Editing Interpersonal Media (Fall 2015) (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. There will be no exams or quizzes.

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. That said, I do 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.

=== Papers === 

You will hand in two papers in this class. In both cases, I will ask you to connect something you have experience or knowledge about to course material.

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 piece 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. 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 October 2
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia

* Start the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:STUDENT online student orientation]
* 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/Interpersonal_Media_()/enroll/lcwjeqox Click this link to enroll in the course]. If you are asked for a passcode, you can enter '''lcwjeqox'''.

==== Wikipedia Task #2 ====
;Task: Complete Wikipedia orientation and choose article topic
;Due Date: Friday October 9
;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/Interpersonal_Media_%28%29/students WikiEdu class 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: Sunday October 18
;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/Interpersonal_Media_()/s 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: Monday October 26
;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/Interpersonal_Media_%28%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/Interpersonal_Media_%28%29/students the dashboard] by using the ''Assign a review''' button. Try to pick articles that other students are not yet reviewing.

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

;Task: Peer review other students' articles
;Due Date: Friday October 30
;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 [[:wiki:WP:NPOV|neutral]] or [[:wiki:WP:TONE|encyclopedic]] tone, etc.

==== Wikipedia Task #6 ====
;Task: Finalize article and turn in reflection essay
;Due Date: Sunday November 8
;Deliverables: Finish article in Wikipedia and turn in link to article in Canvas. Turn in reflection essay as subpage of your Wikipedia userpage and turn in link in Canvas.
:''Post your reflection as a subpage of your userpage. For example, I would create mine with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill/Reflections as the URL. 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 "/Reflections" 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 reflection essay: 750 words (~3 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 an essay reflecting on your experience contributing to Wikipedia in light of your experience and the course material.

Your essay will 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:

# 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. Which topics or issues were relevant or important? Why?
# Reflect on what parts of the theories or concepts we covered applied or didn't? What would you change or add based on your experience?

I will give everybody in the course feedback on their assignment. The basic structure is 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: Critical Analysis of an Online Community ===

For the final assignment, I want you to take what you've learned in the class and apply it to a community you have observed or participated in. This project will involve two written assignments and a presentation.

==== Community Identification====
;Maximum Length: 300 words (~1 page double spaced)
;Deliverables: Turn in in Canvas
;Due Date: November 13

In this assignment, you should identify a community you are interested in — and that you hope to analyze critically in your final project. In this assignment, I am asking you to write 1-2 paragraphs explaining what community you want to study, why you care about it, and why you think it would be a rich site for reflection. If relevant or possible, it might be useful to also provide a link.

I am hoping that each of you will pick a community that you are intellectually committed to and invested in your personal or work life. You should also keep in mind that you will be presenting this publicly to the class.

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: Critical Analysis of Online Community ====
;Presentation Date: December 8 and 10
;Paper Due Date: December 18
;Maximum paper length: 1500 words (~7 pages)
;Deliverables: Turn in in Canvas

For your final project, I expect students to build on the community identification assignment to describe what they have done and what they have found. I'll expect every student to give both:

* A short presentation to the class (5-6 minutes)
* A final report that is not more than 1,500 words (~6-7 pages double spaced)

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

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. I want you to reflect on what parts of theory we covered apply or do not. What does the community do right according to what you've learned? What might it do differently in the future based on what you've read? What did the course and readings not teach that they should have?

A successful project will tell a compelling story and will engage with, and improve upon, the course material to teach an audience that includes me, your classmates, and students taking this class in future years, 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: 30%
* Wikipedia assignments: 15%
* Wikipedia reflection essay: 10%
* Community identification: 5%
* Final Presentation: 10%
* Final Paper: 30%