Online Communities and Crowds (Spring 2025)/Wikipedia assignment

Useful links

• Enrollment link for the course WikiEdu dashboard (if needed, the enrollment code is "occ-nu-2025").
• WikiEdu Dashboard timeline.
• Canvas submission page for the Wikipedia Advising Report.

Overview

This page provides information about the Wikipedia assignment for the course.

Because this course covers such a range of different online communities, it's helpful to have one online community that can serve as a sort of common object to think about and engage with. In this course, that community is going to be Wikipedia.

In the first weeks of the class, you will be asked to learn about Wikipedia, its norms, rules, and processes. With this knowledge, you will all be asked to research and substantially extend an encyclopedia article on Wikipedia. To do this, I will use material from the Wiki Education Foundation (WikiEdu) to help you learn how to participate in Wikipedia. As part of this process, you will interact with other Wikipedia community members who are not part of the class.

You will need to participate in Wikipedia each week as part of this project. You should rely on the course WikiEdu Dashboard for specifics about deadlines and individual milestones that you are asked to complete each week. The instructor as well as a WikiEdu volunteer will be able to see this activity and help you if appropriate.

During the Wikipedia assignment, there will be some exercises or milestones due every Friday. These correspond to steps in a process of getting involved in Wikipedia. Most weeks, this will involve completing learning modules and assignments via the Wikiedu Dashboard for our course.

The Wikipedia assignments are not precisely synchronized with the rest of the course material, but should provide you with many opportunities to reflect on the other cases, concepts, and challenges we are covering. I plan to take time to discuss our progress and experience with Wikipedia and to connect it explicitly to the theoretical concepts we are covering.

Although this means we'll be spending a lot of time talking about Wikipedia, the goal here is to build and apply critical skills about online communities in general. Wikipedia's incredible openness and impact make it an excellent place to learn and explore the ideas of the course, but the goal is always to engage with the broader principles and underlying concepts and practice their applications.

Finally, as a dress rehearsal for the Community Advising Report at the end of the quarter, I will ask you all to think through and offer advice on a major problem facing Wikipedia. I ask you to post your report as a subpage of your Wikipedia user page and to submit a link to this subpage via Canvas (so that I can provide feedback and a grade there). Details on the report, submission guidelines, and assessment appear below.

Wikipedia Assignment weekly activities and exercises

In general, activities for each week are due by Friday (of that week). See 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 the class WikiEdu dashboard

• Complete the 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. 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 Aaronshaw. You can find a list of all of your classmates on the 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 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 the class WikiEdu dashboard

(1) First, complete the online training topics for Week 2 in the 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 stub 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 stub articles arranged by topic here (there are literally millions):

• 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 the class WikiEdu dashboard

1. Complete online trainings for Week 3
2. Finalize your topic/article.
3. Make a small edit to Wikipedia (e.g., by adding citations).
4. 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 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 a Northwestern librarian. they are a great resource!

In general, you should refer to the 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 the class WikiEdu dashboard

1. Complete online trainings for Week 4
2. 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 content assessment scale. For example, from stub to start, from start to C, and so on.

Wikipedia Assignment Week #5

Task

Conduct peer reviews

Due Date

Friday May 2

Deliverables

Make contributions in Wikipedia and the class WikiEdu dashboard

• Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copy-edit. To sign up, you can mark this in 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 neutral or encyclopedic tone, etc. Where you see an opportunity to help out, 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 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 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

1. Read the material in the class WikiEdu dashboard and make final checks on your article.
2. Check to ensure that the changes you've made match our expectations.
3. See below for details on Wikipedia Advising Report and submission guidelines.
4. ...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:

1. 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.
2. Peer reviews of other student were thoughtful, critical, and constructive.
3. 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.

Wikipedia Advising Report

Due

May 16, 5pm

Deliverables

• 1,000 words (max) report submitted as a subpage of your Wikipedia userpage.
• A link to your report submitted via Canvas

Prompt

Members of the Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) are reviewing and developing recommendations regarding the Neutral Point of View (NPOV) policies that guide the encyclopedic projects. Specifically, the Foundation and community have formed a working group to recommend common "global" NPOV policies that can be adopted and applied across all Wikipedia language editions. For this assignment, I want you to imagine that the working group has contacted you seeking recommendations for designing and implementing the new, common NPOV policies.

For context, the WMF's mission is:

The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

It's important to underscore that the mission contains both an ambition to disseminate high-quality educational material and a goal to engage people in its production.

