Writing Wikipedia Articles/Week 1

Webinar outline

 * 7:00 Welcome to the course. Introduce the course: Why we will be delving into Wikipedia and Open Education. What can our students hope to accomplish?
 * 7:05 Pete, Sara, and Bob introduce themselves. Recognize any past students present. Special thanks to our sponsors.
 * 7:10 How the course works
 * Hello to students taking the course in the self-paced mode!
 * How to take the course "live" and in self-paced mode. NOTE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!
 * Is everybody fully registered? Review what needs to be done.
 * Introduce Blackboard Collaborate
 * Introduce Wikipedia course pages (note video)
 * Mention research surveys
 * 7:20 General introduction: Why is Wikipedia interesting and worth understanding? What opportunities for the OER movement are envisioned through improving Wikipedia?
 * What is a wiki? Why are wikis useful, and what can be accomplished with them?
 * ACTIVITY: Everybody goes to our Etherpad and makes a few edits.
 * 7:25 Five Pillars (the central policies of Wikipedia)
 * ACTIVITY: Put a sentence on your user page.
 * 7:30 Tour of an article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources. Cover the following topics:
 * Basic article structure: lead section, infobox, body, see also, references, external links, categories, navboxes.
 * References and sourcing (verifiability)
 * Internal links
 * Neutrality
 * 7:40 Tour of the main links in the header bar:
 * Article
 * Edit
 * View history
 * Talk
 * ACTIVITY: Add a few pages to your watch list.

Bullet list from P2PU
The first class will offer a general introduction to Wikipedia and address the following topics.


 * Why is Wikipedia interesting and worth understanding?
 * What opportunities for the OER movement are envisioned through improving Wikipedia?
 * Review basic article structure, references and sourcing (verifiability), internal links, neutrality (using a general interest Wikipedia article)
 * Examine how Wikipedia can offer something unique (using a more specialized OER article)
 * Tour the main links in each article's header bar
 * Learn how to find help on Wikipedia
 * Make your first Wikipedia edit - it's easier than you think!

Homework
w:en:Wikipedia:School of Open course/Week 1

Notes for expansion/refinement

 * some tips about early assignments here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AInstructor_Basics_How_to_Use_Wikipedia_as_a_Teaching_Tool.pdf&page=5
 * Loosely follows this format: Intro to Wikipedia

Editing session
Work through the on-wiki homework tasks; address other editing questions. Or just edit Wikipedia.