Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Marquette University/Neurobiology (Spring 2016)
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- Course name
- Neurobiology
- Institution
- Marquette University
- Instructor
- Michelle Mynlieff
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Neurobiology
- Course dates
- 2016-01-19 – 2016-05-13
- Approximate number of student editors
- 68
Neurobiology (BIOL3501) is a 3-credit lecture course at Marquette University designed to provide an introduction to the study of the nervous system. The course will consider the structure and function of the nervous system from the molecular and cellular levels to the systems level. The course will cover basic signaling mechanisms, sensory systems, and motor systems. The overall goal of the course is to provide students with an appreciation of the current state of knowledge in neurobiology and an adequate background for further study in the field. As part of the course students will participate in a Wikipedia assignment to improve and expand a neuroscience stub.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Wednesday, 20 January 2016 | Friday, 22 January 2016
- Wikipedia Assignment
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. Our course is part of the Wikipedia Education Program consisting of professors using Wikipedia in their classrooms. The Society for Neuroscience has set a priority to expand and enhance neuroscience content on Wikipedia. The organization has identified a list of neuroscience stubs that are in need of improvement and expansion. For this assignment, groups of 3-4 students will work together on a single neuroscience stub with the goal to bring it up to the quality of a "Wikipedia Good Article". Appropriate topics can also be found in the biophysics stubs, cell biology stubs, nervous system disease stubs, and neurology stubs.
The learning objectives of this assignment are:
- Increase scientific writing skills
- Improve critical thinking and research skills
- Foster the ability to work in a collaborative environment
- Gain in depth knowledge in a small area of neuroscience
There are many resources to get your started on Wikipedia:
Welcome to Wikipedia
Wikipedia Five Pillars, which explains the basic rules.
Wikipedia Training for Students
Create a username prior to beginning the assignment in order to receive any credit for the work that you do. The username does not need to be your real name if you prefer not to have it public but I will ask you to provide it to me for class. When creating an account], be sure to include an email address. This will not be visible to other users. It will be used in case you need to retrieve your password. It will also be possible for others to email you without knowing your email address and is necessary to receive notifications from Wikipedia. When working on any portion of the class, you must log into your account to receive credit. If you do any page editing or contributions to talk pages without logging in, I will not be to see it. You should also sign any contributions to talk pages.
Please use your sandbox or a private user subpage to work on edits before making them live.
****Do not create another mainspace Wikipedia page separate from your user account to practice editing or to claim a topic.****
Article selection
There is an entire listing of neuroscience stubs, biophysics stubs, and disease stubs that you can look through. Your topic should be classified as stub, start or C-class on Wikipedia. If you are using a C class article, your task will consist of extensive editing rather than necessarily starting from scratch.
Once you have identified a topic, do a literature search to ensure that you can find sufficient secondary sources for the topic. The topic must be submitted to the professor for approval.
Reviews
As part of the assignment each student must act as a primary reviewer on one article and a secondary reviewer on two articles. The specific instructions for the reviews can be found at user:MMBiology/Review instructions.
Grades
The assignment will be graded on a 100 point scale according to the provided rubric.
Important points to remember
Please remember that this is a “public” assignment where you are representing Marquette University. It is imperative that you follow the Wikipedia policies and guidelines.
- In class - Wikipedia Essentials
Discussion
- Overview of the course
- Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
- Wikipedia is a community: a brief overview of its rules, expectations, and etiquette
- 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
- Handouts: Editing Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation) Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure
- Assignment - Wikipedia Essentials
Go through the training module on Wikipedia essentials.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 25 January 2016 | Wednesday, 27 January 2016 | Friday, 29 January 2016
- In class - Wikipedia Essentials continued
Discussion
- Overview of the course
- Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
- Wikipedia is a community: a brief overview of its rules, expectations, and etiquette
- 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
- Handouts: Editing Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation) Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure
- Assignment - Acquainting yourself with Wikipedia editing
Assignment (due February 1)
- Create an account and then complete the online training for students and editing basics. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
- Enroll in the course by clicking the "enroll" button on the top left of this course page.
- To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself on the user talk page of one of your classmates, who should also be enrolled in the table at the bottom of the page.
- 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 note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.
- Use the "choosing an article" handout for guidance.
- Bring three potential article topics to discussion the week of February 1, 2016.
- Milestones
All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 1 February 2016 | Wednesday, 3 February 2016 | Friday, 5 February 2016
- In class - Learning about sources and research
Discussion
- Presentation on Pubmed and the difference between primary and secondary literature.
- Handouts: Choosing an article and How to get help
- Assignment - Personal Wikipedia page
- Write a paragraph on your user page including links and an image.
