Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Pacific Lutheran/Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (Spring 2017)
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- Course name
- Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy
- Institution
- Pacific Lutheran
- Instructor
- Heidi Schutz
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Biology
- Course dates
- 2017-02-08 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-06-02 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 30
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Wednesday, 8 February 2017 | Friday, 10 February 2017
- In class - Wed Feb 8th
- Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for our course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online training events to help you get started on Wikipedia.
This course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
Individual assignment, due Friday Feb 10th before class.
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 13 February 2017 | Tuesday, 14 February 2017 | Wednesday, 15 February 2017 | Friday, 17 February 2017
- Assignment - Critique an article
Individual assignment, due Friday 2/17 before lecture. We will have an in class discussion on Friday.
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.
- Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- Sign up to review one of following Wikipedia articles via the google spreadsheet I posted here
- No more than 3 individuals can choose the same article, so make sure you sign up early to get the best choice.
- Comparative anatomy
- Vertebra
- Deuterostome
- Craniate
- Notochord
- Cephalochordate
- Intervertebral Disc
- Gnathostomata
- Endostyle
- Cyclostomata
- While you read, consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are over-represented, or under-represented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
- Is any information:
- out of date?
- missing that could be added?
- Create a section in your sandbox, where you leave your comments and review. You will use these notes for our class discussion on Wednesday.
- In class - Friday In-Class Discussion
- What is a content gap?
Check out the spreadsheet where you signed up and find your group members and sit with them on Friday. Now that you're thinking about what makes a "good" Wikipedia article, let's consider some additional questions.
- Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
- What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
- Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
- What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
- As a group, choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating (you may choose more than one, but this is the minimum). Designate which team member will leave the group's evaluation on the article's Talk page on the sign up spreadsheet and during your class discussion be sure draft your question on that team member's sandbox. Before the end of class on Friday, leave the group's evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Osquaesitor (talk) 01:04, 6 February 2018 (UTC).
Be sure to review: Editing Wikipedia pages 9 and 17
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 20 February 2017 | Tuesday, 21 February 2017 | Wednesday, 22 February 2017 | Friday, 24 February 2017
- Assignment - Add to an article
Individual assignment, due Friday Feb 24.
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article. There are a few ways you can do this:
- Take a look at the Category: Animal Anatomy stub article list or choose from the original list of articles you reviewed with your team last week.
- Pick one relating to non-human vertebrates and read it.
- Assign yourself the article (see this explanation of how)
- This is REALLY important. Please check the Students listing to see who has assigned themselves what since you DO NOT want to have duplicate edits (more than one student may edit an article, but WHAT they edit must be different)
- To help get yourself familiar with editing, make a small change to improve the article by doing one of the following:
- Copyedit the article.
- Add a new citation.
- Add 1-2 sentences and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
- This is an individual assignment so all students must complete it. I have also added links to some of the more relevant training elements that you will be using below.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 27 February 2017 | Tuesday, 28 February 2017 | Wednesday, 1 March 2017 | Friday, 3 March 2017
- Assignment - Assignment to group dissections
- Your dissection group will work together for the rest of the semester on the Wikipedia assignment in tandem with the dissection of your organism.
- Below is a list of the available organisms for you to dissect and the main Wikipedia pages for those organisms. You will not necessarily be editing these pages, but will use them to propose pages for editing.
- Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
- Create a section in your sandbox, where you:
- Choose three of the 10 organisms listed
- Provide a one sentence reason as to why you chose it
- List three related topics/pages with the associated urls that you may wish to edit. You can list the naked urls or practice creating links.
- I will use this information to assign you to your dissection groups.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 6 March 2017 | Tuesday, 7 March 2017 | Wednesday, 8 March 2017 | Friday, 10 March 2017
- Assignment - Find your sources
Group assignment, due Friday March 10.
- Step 1:
- In the sandbox of a selected team member, you will collectively outline your draft game plan of contributions to the selected article(s) that relate to the project organism you were assigned.
- You can draft separate sections as individuals and they can then all be compiled together in your selected team member's sandbox. Most important is that you generate a gameplan of topics and articles that you will work on as both a team and individuals.
- Think back to when you did an article critique.
- What can you add?
- Post some of your ideas to the article's talk page (after you have worked things out as a group).
- Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. Post that bibliography to the selected team member's sandbox.
- Then post relevant portions to the the talk page(s) of the article(s) you'll be working on. Make sure to check in on them to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography. Essentially this is making your plans public to get feedback.
- In the sandbox of a selected team member, you will collectively outline your draft game plan of contributions to the selected article(s) that relate to the project organism you were assigned.
- Assignment - Best practices for working in groups
Group assignment, due Friday March 10.
- Step 2:
- Each student in your group should head to the Students tab and assign yourself your assigned article topic (this can be more than one). Make sure you spell it correctly. You can view all the topics listed on the Articles tab although you may (and are encouraged to) propose other pages to edit.
- Those listed pages must have a linked page url so that I can look at it and give you feedback and suggestions.
