Jump to content

Using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in higher education (Bookshelf)/Week 6

From Outreach Wiki

Teach students some Wikipedia basics

[edit]

I don't feel confident enough in my knowledge of this area to craft this section. --Ldavis

  • We recommend that your in-class presentation covers the following topics:
    • The community: "a look behind the scenes" (i.e. typical scenarios you will encounter; further resources on community aspects; where to get help)
    • Formal requirements for articles, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style
    • Anatomy of a Wikipedia article
    • How to add references to a Wikipedia article
    • How to upload images to Wikimedia Commons (including a basic introduction to free licences)
    • How to increase the visibility of your article by hyperlinking to it from other topic-related articles
    • Questions & Answers

Ask students to move their articles out their sandboxes into Wikipedia proper

[edit]

Students working on new articles should now be ready to move their work from their sandboxes into Wikipedia as live articles. This is a good time to work closely with Online Ambassadors, who can offer individual help to make sure articles are in good shape. Students should write a one-sentence "hook" and suggest their new articles for the "Did you know" section of Wikipedia's main page. To be eligible to appear on the main page, articles must meet the DYK requirements:

  • An article must be new, created or moved out of a sandbox within the last 5 days.
  • An article must be neutral.
  • The information for the article's hook must be in the article and supported by an inline citation.
  • The article must have at least 1500 characters of prose (about 3 paragraphs).

Students working on existing articles should add a new section to the talk page of the article to post their outline and describe their plans for improving the article.