Wikipedia

User:ChemLibrarian/22 Ways to Think About the History of the University of Michigan

< User:ChemLibrarian
Course name
22 Ways to Think About the History of the University of Michigan
Institution
University of Michigan
Instructor
[[User:|Terrence McDonald]]
Subject
History
Course dates
2015-01-16 – 2015-04-17
Approximate number of student editors
9


The current heated discussion over the value and content of higher education in America raises important issues that the history of the University of Michigan can help illuminate.

This course has been selected to be part of the LSA “22 Ways” series because the history of the University is open to many ways of “thinking”: by discipline, by topic, and by period of its history. Moreover, understanding the way the University was formed in and through time may be helpful to students wondering how to take best advantage of its resources today. To illustrate these varied approaches and illuminate the University’s history, more than a dozen guest lecturers have been invited to speak to the class, including experts in various historical topics and actors in the recent history of the University. The materials provided by these visitors – e.g. lectures, readings, and discussions– are an essential part of the course, and students will be required to master them as part of their course responsibilities.

We will investigate the history of the University together in several ways: through the information shared in lectures and readings, by actually writing short entries on the history of the University for Wikipedia, and by helping update and prepare materials relevant for the history of the University.

Your paper assignment for this course, worth 40% of your grade, will be a 6-10 page (@2000-2500 word) biography of a person relevant to the history of the University of Michigan selected from the list distributed at our January 16 class. This assignment will begin as a regular “paper” assignment which will be drafted and re-drafted for improvement according to the timetable below. It is intended ultimately to become a Wikipedia entry and, in fact, launching of the entry on Wikipedia is required for completion of the assignment. Because of this destination, it will be useful to keep the Wikipedia biographical categories in mind in your first drafts. (See the Wikipedia “biography” portal: Biography Portal and, for example, one of the existing biographies of a person on the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Dickson_White).


Timeline

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Week 1 (2015-01-12): Wikipedia essentials

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Course meetings
Monday, 12 January 2015   |   Wednesday, 14 January 2015   |   Friday, 16 January 2015
In class
  • Overview of the course
  • Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
  • Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette
  • Handout: Editing Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation)
  • In-Class Presentation Slides for Wikipedia Basic developed by U-M librarians Ye Li and Alexa Pearce.
  • Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
  • Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
  • Tips on finding the best articles and resources to work on for class assignments
  • Handouts: Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure

Week 3 (2015-01-26): Exploring the topic area

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Course meetings
Monday, 26 January 2015   |   Wednesday, 28 January 2015   |   Friday, 30 January 2015
In class
  • Be prepared to discuss some of your observations about Wikipedia articles your topic area that are missing or could use improvement.
  • Handouts: Choosing an article
  • In-class discussion: Choosing your topic from the list provided by instructors
  • Review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your own.


Week 4 (2015-02-02): Using sources and choosing articles

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Course meetings
Monday, 2 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 4 February 2015   |   Friday, 6 February 2015
Assignment (due Week 5)
  • Your instructor has created a list of potential topics for your main project. Choose the one you will work on.
For next week
  • Instructor evaluates student's article selections, by next week.

Week 5 (2015-02-09): Finalizing topics and starting research

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Course meetings
Monday, 9 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 11 February 2015   |   Friday, 13 February 2015


Week 6 (2015-02-16): Drafting starter articles

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Course meetings
Monday, 16 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 18 February 2015   |   Friday, 20 February 2015



Week 7 (2015-02-23): First Draft Due

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Course meetings
Monday, 23 February 2015   |   Wednesday, 25 February 2015   |   Friday, 27 February 2015



Assignment (due 2015 -02-27)
  • First draft of articles due on 2015/02/27.

Week 8 (2015-03-02): Winter Break

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Course meetings
Monday, 2 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 4 March 2015   |   Friday, 6 March 2015

