Editing Online Communities and Crowds (Spring 2025) (section)

=== Assignments and responsibilities ===

The course includes "weekly" and "project" assignments.

Every week all participants are responsible for (1) attending course meetings; (2) completing assigned readings, observations, or activities; and (3) participating in in-class discussions of course material. As part of this last item, I will circulate a small set of ''discussion prompts'' ahead of time that you can use to prepare. More information about how I'll use the discussion prompts appears below and we will talk about them during the first class session.

The "project" assignments are (1) the Wikipedia Assignment; and (2) the Community Advising Report. Details of both are provided below.

In general, written assignments submitted for the course should be uploaded as a PDF via Canvas. 

In terms of other responsibilities, I recommend you familiarize yourself with Aaron's [[User:Aaronshaw/Assessment|assessment policies]] (especially the assessment rubric for written work) as well as salient [[User:Aaronshaw/Classroom_policies#Academic_integrity|principles on academic integrity]], especially the appropriate attribution of sources. Please submit written work in a readable (size 11 or greater) font and adopt a standard citation style (e.g., APA, Chicago, or PACM HCI) throughout. Please include your name somewhere (prominent!) in the document that you submit as well as your last name at the beginning of the filename (e.g., "Shaw-occ-week1.pdf").

==== Weekly assignments ====

The course schedule provides details of all reading assignments as well as links to materials and Canvas pages for submitting written assignments. Specifics for several types of assignments follow below.

===== Discussion prompts =====

The discussion prompts are a set of questions focused on the materials assigned for class for the week. At some point during most of our class sessions, I (Aaron) will cold-call people in the room to address a question inspired by or taken from the discussion prompts. By "cold call" I mean that I will call on people without asking for volunteers first. I will assess the responses to these questions for evidence that you have engaged with key aspects of the course material. In some cases, there won't be a singular "right" answer. I won't grade your answers, but will mark them complete/incomplete.

A goal here is to support accountability to the readings, attendance, preparation for the class, etc. That said, I understand that things come up. During the quarter you can "pass" on cold call questions twice. If you are absent and called upon and I haven't heard from you about the absence ahead of time, it will use one of your passes. If you anticipate being absent, you may contact me in advance to avoid using one of your passes. I will provide a supplementary assignment.

Because I understand that cold calling may be terrifying, I will circulate the discussion prompts ahead of time. The discussion prompts will include the kinds of questions I am likely to ask each week (in some cases, maybe even the same questions). They will also give you a good sense of where to focus your reading and note-taking. It is a good idea to do the readings with these questions in mind, to take notes guided by these questions, and/or to write out answers to these questions in advance. You are also welcome to work with other students, consult other resources, etc. to brainstorm or discuss possible answers outside of class (I will not collect your written responses or any records of your discussions).

Randomness will play a role in the cold calling. Ahead of each class session, I will use a computer program to generate a randomly ordered list of students and I will use this list to guide the cold calling in class. To try to maintain participation balance, the algorithm I use will try to ensure that everybody is cold called a similar number of times during the quarter. Although there is always some chance that you will called next, you will be less likely to be called upon relative to your classmates each time you are called upon.

==== Project assignments ==== 

Project assignments include the Wikipedia Assignment as well as the Community Advising Report. Brief descriptions follow here with additional details provided via linked pages.

===== [[Online_Communities_and_Crowds_(Spring_2025)/Wikipedia_assignment|The Wikipedia Assignment:]] =====

All members of the course will write (or at least significantly expand) Wikipedia articles. This assignment will take place over about six weeks starting at the beginning of the quarter. It will culminate in a brief written report offering advice/insights on the basis of your experience and materials you have encountered in the course. 

Please review [[Online_Communities_and_Crowds_(Spring_2025)/Wikipedia_assignment|this overview of the assignment and assessment criteria]]. Details of specific assignment milestones and deadlines will be (almost entirely) provided through the course WikiEdu Dashboard.

;Deadlines (See WikiEdu Dashboard for specific assignments and most up-to-date/accurate deadlines):
:Week 1: Create an account, join the course page, learn some basics
:Week 2: Learn some rules, evaluate an article, choose possible article topics
:Week 3: Edit existing articles/citations, finalize article selection, find sources for your article
:Week 4: Start more substantial editing your article
:Week 5: Peer review two article, continue improving your article.
:Week 6: Respond to peer review, polish your article.
:Week 7: Final revisions to articles; Wikipedia Advising Report (1000 words max) due.

'''The Wikipedia Advising Report''' will be due May 16, 5pm. Please [[Online_Communities_and_Crowds_(Spring_2025)/Wikipedia_assignment|see the assignment page]] for details regarding submission requirements.  

===== [[Online_Communities_and_Crowds_(Spring_2025)/Community_advising_report|Community Advising Report]] =====

You will also be required to complete a 2000 word (maximum—this works out to about 8-10pp if using a size 12 standard font, margins, and spacing) Community Advising Report. For this report, you are invited to serve as an expert advisor to the leaders and members of an online community or crowd and to provide evidence-based insights into how to better address a specific challenge they face. 

:'''[[Online_Communities_and_Crowds_(Spring_2025)/Community_advising_report|Detailed information about the assignment is available here]]

For this assignment, you will select your own community/crowd and challenge. I encourage you to choose a community/crowd of which you are a member/leader and where you could, even if only in theory, deliver your recommendations to other members/leaders and have some chance of seeing the recommendations debated/adopted. I expect you to draw on sources and evidence provided as part of the course (readings, lecture, other materials, etc.). You may, but absolutely do not need to draw on additional sources. Please note that I require you to write up a proposal and secure written approval of your chosen community/crowd and challenge. I also ask everyone to deliver a very brief "lightning talk" introducing the setting and challenge (and, if possible, recommendations) of your project during the final week of class.

: Topic proposal due for review/approval: May 21 (5pm)
: Lightning talk presentation of your project topic/setting: Week of June 2
: Report due: Tuesday, June 10 (5pm)