- Read through this brochure on evaluating Wikipedia articles,
especially pages 4-7. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your own.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 8 February 2016 | Wednesday, 10 February 2016 | Friday, 12 February 2016
- In class - Group asssignments and choosing articles
Discussion
- Groups will be formed.
- Share contact information with your team.
- Handouts: Citing sources on Wikipedia and Avoiding plagiarism on Wikipedia.
- Be prepared to explain close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.
- Assignment - Topic Proposals
- Research topics with your group.
- Submit 3 possible topics to the professor by February 15.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 15 February 2016 | Wednesday, 17 February 2016 | Friday, 19 February 2016
- In class - Finalizing topics and begin research
Discussion
- Finalize your topics with your teammates and plan how you will approach the assignment.
- Draw up a formal group plan as to how tasks will be shared.
- Each member should sign the plan to indicate agreement.
- Assignment - Final topic
- Add your article to the class’s course page.
- Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. You should have at least 3 secondary sources for your topic. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
- If you are working on a stub or start article, write an outline of the topic in your sandbox.
- If your topic is medical in nature, check out WP:MEDSECTIONS for ideas on the organization.
- You should have the subheadings that you believe you will use in the article and begin to work on you lead section using the Wikipedia guide (standard Wikipedia lead section).
- Wikipedia articles use "summary style", in which the lead section provides a balanced summary of the entire body of the article, with the first sentence serving to define the topic and place it in context. The lead section should summarize, very briefly, each of the main aspects of the topic that will be covered in detail in the rest of the article. If you are improving an existing article with a fair amount of information present, draft a new lead section reflecting your proposed changes, and post this along with a brief description of your plans on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check that page often to gather any feedback the community might provide.
- Begin working with classmates and other editors to polish your lead section and fix any major issues.
- Continue research in preparation for writing the body of the article.
- Milestones
All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 22 February 2016 | Wednesday, 24 February 2016 | Friday, 26 February 2016
- Assignment - Wikipedia proposal
- One page posted on a subpage of the userpage of one team member (let me
- know who). The outline should consist of the general organization of your proposed article with subheadings.
- List at least 3 references you intend to use in the final product.
- Submit a formal workplan agreed upon and signed by all team members.
- Assignment - Meet with Dr. Mynlieff
Your group should have a meeting with the professor to discuss your topic and workplan.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 29 February 2016 | Wednesday, 2 March 2016 | Friday, 4 March 2016
- Assignment - Assignment continued
Continue to work on article with your team expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 7 March 2016 | Wednesday, 9 March 2016 | Friday, 11 March 2016
- Assignment - Assignment continued
Continue to work on article with your team expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 14 March 2016 | Wednesday, 16 March 2016
- Assignment - Wikipedia Meetings
Final Wikipedia meeting before loading into sandbox or userpage for review by Wikipedia medical editor.
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 30 March 2016 | Friday, 1 April 2016
- In class - Reviews
- Review assignments will be distributed.
- Assignment - Articles checked for plagiarism and on Wikipedia sandbox or userpage
- Move your article into a sandbox by March 30th at the latest for review.
- Post on the talk page of the course Wikipedia page where your article is located on Wikipedia so that our Wikipedia Editors can find them easily.
- Upload your article into the Dropbox on D2L to check for plagiarism. The document should be in .doc, .docx or .pdf format.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 4 April 2016 | Wednesday, 6 April 2016 | Friday, 8 April 2016
- Assignment - Move Article to mainspace
- Make any necessary changes to your article as suggested by the Wikipedia reviewers or to fix any plagiarism issues.
- Move article in the mainspace as soon as cleared by Wikipedia editor (target April 4, 2016).
- If you are expanding an existing article, copy
your edit into the article. If you are making many small edits, save
after each edit before you make the next one. Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article. - If you are creating a new article, do NOT copy and paste your text, or there will be no record of your work history. Go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Classroom_handout_-_moving_out_of_your_sandbox.pdf for instructions on how to move out of your sandbox.
- If you are expanding an existing article, copy
- Begin your primary and secondary reviews.
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 11 April 2016 | Wednesday, 13 April 2016 | Friday, 15 April 2016
- Assignment - Reviews and editing
- Continue to do your reviews.
- 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.
Week 13
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 18 April 2016 | Wednesday, 20 April 2016 | Friday, 22 April 2016
- Assignment - Reviews continued
- Continue improving articles.
- All reviews must be complete by April 18, 2016.
Week 14
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 25 April 2016 | Wednesday, 27 April 2016 | Friday, 29 April 2016
- Assignment - Response to reviewers and final edit
- 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.
- Post a response to each review on your talk page.
- Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.
- Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. You can find a handy reference guide here.
- Please turn in your group contribution sheet by May 4, 2016.