Editing Online Communities and Crowds (Spring 2025)/Wikipedia assignment (section)

== Wikipedia Assignment weekly activities and exercises ==

In general, activities for each week are due by Friday (of that week). See [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the WikiEdu Dashboard] for specific assignments and most up-to-date/accurate deadlines):

==== Wikipedia Assignment Week #1 ====
;Task: Get started on Wikipedia!
;Due: Friday April 4
;Deliverables: Following the instructions in the training, make contributions in Wikipedia and [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard] 

* Complete the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) WikiEdu] trainings for Week 1. 
* During this training, you will create an account. After you have created an account, you '''must''' enroll in the course so that your account on Wikipedia is associated with the course and so that I can track your activity on Wikipedia. [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025)?enroll=occ-nu-2025 click this link] and then click "Join" to enroll in the course. If you are asked for a passcode, you can enter '''occ-nu-2025'''.
* Once you are enrolled in the course, you should begin the training modules and complete the first three, ''Wikipedia policies'' and ''Sandboxes, talk pages, and watchlists'', and ''Communicating with others on Wikipedia''.
* ''Bonus:'' Finally, practice communicating on Wikipedia by introducing yourself to me (on Wikipedia) and at least one classmate on Wikipedia (it can be anybody) using their talk page (not your own talk page!). My username is [[:wikipedia:User:Aaronshaw|Aaronshaw]]. You can find a list of all of your classmates on the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025)/students WikiEdu class page] (once they are "enrolled" there).

;Tips: The biggest pitfall in the past has been failing to enroll in the course. Make sure that you have created an account on https://en.wikipedia.org/ and are logged in. Then follow [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025)?enroll=occ-nu-2025 this link] and click "Join".

==== Wikipedia Assignment Week #2 ====
;Tasks: Choose and evaluate an article
;Due Date: Friday April 11
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia and [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard]

'''(1)''' First, complete the online training topics for Week 2 in the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard].

'''(2)''' Second, choose 3-5 possible articles in Wikipedia that you would like to significantly expand and improve. The WikiEdu module will walk you through sketching some brief notes on changes you might make; the next step will have you dig more deeply into a single article.

Choose articles that are as short and simple as possible and I ''strongly'' recommend that you choose a <code>stub</code> article on Wikipedia. Because some people are going to start with articles that are better than others, we're going to assess you on the amount to which you can improve the article—not on the final state of the article.

You can find a list of <code>stub</code> articles arranged by topic here (there are literally ''millions''):

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Stub_sorting/List_of_stubs List of Stubs] — This is an extremely long list of articles that are currently stubs and which is also sorted into categories and then subcategories. It might be a little bit out of date so be sure to click through before you decide on an article.

When you're done looking at possible articles, you'll see that there is a "'''Choose your article'''" exercise on the WikiEdu dashboard that will end with you being prompted to fill out a page on Wikipedia with a list of articles you want to work on. The page will ask for "Evaluation" and "Sources" -- jot down a few thoughts here. You'll do a comprehensive evaluation of one article in the next part of this task.

'''(3)''' Third, you should evaluate an article. I recommend that you evaluate an article you plan to improve! After following the tutorial material on WikiEdu about how to do an evaluation, you'll see that there is a corresponding exercise called "'''Evaluate Wikipedia'''" in the WikiEdu dashboard that you should complete.

If you run into any trouble, contact the instructor ''well in advance of the deadline''!

'''Note:''' When you do the WikiEdu tasks, you will be asked to fill out two pages/forms in Wikipedia: (i) choose an article, and (ii) evaluate an article. When you do the first one on choosing an article, you can skip the part of the "choose an article" form that asks for an "article evaluation" of each potential article since you will come back do a more thorough version of the same task in the next part of this assignment.

==== Wikipedia Assignment Week #3 ====

;Task: Compile research and start editing
;Due Date: Friday April 18
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia and [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard] 

# Complete online trainings for Week 3
# Finalize your topic/article.
# Make a small edit to Wikipedia (e.g., by adding citations).
# Gather notes and links into an informal bibliography of relevant research.

In order to do these, you will need to make sure you have assigned your article to yourself in the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) dashboard]. If you have not done this yet, you'll have to do it before you can proceed. You can do so by (a) going to the WikiEdu course homepage, (b) finding the section entitled ''My Articles'', (c) clicking on ''Assign myself an article'', and (d) entering the article title as shown in Wikipedia and click ''Assign''.

Once you have selected an article to work on, the "My Articles" section will show you a number of steps and links. The two links to focus on right now are collecting your bibliography notes and editing your article in your sandbox, which correspond to the two key tasks above.  You will need to:

:Add the sources that you've found to the bibliography page which will be created when you click on the "bibliography" link. These are your notes about sources. As a reminder, while academic sources are the "gold standard", match your citations with the content. If your article is about a movie star, you will likely be citing interviews that were published in magazines or on the radio. Try to vary the types of sources and select the more notable ones. Additionally, if you are having difficulty finding sources, reach out to [https://www.library.northwestern.edu/research/ask-us/ a Northwestern librarian]. they are a great resource!

