Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Saint Louis University/Evolutionary Biology (Fall 2015)
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- Course name
- Evolutionary Biology
- Institution
- Saint Louis University
- Instructor
- Amille75
- Subject
- Evolution
- Course dates
- 2015-08-25 – 2015-12-03
- Approximate number of student editors
- 50
The objective of this course is to investigate the basic and applied aspects of evolutionary patterns and processes.
Timeline
Week 1: Introduction to Wikipedia
- In class - Wikipedia essentials
- Overview of the course
- Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
- Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.
Handout: Editing Wikipedia
Week 2: Introduction to editing
- In class - Editing basics
- Basics of editing
- Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
- Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
- Tips on finding the best articles to work on for class assignments
- Be prepared to explain close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.
Handouts: Using Talk Pages, Evaluating Wikipedia, Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
- Assignment - Assignment 1
- Getting started: Creating your Wikipedia account
- Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
- Create a User page. Click on your newly created account name, which appears in red in the upper right hand corner of the Wikipedia page. You will then be redirected to your user page, which should have a header that reads “User:” In order to create your user page, click on the link towards the upper right hand corner where it says “Create.” After clicking on the “Create” link, you will be redirected to a page with a header that reads “Editing User:” with a large text box. In the large text box compose 2-3 sentences about yourself, indicating that you are a student, and highlight your interests and areas of Wikipedia you wish to contribute. You can say that you are a Saint Louis University student working in particular on pages about evolutionary biology. You can also tell something else about yourself to inspire others to start contributing, or mention any other areas you might contribute on in the future. This is your chance to show real people write for Wikipedia. Scroll below and click “Save Page.” At this point the link containing your account name will change in color from red to blue indicating that a linked page now exists. In general, anything written by editors with identities is more trustworthy than information in red, throughout Wikipedia.
- Create a Sandbox (Click on “Sandbox” on the upper right corner of Wikipedia). The sandbox feature of Wikipedia is a place where you can start and edit your contribution until you are ready to fully release it on Wikipedia. You will create a sandbox inside your user space. This sandbox will allow you to practice Wikipedia syntax and editing without being fully held to the standards in Wikipedia:Manual of Style. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style. You can work on your article in this space at first, but when assignments are due, they must be uploaded to fully visible Wikipedia.
- To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to another student on their user talk page.
- Milestones
All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
Week 3: Exploring topic areas I
- In class - Thinking about topics
- Explore topics related to your topic area to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized. What areas seem to be missing? As you explore, make a mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.
- Use google scholar or web of science or a similar search engine to locate at least one peer-reviewed, original research article that is relevant for one of the topic areas you are exploring . Bring the citation to class.
Handouts: Choosing an article
Week 4: Exploring Topic Areas II
- In class - Exploring the topic area
- Be prepared to discuss some of your observations about Wikipedia articles in your topic area that are missing or could use improvement.
- Review searching literature in class. How do we go about searching scientific literature?
- Review literature citation in the class.
Handouts: Choosing an article
Week 5: Exploring Topic Areas III
- Assignment - Assignment 2
- Research a topic
- Your instructor has created a list of potential topics for your main project. Choose two that you think you might be interested in working on.
- Survey related wikipedia articles to get a good sense of what has been completed on this topic
- Survey the literature to see if there are published studies that could possibly be added to wikipedia.
- Schedule an appointment with Dr. Miller to discuss topic selection
- For the topic, find 1-2 wikipedia articles that cover the topic.
- Write a 1/2 page summary of your observations about that wikipedia article.
- Think about the type of contribution that you might be able to make to that article and briefly describe it in 1/2 page or less.
- The total length of the assignment that you turn in should be 1 page or less. I encourage you to take good notes on what you find (these you DO NOT need to turn in) so that you can use these for later assignments.
Week 6: Wikipedia Culture and Etiquette
- In class - Wikipedia culture and etiquette
- Talk about Wikipedia culture and etiquette, and (optionally) revisit the concept of sandboxes and how to use them.
- Q&A session with instructor about interacting on Wikipedia and getting started with writing.
- Assignment - Assignment 3
- Practicing editing an article
- Add 1 sentence of new information, backed up with one citation each, to a Wikipedia article related to the class. If you have questions about whether or not the topic you have chosen is appropriate, contact Dr. Miller (amille75
slu.edu). - Do this in your sandbox.
- Milestones
All students have started researching topics to edit on Wikipedia.
Week 7: Discussion of topic selection
- Assignment - Assignment 4
- Topic selection and bibliography
- Select your topic.
- Complete a bibliography on selected topic. Each student should select 5 papers that they will review.
- Be prepared what you selected and why you selected that topic in class
- In class - Discuss selected topics
- Discuss the topics students will be working on, and determine strategies for researching and writing about them.
Week 8: Wikipedia check-in
Week 9: No wikipedia - Fall Break
Week 10: Images in Wikipedia
- In class - Images
- Demo uploading images and adding images to articles.
- Share experiences and discuss problems.
Resources: Illustrating Wikipedia and Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Assignment 5
- Draft your contribution
- Now that you have a topic and a few references on that topic, the next task will be to draft a few contributions to your selected article.
- Write a rough draft of your contribution (~500 words) and put that draft in mainspace.
- If you are improving an existing article, create a detailed outline reflecting your proposed changes, and post this for community feedback, along with a brief description of your plans, on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check back on the talk page often and engage with any responses.
- Begin working with classmates and other editors to polish your short starter article and fix any major issues.
- Continue research in preparation for expanding your article.
Week 11: Drafting the article
- In class - Moving articles to mainspace
- We'll discuss your edits, how they went and you felt about the process.
- We'll discuss moving your article out of your sandboxes and into Wikipedia's main space.
- A general reminder: Don't panic if your contribution disappears, and don't try to force it back in.
- Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article's talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.
- Contact your instructor or Wikipedia Content Expert and let them know.
Handout: Moving out of your Sandbox
Week 12: Editing and peer review
- In class - Group suggestions
- Discuss the peer review process
- Assignment - Assignment 6
- Review and edit classmates' articles
- Select two classmates’ article that you will peer review and copyedit. On the table at the bottom of this course page, add your username next to the article you will peer review.
- Copy-edit the two reviewed articles.
- As a group, offer suggestions for improving one or two other students' articles, based on your ideas of what makes a solid encyclopedia article.
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 13: Discussion of Wikipedia and the peer review process
- In class - Media literacy discussion
- Open discussion of the concepts of neutrality, media literacy, and the impact and limits of Wikipedia.
- discuss peer review
Week 14: No Wikipedia - Thanksgiving
Week 15: Polishing your contribution
- In class - Polishing your contribution
- Continue discussing how the articles can be further improved. Come up with improvement goals for each article for next week.
Polishing article
- Assignment - Assignment 7
- Review your article
- Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.
- Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.
- Milestones
Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.