For the Spring 2020 term we’ve added a major set of features to the “My Articles” section of students’ course pages. The centerpiece of this update is the Progress Tracker which students can use at each stage of the Wikipedia article-writing process. The Progress Tracker will allow students to see what they should be doing, where they should be doing it, and which training modules and resources are relevant.
When a student chooses an article, the Progress Tracker will appear for that article with a number of useful links. Students can then quickly access a sandbox link for them to craft a bibliography, another sandbox link for them to draft their article, and training modules relevant to each stage of the process. It also links to the sandbox pages where classmates will add their peer reviews.
A corresponding new training module walks students through using “My Articles” to keep track of their work. Check it out to see what the student interface looks like.
In addition to highlighting the next steps at any point in the assignment, this new set of features lays the groundwork for a better grading experience for instructors. Having a separate, specific sandbox for each stage of the assignment — compiling sources, drafting, and peer reviewing — will make it easier to review the contributions for that particular stage. Throughout the Spring 2020 term, we’ll be building out features for instructors to efficiently see which stage students are on for each assigned article and what they did for that stage.