- Each student in your group should head to the Students tab and assign yourself your assigned article topic (this can be more than one). Make sure you spell it correctly. You can view all the topics listed on the Articles tab although you may (and are encouraged to) propose other pages to edit.
- Make sure everyone in the group is assigned to the same Wikipedia article or set of relevant and related articles on the Students tab of this course page.
- Remember to Select one group member whose Sandbox space you'll all share to draft your article. Each person should link to that shared Sandbox from their own Sandbox page. A sandbox is like any other page on Wikipedia, and anyone can edit it.
- Wikipedia doesn't allow multiple people to edit from different devices at the same time. If you're working together in person, one person should add the work to the Sandbox. If you are all working independently, make small edits and save often to avoid "editing conflicts" with classmates. Make sure that you're logged in under your own Wikipedia account while editing in your classmate's sandbox to ensure your edits are recorded.
- Don't create a group account for your project. Group accounts are prohibited.
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about sources and plagiarism
- Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
- What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
- What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
- What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts due next week.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 13 March 2017 | Tuesday, 14 March 2017 | Wednesday, 15 March 2017 | Friday, 17 March 2017
- Assignment - Draft 1 of your article
Assignment, due Friday, March 17.
You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to start writing.
REMEMBER: Make sure that you do your due diligence by searching Wikipedia itself first. you do not want to start generating content or pages that have already been started elsewhere.
General Advice:
- Go back to your drafted PLAN of ACTION that you put together in your group representative's sandbox. I'll be using that to monitor your progress as you create content.
- Remember to start in your own sandbox and then put the materials together in your shared sandbox space. From there, you will help each other make your content ready for prime time (eventually posted on the real pages).
- By now, sandboxes will be getting quite full of content. Time to start organizing them. Some of you have already started to do that (wonderful!). For the rest of you, here is an example sandbox from one of your colleagues.
- Keep compiling and reading your sources, too, as you prepare to write / edit the body of the article and make sure you are using the appropriate Wikipediacitation format.
- Be sure to consider the feedback that you were provided and any answers to the questions you posted in the talk pages.
- As a reminder, here are the talk page guidelines.
For improving an existing article:
- Identify what's missing from the current form of the article or articles you chose. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in your group or individual sandbox.
Creating a new article
- This step may apply to some of you. Ask yourself: Does this new page REALLY need to be created or can it be a sub-topic of another page?
Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9
Draft a new Article
- In class - Discussion
- Thinking about Wikipedia
- What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
- What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
- On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
- If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?
- Teams should be prepared for a short editathon on Friday. You are acquiring skills that are helpful to your peers, we will help each other make our pages great.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 20 March 2017 | Tuesday, 21 March 2017 | Wednesday, 22 March 2017 | Friday, 24 March 2017
- Assignment - Peer review and copy edit
Individual assignment, due Friday, March 24th.
- First, take or review the "Peer Review" online training.
- From the list below, select two group sandboxes that you will peer review and copyedit.
- Then using the sandbox URLs (which are linked below) assign them to yourself in the Review column.
- Group Sandboxes and the name of the person that own's the sandbox:
- Peer review your classmates' drafts. Leave suggestions on on the Talk page of their sandbox, that your fellow groups are working on. Other editors may be reviewing your work, so look for their comments! Be sure to acknowledge feedback from other Wikipedians.
- The Wikipedia article review training is specifically geared towards the review of an article. Remember that what you are reviewing are primarily drafts of content that will be added to articles. Therefore, you will adjust your peer review to focus on the following elements:
- Neutral content
- Reliable sources
- Clear structure: do you see where this content might fit from the information provided?
- Integration: Does anything link up with something you or your team is working on? How can you help each other?
- The Wikipedia article review training is specifically geared towards the review of an article. Remember that what you are reviewing are primarily drafts of content that will be added to articles. Therefore, you will adjust your peer review to focus on the following elements:
- As you review, copy edit the material and make spelling, grammar, and other adjustments.
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 27 March 2017 | Tuesday, 28 March 2017 | Wednesday, 29 March 2017 | Friday, 31 March 2017
- Spring Break
Get started on those Peer Review responses
Study for your midterm!
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 3 April 2017 | Tuesday, 4 April 2017 | Wednesday, 5 April 2017 | Friday, 7 April 2017
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
Group assignment, due Friday, April 7.
UPDATED.
You probably have some feedback from your instructor, other students and possibly other Wikipedians. It's time to work with that feedback to improve your article!
- Read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.
- Return to your draft or article and think about the suggestions.
- Decide which ones to start implementing and note how you will do it.
- Start making changes to build towards Draft #2, but focus more on plans for change on your own sections rather than execution.
- If you see ways to assist your team members, provide some comments
- Reach out to your Content Expert if you have any questions.
- HOW I WANT YOU TO POST YOUR RESPONSES:
- Create a section in your sandbox for Feedback responses.
- Each team member and as a group can help formulate a plan for revision and progress based on my feedback and your peer reviews.
- Be thorough. Even if you do not plan on following some of the advice given, say why.
- Each team member and as a group can help formulate a plan for revision and progress based on my feedback and your peer reviews.
