Wikipedia:Writing Wikipedia Articles course: Difference between revisions

 

== Course calendar ==

=== Week 1: Wikipedia under the hood ===

What is Wikipedia? What has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to volunteer their time to build millions of articles in hundreds of languages? We begin with a survey of the project's history, values, and culture.

 

We will explore how learners increasingly use Wikipedia as scaffolding, as they begin to build a general understanding of a topic. Herein lies an opportunity: how can we work toward a broader understanding of a topic like Open Educational Resources (OER)? Does Wikipedia help us speak a common language about openness in education? If not, what can be done to improve that? The session will conclude with practical steps to create a Wikipedia account and get started editing.

=== Week 2: Who am I to edit Wikipedia? Identity & collaboration ===

We survey issues of expertise, credentials, anonymity, privacy, conflicts of interest (COI). What are Wikipedia's standards? What kinds of conflict arise around editor identity and behavior? How can they be avoided or resolved? We will also examine avenues for on-wiki collaboration.

We will look at both success stories and controversies in Wikipedia's history, and discuss best practices. This will lead into an exploration of how to find and work with Wikipedians who share your interests, or who can help you solve problems.

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=== Week 3: What is quality? ===

We explore the concept of quality in Wikipedia, as well as reviewing and expanding on Week 2's focus on communicating with other Wikipedians.

 

We consider several peer review processes within Wikipedia, and explore articles of low and high quality. We'll also look at techniques for gathering information about a page. For instance, how many Wikipedians are "watching" an article for changes? How many page views have there been in the last month? We'll also talk about how Wikipedians with similar interests find each other and collaborate to improve the site, and how you can get involved in projects outside our class.

=== Week 4: Build it bigger - Roundtable one ===

We'll look at how a Wikipedia article can evolve and improve over time, and how a good Wikipedia article can impact the world. A panel of experienced Wikipedia community members will share their experiences. We will discuss topics like how to build up a Wikipedia article on a smaller topic, where authoritative sources are hard to come by, and how Wikipedians work together.

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=== Week 5: The deep dive - Roundtable two ===

We will hear from experts in open educational resources, in a panel discussion exploring how Wikipedia's coverage of this topic can be improved.

=== Week 6: The takeaway and student showcase ===

By now, students should be nearing completion of the final project! Students will have an opportunity to present their work (whether or not it is complete) to the rest of the class.