Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Paradise Valley Community College/Introduction to Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology (Spring 2018)
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- Course name
- Introduction to Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology
- Institution
- Paradise Valley Community College
- Instructor
- Jennifer Weitz
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Astronomy
- Course dates
- 2018-01-17 00:00:00 UTC – 2018-05-09 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 24
Introduction to astronomy for the non-science major. Structure and evolution of stars; star clusters; galaxies; cosmology.
Timeline
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 24 January 2018
- In class - Wikipedia essentials
- Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
- Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.
Handout: [http://wikiedu.org/editingwikipedia Editing Wikipedia
]
- In class - Editing basics
- Basics of editing
- 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 to work on for class assignments
Handouts: Using Talk Pages, Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
- Create an account and join this course page.
- Complete the introductory training modules. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
- Create a User page.
- To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to another student on their user talk page.
- Explore topics related to your topic area to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized. What areas seem to be missing? As you explore, make a mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 29 January 2018 | Wednesday, 31 January 2018
- Milestones
All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
- In class - Exploring the topic area
- Be prepared to discuss some of your observations about Wikipedia articles in your topic area that are missing or could use improvement.
Handouts: Choosing an article
- In class - Intertwine
- get started on Wikipedia with your peers!
Intertwine is a platform where you you will be chatting with student editors enrolled in other Wiki Education courses. This week, the featured activities include:
- Creating your own User page
- Learning about user talk page, and writing on others' Talk pages
- Getting to know more Wikipedia editors and learning from each other's experiences
Sign up for a session here. If you haven’t logged in using your Wikipedia account, you will first be redirected to Wikipedia logging page. After logging in using your Wikipedia credentials, you will be able to sign up for our activity.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 5 February 2018 | Wednesday, 7 February 2018
- In class - Using sources
- Be prepared to explain close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.
Handouts: Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/sources|Sources and Citations]]
- Assignment - Add to an article
- Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 12 February 2018 | Wednesday, 14 February 2018
- Assignment - Choosing your article
- Your instructor has created a list of potential topics for your main project. Choose the one you will work on.
- 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.
- In class - Discuss the article topics
- Discuss the topics students will be working on, and determine strategies for researching and writing about them.
Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]]
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 21 February 2018
- In class - Wikipedia culture and etiquette
- 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.
- Assignment - Drafting starter articles
- If you are starting a new article, write an outline of the topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia lead section of 3–4 paragraphs in your sandbox. Wikipedia articles use "summary style", in which the lead section provides a balanced summary of the entire body of the article, with the first sentence serving to define the topic and place it in context. The lead section should summarize, very briefly, each of the main aspects of the topic that will be covered in detail in the rest of the article. If you are improving an existing article, draft a new lead section reflecting your proposed changes, and post this along with a brief description of your plans on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check that page often to gather any feedback the community might provide.
- Begin working with classmates and other editors to polish your lead section and fix any major issues.
- Continue research in preparation for writing the body of the article.
- In class - Intertwine
- evaluate a Wikipedia article with your peers!
Intertwine is a platform where you you will be chatting with student editors enrolled in other Wiki Education courses. This week, the featured activities include:
- Learning Wikipedia’s five pillars as evaluation criteria
- Evaluating an existing Wikipedia article with your peers
- Getting to know more Wikipedia editors and learning from each other's experiences
Sign up for a session here. If you haven’t logged in using your Wikipedia account, you will first be redirected to Wikipedia logging page. After logging in using your Wikipedia credentials, you will be able to sign up for our activity.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 26 February 2018 | Wednesday, 28 February 2018
- Milestones
All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.
- In class - Building articles
- Demo uploading images and adding images to articles.
- Share experiences and discuss problems.
Resources: Illustrating Wikipedia and Evaluating Wikipedia
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 5 March 2018 | Wednesday, 7 March 2018
- In class - Moving articles to mainspace
- We'll discuss moving your article out of your sandboxes and into Wikipedia's main space.
- 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.
Handout: Moving out of your Sandbox
- Assignment - Moving articles to mainspace
- Move your sandbox articles into 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 the instructions in the "Moving out of your sandbox" handout.
- Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 19 March 2018 | Wednesday, 21 March 2018
- In class - Group suggestions
- As a group, offer suggestions for improving one or two other students' articles, based on your ideas of what makes a solid encyclopedia article.
Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/peer-review|Peer Review]]
- Assignment - Choose articles to peer review
- Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copyedit. On the table at the bottom of this course page, add your username next to the articles you will peer review. (You don’t need to start reviewing yet.)
- Assignment - Complete first draft
- Expand your article into a complete first draft.
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 26 March 2018 | Wednesday, 28 March 2018
- Assignment - Peer review and copyedit
- Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages.
- Copy-edit the two reviewed articles.
- In class - Media literacy discussion
- Open discussion of the concepts of neutrality, media literacy, and the impact and limits of Wikipedia.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 2 April 2018 | Wednesday, 4 April 2018
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
- Assignment - Address peer review suggestions
- 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.
- In class - Intertwine
- review your Wikipedia article draft with your peers!
Intertwine is a platform where you you will be chatting with student editors enrolled in other Wiki Education courses. This week, the featured activities include:
- Sharing the Wikipedia article your drafted with your peers.
- Getting feedbacks from your peers on how to make your Wikipedia article even better
- Providing feedbacks to your peers and help them improve their article
Sign up for a session here. If you haven’t logged in using your Wikipedia account, you will first be redirected to Wikipedia logging page. After logging in using your Wikipedia credentials, you will be able to sign up for our activity.
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 9 April 2018 | Wednesday, 11 April 2018
- In class - Discuss further article improvements
- Continue discussing how the articles can be further improved. Come up with improvement goals for each article for next week.
- Assignment - Continue improving articles
- 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.
Week 13
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 16 April 2018 | Wednesday, 18 April 2018
- Assignment - Final article
- Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.
Handout: [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polishing_your_articles.pdf Polishing your article
]
- Milestones
Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.