In general, you should refer to the [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Editing_Wikipedia_brochure_%28Wiki_Education_Foundation%29_%282017%29.pdf WikiEdu's guide to editing] which I've found extremely useful.

==== Wikipedia Assignment Week #4 ====
;Task: Finish the bulk of your edits
;Due Date: Friday April 25
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia and [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard] 

# Complete online trainings for Week 4
# Make the bulk of the changes you hope to make to you articles. In general, I expect a minimum of 2-3 new paragraphs of content with a range of new references although the nature and the extent of the changes will depending on the state of your article. One way to think about the goal here is to increase the quality of the article you have selected by one quality class according to the [[:wikipedia:Wikipedia:Content_assessment|Wikipedia content assessment scale]]. For example, from <code>stub</code> to <code>start</code>, from <code>start</code> to <code>C</code>, and so on.

==== Wikipedia Assignment Week #5 ====
;Task: Conduct peer reviews
;Due Date: Friday May 2
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia and [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard] 

* Select '''two''' classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copy-edit. To sign up, you can mark this in [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the dashboard] by using the '''Assign a review''' button. Try to pick articles that other students are not yet reviewing and please don't pick an article that two other people are already reviewing.
* Peer review two of your classmates’ articles and produce a written peer review. If you click on the "Peer review" link next to the assigned review article on your student page in the WikiEdu dashboard, you'll see that it pops up a template that will create a sub-page on your classmate's sandbox and prompts you with a bunch of questions. If you do fill out that template, be sure to leave a message on the users talk page so that they know you created the sub-page with your peer review! Using that template will probably be useful but it's not required. What's important is that you engage in the peer review and get your classmate useful feedback. I don't care too much about how you do it.
* Improve and copy-edit the two reviewed articles by editing them directly to help fix issues, improve sourcing, create a more [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:NPOV neutral] or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:TONE encyclopedic] tone, etc. Where you see an opportunity to help out, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Be_bold be bold]!

==== Wikipedia Assignment Week #6 ====

;Task: Incorporate changes based on peer reviews and polish article
;Due Date: Friday May 9
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia and [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard] 

* Complete online trainings for Week 6
* Respond to your peer review. Consider their suggestions and decide whether they make your work more accurate and complete.
* Continue improving your article. Refine your text, do more research, make sure things are well organized, think about adding images, infoboxes, and templates. If you add images be sure to complete [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/training/students/images-and-media the WikiEdu material on images and media].
* Polish your article, it should be ready for public consumption. There are some general suggestions in [[ideas for polishing a Wikipedia article]].

==== Wikipedia Assignment Week #7 ====
;Task: Finalize your article; Submit your Wikipedia Advising Report
;Due Date: Friday May 16
;Deliverables: Make final contributions to your article and complete your Wikipedia Advising Report in Wikipedia. Turn in the link to your article to Canvas whenever you are done

# Read the material in [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/Northwestern_University/Online_communities_and_crowds_(Spring_2025) the class WikiEdu dashboard] and make final checks on your article.
# Check to ensure that the changes you've made match our expectations.
# See below for details on Wikipedia Advising Report and submission guidelines.
# ...otherwise, that should be it!

==== Assessment of weekly activities and Wikipedia contributions ====

The WikiEdu dashboard for the course will help keep track of all of the activities you do each week as part of the assignment. This includes various trainings, milestones, editing activities, peer reviews, etc.

I will use the following criteria as a rubric for assessing your work on these aspects of the Wikipedia Assignment:

# Substantial new article text demonstrates effort and fluency in Wikipedia norms — A student fluent in Wikipedia norms will have created an substantial article or brought an existing article at least one quality class higher in the eyes of most Wikipedia members by adding new encyclopedic text, adhering to policies on tone, adding references for statements from reliable third party sources, and so on.
# Peer reviews of other student were thoughtful, critical, and constructive.
# Deadlines for tasks #1-7 were met in a way that allowed for the interactive and collaborative aspects of the class (e.g., draft was published to allow for reviews, peer reviews were made on time, article was published live on time, and so on).

Because Wikipedia is a very public project, it is possible that your contributions may be questioned, deleted, or updated by other editors who are not members of the class. Please don't worry, this is a very normal part of working on Wikipedia (though it can be stressful and/or confusing and we can certainly talk about that). All of your edits are preserved and tracked by the Media Wiki software and through the WikiEdu dashboard. The assessment of your work will not be affected by the behavior of random strangers on the Internet.