- On Monday, we will have a segment introducing this assignment.
- By our second class, students who will have created a Wikipedia account and made at least one constructive edit to Wikipedia will receive an extra credit point (1P) (please share this edit with the class during the lecture)
- Start. Get familiar with Wikipedia. Make some trial edits, however minor. Demystify the process. Leave behind any sense of intimidation. As Wikipedia puts it, learn to be bold. Learn basic editing skills. The three students who have made the highest amount of constructive edits to Wikipedia before next Monday (the 8th) (mainspace edits or constructive talk page comments count) will receive an extra two credit points (2P)
- Before Monday, each group should have an article selected. You should inform the instructor of your article selection (you can email the instructor or post a message to his talk page, or talk to him before or after the class). Make sure it is listed next to your group in the Articles edited section of our wiki page. You should also schedule a group meeting with me to discuss your progress in in this week. Finishing this assignment on time is worth 5% of the course grade.
- Before Monday, you should find a Wikipedia article that is missing one or more inline reference (different from the article your group is working on); find and add a reliable inline reference to it (5P). The citation you add should have at minimum the following elements: author's name, title, publishing venue, date, link (if it is online). If you correctly use a citation template, this will net you an extra credit point (1P). If you add citations to at least five sentences, I will consider this for another extra credit point (1P). At this time I am assuming you have already done the citing sources part of the Wikipedia tutorial which should teach you the basics of citing on Wikipedia. For another two extra credit points (2P), find an article with another problem, indicated by a template, or where somebody has made a constructive suggestion on talk that needs addressing, and fix the problem / improve the article as suggested on talk. If you complete this final extra credit task, note this on my talk page. Finishing this assignment on time is worth 5% of the course grade.
- Before Monday, you should have a plan (who will read what, who will work on what aspects of the article) in place. You should post a preliminary "to-do" list on your group article's discussion page and inform the instructor that you have done so. The "to do" list should consist of a list of what points you will cover in your article, how it will be structured, who will work on what sections, and a short list of resources. This list should be about one page in length if you need a yardstick. Each group member should participate in creation of that list, describing their own tasks. If the article does not exist, you should stub (start) it (see what makes a good stub and you may want to watch this "article creation" tutorial). Note that your "to do" list is not a proper stub, a stub is a mini-article, not a "to do" list. If you create a new article with a "to do" list, it will be deleted! On the bright side, a stub does not have to be long - few sentences plus a source is enough. You should also schedule a group meeting with me to discuss your progress in in this week. Finishing this assignment on time is worth 5% of the course grade.. Groups which create very good to do lists and stubs may receive up to 2 extra credit points (2P).
- As another extra credit 2P activity, post a constructive question, related to your project, to Wikipedia:Reference desk. Report what answer you got on your article talk page and notify the instructor about your report with a diff. (Note: it may take a day or so for a reply to be posted to your question at the reference desk)
- Share. You will need to divide up the tasks that we've identified in the planning stage. Who is going to do what and when?
- Research. This is vital. A wikipedia article is worth nothing unless it comprises verified research, appropriately referenced. This will entail going to the library, as well as surfing the internet!
- Assemble and copy-edit. As the referenced research is added to an article, we need to ensure that it does not become baggy and disorganized, though there will be moments when it is obviously in a transitional stage.
- As yet another extra credit 5P (!) activity, you can nominate your article for Wikipedia:Did you know (but you have to do so within five days of having created or expanded it; let me know before you aim for that assignment and I'll help you out). All group members who were involved with significantly improving the article up to this point will receive 5P each IF the article is approved by the Did You Know reviewer. You are more then welcome to see me during the office hours to talk about how to get your article passed for the Did You Know. Getting an article to appear on the front page is cool, and it has been done many times by me and your peers. Why not give it a try? (Here is a link to a useful handout])
- Informal Reviews. Before Monday, each of your members should look at an article being developed by another group, review it on that article's talk page (you need to offer some constructive comments, just saying "I like what you are doing" is not enough), and write a summary for your own group (on your own article's talk page) saying what you have learned from observing the work of other groups. You should try to review different articles than your groupmates did if possible. You should also schedule a group meeting with me to discuss your progress in in this week Finishing this assignment on time is worth 5% of the course grade.
- Course instructor (Piotr Konieczny) will do the final assessment of your work around Sunday (end of the finals week).
Note: total amount of extra credit you can get from the activities listed above is 13%. Extra credit is added, unweighted, to your final course score.
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