Wikipedia:Writing Wikipedia Articles course/Getting started (live course)
How it works (overview)
We have online class sessions once a week, for 2.5 hours. (Thursday evening in the Americas; Friday morning in Australia/Asia) These will start with a one hour lecture, including questions; then, after a short break, students will work on assignments. We will keep the session live, so that students can ask questions and have discussions during this time.
The page you are currently looking at is our course's "home page". Come here every time you are getting ready to do your classwork, or start a session; you should find links here to everything you need.
| Several easy ways to get back to this home page |
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Finally, you can put the shortcut on a Wikipedia page -- like your user page -- for easy reference! We'll cover this in the first class. |
Each week, visit the class page for that week, linked in the #Course calendar section above. That will tell you everything you need to know for that week: what we'll cover in the session, what the homework is, and links to informative videos and text documents. You can get to each week's class page from the "navigation box" at the very bottom of this page. Watch for updates on this page too -- we'll be adding information throughout the course to help you all keep in touch and move through your projects!
We conduct weekly classes and lab sessions using the webinar software Blackboard Collaborate (details below).
The central place to interact with us, and with other students, is the course's "talk page" (which we share with WikiProject Open). You can always get there by typing the shortcut WT:OPEN into the Wikipedia search bar; or from most of our course pages, you can click "talk" near the upper left corner of the screen.
For those who use Twitter or other social media, we use the hashtag #WIKISOO (which stands for Wikipedia/School of Open), and we mainly tweet from the account @CommOER. Students will be working in small teams, and you can decide within your team if you wish to use additional tools like Google Hangout, IRC, etc.
Tools we use for live weekly classes & labs
Each week you will find a link to connect with Blackboard Collaborate, the webinar tool we use to conduct our classes, at the top of that week's wiki page.
You'll need a Mac, Windows, or Linux-based computer; an up-to-date version of Java; headphones (or speakers) and microphone (optional, but desirable); and a reliable internet connection (wired Ethernet connection if available).
If you'd like to learn more about Blackboard Collaborate now, these may help: Blackboard Collaborate overview • Getting Started for Participants Quick Reference Guide (PDF) • Blackboard Collaborate Support Portal (with OS and Java check!)
We'll also use Etherpad during the class and lab to take collaborative notes.