Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Marquette University/Neurobiology (Spring 2017)
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- Course name
- Neurobiology
- Institution
- Marquette University
- Instructor
- Michelle Mynlieff
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Neurobiology
- Course dates
- 2017-01-17 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-05-05 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 75
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
-
- Wednesday, 18 January 2017 | Friday, 20 January 2017
- 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
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, 23 January 2017 | Wednesday, 25 January 2017 | Friday, 27 January 2017
- 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 January 27)
- 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.
- Milestones
By midnight on January 27, all students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 30 January 2017 | Wednesday, 1 February 2017 | Friday, 3 February 2017
- 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.
- Milestones
By midnight on February 3rd, all students will have a personal user page with a short paragraph of text including links and at least one image.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 6 February 2017 | Wednesday, 8 February 2017 | Friday, 10 February 2017
- 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.
- Milestones
By February 10, all students will be in groups.
- Assignment - Topic Proposals
- Research topics with your group.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 13 February 2017 | Wednesday, 15 February 2017 | Friday, 17 February 2017
- 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 - Three topics proposed
By 5PM on Monday, February 13, your group should submit 3 potential topics for articles.
- Milestones
All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.
- Assignment - Topics finalized
By Friday February 17, topics should be finalized so you can get your proposal together for Monday.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 20 February 2017 | Wednesday, 22 February 2017 | Friday, 24 February 2017
- Assignment - Final article 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 and should be posted by February 20 at 5PM. This ouline should include at least 3 secondary references you intend to use in the final product with links so I can find the articles.
- Write up a formal workplan agreed upon and signed by all team members to be brought to your meeting with the professor.
- Add your article to the class’s course page.
- 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).
- Assignment - Meet with the Professor
Your group should have a meeting with the professor to discuss your topic and workplan.
- Assignment - Continue working on topic
- Once you have finalized your topic and put a proposed outline with 3 sources on a user's subpage (by 5PM on 2/20/17), you should start working on your topic in earnest.
- 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.
- 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 the 3 secondary sources for your topic that you submitted with your outline proposal. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
- 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.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 27 February 2017 | Wednesday, 1 March 2017 | Friday, 3 March 2017
- 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, 6 March 2017 | Wednesday, 8 March 2017 | Friday, 10 March 2017
- 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, 20 March 2017 | Wednesday, 22 March 2017 | Friday, 24 March 2017
- Assignment - Wikipedia Meetings
Final Wikipedia meeting with the Professor before loading into sandbox or userpage for review by Wikipedia medical editor.
- Assignment - Article in sandbox or user page
By Monday March 27 at 5PM, make sure your article in someone's sandbox or a userpage subpage so that it can be seen by the professor and Wikipedia editor.
- 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 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 27 March 2017 | Wednesday, 29 March 2017 | Friday, 31 March 2017
- In class - Reviews
- Review assignments will be distributed.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 3 April 2017 | Wednesday, 5 April 2017 | Friday, 7 April 2017
- 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 March 31, 2017).
- 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, 10 April 2017 | Wednesday, 12 April 2017
- 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.
- Assignment - Reviews due
All reviews are due by Wednesday, April 12 by midnight.
Week 13
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 19 April 2017 | Friday, 21 April 2017
- Assignment - Respond to reviewers and improve articles
- Continue improving articles.
Week 14
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 24 April 2017 | Wednesday, 26 April 2017 | Friday, 28 April 2017
- 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.
- What is up by midnight on April 26 will be the final article and review responses that are graded.