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Wikipedia:USEP/Courses/Research Methods in Cognitive Science (Levitan)

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Course information

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  • Occidental College
  • Research Methods in Cognitive Science
  • Carmel Levitan
  • Professor's Wikipedia username: Clevwiki (talk · contribs)
  • Campus Ambassador: Wadewitz (talk · contribs)
  • Online Ambassador: Sonia (talk · contribs)
  • August 29, 2012
  • Assignment due date: over the course of the semester, last edits 11/27 and reflective essay 12/3

Course description

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The aim for this course is to provide students with the necessary foundation to think critically about research in cognitive science and to lay the groundwork for conducting original research. This will include coming up with research questions, finding scientific literature, generating and analyzing experimental data and an overview of basic statistical techniques. The course will culminate in a research proposal.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Come up with research questions and effectively communicate them
  • Describe and evaluate a broad range of methods in cognitive science and consider how they suit various research questions
  • Find appropriate background literature suitable to particular research questions
  • Understand basic principles of experimental design and how to move from a general idea to a specific research question
  • Evaluate research designs
  • Write research proposals
  • Conduct some simple statistical analyses
  • Have an intercultural perspective on research
  • Consider ethical questions and IRB issues

Wikipedia assignment

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The goal of this project is to encourage students to effectively and accurately summarize literature around a specific topic related to cognitive science. Students will select a topic, find appropriate references, and summarize the material. Students will each select their own article to edit, but will also be placed in teams of three to give peer feedback. Finally, students will write a reflective essay about the experience.

Articles

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Students will select a "start"- or "stub"-class article from one of the following WikiProjects:

Note that your choice must be approved by your Professor.

User Article 1st reviewer 2nd reviewer Improvement
User:Wadewitz Cognitive neuroscience
User:With-silver-luck Some or all of concept User:Soggycereal4 User:Font6
User:mmm.designs Persuasion User:Requiredforclass User:K-BlueHerring
User:K-BlueHerring Cross modal plasticity in the Deaf User:mmm.designs User:Requiredforclass
User:Tchar Alpha-4 beta-2 nicotinic receptor User:Sparkletts514 User:Neurosci21
User:Sparkletts514 Neuroeducation User:Neurosci21 User:Tchar
User:Requiredforclass N-back User:K-BlueHerring User:mmm.designs
User:Neurosci21 Long-term depression User:Tchar User:Sparkletts514
User:Font6 Humor research, theories and overall structure) User:With-silver-luck User:Soggycereal4
User:Soggycereal4 Animal Cognition, specifically spatial cognition User:Font6 User:With-silver-luck

Timeline

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September 10: Wikipedia essentials

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Presentation by Campus Ambassador (~45 minutes)

September 21: Basic editing

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Presentation by Campus Ambassador in the oMac Lab (~1 hour)

Create a Wikipedia account BEFORE coming to class this day.

September 24: Exploring Wikipedia

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Assignment 1 due
  • Play in the public sandbox, create a userpage on the English Wikipedia, and sign up on the list of students on the course page.

September 26: Practicing wiki skills, part 1

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Assignment 2 due
  • To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to one of the class Ambassadors and leave a message for a classmate on their talk page.

October 1: Wikipedia article

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Assignment 3 due

Due date for choosing a Wikipedia article. Choose a "start" or "stub" Wikipedia article from the WikiProjects linked on this page. Add your username and article to the table above, following the sample, after the professor has approved your choice.

October 8: Practicing wiki skills, part 2

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Assignment 4 due

Improve the clarity of the writing on a Wikipedia article and offer a suggestion for one way the two classmates in your peer review group could improve their chosen articles.

October 17: Bibliography

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Assignment 5 due
  • Research the topic of your article and create a bibliography of scholarly peer-reviewed sources that could potentially be used as sources for your article. Place this list of sources on the talk page of the article, alerting the editing community there that you plan on improving the article.

October 24: Outline

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Assignment 6 due
  • Post an outline of your planned revisions to the article to the talk page.

October 24 - November 7: Editing

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  • Add material to the the article per your outline, following the conventions of Wikipedia. Be sure to post to the talk page to alert the community to your intentions. Try to edit in small increments to avoid procrastination.

November 12: Peer review due

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Assignment 7 due
  • Due date for peer reviewing two of your classmates' articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages.

November 12 - 27: Revisions

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  • Revise your article based on the suggestions made.
  • You should use this whole period of time to make revisions instead of waiting till the last minute.
  • All work to be considered for grading should be completed by 11:59pm on November 27.

December 3: Reflective essay due

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Grading

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  • 25%: Small assignments
  • 25%: Peer review process (10% as assessed by peers, 15% as assessed by professor)
  • 25%: Wikipedia article
  • 25%: Reflective essay

Student usernames

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Student usernames should follow the ExampleUser format below.

Student resources

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For on-wiki help, please refer to this student orientation and this brief resource page.

Immediate help

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Looking for immediate help from a Wikipedia Ambassador? Click the big purple button on the right.

Enter your Wikipedia username, fill out the CAPTCHA, and click "Connect" to enter chat. Then explain what you need help with.

If no one replies within about 3-5 minutes, try this help channel instead.

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