Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Anne Arundel Community College/Popular Culture in America (Spring 2018)
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- Course name
- Popular Culture in America
- Institution
- Anne Arundel Community College
- Instructor
- Richard Otten
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- American Studies
- Course dates
- 2018-01-17 00:00:00 UTC – 2018-05-13 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 36
This course presents and intersectional approach to popular culture.
In this Wikipedia assignment, students will be adding academic sources to existing Wikipedia pages.
Timeline
Week 6
- Course meetings
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- Sunday, 18 February 2018 | Monday, 19 February 2018 | Tuesday, 20 February 2018 | Wednesday, 21 February 2018 | Thursday, 22 February 2018
Week 7
- Course meetings
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- Sunday, 25 February 2018 | Monday, 26 February 2018 | Tuesday, 27 February 2018 | Wednesday, 28 February 2018 | Thursday, 1 March 2018
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.
Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- 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. (To avoid hitting Wikipedia's account creation limits, this is best done outside of class. Only 6 new accounts may be created per day from the same IP address.)
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 4 March 2018 | Monday, 5 March 2018 | Tuesday, 6 March 2018 | Wednesday, 7 March 2018 | Thursday, 8 March 2018
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article related to the course and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.
- Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- Choose an article on Wikipedia related to your course to read and evaluate. As you read, consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
- How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
- How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
- Optional: Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Alyfrank16 (talk) 04:07, 28 April 2018 (UTC).
- In class - Discussion
- What's a content gap?
Now that you're thinking about what makes a "good" Wikipedia article, consider some additional questions.
- Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
- What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
- Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
- What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about sources and plagiarism
- Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
- What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
- What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
- What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
Week 9
- Course meetings
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- Sunday, 11 March 2018
- Assignment - Choose possible topics
- Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
- Look up 3-5 potential topics related to the course that you might want to update on Wikipedia. Review the content of the article and check the Talk page to see what other Wikipedians are already contributing. Identify one or two areas from each that you could improve.
- Begin to conduct research on possible topics. If while browsing the databases JSTOR and Project Muse you can find articles on your potential topic published in academic journals, you have chosen a viable topic.
- Optional: Choose 2-3 potential articles from that list that you can tackle, and post links to the articles and your notes about what you might improve in your sandbox.
Week 10
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 19 March 2018 | Tuesday, 20 March 2018 | Wednesday, 21 March 2018 | Thursday, 22 March 2018 | Friday, 23 March 2018
- Assignment - Finalize your topic / Find your sources
- On the Students tab, assign your chosen topic to yourself.
- In your sandbox, write a few sentences about what you plan to contribute to the selected article.
- Think back to when you did an article critique. What can you add? Post some of your ideas to the article's talk page, too.
Week 11
- Course meetings
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- Sunday, 25 March 2018 | Monday, 26 March 2018 | Tuesday, 27 March 2018 | Wednesday, 28 March 2018 | Thursday, 29 March 2018
- Assignment - Annotated Bibliography
Submit Annotated Bibliography in Canvas
Week 12
- Course meetings
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- Sunday, 1 April 2018 | Monday, 2 April 2018 | Tuesday, 3 April 2018 | Wednesday, 4 April 2018 | Thursday, 5 April 2018
- Assignment - Draft your Wikipedia edits
You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to start writing.
Improving an existing article?
- Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in your sandbox.
Keep reading your sources, too, as you prepare to write the body of the article.
Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about Wikipedia
- What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
- What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
- On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
- If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?
Week 13
- Course meetings
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- Sunday, 8 April 2018 | Monday, 9 April 2018 | Tuesday, 10 April 2018 | Wednesday, 11 April 2018 | Thursday, 12 April 2018
- Assignment - Expand your draft
- If you'd like a Wikipedia Expert to review your draft, now is the time! Click the "Get Help" button in your sandbox to request notes.
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Once you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the "mainspace."
Editing an existing article?
- NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
- Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
- Be sure to copy text from your sandbox while the sandbox page is in 'Edit' mode. This ensures that the formatting is transferred correctly.
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
- Consider adding an image to your article. Wikipedia has strict rules about what media can be added, so make sure to take Contributing Images and Media Files training before you upload an image.
- 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!
Week 14
- Course meetings
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- Sunday, 15 April 2018 | Monday, 16 April 2018 | Tuesday, 17 April 2018 | Wednesday, 18 April 2018 | Thursday, 19 April 2018
- 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!
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.
Week 15
- Assignment - Reflective essay
Write a reflective essay (4 –5 pages) on your Wikipedia contributions.
Consider the following questions as you reflect on your Wikipedia assignment:
- Critiquing articles: What did you learn about Wikipedia during the article evaluation? How did you approach critiquing the article you selected for this assignment? How did you decide what to add to your chosen article?
- Summarizing your contributions: include a summary of your edits and why you felt they were a valuable addition to the article. How does your article compare to earlier versions?
- Feedback: Did you receive feedback from other Wikipedia editors, and if so, how did you respond to and handle that feedback?
- Wikipedia generally: What did you learn from contributing to Wikipedia? How does a Wikipedia assignment compare to other assignments you've done in the past? How can Wikipedia be used to improve public understanding of our field/your topic? Why is this important?