Winter break

Week 9 (2015-03-09): Editing Techniques

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Course meetings
Monday, 9 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 11 March 2015   |   Friday, 13 March 2015
In class
  • Basics of editing
  • In-Class Presentation Slides for Wikipedia Editing Techniques developed by U-M librarians Ye Li and Alexa Pearce
  • Talk about Wikipedia culture and etiquette, and (optionally) revisit the concept of sandboxes and how to use them.
  • Q&A session with instructor about interacting on Wikipedia and getting started with writing and editing.
  • We'll discuss moving your article out of your sandboxes and into Wikipedia's main space.
  • Handout: Moving out of your sandbox
  • A general reminder: Don't panic if your contribution disappears, and don't try to force it back in.
    • Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article's talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.
    • Contact your instructor or Wikipedia Content Expert and let them know.
Assignment (due 2015-03-27)
  • Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
  • Create a User page, and then click the "enroll" button on the top left of this course page.
  • To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself on the user talk page of one of your classmates, who should also be enrolled in the table at the bottom of the page.
  • Explore topics related to your topic area to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized. What areas seem to be missing?
  • By the start of our next class, find an article you want to work on and mark the article's talk page with a banner to let other editors know you're working on it. To add the banner, add this code in the top section of the talk page:
{{course assignment | course = User:ChemLibrarian/22 Ways to Think About the History of the University of Michigan | term = Spring 2015 }}
  • Add a link to your selected article to the table at the bottom of this course page.
  • Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
  • If you are starting a new article, write a 3–4 paragraph summary version of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox. If you are improving an existing article, create a detailed outline reflecting your proposed changes, and post this for community feedback, along with a brief description of your plans, on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check back on the talk page often and engage with any responses.
  • Begin working with classmates and other editors to polish your draft article and fix any major issues.
  • Continue research in preparation for expanding your article.
Milestones
  • All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
  • All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.

Week 10 (2015-03-16): Move draft into your sandbox

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Course meetings
Monday, 16 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 18 March 2015   |   Friday, 20 March 2015


Assignment (due 2015-03-27)


  • Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.



Week 11 (2015-03-23): Continuing to improve articles, Sandbox draft due

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Course meetings
Monday, 23 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 25 March 2015   |   Friday, 27 March 2015


Assignment (due 2015-03-27)

Sandbox version of your draft due on 2015-03-27

Week 12 (2015-03-30): Getting and giving feedback

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Course meetings
Monday, 30 March 2015   |   Wednesday, 1 April 2015   |   Friday, 3 April 2015
In class
  • As a group, offer suggestions for improving one or two other students' articles, based on your ideas of what makes a solid encyclopedia article.
Assignment (due 2015-04-04)
  • Peer review your classmate's article. Leave suggestions on the article talk page as suggested in step 2 of Task Summary Document. Due on 2015-04-03.
  • Copy-edit the reviewed article.


Milestones
  • Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 13 (2015-04-06): Responding to feedback

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Course meetings
Monday, 6 April 2015   |   Wednesday, 8 April 2015   |   Friday, 10 April 2015
Assignment (due 2015-04-17)
  • Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.
  • Return to your classmates' articles you previously reviewed, and provide more suggestions for further improvement. If there is a disagreement, suggest a compromise.
  • Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.
  • Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. You can find a handy reference guide here.


Week 14 (2015-04-13): Moving articles to the main space

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Course meetings
Monday, 13 April 2015   |   Wednesday, 15 April 2015   |   Friday, 17 April 2015


  • Handout: Moving out of your sandbox
  • A general reminder: Don't panic if your contribution disappears, and don't try to force it back in.
    • Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article's talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.
    • Contact your instructor or Wikipedia Content Expert and let them know.


Assignment (due 2015-04-17)
  • Move your sandbox articles into main space. (Due 2015-04-17)
    • Check Task 3 of Document Task Summary and follow instructions there to move your article from the Sandbox to the main space.
      • If you are expanding an existing article, copy your edit into the article. If you are making many small edits, save after each edit before you make the next one. Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article.
      • If you are creating a new article, do NOT copy and paste your text, or there will be no record of your work history. Follow these instructions on how to move your work.


Milestones
  • Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.


Week 15 (2015-04-20): Continue responding to Wikipedia Community

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Course meetings
Monday, 20 April 2015   |   Wednesday, 22 April 2015   |   Friday, 24 April 2015
  • Respond to suggestions and comments from the Wikipedia community to keep improving your article. (Due 2015-05-01)

Grading

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Papers will be evaluated according to the following criteria with the final grade on this project reflecting your overall performance on the exercise as below:

1. Ambition of the project: a completely new Wikipedia biography or complete overhaul of an existing one will be graded better than edits or additions to an existing one.

2. Number of sources consulted and used – more is better than less; 5 – 10 is the ball park. You will be given a long list of possibilities.

3. Care with which the person’s life is contextualized in his or her times (which requires that some of the sources used be general ones on the times in which the person lived).

4. Ability to meet posted deadlines (lateness in any stage will result in a lower grade overall).

5. Quality of writing and ability to improve: you will receive feedback and suggestions on your first draft but no grade.

6. Overall participation in the project both as author and supportive reader of the work of others. We will use peer review of the Wikipedia versions.

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