.