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The Assignment Design Wizard is a tool built by Wiki Education Foundation to help instructors in that program create Wikipedia classroom assignments that follow best practices. It serves as a replacement for {{course page wizard}} and similar templates for instructors working with Wiki Ed. The main way to reach the wizard is to complete the WP:EDUCATORS training. At the end, users can launch the Assignment Design Wizard, which walks them through the components of a good Wikipedia assignment and lets them choose options for their class. At the end, the wizard posts a draft course page to their userspace. Edits made with the Assignment Design Wizard
Note: Instructors who are not working with Wiki Ed -- those who are not located in the United States or Canada and those who do not teach in higher education -- should continue to use the {{course page wizard}} or similar templates. This process is explained at Outreach:Education/Extension#Using the extension. International instructors should coordinate with the Global Education Team at the Wikimedia Foundation.
Code and development
Comments, questions, suggestions? Ask Sage Ross, the product manager for the Assignment Design Wizard.
Text of the wizard
The text of the wizard itself is part of the source code. In particular:
Raw output code
The main output of the wizard is a block of wikitext — mostly a combination of templates and substituted templates — that comes from these files in the source code:
- Course details template, which is the first part of the output. This template includes parameters reflecting some of the choices the user made while going through the wizard, as well as the basic details of the course they entered at the beginning.
- Course description: This block of text comes directly from user input at the end of the wizard.
- Timeline: This block of text gets from the assignment components in this file based on the length of the course and the choices the user made.
- Grading template, which comes at the end.
For an example of the raw wikitext that gets posted to Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Education program/Assignment Design Wizard/example output. Here's the correpsonding page after substitution: (Note that line breaks are inserted by with calls to the substituted template {{Wikipedia:Education program/Assignment Design Wizard/spaces}}.)
On-wiki assignment components
- See also: Category:Assignment Design Wizard output templates and Category:Assignment Design Wizard formatting templates
Course details and description
- Course name
- Underwater Basket Weaving
- Institution
- University of Wikipedia
- Instructor
- Sage (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Arts and crafts
- Course dates
- January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2013
- Approximate number of student editors
- over 9000
- {{course details}}: This template shows the basic details of a course. In user space, it also inserts an instructional template, {{Wikipedia:Education program/Assignment Design Wizard/request instructor right}}, at the top, explaining to instructors how to edit their wizard-made assignment plan, request the course instructor right, and set up a live course page using the assignment plan. When transcluded onto a course page, it inserts a header bar of relevant links, {{Course page 2/Header 2}}.
Timeline components
- {{Wikipedia:Education program/Assignment Design Wizard/course week 1}}: used for the first week)
- {{Wikipedia:Education program/Assignment Design Wizard/course week}}: used for all other weeks)
- {{start of course week}}: This template takes a set of dates as parameters, and lists those as the days on which the class meets on a given week.
- {{in class}}: This marks the start of the "In class" section of a week's assignment plan, which describes activities that should happen in the classroom.
- {{class workshop}}: This marks the start of the "Workshop in class or outside of class" section of a week's assignment plan, which describes activities that should happen during an organized workshop session.
- {{assignment}}: This marks the start of the "Assignments" section of a week's assignment plan, which describes what students are assigned to complete on their own. It takes the a parameter to indicate when the assignment is due (typically the next week).
- {{assignment milestones}}: This marks the start of the "Milestones" section of a week's assignment plan, which describes milestones the class is expected to have completed by this point.
- {{Wikipedia:Education program/Assignment Design Wizard/timeline box}}: This is the formatting template that creates the boxes around sections of content. It's included in some of the above templates.
- {{end of course week}}: This marks the end of a week's content. Functionally, it simply closes the last div of the timeline box for a given week.
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 (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation)
- 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 handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure
- 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? As you explore, make a mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.
- All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
Exploring the topic area and choosing articles
- 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
- 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.
- Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.
- A few questions to consider (don't feel limited to these):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- 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.
- Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.
- A few questions to consider (don't feel limited to these):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? For medical articles, check whether each reference meets the requirements for reliable medical sources.
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article? For medical sources, is a PMID included?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- For medical topics, does the structure follow the recommendations of the manual of style for medicine-related articles?
- Choose one article, identify ways in which you can improve and correct its language and grammar, and make the appropriate changes. (You do not need to alter the article's content.)
- Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.
- Identify an article that would benefit from illustration, create or find an appropriate photo, illustration, or audio/video, and add it to the article.
- All media uploaded to Wikipedia must fall under a "free license," which means they can be used or shared by anyone. Examples of media you can use are photos that you take yourself, images and text in the public domain, and works created by someone else who has given permission for their work to be used by others. For more information about which types of media can be uploaded to Wikipedia, see Commons:Help desk.
- To add a media file to an article, you must first upload it to Wikimedia Commons. For instructions on how to upload files to Commons, refer to Illustrating Wikipedia. This brochure will also provide you with detailed information about which files are acceptable to upload to Wikipedia and the value of contributing media to Wikipedia articles.
- 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.
- For next week
- Instructor evaluates student's article selections, by next week.
- Your instructor has created a list of potential topics for your main project. Choose the one you will work on.
- Discuss the topics students will be working on, and determine strategies for researching and writing about them.
- Select an article to work on, removing the rest from your user page. Add your article to the class’s course page.
- 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 = Wikipedia:Education program/Assignment Design Wizard | 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.
Writing articles
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.
- 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.
- 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 these instructions on how to move your work.
- Optional: For new articles or qualifying expansions of stubs, compose a one-sentence “hook,” nominate it for “Did you know,” (see detailed instructions) and monitor the nomination for any issues identified by other editors. Wiki Education Foundation staff can provide support for this process.
- Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
- Expand your article into an initial draft of a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
Review and revision
- 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.)
- Select a classmate's article that you will peer review and copyedit. On the table at the bottom of this course page, write your username next to the article you plan to review. (You don’t need to start reviewing yet.)
- As a group, offer suggestions for improving one or two other students' articles, based on your ideas of what makes a solid encyclopedia article.
- Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages.
- Copy-edit the two reviewed articles.
- Peer review your classmate's article. Leave suggestions on the article talk page.
- Copy-edit the reviewed article.
- Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
- Open discussion of the concepts of neutrality, media literacy, and the impact and limits of Wikipedia.
- 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.
- Continue discussing how the articles can be further improved. Come up with improvement goals for each article for next week.
- 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.
Final touches and supplementary assignments
- Prepare for an in-class presentation about your Wikipedia editing experience.
- Students give in-class presentations about their experiences editing Wikipedia.
- Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. You can find a handy reference guide here.
- Write a reflective essay (2–5 pages) on your Wikipedia contributions.
- Put together a Wikipedia portfolio.
- Write a paper going beyond your Wikipedia article to advance your own ideas, arguments, and original research about your topic.
- Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.
Grading
- {{assignment grading}} — this template formats the grading breakdown. The parameters come in pairs: one assignment component, and one entry for how much of the grade it is worth.
- {{Course page 2/Header 2}}: This version of the course page header template is reworked to match the visual style of the Wizard. It also can provide a link to the corresponding course dashboard for Wiki Ed-supported courses.
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