Public Policy Initiative Requirements for Course Design Spring 2011

The guidelines below will be attached to the Memorandum of Understanding document.

Teaching Fellowship Requirements for Course Design

Thank you for participating in the Public Policy Initiative and becoming one of the first-ever Wikipedia Teaching Fellows! The contributions that you and your students will make will greatly enhance Wikipedia's public policy topics, and the process will familiarize you with an invaluable educational tool.

Contributing to Wikipedia offers significant pedagogical opportunities. Editing Wikipedia is an opportunity for students to write for a real-world audience of thousands of readers and to gain quick feedback from the large community of Wikipedia editors. Students also learn how to follow editorial policies and how to collaborate with other editors. Wikipedia editing, furthermore, has been found to improve students' media literacy as well as their understanding of scholarly citations.

The following requirements have been developed in collaboration with teachers and Wikipedians who already have experience using Wikipedia as a teaching tool.

Executive Summary

1. Consult relevant resources before starting

Professors will review “Wikipedia as a teaching tool” brochure, sample syllabus, and other printed/online materials for ideas (the Wikimedia Foundation will provide these materials). Professors will consult with Campus Ambassadors on appropriate Wikipedia assignments.

2. Wikipedia assignment(s) and activities span at least half the semester

Students will interact with Wikipedia for at least half of the term (and longer if possible).

3. Wikipedia assignment(s) milestones

Wikipedia assignments will include specific milestones for students to meet. The Wikipedia assignments will be broken down into incremental assignments with benchmark deadlines along the way.

4. Substantive contributions to Wikipedia

Every student in the class will be involved in editing Wikipedia, even if students work in groups. Students will make substantive contributions to Wikipedia Students are expected to put in as much work into the Wikipedia assignments as they would put into a term paper or other large writing assignment. This usually (but not always) comes out to mean at least 10-20 paragraphs (~1500 words) worth of content per student.

5. Wikipedia articles are U.S. public policy

Regardless of the department with which the class is affiliated, every student will work on Wikipedia articles that are related to United States public policy (rather than, for example, articles about a foreign country's policies or articles about non-policy issues).

6. Students and professors will interact frequently with Campus Ambassadors and Online Ambassadors

Campus Ambassadors will be allowed to do presentations and workshops/labs about Wikipedia several times throughout the semester. These can take place either during regular class time or outside class time, and students will be required to attend at least most of them. Professors will meet with their Campus Ambassadors regularly throughout the semester. Students will be paired with Online Ambassadors as mentors, and will communicate with them about Wikipedia-related questions and problems throughout the semester.

7. Course page on the WikiProject will be thorough and up-to-date

Professors will work with Campus Ambassador to complete the class' course page - including course description, Wikipedia assignments, and timeline - on the WikiProject set up for the Public Policy Initiative (on Wikipedia). The course page should be live and complete on the WikiProject at least one week prior to the start of classes to give Public Policy Initiative staff the opportunity to address any concerns before the term starts. Professors will work with Campus Ambassadors to keep the course page updated throughout the term as needed. Students will add their Wikipedia user names and selected articles onto the course page.

8. Participate in project evaluations

Students and professors will participate in Public Policy Initiative pre- and post-term project evaluations (surveys, interviews, etc.).

Detailed Requirements

Consult relevant resources before starting...

As you begin to prepare for using Wikipedia in your classroom as part of the Public Policy Initiative, we ask that you start by doing some hands-on exploration of Wikipedia, the public policy topic area, and Wikipedia's editorial policies. You may be surprised at what you find.

The following is a list of materials and quick exercises that will familiarize you with some of Wikipedia's most important concepts, tools, and policies. (Note: the Campus Ambassadors and Wikimedia-provided materials can help you with these activities.)

