# 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:
* 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?
The course aims at providing knowledge that all Wikipedia or Mediawiki users, editors and administrators should have.

### 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

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

### 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.