Editing Building Successful Online Communities (Fall 2016) (section)

== Assignments ==

The assignments in this class are designed to give you an opportunity to try your hand at using the conceptual material taught in the class. My classes never involve exams or quizzes. I want to see you ''use'', ''apply'', and ''critically engage with'' the course material, not just regurgitate it.

Unless otherwise noted, all assignments are due at the end of the day (i.e., 11:59pm on the day they are due).

=== Participation and Cases ===

The course relies heavily on participation, discussion, and the case study method. A standard "case" usually involves reading an example — perhaps up to 20-35 pages of background about an organization or group facing an ambiguous or difficult challenge. I will mark certain readings as "'''[Cases]'''" in the syllabus and I will expect you to read these particularly closely. It is important to realize that we will ''not'' summarize case material in class and I will not cover it in lecture. I expect you all to have read it and we will jump in and start discussing it.

Cases ask students to put themselves in the positions of individuals facing difficult situations to tease out the tensions and forces at play in the case and to construct — through group discussion — the broader lessons and takeaways. Cases are a wonderful way to connect the sometimes abstract concepts taught in many academic courses to real examples of the type of ambiguous situations that you will likely encounter in your career. Generally speaking, there are not right and wrong answers in cases.

Typically, professors teaching cases cold call on students in rooms of hundred students. Since our class will be smaller than a typical case-based class, cold calling ''might'' not be necessary very often although I will sometimes use it and you should always be ready to answer every question I pose. That said, I expect every student to be in class every week and to be prepared to discuss the cases and the readings. If you have not spoken all class, I may cold call on you.

The "Participation Rubric" section of [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html my detailed page on assessment] gives the rubric I will use in evaluating participation. I re-read this participation rubric every quarter when it comes to assess participation.

=== Papers === 

You will hand in two papers in this class. In both cases, I will ask you to connect the knowledge about our course material that you are building with your experience of a real online community. The "Writing Rubric" section of [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html my detailed page on assessment] gives the rubric I will use to evaluate these papers.

=== Project 1: Contributing to Wikipedia ===

In the first project, you will be asked to learn about Wikipedia, its norms, rules, and processes. With this knowledge, you will all be asked to research and write a new article in Wikipedia on a topic of your choice and to publish this article in the encyclopedia. As part of this process, you will interact with other community members who are not part of the class. Afterward, you will be asked to write a short essay to reflect on this process and to connect your experience to the conceptual course material where appropriate.

Every Friday during this first component of this class, there will be a assignment due that corresponds to one step in the process of getting involved in Wikipedia. These Wikipedia participation assignments won't be synced up the the theory, but they will provide with you lots of opportunity to reflect on the theoretical work we are covering.

Although only Task #6 includes anything that you will need to turn in, you will need to participate in Wikipedia each week. All quarter long, I will be able to see this activity and help you. We will take time each week to discuss our progress and experience with Wikipedia and to connect it explicitly to the theoretical concepts we are covering.

==== Wikipedia Task #1 ====
;Task: Create an account and start orientation
;Due: Friday September 30
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia

* Start the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/training/students online student orientation]. You will only need to complete the ''Basics'' modules. That said, if you plan to do something covered by the special topics (e.g., work on an article related to medical information, share images and/or media files, or translate an article) you will also be responsible for the material in those sections as well.
* During this training, you will create an account, make edits in a sandbox, and learn the basic rules of the Wikipedia community.
* Once 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/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/enroll/fiwotjvu Click this link to enroll in the course]. If you are asked for a passcode, you can enter '''fiwotjvu'''.

==== Wikipedia Task #2 ====
;Task: Complete Wikipedia orientation and choose article topic
;Due Date: Friday October 7
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia

* Complete the online training for students.
* Create a user page, and sign up on the list of students on the course page.
* To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to me and at least one classmate on Wikipedia. My username is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill Benjamin Mako Hill]. You can find a list of all of your classmates on the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/students WikiEdu students page].
* Decide on an article you would like to create or a stub article you would like to significantly expand and improve (see below).
* Tell me what article you want by leaving a message on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Benjamin_Mako_Hill my user talk page].