Read the "Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool" brochure before you create your assignment. The brochure will provide you with more tips and suggestions regarding how to use Wikipedia in your class and the learning benefits for various types of assignments.
Create your own user account and userpage on Wikipedia, and learn the basics of editing so you can answer students' basic questions. Consider completing the Wikipedia Tutorial.
Study the strengths and weaknesses of Wikipedia coverage in your course's topic area by looking over some articles, and observe the editing patterns and disputes that arise in the topic area by reading the articles' Discussion pages.
Review Wikipedia's core content policy pages: "Neutral Point of View," "Verifiability," and "No original research." These policies are the backbone of Wikipedia. They work together to enable the collaborative creation of "encyclopedic" content.
Review Wikipedia's core behavior policy pages, "Civility" and in particular "Consensus." While it is obvious that students should be civil to others online, the consensus policy explains how Wikipedians make decisions.

Wikipedia assignment(s) and activities span at least half the semester...

Students will interact with Wikipedia for at least half of the term (or longer). We have found that students reap substantially more benefits from writing on Wikipedia when they have more time to interact with Wikipedia's features and editing community. Spanning Wikipedia assignments across at least half the term allows students to really learn the technical skills involved in editing Wikipedia; gives students more opportunities to interact with other Wikipedia editors; leaves more space for professors, peers, Wikipedia Ambassadors, Wikimedia staff, and other Wikipedia editors to provide feedback on students' work; and is in general crucial for students to experience collaborative writing.

Wikipedia assignment(s) milestones...

The Wikipedia assignments will be broken down into incremental assignments with benchmark deadlines along the way. Incremental assignments and benchmark deadlines will give students the chance to gradually gain fluency with Wikipedia's features and policies. We have found that milestones are essential to both the professor's and the students' positive experience. The more regularly students edit, the more opportunities they will have to collaborate with each other and with Wikipedia editors. This collaboration and feedback cycle is part of what makes a Wikipedia assignment unique.

The following general milestones are required for Wikipedia Teaching Fellows (for more detailed suggestions regarding effective milestones, please see the sample syllabus). Campus Ambassadors can help with the specific design of these milestone exercises.

Early exercises

Students will create user accounts and userpages on Wikipedia and list themselves on the course page.
Subsequent exercises and readings will familiarize students with how to use wiki markup, how Wikipedia works and what its core policies are, and how to edit Wikipedia effectively.
Students will communicate with other Wikipedia editors (especially their Online Ambassador mentors) via user Talk pages.

Main exercises

Students will perform a critical analysis of existing articles, posting comments and suggested changes to the articles' Discussion pages.
Students will make minor improvements to existing articles.
Students will create new articles or make major expansions/improvements to existing articles. This exercise is what will take up the most time.
Students will ask Campus Ambassadors and Online Ambassadors (especially their mentors) for feedback on the work they've done on their selected Wikipedia articles. Students will then revise their articles based on the feedback. This process will repeat several times throughout the semester.

Substantive contributions to Wikipedia...

Every student in the class will be involved in editing Wikipedia, even if students work in groups. Students are expected to put in as much work into the Wikipedia assignments as they would put into a term paper or other large writing assignment. This usually (but not always) comes out to mean at least 10-20 paragraphs (~1500 words) worth of content per student. There are a variety of ways to contribute to Wikipedia, including:

Create a substantial article from scratch.
Expand a stub/subsection into a full article.
Start several small articles on related topics.
Undertake a major rewrite of a large article.

Wikipedia articles are U.S. public policy...

Regardless of the department with which the class is affiliated, every student will work on Wikipedia articles on United States public policy (rather than, for example, articles about a foreign country's policies or articles about non-policy issues). We recognize that many topics are indirectly linked to U.S. public policy (for example: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan); for the purposes of the Public Policy Initiative, however, we ask that students edit articles that have direct, clear-cut connections to U.S. public policy.