Your job is to produce a short report (1000 words max) drawing on materials from this class to advise these leaders about how they ought to understand the challenge of designing common NPOV policies and go about it. The best insights will draw on intelligent reflections on the themes and materials of this course to make concrete, specific, and sophisticated recommendations that carefully consider potential drawbacks and unintended consequences.

Please note: You do not need to draw on resources beyond the course materials (readings, lectures, assignments, case discussions, etc.) to produce your report. However, you may feel free to do so.

Some additional context and resources that may be useful:

• This page of the Wikimedia Foundation 2025-2026 Annual Plan as well as this blogpost written by WMF staff provide an overview of the current WMF initiatives on NPOV and might be useful to get a sense of what's involved. For your report you are welcome to evaluate these specific initiatives and/or suggest new approaches.
• NPOV is considered one of the founding principles guiding Wikipedia since its inception. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has long insisted that NPOV is "non-negotiable."
• Different language editions have developed their own distinct versions of Wikipedia policies and guidelines. For example, the English Wikipedia NPOV policy page is extensive and links to numerous other policies, guidelines, tutorials, and essays. Other large Wikipedias have comparably detailed policy pages. However, at present, there is no singular NPOV policy that applies across all Wikipedia language editions.
• Article content varies significantly across language editions. For example, coverage of contentious topics and events such as the Gaza War is very different depending on language edition.
• Wikipedia contributors and the WMF are frequently targeted over NPOV concerns. For example, governments, interest groups, and others regularly seek to undermine the credibility of Wikipedia and/or threaten Wikipedia editors as well as the WMF with legal actions or public campaigns of various kinds. Risk preparedness and protection of the encyclopedias, the editors, and the communities are important components of the ongoing conversations about NPOV.

Submission guidelines

Deliverables (due by May 16, 5pm)

• A 1,000 word report created and saved as a subpage of your Wikipedia user page.
• You will also need to submit the URL of the subpage of your report via Canvas

For example, I would create mine with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Aaronshaw/Report as the URL. Of course, you should replace "Aaronshaw" with your Wikipedia username. You can also go to your user page by clicking on your username on Wikipedia and then adding "/Report" at the end of the URL. When you go to that page, it will say Wikipedia does not have a user page with this exact name. You can create a new page by just clicking the "Create" tab on that page. However you do it, when you're done, you can paste the resulting URL into Canvas.

Please note that Wikipedia pages can support references, footnotes, headers, and formatting options and you will have learned to use these features as part of your work on your Wikipedia articles.

Caveat: To avoid losing any work, I strongly recommend drafting your report somewhere other than the browser-based editor of Wikipedia.

Assessment

First and foremost, your report will be evaluated 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 the assessment rubric for written work for details on my expectations regarding the content of papers. A successful essay will do the following things:

1. 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?
2. Justify your recommendations regarding the theories and principles we've covered. Why should your recommendations be taken more seriously than just random advice from someone on the internet?
3. To the extent it is relevant, feel free to comment directly on your experience in Wikipedia. When you do so, connect your experiences in Wikipedia explicitly to the concepts in the course material we have covered.

You will receive comments and feedback on your assignment. Also, please note that this assignment is shorter but extremely similar to what you will do in your Community Advising Report at the end of the quarter. As a result, you can treat this as a "mid-term" and make adjustments to your approach based on feedback.

Additional guidance and FAQ

There's no minimum word count, but I'd strongly suggest you take advantage of the space you're given. Generally speaking, you can say more, be more insightful, and demonstrate more fluency (all the things that figure in assessment) if you use more space.

Your audience is Wikipedians who may read your report. You don't need to define things to prove to anyone that you've done the reading. You should define terms if you think an audience of Wikipedians (who have not taken the class) will be lost/confused otherwise. You should attribute quotes, concepts, or key ideas to sources appropriately (yes, use citations to do this). Use your judgment to make a compelling, well-reasoned, and well-supported argument. The goal is to show that you are fluent in the course material. A fluent person does not try to use every word in a language; they simply use the most appropriate ones.

In terms of structure, please adopt a format that will best support the substance of your argument and ideas. Something with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion is reliable and useful. If you feel it's better or useful to deviate from that, go for it.

There is no specific guidance regarding style (e.g., APA, Chicago, etc.) or how to format the references. Ensure others can read the paper clearly and find any papers you cite.