- Create a section in your sandbox for Feedback responses.
- In class - Midterm
- Friday April 5th.
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 10 April 2017 | Tuesday, 11 April 2017 | Wednesday, 12 April 2017 | Friday, 14 April 2017
- Assignment - Expand your draft (Draft #2)
Assignment, due Friday, April 14th.
- Keep working on transforming your article into a complete draft in your group sandbox.
- Format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards.
- Start thinking about the visual content that you want to add and make sure you review the relevant training.
- If you'd like a Content Expert to review your draft, now is the time! Click the "Get Help" button in your sandbox to request notes.
- Be sure to help your team members.
- Remember, you start going live next week!
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 17 April 2017 | Tuesday, 18 April 2017 | Wednesday, 19 April 2017 | Friday, 21 April 2017
- Assignment - Tuesday's lab
- Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Group assignment. Will have time in lab to work on this together a bit.
Once you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback and your second edit, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the "mainspace."
Editing an existing article?
- NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
- Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
Creating a new article?
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
- You can also review the [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]] online training.
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 24 April 2017 | Tuesday, 25 April 2017 | Wednesday, 26 April 2017 | Friday, 28 April 2017
- Assignment - Continue improving your article.
Group assignment, due Wednesday April 26th.
You should now be working live. Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Content Expert at any time if you need further help!
This is also a good week to spend on your possible illustrations in your dashboard
Week 13
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 1 May 2017 | Tuesday, 2 May 2017 | Wednesday, 3 May 2017 | Friday, 5 May 2017
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Group assignment, due Wednesday May 3rd.
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
- Assignment - Illustrate your article
Group assignment, due Friday, May 5th.
You'll want to find or create an appropriate photo, illustration, or piece of video/audio to add to an article.
- Before you start, review the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook, or see Editing Wikipedia pages 10–11.
- When you've reviewed those pages, take the training linked below.
- Look up your vertebrate or relevant structure at search.creativecommons.org - what do you find?
- You'll want to find images with clear proof that the creator has given permission to use their work. All images on Commons should meet this requirement.
- If you want to create your own image, that's fine too! Don't just upload your image to Wikipedia though. Instead, upload it to Wikipedia's sister site for images, Wikimedia Commons. For instructions, read through the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook.
- Try to add at least one relevant image into your article.
- If you have photographed specimens from our museum collections, please be sure to add this to your figure caption: Specimen from the Pacific Lutheran University Natural History collection.
- Final reminders:
- Have you proofread your caption?
- Is the image your own?
- Can a reader easily understand what they are looking at?
- Does the image supplement and improve the article?
Week 14
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 8 May 2017 | Tuesday, 9 May 2017 | Wednesday, 10 May 2017 | Friday, 12 May 2017
- Assignment - Final article
Group assignment, due Friday, May 12th.
It's the final week to develop your article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment (most if not all of these items are relevant for articles that you created or that you have added to.
- A few additions to this list:
- Make sure that you have assigned yourself the article that you have contributed the MOST content to. If in doubt, or if your content is evenly split across articles, assign yourself more than one article.
- Be collegial! Help your team members with their content! Remember, you are generating content as a team, so make sure that you help each other.
- Make sure that you have not duplicated content across articles! Do not cut and paste the same content into more than one article! The majority of the time, the main content resides in one article and is linked to in others. You may need to summarize the main points, but do not repeat large chunks of content.
- A few additions to this list:
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Content Expert at any time!
- Your final product will be graded in accordance with the following items:
- Do you meet the criteria listed above and on the checklist with regard to the content and organization of your written contributions?
- You submitted images last week:
- Have you proofread your caption/legend?
- Is the image your own?
- Can a reader easily understand what they are looking at?
- Do the legend and labeling make sense?
- Does the image supplement and improve the article?
- Is there a good relationship between the content and the image?
- Did you make edits and improvements based on the comments provided?
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.
Week 15
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 15 May 2017 | Tuesday, 16 May 2017 | Wednesday, 17 May 2017 | Friday, 19 May 2017
- Assignment - Reflective essay
Individual assignment, due Friday, May 19th.
To be uploaded to Sakai Assignments by the due date and time
Write a reflective essay (2–5 pages, double-spaced) on your Wikipedia contributions.
Consider the following questions as you reflect on your Wikipedia assignment:
- Critiquing articles: What did you learn about Wikipedia during the article evaluation? How did you approach critiquing the article you selected for this assignment? How did you decide what to add to your chosen article?
- Summarizing your contributions: include a summary of your edits and why you felt they were a valuable addition to the article. How does your article compare to earlier versions?
- Peer Review: If your class did peer review, include information about the peer review process. What did you contribute in your review of your peers article? What did your peers recommend you change on your article?
- Feedback: Did you receive feedback from other Wikipedia editors, and if so, how did you respond to and handle that feedback?
- Group work: reflect on your group and each members contributions.
- Wikipedia generally: What did you learn from contributing to Wikipedia? How does a Wikipedia assignment compare to other assignments you've done in the past? How can Wikipedia be used to improve public understanding of our field/your topic? Why is this important?