If there is a topic you know are interested in writing about that doesn't have an article, go ahead and suggest it. If you are having trouble coming up with a specific topic on your own, there are a few resources you might find helpful:

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles Requested Articles] — This is a list of articles that others have asked to be created. It is sorted into categories and sub-categories. When you're looking at the list, remember that it's possible that somebody else has "gotten" to them first and forgot to remove it. Remember that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Red_link red link] indicates that there is no page with that name.
* [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.

==== Wikipedia Task #3 ====

;Task: Compile research and write draft
;Due Date: Friday October 14
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia

* Compile a bibliography of relevant research.
* Write a 2-3 paragraph summary version of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox.
* Add the URL For your sandboxed article to yourself on [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/articles the course WikiEdu page] by clicking the assign article button next to your name and assigning the URL for your sandbox to yourself.

==== Wikipedia Task #4 ====
;Task: Make article "live" and choose articles to review
;Due Date: Friday October 21
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia

* Begin polishing your article.
* Move sandbox articles into the "(Article)" name space by using the "Move" tab, by setting the namespace to "(Article)" and by setting the page title to be whatever you want the article to be named.
** Once you have moved the article, visit the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/students list of students in the WikiEdu dashboard] and (a) assign the new URL to yourself and (b) remove the old one by clicking the "'''+'''" button to open the menu and using the "'''-'''" button next to the old "sandbox" copy of your article. You need to press "Save" at the top of the page once you are done.
* Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copy-edit. (You don't need to start reviewing yet.) To sign up, you can mark this in the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/students the dashboard] by using the ''Assign a review''' button. Try to pick articles that other students are not yet reviewing. If there are already two students assigned to an article, pick something else.

==== Wikipedia Task #5 ====

;Task: Peer review other students' articles
;Due Date: Friday October 28
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia

* Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages for how to improve them.
* Improve and copy-edit the two reviewed articles to help fix issues, improve sourcing, create a more [[:wikipedia:WP:NPOV|neutral]] or [[:wikipedia:WP:TONE|encyclopedic]] tone, etc.

==== Wikipedia Task #6 ====
;Task: Finalize article and turn in your report to Wikipedia
;Due Date: Monday November 7
;Deliverables: Finish article in Wikipedia and turn in link to article in Canvas. Turn in report as subpage of your Wikipedia userpage and turn in link in Canvas.
:Post your report as a subpage of your userpage. For example, I would create mine with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill/Report as the URL. Of course, you should replace "Benjamin_Mako_Hill" with your Wikipedia username. You can also just go to your userpage by clicking on your username on Wikipedia and then adding "/Report" at the end of the the URL.
:When you go that page, it will say '''Wikipedia does not have a user page with this exact name.'''
:You can create the new page by just clicking the "Create" tab on that page. When you're done, you can paste the URL into Canvas.
;Maximum length for report: 1000 words (~4 pages double spaced)

Your Wikipedia article will be evaluated based on your demonstrated understanding of Wikipedia rules and policies. Is it a good article by Wikipedia's standards?

In addition to finishing up your Wikipedia article, everybody should turn in a report reflecting on your experience contributing to Wikipedia in light of your experience and the course material and, most importantly, offering advice to the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikipedia Community on how to improve their community. I want you all to treat this as a dress rehearsal for your final projects.

Your report will be evaluated, first and foremost, on the degree to which it provides useful, informed, and actionable advice to the Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation. It will also be evaluated on the degree to which you engage with the course material. See [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html the writing rubric] for details on my expectations in terms of the content of the papers. A successful essay will do the following three things:

# Provide detailed, concrete, and actionable advice to the Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation. What should Wikipedia think about doing? What should they think about changing?
# Comment directly on your experience in Wikipedia. What did you do and what did you learn?
# Connect your experience in Wikipedia explicitly to the concepts in the course material we have covered. Justify your recommendations in terms of the theories and principles we've covered. Why should your recommendations be taken more seriously than just random advice from one new user?
# If possible, reflect on what parts of the theories or concepts we covered applied or didn't. You don't have to take everything taught in the course for granted. What would you change or add based on your experience? What is unique or different about Wikipedia?

I will give everybody in the course feedback on their assignment. The basic structure is shorter, but extremely similar, to what you will be doing in the final project. As a result, you can treat this as a "mid-term" and make adjustments based on feedback.

