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Course name
Independent Study - Psych 491
Institution
York College CUNY
Instructor
William Ashton
Wikipedia Expert
Ian (Wiki Ed)
Subject
Writing & improving I/O Psychology Articles on Wikipedia
Course dates
2017-08-25 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-12-12 23:59:59 UTC
Approximate number of student editors
2


Independent Study Course for graduates of Psy 253 (I/O Psychology) - Writing & improving I/O Psychology Articles on Wikipedia.

Student Assigned Reviewing
Sshaw30
Anandlal0

Timeline

Week 1

Course meetings
Friday, 25 August 2017
This is not really the first week of class

If you look at the dates on the timeline on the right you'll notice that Wikipedia seems to think class is starting a week before the beginning of the semester. To keep the dates correct (which is important to WikiEdu) just do Weeks 1 and 2 assignments for the week of 8/25-9/1.

This is an independent study ...

And it's also online without scheduled in-person meetings.

That has good and bad elements. The good is that we are overcoming the scheduling problem we had with an in-person weekly meeting. And it's good that we are skipping the meeting because since you are editing Wikipedia here's what would happen if we had a weekly in-person meeting: I'd demand that you get assignments posted 24 hours in advance (so I can read them) and then I would talk to you about my response. That can really be done better online. Finally, Wikipedia is set up to teach you how to edit it -- I don't need to teach you Wikipedia! The bad is that York students do not have that much experience working independently and even the best York students (like you) need careful guidance during independent studies.

So, you'll notice a few assignments early on in the semester about working independently. These are very important.

Goal

Unlike other classes, an independent study doesn't have specific goals. Or the specific goals are for each of the students to do something they want to do which is important academically. So my goals for you are for you to do something important as a Wikipedia editor about I-O Psychology. What that can be is up to you. The timeline is my suggestion (if you need a suggestion) but you can change that (beforehand and after consulting with me) if you wish.

You've taken my I-O course and you are well along understanding what I-O Psych is. We are doing this Wikipedia project because -- whether we like it  or not -- Wikipedia is a powerful source of information in our world today. Not just for college students. Professionals often rely on Wikipedia (e.g. news reporters).

In academia, this means two things. First, if students are going to be using Wikipedia (during college and after graduation) then they better understand how it works and how much to trust it. And second, if the world is relying on Wikipedia for information -- in general but also specifically about I-O Psychology -- then what's on Wikipedia about I-O Psych is critically important for the field of I-O Psych.

The APS has also recognized the importance of Psychology's representation on Wikipedia and has started the APS Wikipedia Initiative.

To begin the course: So you will be working with Wikipedians (hopefully more than me). So get to know them:

Steven Walling's talk on Why Wikipedians are the Weirdest People on the Internet.

Actually, I don't need to give you any more guidance that this module. Wikipedia is perfect for an independent study because you can learn how to edit Wikipedia by yourself. Thousands of people have. Literally, you don't need my help at all.


Assignment - Have you started working independently?

Working independently means that you are responsible for mapping out the area and understanding what you will need to do.

After reading the above modules, did you just move on? 

Or did you investigate the things I said? 


  • Did you investigate the APS -page and their pages on Wikipedia?
  • Did you investigate how Wikipedia teaching people to edit it?
  • Did you look at my "suggestion" about what you should do for the course by looking at the timeline/syllabus?
  • Did you take knows about your understanding of these questions and what you learned?

Do so and save your notes for later.

Grades

At the bottom of this page is the grading scheme. Essentially the weights are 60% for a weekly grade (which isn't exactly weekly because  WikiEdu's format would make that a mess so I grouped them into 3 grades) and 40% for your final project. So that final project is important.

And I can expect some good work out of York students. 3 years ago a student in this project began a new page on Wikipedia and he submitted it for Good article status and got it!

Hint: find this editor's userpage and contributions and look at them. What can you learn about his example?

Week 2

Course meetings
Friday, 1 September 2017
Assignment - Introduction to the Wikipedia project

Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.

This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.

Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.

To get started, please review the following handouts:


Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia
  • Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (To avoid hitting Wikipedia's account creation limits, this is best done outside of class. Only 6 new accounts may be created per day from the same IP address.)
  • It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
  • When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
Milestones

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Assignment - Questions?

Go to my  talk pageand ask them.

Week 3

Course meetings
Friday, 8 September 2017
Assignment - Reviewing Psychological Literature

For this activity, please carefully review the videos you watched in I/O Psych class. This material will be foundational for this independent study. That means you must understand these concepts basic concepts.

Journal elements
https://youtu(.)be/X1jtxIwL638

Article types
https://youtu(.)be/_C0MOBKgAlk

Now that you have a good understanding of these basic concepts read more about Meta-analyses and Systematic reviews.

Assignment - Thinking about the quality of Psychological Literature

Part 1 - Working Independently Taking notes.
Create a sandbox in your Wikipedia userpage. Link to it from your userpage.

In this sandbox, I'd like you to copy and paste your notes from the two videos and the two Wikipedia pages.

When grading them, I will not be looking for spelling, grammar or typos but will be looking to see if you noticed and identified the important concepts from the videos and Wikipedia pages.

Part 2 - Application
1. Identify a topic and phenomenon in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. You know what a topic is -- an area. I'll further define phenomenon to mean an IV -> DV relationship. For example, a topic/area would be Organizational Citizenship Behavior and a phenomenon would be OCB as an IV and organizational effectiveness as a DV. OCB and organizational effectiveness may be operationally defined in many different ways -- but regardless of their operational definition we are talking about OCB -> org. effectiveness.
2. Find a recent (<10 years) research article on that phenomenon and read it.
3. Find a recent (<15 years) meta-analysis or systematic review on that phenomenon and read it.
3. Create a second sandbox in your Wikipedia userpage. Link to it from your userpage.
4. In this sandbox, I'd like you to identify your topic and phenomenon and post the APA style reference citation for the research article and the meta-analysis or review.

Week 4

Course meetings
Friday, 15 September 2017
Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia

It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article related to the course and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.

  • Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
  • Create a section in your sandbox titled "Article evaluation" where you'll leave notes about your observations and learnings.
  • Choose an article on Wikipedia related to your course to read and evaluate. As you read, consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
    • 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?
    • Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
    • Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
    • 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?
    • Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
    • How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
    • How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
  • Optional: Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — ~~~~.


Assignment - Discussion
What's a content gap?

Now that you're thinking about what makes a "good" Wikipedia article, consider some additional questions.

  • Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
  • What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
  • Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
  • What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?


Assignment - Wikipedia's standards for research based articles
  • Take the trainings for Medical and Psychological topics and Evaluating articles and sources.


Assignment - Choose possible topics
  • Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
  • Look up 3-5 potential topics related to the course that you might want to update on Wikipedia. Review the content of the article and check the Talk page to see what other Wikipedians are already contributing. Identify one or two areas from each that you could improve.
  • Choose 2-3 potential articles from that list that you can tackle, and post links to the articles and your notes about what you might improve in your sandbox.
  • Finally, present your choices to your instructor for feedback.


Assignment - Weekly Grading

Your grade for your work during Weeks 1-4.

Week 5

Course meetings
Friday, 29 September 2017
Assignment - Add to an article

Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article. There are two ways you can do this:

  • Add 1-2 sentences to a course-related article, and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
  • The Citation Hunt tool shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.


Assignment - Copyedit an article

Choose an article. Read through it, thinking about ways to improve the language, such as fixing grammatical mistakes. Then, make the appropriate changes. You don’t need to contribute new information to the article.

Week 6

Course meetings
Friday, 6 October 2017
Discussion
Thinking about sources and plagiarism
  • Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
  • What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
  • What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
  • What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?


Assignment - Review the rules for medical topics

Review Wikipedia's rules for topics related to medicine, human health, and psychology.


Assignment - Illustrate an article

You'll want to find or create an appropriate photo, illustration, or piece of video/audio to add to an article.

