Wikipedia/syllabi

This page shows suggestions for syllabi for university level courses on Wikipedia.

Syllabus suggestion 1: Wikis and Wikipedia - publishing, reliability and technology
This syllabus suggestion is based on a translation of the syllabus for the Swedish university level course Wikipedia - publishing, reliability and technology, adjusted for Wikiversity.

Extent: 7.5 ECTS credits (corresponding to 5 weeks of full-time studies)

Subject: Informatics

Educational level: Introductory Tertiary (university or college)

Course aim
The course aims at answering questions such as: The course aims at providing knowledge that all Wikipedia or Mediawiki users, editors and administrators should have.
 * What is a wiki?
 * How is Wikipedia edited and administrated?
 * How can students, teachers, librarians and journalists use and relate to Wikipedia?
 * What are the main criticisms of Wikipedia?
 * What research exists related to Wikipedia as phenomenon?

Learning outcomes
After the course, the course participant should be able to:
 * Create and edit wiki-type (particularly MediaWiki, including Wikipedia) articles of good quality, with references, tables, illustrations and templates.
 * Discuss what is a reasonable source critical approach to using Wikipedia as a reference
 * Outline the common criticism of Wikipedia's reliability and discuss how the reliability problems can be tackled
 * Be an administrator of Wikipedia as well as other MediaWiki servers

Contents
The student can choose between a technical project or writing a social science essay.
 * 1) INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS WIKIPEDIA?
 * 2) The history of online encyclopedias, wikis, and Wikipedia
 * 3) Wiki as part of Web 2.0 - the social and interactive web
 * 4) Relation between wikis, web content management systems (CMS), blogs, social networks, and other online encyclopedias
 * 5) Basic wiki terminology
 * 6) HOW TO EDIT AND PUBLISH ARTICLES
 * 7) How to edit an article
 * 8) Wikification: Intra-wiki links, headings, categorization and disposition
 * 9) Policies and guidelines
 * 10) Legal Aspects
 * 11) Tackling vandalism
 * 12) Common templates
 * 13) To add tables, references, photos and illustrations
 * 14) Tools for producing illustrations
 * 15) RELIABILITY AND SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
 * 16) Wikipedia statistics
 * 17) Understanding Wikipedia as phenomenon
 * 18) Criticism
 * 19) When and how can we use Wikipedia as a source, and quote Wikipedia?
 * 20) How can students, teachers, librarians and journalists use and relate to Wikipedia?
 * 21) How to measure and improve Wikipedia quality
 * 22) Wikipedia as a social community
 * 23) Censorship, decision-making and voting procedures
 * 24) Is knowledge produced at Wikipedia?
 * 25) Is Wikipedia a democratic  project?
 * 26) Wikipedia ethics
 * 27) History critical analysis of the Wikipedia policies
 * 28) Examples of social science and behavioural science research related to Wikipedia
 * 29) Other uses for a Wiki engine - by teachers, project leaders, communities, etc
 * 30) TECHNOLOGY AND ADMINISTRATION
 * 31) Orientation on the underlying web technology
 * 32) Comparison of wiki software
 * 33) To what extent can the Google ranking formula explain the success of Wikipedia - and the failure of other wikis and online encyclopedias?
 * 34) Development of parameter controlled wiki templates
 * 35) To install, configure and administrate an own Mediawiki server
 * 36) Wikipedia administrator roles and tools
 * 37) Applications, extensions and robots for wiki engines
 * 38) Current web technology trends
 * 39) Examples of ongoing development projects and IT research related to Wikipedia (semantic wikis, etc)
 * 40) PROJECT PART

Assignments and assessments
(In the Wikiversity version of the course, these are exercises)
 * Quiz 1: What is Wikipedia?
 * Quiz 2: Editing
 * Publication of articles on the course wiki as well as Wikipedia
 * Quiz 3: Reliability and social significance
 * Discussion assignments
 * Quiz 4: Technology and administration
 * Lab: Administration of a wiki engine
 * Exam (Not in the Wikiversity version of the course)
 * Project or essay assignment

Literature
Required literature:
 * Wikipedia and MediaWiki documentation (available online)

Recommended reference literature:
 * John Broughton, Wikipedia – the missing manual, 2008
 * Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates, How Wikipedia Works: And How You Can Be a Part of It, 2008

Required literature for the Swedish university version of the course, but not the Wikiversity version:
 * Research article collection
 * Lennart Guldbrandsson, Så fungerar Wikipedia, September 2008.