Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Rutgers University/Digital History (Spring 2018)
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- Course name
- Digital History
- Institution
- Rutgers University
- Instructor
- Jesse Bayker
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Rutgers and Slavery in NJ
- Course dates
- 2018-01-17 00:00:00 UTC – 2018-04-25 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 20
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of digital history. Students will practice gathering, preserving, and presenting history using digital tools. Students will work with the Scarlet and Black Project digital archive. Scarlet and Black is a public history project that explores the experiences of African Americans and Native Americans at Rutgers University. As part of the course, students will study the history of slavery in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and will contribute to Wikipedia coverage of this topic.
Timeline
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 31 January 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.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 7 February 2018
- Assignment - Due February 7
- Getting started
Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
Review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Due February 9
- First training modules
This is an individual assignment.
This assignment is graded: 10 points toward your Individual Wikipedia score.
- 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.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
(Trainings are automatically tracked on this course page. You MUST be logged in to get credit.)
- Milestones
By February 7, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
By February 9, everyone has completed the first two training modules.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 14 February 2018
- Assignment - Due February 14
- Evaluate Wikipedia
Individual assignment.
This assignment is graded: 10 points toward your Individual Wikipedia score.
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).
- To get full credit for this assignment, you should create a section in your sandbox titled "Article evaluation" where you'll leave notes about your observations and learnings.
- Choose an article on Wikipedia to read and evaluate. You can select one of these 3 articles:
- 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 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 — ProfKB (talk) 15:07, 27 March 2018 (UTC).
- In class - In-class on February 14
- Articles assigned to teams
We will assign specific articles to teams in class.
Best practices for working in groups:
- Once your group has a Wikipedia article to work on, make sure everyone in the group is assigned to that article on the Students tab of this course page.
- Select one group member whose Sandbox space you'll all share to draft your article. (It will be titled something like User:Diderot/sandbox.) Each person should link to that shared Sandbox from their own Sandbox page. A sandbox is like any other page on Wikipedia, and anyone can edit it.
- Not sure how to link to another user's Sandbox? Watch this quick video I made to clarify how to do this.
- Wikipedia doesn't handle multiple people editing from different devices at the same time very well. If you're working together in person, one person should add the work to the Sandbox. If you are all working independently, make small edits and save often to avoid "editing conflicts" with classmates. Make sure that you're logged in under your own Wikipedia account while editing in your classmate's sandbox to ensure your edits are recorded.
- Don't create a group account for your project. Group accounts are prohibited.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 21 February 2018
- Assignment - Due February 21
- Add to an article
This is an individual assignment.
This assignment is graded: 20 points toward your Individual Wikipedia score.
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article.
First, do the module called "Sources and Citations."
Then edit the article using these steps:
- Choose a course-related article on Wikipedia. For the purposes of this individual assignment, a course-related article can be any one of the following:
- History of Rutgers University
- History of slavery in New Jersey
- New Brunswick, New Jersey
- Old Queens
- Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen
- Ukawsaw Gronniosaw
- Any other article related to the history of slavery in New Jersey.
- Any other article related to other colleges that have been recently exploring the history of slavery on their campus.
- Add a citation to your chosen article. You can do this in one of two ways:
- Find an unreferenced statement in the article. Make sure to choose a statement that you know is true. Then cite this statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
- If you do not find a true unreferenced statement in your article, then add 1-2 sentences to the article text, and cite your statement to a reliable source.
Remember, to abide by Wikipedia's Conflict of Interest policy, you should not write anything on Wikipedia about recent events at Rutgers while you are enrolled in this course. For this course, you should only make edits on Wikipedia about historical events at Rutgers that took place before the Civil War. However, you can write and add citations about present-day events at other colleges that have made reports about the history of slavery on their campuses. So, for the purposes of this week's assignment, if you wish, you can use some of the press sources you gathered earlier for your team "Publicity Report" assignment. For example, if you have a press source that mentions Georgetown University's project, you can use this press source to create a citation for an article related to Georgetown University.
- Assignment - Due February 21
- Brainstorm article ideas and find your sources
First, do the training module "Sandboxes and Mainspace."
Then do the following as a team task.
To prepare for this team assignment, your team should do these tasks during the class meeting of February 14:
- Choose one teammate to be the designated reporter for this assignment.
- Choose a due date for all teammates to submit their bibliography contribution so that the team reporter can perform their final task before class next week.
Then at home:
- In your team's designated Sandbox, write a few sentences about what you plan to contribute to the selected article. (Remember, your team chose 1 member's Sandbox as the space for drafting your article. This is the space you should use.) 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.
- Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other secondary sources that you propose to use for your Wikipedia project. Work together as a team to compile your bibliography and post it on your team's designated Sandbox. Your team bibliography should include approximately 7 secondary sources (more is fine).
- After compiling your bibliography, your team's designated reporter will copy the bibliography from the Sandbox and post it to the Talk page of the article you are working on. (Do not delete the bibliography from the Sandbox. Retain the bibliography in both places.) Make a note on the Talk page explaining that this is a proposed bibliography for making additions to the article. This step should be done by the start of class on February 21.
- After February 21, you should check the article's Talk page periodically to see if anyone has advice on your proposed bibliography.
