Wikipedia

User:AmyRuffusDoerr/Applied Learning Sciences

< User:AmyRuffusDoerr
Course name
Applied Learning Sciences
Institution
Webster University
Instructor
Amy Ruffus-Doerr PhD
Subject
Psychology
Course dates
2015-04-14 – 2015-05-04
Approximate number of student editors
10



Course description

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Psychology 3325 is an upper-level Psychology course aimed at undergraduates who have an understanding of basic psychological principles. Through an integration of lectures, discussions, and interactive demonstrations, this course will focus on fundamental phenomena and basic literature in learning and memory within the context of both animal and human research. Focuses on fundamental phenomena and basic literature in cognition; compares human language abilities with the learning capacities of various animal species; integrates important theories and research methods with major topics including pattern recognition, perception and information processing, attention, short-and long-term memory, discrimination, concept learning, creativity, and decision making.

Course objectives

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By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. identify the processes that mediate knowledge acquisition, storage, and retrieval.
  2. evaluate the basic philosophical and conceptual approaches underlying learning & memory
  3. discuss the manners in which classical and instrumental conditioning contribute to learning, manipulate behavior, and allow us to adapt to our environments
  4. describe the basic elements involved in forming memories and storing them for later retrieval
  5. explain various nature- and nurture-based factors that lead to the highly complex (and sometimes distorted) mental representations.

Learning outcomes

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To assess the above objectives, students will demonstrate their competence and understanding of the course objectives through the following:

  1. Students will be able to explain habituation, sensitization, and other forms of stimulus learning.
  2. Students will understand and be able to recognize mechanisms operating in everyday examples of classical as well as instrumental conditioning.
  3. Students will become familiar with the contribution that verbal learning made on our understanding of information processing.
  4. Students will know the conceptual approaches of memory including the components, stages, and processing approaches to human memory.
  5. Students will be able to identify the differences of short-term and long-term retention; and will be able to differentiate the types of learning ideal for short- and long-term retention.
  6. Students will understand the roles encoding, storage, and retrieval have on information acquisition.
  7. Students will be able to differentiate explicit and implicit learning.
  8. Students will become familiar with some individual differences in learning and memory.
  9. Students will become more proficient in reading and reacting to original learning and memory research.
  10. Students will better develop critical thinking as well as group interaction skills by researching and presenting a theoretical conflict within the field of cognitive science.

Assignment: Contributing to improve a Wikipedia Article

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In this assignment, each student will update one "stub," or incomplete article in Wikipedia, to improve an encyclopedic article. The article must be on a topic that is addressed in class, in your textbook or in any of the class readings. Please only choose articles that need to be improved or have citation issues. This means that you will have to spend a bit of time researching on Wikipedia and finding a topic that interests you and that needs improvement. Your improvement to the article must be at least 500 words and include 4 references. You will have to create a Wikipedia account to complete this assignment Steps

  1. Create Wikipedia account
  2. Read ALL of the Wikipedia primer documents on Blackboard. The documents are “Choosing an article”, “Editing Wikipedia Articles”, “Citing sources on Wikipedia” and a general overview of editing Wikipedia articles.
  3. Research and find an article that needs improvement
  4. Research using psych info and find relevant resources to write your section of improvement
  5. Write your improvement to the Wikipedia article
  6. Have it reviewed by at least two people (anyone from your friend, to a professor, to the writing center)
  7. Bring a “completed” article improvement to class to be reviewed by a peer
  8. Only after approval from me PUBLISH improvements to Wikipedia!

Reminders

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Timeline

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Week 1 (2015-04-13): Wikipedia essentials, Editing basics, Exploring the topic area

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Course meetings
Monday, 13 April 2015
In class
  • 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 (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation)
  • 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
  • Handouts: Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure
  • Be prepared to discuss some of your observations about Wikipedia articles your topic area that are missing or could use improvement.
  • Handouts: Choosing an article


Assignment (due Week 2)
  • 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, and then click 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 mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.
  • Review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. 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.
  • Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.
    • A few questions to consider (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 overrepresented, or underrepresented?
      • Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
      • Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?


Milestones
  • All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 2 (2015-04-20): Using sources and choosing articles

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Course meetings
Monday, 20 April 2015
In class


Assignment (due Week 3)
  • Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.
  • Research and list 3–5 articles on your Wikipedia user page that you will consider working on as your main project. Look at the talk page for existing topics for a sense of who else is working on it and what they're doing. Describe your choices to your instructor for feedback.
For next week
  • Instructor evaluates student's article selections, by next week.

Week 3 (2015-04-27): Finalizing topics and starting research, Drafting starter articles

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Course meetings
Monday, 27 April 2015
In class
  • Discuss the topics students will be working on, and determine strategies for researching and writing about them.
  • 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 (due Week 4)
  • Select an article to work on, removing the rest from your user page. Add your article to the class’s course page.
  • By the start of our next class, find an article you want to work on and mark the article's talk page with a banner to let other editors know you're working on it. To add the banner, add this code in the top section of the talk page:
{{course assignment | course = User:AmyRuffusDoerr/Applied Learning Sciences | term = Spring 2015 }}
  • Add a link to your selected article to the table at the bottom of this course page.
  • Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. 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 starting a new article, write an outline of the topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia lead section of 3–4 paragraphs in your sandbox. 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, 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 4 (2015-05-04): Moving articles to the main space

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Course meetings
Monday, 4 May 2015
In class
  • We'll discuss moving your article out of your sandboxes and into Wikipedia's main space.
  • Handout: Moving out of your sandbox
  • 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.


Assignment (due Week 5)
  • Move your sandbox articles into main space.
    • 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. Follow these instructions on how to move your work.


  • Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.

Week 5 (2015-05-11): Building articles, Creating first draft, Getting and giving feedback

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Course meetings
Monday, 11 May 2015
In class
  • As a group, offer suggestions for improving one or two other students' articles, based on your ideas of what makes a solid encyclopedia article.


Assignment (due Week 6)
  • Select a classmate's article that you will peer review and copyedit. On the table at the bottom of this course page, write your username next to the article you plan to review. (You don’t need to start reviewing yet.)
  • Expand your article into an initial draft of a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
  • Peer review your classmate's article. Leave suggestions on the article talk page.
  • Copy-edit the reviewed article.
Milestones
  • Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 6 (2015-05-18): Due date

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Course meetings
Monday, 18 May 2015
Milestones
  • Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.

Grading

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  0%  
   Early Wikipedia exercises
  10%  
   Quality of bibliography and outline
  20%  
   Peer reviews and collaboration with classmates
  70%  
   Quality of your main Wikipedia contributions
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