Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Whitman College/The Byzantine Empire and the Medieval Mediterranean (Spring 2016)

Overview of the course
Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.

Handout: Editing Wikipedia

Week 2

Course meetings

Monday, 25 January 2016 | Tuesday, 26 January 2016 | Thursday, 28 January 2016

In class - Editing basics

Basics of editing
Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
Tips on finding the best articles to work on for class assignments

Handouts: Using Talk Pages, Evaluating Wikipedia

Assignment - Practicing the basics

Create an account and join this course page.
Complete the introductory training modules. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
Create a User page.
To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself on the user talk page of one of your classmates, who should also be enrolled in the table at the bottom of the page.
Explore topics related to your topic area to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized. What areas seem to be missing? As you explore, make a mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.

Milestones

All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 3

Course meetings

Monday, 1 February 2016 | Tuesday, 2 February 2016 | Thursday, 4 February 2016

In class - Exploring the topic area

Be prepared to discuss some of your observations about Wikipedia articles in your topic area that are missing or could use improvement.

Handouts: Choosing an article

Week 4

Course meetings

Monday, 8 February 2016 | Tuesday, 9 February 2016 | Thursday, 11 February 2016

In class - Using sources

Be prepared to explain close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.

Handouts: Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/sources|Sources and Citations]]

Assignment - Choosing your article

Research and list 3–5 articles on your Wikipedia user page that you will consider working on as your main project. Look at the talk page for existing topics for a sense of who else is working on it and what they're doing. Describe your choices to your instructor for feedback.

Week 5

Course meetings

Monday, 15 February 2016 | Tuesday, 16 February 2016 | Thursday, 18 February 2016

In class - Discuss the article topics

Discuss the topics students will be working on, and determine strategies for researching and writing about them.

Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]]

Assignment - Finalize your topic and start researching

Select an article to work on, removing the rest from your user page. Add your topic on the course page.
Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.

Week 6

Course meetings

Monday, 22 February 2016 | Tuesday, 23 February 2016 | Thursday, 25 February 2016

In class - Wikipedia culture and etiquette

Talk about Wikipedia culture and etiquette, and (optionally) revisit the concept of sandboxes and how to use them.
Q&A session with instructor about interacting on Wikipedia and getting started with writing.

Milestones

All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.

Week 7

Course meetings

Monday, 29 February 2016 | Tuesday, 1 March 2016 | Thursday, 3 March 2016

Week 8

Course meetings

Monday, 7 March 2016 | Tuesday, 8 March 2016 | Thursday, 10 March 2016

Week 9

Course meetings

Monday, 28 March 2016 | Tuesday, 29 March 2016 | Thursday, 31 March 2016

Week 10

Course meetings

Monday, 4 April 2016 | Tuesday, 5 April 2016 | Thursday, 7 April 2016

Assignment - Complete first draft

Expand your article into a complete first draft.

Week 11

Course meetings

Monday, 11 April 2016 | Thursday, 14 April 2016

Assignment - Peer review training

Use peer review training to inform your peer review comments.

Assignment - Peer review comments due

Peer review comments and suggestions due

Week 12

Course meetings

Monday, 18 April 2016 | Tuesday, 19 April 2016 | Thursday, 21 April 2016

Assignment - Address peer review suggestions

Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.

In class - Discuss further article improvements

Continue discussing how the articles can be further improved. Come up with improvement goals for each article for next week.

Assignment - Final article

Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.

Handout: Polishing your article

Week 13

Course meetings

Monday, 25 April 2016 | Tuesday, 26 April 2016 | Thursday, 28 April 2016

Assignment - In-class presentation

Prepare for an in-class presentation about your Wikipedia editing experience.

Week 14

Course meetings

Monday, 2 May 2016 | Tuesday, 3 May 2016 | Thursday, 5 May 2016

Milestones

Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.