In previous weeks, I have asked you to write down some of the secondary sources cited in the Scarlet and Black book. You should use these notes to assist you in compiling your bibliography for your team project.
Request the secondary sources from the library:
Once you compile your proposed bibliography, your team should acquire the secondary sources from the library. If your secondary sources include books published before 1923, you can probably download them from Hathi Trust or from the Internet Archive. Each team member should request one or two sources and review them. Coordinate with your teammates to make sure all the secondary sources are covered.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 28 February 2018
- Assignment - Due February 28
- Plagiarism tutorial
This is an individual assignment.
This assignment is graded: 10 points toward your Individual Wikipedia score.
- Assignment - Due Friday, March 2 at noon
- copyedit your article and start your draft
This is a team assignment.
This assignment is graded: 20 points toward your Team Wikipedia score.
Read through your article, thinking about ways to improve the language, such as fixing grammatical mistakes. Then, each member of your team should make an appropriate change.
As you read, evaluate how you can improve the article. For this assignment, you're being asked to add at least 7 to 15 new sentences of content to your article, backed up with 7 citations (adding more content will award your team more points for this project).
Begin drafting your improvements in your group sandbox space. Your draft needs to be completed by Friday at noon in order for other groups to have a chance to complete the peer review.
HOW YOUR DRAFT SHOULD LOOK:
To prepare your draft for peer review, clean up your team Sandbox space by moving any old notes and old bibliography ideas to the Talk page for this Sandbox. By Friday at noon, only your draft of your article contribution should be visible on your team Sandbox page. (Note that in order to move text from the Sandbox to the Talk page, you must copy and paste it in "Source editing" mode, otherwise you will lose text formatting like headers, bold, and italics.)
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9
- Review this tutorial page on How to copy portions of an existing article for editing inside a Sandbox (this is from the Sandboxes and Mainspace tutorial).
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.
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 7 March 2018
- Assignment - DEADLINE EXTENDED to March 9
- Peer review and copy edit
Individual assignment.
This assignment is graded: 20 points toward your Individual Wikipedia score.
I will be evaluating this assignment based on how helpful, clear, and thorough your feedback is for the other group.
- First, take the "Peer Review" online training.
Begin peer review process after noon on Friday, March 2. Complete your peer review comments by the start of class on Wednesday, March 7.
Setup for peer review:
- Articles for peer review were assigned in class on February 28. Need to know what article you're supposed to review? Look at the Google Doc we created in class, called "Wikipedia peer review assignment notes and links by team" (see the link to this Google Doc at the top of the course syllabus in the section "Important links").
- Go to the Home tab of the WikiEdu course dashboard. Look at the section "My Articles" at the top of the page. Click the button "Review an article" and enter the name of the article you are supposed to peer review.
Performing the peer review:
- Go to the Sandbox link for the team whose article you are supposed to peer review (see the aforementioned Google Doc for the link).
- Peer review your classmates' draft. Leave suggestions on the Talk page of the Sandbox that the other team is working on.
- As you review, make spelling, grammar, and other adjustments if you notice typos or errors.
- Think about the citations that the other team is providing. Is each fact supported by a reliable reference? Are the citations correctly formatted? If citations contain links, do the links work?
- Pay attention to the tone of the article. Is it encyclopedic?
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 21 March 2018
- Assignment - Due March 21
- Check your peer review
Team task.
Your team should have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. It's time to work with that feedback to improve your article!
- Read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.
- Return to your draft or article and think about the suggestions. Decide which ones to start implementing. Reach out to your instructor or your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.
Reminder: you will start moving your work to Wikipedia mainspace next week on March 28.
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 28 March 2018
- Assignment - Due March 28
- Begin moving your work to Wikipedia mainspace
Team assignment.
At home before class:
Finish your edits to your team draft in your team Sandbox.
THIS NEXT PART WILL BE DONE IN CLASS:
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.
- Re-read your article as it is "live" and make sure the changes you made still make sense. Don't just copy and paste into any one section without thinking about the article in its entirety.
- 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.
Resources:
- You can review the Sandboxes and Mainspace online training.
- Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!
- Assignment - Due Friday, March 30
- reflection paper (turned in on Sakai)
Individual assignment.
This assignment is graded: 30 points toward your Individual Wikipedia score.
Write a short reflection on your Wikipedia contributions.
Paper requirements: 1 page, double spaced.
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?
- Peer Review: What did you contribute in your peer review of the other team's article? What did your peers recommend you change in your article?
- 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 topic? Why is this important?
You do not have to address all of these questions in your paper. These are just some ideas to get you started.
- Assignment - Final article
It's the final week to develop your article.
I will begin grading your team's article improvements after Friday, March 30.
- 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!
Your final product is graded as a team project. Final peer evaluations at the end of the course will determine who gets full or partial credit for the team portion of the Wikipedia grade.
- Milestones
Articles and reflection papers are ready for grading.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 4 April 2018
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 11 April 2018
- Follow-up
- check on your live article
Team task. You can assign one person in your team to do this.
A couple of weeks after you move your article improvements to Mainspace, check how your article is doing. Have other Wikipedia editors changed anything or asked questions on the Talk page?