Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Portland State University/INTL 350U - The City in Europe (Winter)
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- Course name
- INTL 350U - The City in Europe
- Institution
- Portland State University
- Instructor
- Michael Wright
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- International Studies
- Course dates
- 2018-01-08 00:00:00 UTC – 2018-03-23 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 40
This course is about urbanization in Europe and particular cities in Europe. We will virtually explore different European cities and compare/contrast these to general understandings of urbanization, using Wikipedia as part of our classroom, tour bus, and our term papers.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Wednesday, 10 January 2018 | Friday, 12 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.
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 handout:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
- 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.
- Finally, we introduce Intertwine, a video conferencing tool where you can will create your own User page and User Talk Page with peer editors enrolled in other courses. Sign up for a sessionhere or using the Intertwine training module below.
- Please note, participating on Intertwine is voluntary.
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 17 January 2018 | Friday, 19 January 2018
- Assignment - Evaluating Wikipedia articles
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is a wonderful, but imperfect creation, with information only as good as its collective authors-editors. Soon, you will be one of those author-editors. This week, you will read and evaluate two Wikipedia articles related to the course. These will be the assigned article about urbanization (which used to be rated 'good', but lost that status at some point) and another article about a topic related to a European city of your choosing. This may be the page about that particular city, or an article somehow related to that city. You will be leaving suggestions for improving the latter article on the article's Talk page.
Here are the steps for completing this week's Wikipedia assignment:
- Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- Create a section in your sandbox titled "Article evaluation" where you'll leave notes about your observations and learnings.
- Review the Wikipedia article about urbanization and then select a second article on Wikipedia related to the course to read and evaluate. As you read both articles, 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?
- Do there appear to be any content gaps in the article?
- 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?
- 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 — Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:32, 22 March 2018 (UTC).
- Please also review the following handout: Evaluating Wikipedia
Week 3
- Course meetings
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- Wednesday, 24 January 2018 | Friday, 26 January 2018
- Assignment - Draft a paragraph (or equivalent)
This week you will write your the rough draft of your first Wikipedia editing assignment.
Here are the steps for completing this week's Wikipedia assignment:
- Review how to add citations and references by doing the short (10 minute) training module, below.
- Following on your evaluation from Week 2, decide what you could do to fix the problems that you saw in the article you evaluated. (This should be the article about, or related to, a European city, though if you want to tackle the article about urbanization, feel free.)
- Draft a paragraph's worth of sentences (usually 3-6) - in your sandbox that would fix the problem you identified.
- If the problem you identified was a 'content gap' (ie. missing information), then feel free to write a paragraph's worth of content you feel should be put in.
- If the problem is not so much a content gap, but some other problem with the existing text, implement solutions to those problems that roughly balances with a paragraph's worth of text.
- Support your paragraph, or paragraph's worth of fixes, with at least three reliable sources, citing and referencing these as you learned in the online training.
- Once you have finished your draft, post a link to your sandbox in your group's peer review discussion board. That will signal to your group members that your rough draft is ready for them to critique.
- Again, we introduce Intertwine, a video conferencing tool where you will do an hour-long edit-a-thon to improve a fun Wikipedia article with peer editors enrolled in other courses. Sign up for a session here using the Intertwine training module below.
- Please note, participating on Intertwine is voluntary.
- Milestones
Before this week is done, everyone should have a set of fixes that their group peers can review.
Week 4
- Course meetings
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- Wednesday, 31 January 2018 | Friday, 2 February 2018
- Assignment - Peer review and edit
In D2L, you will go to the Peer Review discussions to find the links that your other group members posted to their sandboxes. Following those links, you will evaluate your colleagues' work and make suggestions for improving what they have done.
Taking in what your colleagues write about your draft paragraph, or suggested fixes to a page, you will improve what you already drafted. Once you are satisfied with your work, but not after the due date, you will submit a link to the Assignments Submission Folder in D2L, to allow for your work to be graded.
Not only your classmates, but also a broader group of Wikipedia student editors can benefit from peer review! Here, we introduce Intertwine one more time. You will do an hour-long peer review session with peers from other courses. Sign up for a session here using the Intertwine training module below.
- Please note, participating on Intertwine is voluntary.
- Milestones
In D2L, submit a link to your draft under Assignments: First Edit
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 7 February 2018 | Friday, 9 February 2018
- Assignment - Choose your next city/topic
- Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
- Look up 2-3 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.
- 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.
- Present your choices to your group in the second edit peer review discussion on D2L, and get their feedback.
- Give your group feedback.
- Assignment - Evaluate articles for your next city/topic
You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to evaluate the article that pertains to that topic.
- Do there appear to be any content gaps in the (relevant section of the) article?
- 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 the citations:
- Do the links work?
- Are the sources of high quality?
- Can higher-quality sources be found (very important!)
- Do the sources support the claims in the article/section?
- Do other high-quality sources dispute those claims?
- 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?
- Feel encouraged to leave your comments on the talk page. Do not forget to sign your comments with four tildes (Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:32, 22 March 2018 (UTC)) while logged in.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 14 February 2018 | Friday, 16 February 2018
- Assignment - Research, Research, Research
This week you should spend most of your time hunting for those high-quality resources, particularly the peer-reviewed scientific publications. Other good sources can be official statistics or governmental websites.
Week 7
- Course meetings
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- Wednesday, 21 February 2018 | Friday, 23 February 2018
- Assignment - Draft your paragraphs
Unlike previously, you should write a draft that improves Wikipedia with material supported by ten high-quality sources (ie. a mix of scholarly and official sources). These should come in the form of appropriately-formatted citations and references. Typically, this will be in the shape of several paragraphs, but may take other shape provided that it represents a roughly equal amount of work and relevant information.
In case you want to add non-text material, I have added the following training module to help you do that:
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 28 February 2018 | Friday, 2 March 2018
- Assignment - Peer review and edit
This week you will be engaging in the second round of peer review. You will have posted a link in D2L where you will also find the links that your other group members posted to their sandboxes. Following those links, you will evaluate your colleagues' work and make suggestions for improving what they have done.
Taking in what your colleagues write about your draft paragraph, or suggested fixes to a page, you will improve what you already drafted. Once you are satisfied with your work, but not after the due date, you will submit a link to the Assignments Submission Folder in D2L, to allow for your work to be graded.
- Assignment - Polish your work and turn in your second edit
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 9
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 7 March 2018 | Friday, 9 March 2018
- Assignment - Find your sources
Research, research, research!