=== Project 2: Report on building/improving an online community ===

For the final assignment, I want you to take what you've learned in the class and apply it to a real online community in a consultant/client model. I'm going to ask everybody to work with a real organization in one of the two situations:

# Designing a new online community.
# Improving or expanding an existing community.

My strong preference will be for every student to work on these projects alone. That said, if there's a very compelling reason for 2 or more students to work in a group, I'm willing to discuss it.

==== Community Identification and Signed MOU====
;Maximum Length: 750 words (~3 pages double spaced)
;Deliverables: 
:* Signed copy of MOU (Turn in to me in class)
:* Community identification essay (Turn in to Canvas)
;Due Dates:
:* Monday November 7

In this assignment, you should identify and the community you will be working with for your final project. In the essay part of this assignment, I am asking you to write several paragraphs explaining which community you will be working with and why you think it will be an appropriate site for applying the course material. If relevant or possible, it might be useful to also provide a link to any existing community or to the organization.

I am hoping that each of you will pick a community that you are intellectually interested and invested in. If you want to the community something you are involved in your personal and professional life, that's ideal.  Although I'm encouraging you to connect to your work lives, you should also keep in mind that you will be presenting this publicly to the class. If you don't know of such a community, Molly Schachter should be able to help connect you to businesses that are interested in advice on growing, improving, or starting an online community.

Second, I want to make sure that the organizations you are going to be working with are on board. As a result, I'm asking you all to bring a signed copy of the [[:File:MOU-online communities-2016-fall.pdf|course memorandum of understanding]] in. You should read that document as soon as possible to get a sense of what you'll be asking organizations to agree to.

You will be successful in this assignment if you identify a community and clearly explain why you think it would be a useful community to study using the concepts we have covered in the class. I will give you feedback on these write-ups and will let you each know if I think you have identified a project that might be too ambitious, too trivial, too broad, too narrow, etc.

==== Final Projects: Report and Presentation ====
;Presentation Date: December 12 at 3:30pm
;Paper Due Date: December 17 at 11:59pm
;Maximum paper length: 4500 words (~18 pages)
;Deliverables: Turn in in Canvas

For your final project, I expect students to build on the community identification assignment and to complete a report. I expect every student to produce a written report that will be shared with the client organization. I also expect each student to prepare a formal presentation that they give during the final class session:

* A short presentation to the class (length TBD)
* A final report that is not more than 4,500 words

I will invite representative of client organizations that are interested to visit the final class to hear presentations. If clients cannot attend, I expect that students will give their presentation at another time after the final presentation that is convenient to the client organization.

Each report should include the description of the community you have identified (you are welcome to borrow from your Community Identification assignment), and a description of how you would use the course concepts to change and improve the community.

Once again, your report will be evaluated on the degree to which it provides useful, informed, and actionable advice to the client organization and on the degree to which you engage with the course material. Please make sure you do the following things:

# Provide detailed, concrete, and actionable advice to the client organization. For example, what are they doing right? What should they change?
# Justify your recommendations in terms of the theories and principles we've covered and include references for your readers who won't have your background. Why should your recommendations be taken seriously?
# Remember that you don't have to take everything taught in the course for granted. What is unique or different about the client organization that causes you to have to think and read beyond the course material we've covered? What are the big open questions and risks they will be facing?

You will be evaluated on the degree to which you have demonstrated that you understand and have engaged with the course material and not on specifics of your community or the content of your advice.

A successful project will provide good advice that a client would be happy to have paid 1a consultant for, tell a compelling story, be clearly written, and will engage with, and improve upon, the course material to teach an audience that includes not only the client but me, your classmates, and students taking this class in future years on how to take advantage of online communities more effectively. The very best papers will give us all a new understanding of some aspect of course material and change the way I teach some portion of this course in the future.

=== Grading ===

I have put together [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html a very detailed page that describes the grading rubric we will be using in this course]. Please read it carefully I will assign grades for each of following items on the UW 4.0 grade scale according to the weights below:

* Participation: 20%
* Wikipedia assignments: 15%
* Wikipedia report: 10%
* Community identification: 5%
* Final Presentation: 10%
* Final Paper: 40%