Here are some examples of Wikipedia articles that fall under the "U.S. public policy" umbrella:

Office of Special Education Programs
United States Invasion of Panama
Fair Sentencing Act
Fujifilm Corp. v. Benun
John Gilbert Winant
U.S.-China Relations

Here are some examples of Wikipedia articles that do not fall under the "U.S. public policy" umbrella:

French Invasion of Russia
Berkeley High School
All the King's Men, the book or movie
The Boxer Rebellion

Students and professors will interact frequently with Campus Ambassadors and Online Ambassadors...

Campus Ambassadors will be allowed to do presentations and workshops/labs about Wikipedia several times throughout the semester. These labs can take place either during regular class time or outside class time, and students will be required to attend at least most of them. We've found that these in-person sessions tend to be highly effective at teaching students how to work with Wikipedia. Computer-lab setups, where students can follow along the Campus Ambassadors' demonstrations, have proven especially helpful.

Professors will meet with their Campus Ambassadors regularly throughout the semester. Communicate regularly with Campus Ambassadors about students' progress, questions, concerns etc., through in-person meetings, email, phone, and/or other means. Regular meetings give both professors and Campus Ambassadors the opportunity to share what they've learned from interacting with students — for example, what challenges students face, what students like about the assignments, what students would like to see changed, teaching tips, etc. These meetings also allow Campus Ambassadors to provide some feedback on assignments and course timelines.

Also: as much as possible, meet with your Campus Ambassadors before the semester begins.

Students will be paired with Online Ambassadors as mentors, and will communicate with them about Wikipedia-related questions and problems throughout the semester. Students can pair up with mentors using one of the following methods:

The Wikipedia Ambassadors program can assign Online Ambassadors to students to create the mentorship pairing. This method is easier, and ensures that all students are matched up with mentors in a timely manner.
Each student can select an Online Ambassador as a mentor and contact that person soon after creating a Wikipedia user account. The benefit of this, in some cases, is that students can find Ambassadors with academic interests similar to what they will be working on.

Please note on your course page which method is selected.

Also: encourage students to communicate frequently and freely on Wikipedia Discussion pages with their mentors and other Wikipedia editors, especially when problems arise. Share problems, success stories, and feedback in general in a timely manner, with Online and Campus Ambassadors.

Course page on the WikiProject will be thorough and up-to-date...

Professors will work with Campus Ambassador to fill in the class' course page - including course description, Wikipedia assignments, and timeline - on the WikiProject set up for the Public Policy Initiative on Wikipedia (note: the Wikimedia Foundation will create a blank course page for your class). The course page should be live and complete on the WikiProject at least one week prior to the start of classes to give Public Policy Initiative staff the opportunity to address any concerns before the term starts, and professors will work with Campus Ambassadors to keep the course page updated throughout the term as needed. Students will add their Wikipedia user names and selected articles onto the course page. The course pages on the WikiProject are crucial for the success of the Public Policy Initiative. For Wikimedia Foundation staff, Online Ambassadors, and other people who do not have easy physical access to the classroom, the course pages are the primary (and sometimes only) source of information about students' progress and the Wikipedia assignment timelines. Keeping the course pages thorough and up-to-date throughout the semester is very important in order for these remote parties to effectively support the classes.

Participate in project evaluations...

Students and professors will participate in Public Policy Initiative pre- and post-term project evaluations (surveys, interviews, etc.). To assess the effectiveness of various elements in the Public Policy Initiative, the Wikimedia Foundation will work with outside research organizations to conduct project evaluations, which entails surveying and possibly interviewing students and professors. We ask that Wikipedia Teaching Fellows help us improve the use of Wikipedia as a teaching tool by participating in these evaluations. These evaluations will occur only at the beginning of term and at the end of the term.

Signatures

I agree to abide by the requirements listed in this Requirements for Course Design document. I understand that I will be given a Wikipedia Teaching Fellow designation by the Wikimedia Foundation one week prior to the beginning of the term, after my course page is live on Wikipedia, demonstrating it has met these requirements.

Professor:
Wikimedia Foundation representative: