Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/New York University/Research Process and Methodology - RPM FA 1 2017 (Fall)
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- Course name
- Research Process and Methodology - RPM FA 1 2017
- Institution
- New York University
- Instructor
- FULBERT
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Research
- Course dates
- 2017-09-07 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-10-28 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 12
The purpose of this 6-week extra credit assignment is to take what students learn through critical reading and analysis of the literature and share it in an open and accessible way with others interested in their topical areas of interest. This is based on a belief that knowledge sharing, like karma, benefits both the sharer and the receiver. As the primary deliverable of the Research Process and Methodology course is the identification of a researchable problem, a research question, and a literature review, sharing our depth of knowledge with the wider community benefits our credibility as a developing expert in our own area of interest.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Thursday, 7 September 2017
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia Extra Credit Assignment (9/7-9/13)
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline for #SPSRPM! This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for our course.
Our course has been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page. This person works on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, and it is this person's role to help us with things that we get stuck on.
While all things on Wikipedia are intended to be open and public, your name and contact information will not be available to anybody except the instructor and the Wikipedia Content Expert who is assigned to help (if needed). In the world of Wikipedia editing, you will be known and respected by your contributions and edits, and not by your name, title, or other personally-identifiable information.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
HINT:
You may want to right-click on all the links listed on this page and open them in a new browser tab. The system does not allow me to add that to the coding, and I find that maintaining this page while opening documents, files, videos, and such in new tabs helps me not lose my place here.
- Assignment - Create your Wikipedia account
- Create a Wikipedia account using any user name you want and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. It is not easy to change your user name once created, so consider if you should use your real name or any other user name you wish to use (consider FERPA and any potential work requirements). Your user name and your real name will be linked on the back-end of the system, and will NOT be made public unless you choose to do so.
- 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.
OPTIONAL:
You may want to create your Wikipedia account user name and earn badges through completing the online The Wikipedia Adventure. People have reported that using this free online training module is helpful in learning the system, and the badges you will acquire through the process may look pretty nifty on your User page as well!
If you are not into badges or like that instructional style, you may find the Wikipedia editing in under 25 mins video that a colleague in Edinburgh created to be useful, especially related to the Visual editor.
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you will need to take (don't worry, they are short, easy, and do not have to be done all in a single sitting). New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones over the 6 weeks of our intensive course. Be sure to check back and complete them for the course extra credit, which will be based on completing the five weeks of this assignment and the training modules.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to the professor or a classmate on that other person's Talk page.
OPTIONAL:
You may find some additional resources on Using talk pages and the Wiki markup cheatsheet to be helpful. Also, you may find the short video Navigating Wikipedia's front page to be interesting (and helpful!).
HINT:
While this extra credit is intended to be done weekly, allowing for questions to be asked and answered, you can move faster or slower through it as you need.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 12 September 2017 | Thursday, 14 September 2017
- Assignment - Evaluate a Wikipedia article (9/14-9/20)
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" and "Sandboxes and Mainspace" trainings (linked below).
- Create a section in your sandbox titled "Article evaluation" where you'll leave notes about your observations and learnings. While few people will likely see your sandbox, it will be public, so continue to be professional on it.
- Choose a course-related article on Wikipedia related to your course area of interest to read and evaluate. As you read, think about 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?
- Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you are evaluating and mention it in your sandbox or on the course Professor's Talk page. Be sure to explain what about it concerned you.
- Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:26, 6 January 2018 (UTC).
HINT:
You may want to see the Preferences, such as for notifications and appearance, for your Wikipedia account. Set them as you want, and make sure you are logged in before doing any activity!
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 19 September 2017 | Thursday, 21 September 2017
- Assignment - Copyedit one article (9/21-9/27)
Complete the 3 parts to this week's assignment. Make sure you are signed into Wikipedia before doing any of the work. Please read this assignment in its entirety before starting it.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR WEEK 3
By the end of Week 3, students will be able to:
- Complete at least one copyedit to an article on Wikipedia
- Summarize their edit in the Edit summary (and sign it if using the Source editor)
- Post a new section message with a link to their edit on the professor's Talk page
Choose a course-related article, such as the one you identified in the last assignment (above) or based on your topical area of interest.
- Complete the "Peer Review" training (linked below).
- Choose a course-related article, such as the one you identified in the last assignment (above) or based on your topical area of interest.
- Assign yourself this article to review at the top of the course Dashboard (the top of this page).
- Read through it, thinking about ways to improve the language, clarity, grammar, spelling, etc. Then, make the appropriate changes. You don’t need to contribute new information to the article. Summarize your edit in the Edit summary (and sign your edit if using the Source editor).
- Post a new section to the end of the professor's Talk page with a descriptive title and then a brief summary of the edits you did with a link to the copy-edited article. i
HINT:
While our university course uses the APA Manual of Style, that is not used on Wikipedia. You may find the Wikipedia Manual of Style helpful.
If you did not see the Using talk pages and the Wiki markup cheatsheet during the first week, now may be a good time to see them...
OPTIONAL:
You may want to put a This is a new user template, Newbie-biting template, and / or User student template on your own User page.
Please review that you completed all 3 of the Objectives (above) in order to receive the extra credit for Week 3.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 26 September 2017 | Thursday, 28 September 2017
- Assignment - Contribute to one article (9/28-10/4)
Complete the 4 parts to this week's assignment. Make sure you are signed into Wikipedia before doing any of the work. Please read this assignment in its entirety before starting it.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR WEEK 4
By the end of Week 4, students will be able to:
- Edit at least one article on Wikipedia (and include an edit summary and sign it via Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:26, 6 January 2018 (UTC))
- Insert a citation to provide evidence for the Wikipedia edit
- Identify elements of plagiarism and how to avoid it
- Post a new section message summarizing and linking to their edit at the end of the professor's Talk page
This week, you will familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding adding or editing a citation to an article.
- Assign yourself an article through the Wiki Edu dashboard.
- Add 1-2 sentences to it. These edits should help enhance or benefit an article, and can ideally be based on the research you are finding through your coursework.
- Be sure to provide citations (the DOI will be helpful when doing this) for your work, as all statements made on Wikipedia should be reliableand verifiable.
- Post a new section to the end of the professor's Talk page with a descriptive title and then a brief summary of the edits you did with a link to the article.
- Ensure you complete the Plagiarism training module (below) , as this will help in ensuring the edits you are making will not accidentally be plagiarism.
HINT:
You may find the Wikipedia editing in under 25 mins video useful, especially related to the Visual editor. Likewise, the Wikipedia Manual of Style is helpful, as are the Editing Basics training (linked below) and the Editing Wikipedia documentation may help.
OPTIONAL:
Want to see how this can work in new areas outside your areas of expertise? Check out the Citation Hunt tool, which shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.
Please review that you completed all 4 of the Objectives (above) in order to receive the extra credit for Week 4.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 3 October 2017 | Thursday, 5 October 2017
- Assignment - Contribute to two more articles (10/5-10/11)
Complete the 3 parts to this week's assignment. Make sure you are signed into Wikipedia before doing any of the work. Please read this assignment in its entirety before starting it.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR WEEK 5
By the end of Week 5, students will be able to:
- Edit at least two articles on Wikipedia (and include edit summaries + signing them via Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:26, 6 January 2018 (UTC))
- Insert citations to provide evidence for the Wikipedia edits
- Post a new section message summarizing and linking to their edits at the end of the professor's Talk page
Based on the literature you are reading for your course project, add 1-2 sentences to any two course-related articles on Wikipedia, and cite the statement(s) to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training. This is the same task as last week, but you are doing it to two articles on Wikipedia based on any of the work you are doing for our course content.
- Assign yourself at least two articles through the Wiki Edu dashboard.
- Add 1-2 sentences to them. These edits should help enhance or benefit the articles, and can ideally be based on the research you are finding through your coursework.
- Be sure to provide citations (the DOI will be helpful when doing this) for your work, as all statements made on Wikipedia should be reliableand verifiable.
- Post a new section to the end of the professor's Talk page with a descriptive title and then a brief summary of the edits you did with a link to the articles.
HINT:
You may find the Wikipedia editing in under 25 mins video useful, especially related to the Visual editor. Likewise, the Wikipedia Manual of Style is helpful, as are the Editing Basics training (linked below) and the Editing Wikipedia documentation may help.
Please review that you completed all 3 of the Objectives (above) in order to receive the extra credit for Week 5.
- In class - Intertwine
- evaluate a Wikipedia article with your peers!
Intertwine is a platform where you you will be chatting with student editors enrolled in other Wiki Education courses. This week, the featured activities include:
- Learning Wikipedia’s five pillars as evaluation criteria
- Evaluating an existing Wikipedia article with your peers
- Getting to know more Wikipedia editors and learning from each other's experiences
Sign up for a session here. If you haven’t logged in using your Wikipedia account, you will first be redirected to Wikipedia logging page. After logging in using your Wikipedia credentials, you will be able to sign up for our activity.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 10 October 2017 | Thursday, 12 October 2017
- Assignment - Contribute to two more articles ~ OR ~ Illustrate an article (10/12-10/17)
Complete the 4 parts to this week's assignment. Make sure you are signed into Wikipedia before doing any of the work. Please read this assignment in its entirety before starting it.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR WEEK 6
By the end of Week 6, students will be able to:
- Edit at least two articles on Wikipedia (and include edit summaries + signing them via Samantha (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:26, 6 January 2018 (UTC))
OR
- Locate or create an appropriate photo, illustration, or piece of video/audio to add to an article.
- Insert citations to provide evidence for the Wikipedia edits
- Post a new section message summarizing and linking to their edits at the end of the professor's Talk page
You will either repeat the same assignment as last week with two additional articles OR add visuals to an article on Wikipedia.
- Before you start, review the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook or see Editing Wikipedia pages 10–11.
- Take the Contributing Images and Media Files training below (regardless of which option you select).
- Assign yourself at least two articles through the Wiki Edu dashboard. Then complete either 4 OR 5-6 below.
- Add 1-2 sentences to them. These edits should help enhance or benefit the articles, and can ideally be based on the research you are finding through your coursework. Be sure to provide citations (the DOI will be helpful when doing this) for your work, as all statements made on Wikipedia should be reliableand verifiable.
- If you are working with visuals and images, remember: Never grab images you find through an image search (like Google Images) nor those found on Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, or even so-called "Free image" or "free stock photo" websites. Instead, you'll want to find images with clear proof that the creator has given permission to use their work. Many of these images can be found on search.creativecommons.org. Upload the image to Wikipedia's sister site for images, Wikimedia Commons. For instructions, read through the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook.
- Insert your image from Wikimedia Commons to the article that you believe can benefit from the image.
- Post a new section to the end of the professor's Talk page with a descriptive title and then a brief summary of the edits you did with a link to the article.
Please review that you completed all 3 of the Objectives (above) in order to receive the extra credit for Week 6.