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Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Oberlin College/The Native Languages of the Americas (Spring 2017)

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Course name
The Native Languages of the Americas
Institution
Oberlin College
Instructor
J. Haugen
Wikipedia Expert
Adam (Wiki Ed)
Subject
Anthropology/Linguistics
Course dates
2017-01-30 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-05-14 23:59:59 UTC
Approximate number of student editors
10


This course surveys the languages indigenous to North and South America, and addresses such topics as grammatical (phonetic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic) diversity among these languages; language families and other historical relationships in the Americas; the use of linguistic evidence to investigate the first peopling of the Americas; and historical and contemporary cultural contexts of language use in the Americas, including issues surrounding language maintenance and revitalization, and colonial contact and language death.

Timeline

Week 1

Course meetings
Monday, 6 February 2017
In class - Wikipedia essentials
  • 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

Week 2

Course meetings
Monday, 13 February 2017
Milestones

All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

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 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? As you explore, make a mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.


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

Week 3

Course meetings
Monday, 20 February 2017
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 - 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 - Choosing your article
  • Research and list 3–5 articles on your Wikipedia user page that you will consider working on as your main project. Look at the talk page for existing topics for a sense of who else is working on it and what they're doing. Describe your choices to your instructor for feedback.


Assignment - Finalize your topic and start researching
  • Select an article to work on, removing the rest from your user page. Add your topic on the 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.

Week 4

Course meetings
Monday, 27 February 2017
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.


Assignment - Drafting starter articles
  • 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 short starter article and fix any major issues.
  • Continue research in preparation for expanding your article.


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 5

Course meetings
Monday, 6 March 2017
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.
Milestones

All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.

Week 6

Course meetings
Monday, 13 March 2017
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

Week 7

Course meetings
Monday, 20 March 2017
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.


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, 3 April 2017
Assignment - Choose articles to peer review
  • Select a classmates’ article that you will peer review and copyedit. On the table at the bottom of this course page, add your username next to the article 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 9

Course meetings
Monday, 10 April 2017
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 - Peer review and copyedit
  • Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages.
  • Copy-edit the two reviewed articles.

Week 10

Course meetings
Monday, 17 April 2017
Milestones

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


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, 24 April 2017
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 - 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 12

Course meetings
Monday, 1 May 2017
Assignment - Final article
  • Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.


Handout: Polishing your article

Milestones

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

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