  • Before you start, review the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook, or see Editing Wikipedia pages 10–11.
  • When you've reviewed those pages, take the training linked below.
  • When you're ready to start finding images, remember: Never grab images you find through an image search, or those found on Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Imgur, or even so-called "Free image" or "free stock photo" websites. Instead, you'll want to find images with clear proof that the creator has given permission to use their work. Many of these images can be found on search.creativecommons.org.
  • Don't just upload an image to Wikipedia. Instead, upload it to Wikipedia's sister site for images, Wikimedia Commons. For instructions, read through the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook.


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
Friday, 13 October 2017
Assignment - Finalize your topic / Find your sources
  • On the Students tab, assign your chosen topic to yourself.
  • In your sandbox, write a few sentences about what you plan to contribute to the selected article.
    • Think back to when you did an article critique. What can you add? Post some of your ideas to the article's talk page, too.
    • Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. Post that bibliography to the talk page of the article you'll be working on, and in your sandbox. Make sure to check in on the Talk page to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.


Assignment - Draft your article

You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to start writing.

Creating a new article?

  • Write an outline of that topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia article's "lead section." Write it in your sandbox.
    • A "lead" section is not a traditional introduction. It should summarize, very briefly, what the rest of the article will say in detail. The first paragraph should include important, broad facts about the subject. A good example is Ada Lovelace. See Editing Wikipedia page 9 for more ideas.

Improving an existing article?

  • Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in your sandbox.


Keep reading your sources, too, as you prepare to write the body of the article.

Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9

Milestones

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 8

Course meetings
Friday, 20 October 2017
Discussion
Thinking about Wikipedia
  • What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
  • What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
  • On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
  • If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?


Assignment - Expand your draft
  • Keep working on transforming your article into a complete first draft. Get draft ready for peer-review.
  • If you'd like a Content Expert to review your draft, now is the time! Click the "Get Help" button in your sandbox to request notes.


Assignment - Peer review and copy edit
  • First, take the "Peer Review" online training.
  • Peer review and copyedit your peer's article.. On the Articles tab, find the articles that you want to review. Then in the "My Articles" section of the Home tab, assign them to yourself to review. 
  •  Peer review your classmates' drafts. Leave suggestions on on the Talk page of the article, or sandbox, that your fellow student is working on. Other editors may be reviewing your work, so look for their comments! Be sure to acknowledge feedback from other Wikipedians. 
  •  As you review, make spelling, grammar, and other adjustments. Pay attention to the tone of the article. Is it encyclopedic? 
Milestones

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

Week 9

Course meetings
Friday, 27 October 2017
Assignment - Respond to your peer review

You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. It's time to work with that feedback to improve your article!

  • Read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.
  • Return to your draft or article and think about the suggestions. Decide which ones to start implementing. Reach out to your instructor or your Content Expert if you have any questions.


Assignment - Weekly grading #2

Weeks 5-10

Week 10

Course meetings
Friday, 3 November 2017
Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia

Once you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the "mainspace."

Editing an existing article?

  • NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
  • Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
  • Be sure to copy text from your sandbox while the sandbox page is in 'Edit' or 'Edit source' mode. This ensures that the formatting is transferred correctly.

Creating a new article?

  • Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
  • You can also review the [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]] online training.


Assignment - Did You Know
  • Optional: For new articles or qualifying expansions of stubs, compose a one-sentence “hook,” nominate it for “Did you know,” (see the DYK instructions handout) and monitor the nomination for any issues identified by other editors. Wiki Education staff can provide support for this process.


Handout: "Did You Know" submissions

Week 11

Course meetings
Friday, 10 November 2017
Assignment - Continue improving your article

Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.

  • Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
  • Consider adding an image to your article. Wikipedia has strict rules about what media can be added, so make sure to take the 'Contributing Images and Media Files' training before you upload an image.


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
Friday, 17 November 2017
Assignment - Polish your work

Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Content Expert at any time if you need further help!

Week 13

Course meetings
Friday, 1 December 2017
Assignment - Final article

It's the final week to develop your article.

  • Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
  • Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Content Expert at any time!

Week 14

Course meetings
Friday, 8 December 2017
Milestones

Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.


Assignment - Weekly Grading #3

Weeks 11-16

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