Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of New Mexico/Introduction to Information Studies (Spring 2017)
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- Course name
- Introduction to Information Studies
- Institution
- University of New Mexico
- Instructor
- Jorge Lopez-McKnight
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Information Studies
- Course dates
- 2017-04-12 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-05-22 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 24
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Thursday, 13 April 2017
- Evaluate a Wikipedia article
Before you start, create an account on Wikipedia and join this course page using the enrollment link here.
Choose an article:
- Complete the Finding Articles tutorial.
- Choose a Wikipedia article, preferably a B/C/Start class article (nothing above B class -- this information is available on the Talk page), with at least a handful of citations (Notes/References), about something that interests you. Here are some possibilities (scroll down to the “articles by quality and importance” table to get a handy list):
Analysis:
- Read the entire Wikipedia article that you have chosen -- so pick something you don’t mind reading!
- Click on the Talk tab
- What WikiProjects does this page belong to?
- What class and importance is it ranked?
- What are people talking about? Are those discussions about facts and content or opinions about the topic?
- Click on the View history tab
- Have there been changes made recently?
- What kinds of changes have been made recently?
- Who are the editors?
- Click on the Revision history statistics link in the View History tab (where you can see who the top contributors are for the article) or click on prominent user names in the Talk tab.
- Explore the User pages of a few of the top editors or Talk-ers to see what kind of background they have, other pages they have edited, barnstars, etc. What barnstars/user boxes/Wikipedia accomplishments do they have and what does that tell you about them?
- Verify at least two of the references/notes.
- Find two sources that the article cites and verify that the sources support the claims made in the article.
- Include scans of the original sources (all UNM Libraries have a free scanner for print sources, or, for online sources, you can just take a screenshot).
- Check for elements of quality articles (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Evaluating_Wikipedia_brochure_%28Wiki_Education_Foundation%29.pdf):
- A lead section that gives an easy-to-understand overview.
- A clear structure with several headings and subheadings, images and diagrams at appropriate places, and appendices and footnotes at the end.
- The various aspects of the topic are balanced well. No aspect takes over the article, and all significant aspects are covered.
- Coverage is neutral. Articles should not read like persuasive essays, but instead like encyclopedia articles.
- References to reliable sources.
- Assess the accuracy, reliability, credibility of the article. Questions to consider and potentially answer:
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- How is the information organized? Is this an effective way of organizing the information? Why or why not?
- What information is missing? What information seems unnecessary?
- Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- Has the entry been “flagged” in any way (for being incomplete, biased, unreferenced, etc.)? This flag may appear on the main page or on the “discussion” page. How does this “flag” affect the article?
- Head back to the Talk tab, is there anything controversial about the entry? Is there anything stated on this page that makes you question the reliability of the entry?
- What recommendations would you make for changes to this article that would lead to it becoming a featured article? Check out the Featured Article Criteria here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_article_criteria
Extra credit:
- Locate a published encyclopedia article about the same topic in a UNM Library reference database (Credo or Gale Virtual Reference Library).
- The article should be substantial (not just a 200-300 word blurb)
- Compare and contrast the published encyclopedia article with the Wikipedia article.
Remember:
- You are not making any Wikipedia edits for this assignment.
- You need to submit your analysis in UNM Learn (not through our Wiki Course).
- Font size 10-12 point. Minimum 1000 words.
- Double-spaced, .doc or .docx or .rtf
- Please see the rubric in UNM Learn for details on how your work will be evaluated. You may use SafeAssign to check your work for plagiarism before you submit the final paper. You may submit your paper as many times as you like, we will only grade the last version submitted before the due date.
Due to UNM Learn: Sunday, April 23rd at 11:59pm.
(If you're name is not listed on the Students tab of the course page after you've finished this assignment you can manually enroll yourself using this passcode: grtbmclw)
Week 2
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 18 April 2017 | Thursday, 20 April 2017
- Assignment - Edit a Wikipedia Article
Identify a Wikipedia article, which can be related to the topics you covered in MRP #1 or #2, a topic we covered this semester, or a new topic entirely, and make live edits (approximately 2500 characters, which equals 500 words) to improving the content of the article. The focus of your edits could be:
- Writing: Correcting existing content or adding new content.
- Citations: Adding citations to high quality sources for existing content and citing sources for new content that you have added.
- Organization: Improving organization of Wikipedia pages, adding new sections, combining sections, etc.
Please consult the Editing Wikipediahandout for guidance on your contributions.