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Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Pacific Lutheran University/Comparative Anatomy (Spring 2022)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Azyla.m (talk | contribs) at 17:36, 11 March 2022 (Updating course from dashboard.wikiedu.org). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Course name
Comparative Anatomy
Institution
Pacific Lutheran University
Instructor
Heidi Schutz
Wikipedia Expert
Ian (Wiki Ed)
Subject
Comparative Anatomy
Course dates
2022-02-07 00:00:00 UTC – 2022-05-20 23:59:59 UTC
Approximate number of student editors
26


We cover the anatomy and evolutionary history of vertebrate animals. Students will be contributing both written and visual content to existing Wikipedia pages that are relevant to the study of vertebrate anatomy.

Student Assigned Reviewing
CJManalo25 Hagfish, Spiny dogfish
JustinDelC Cat anatomy, Chicken
Everyday I'm Buffering
Carruxton Cyclostomi, Moulting, Snake skin
Bitran0205 Cat anatomy
BenChance Gnathostomata
Icedburg824 Mammal, Spiny dogfish
White367 Libbie Hyman
Bokhan Mammal, Cranial kinesis, Snake skeleton
Mako021 Spiny dogfish
RNAsilencing Spiny dogfish
Azyla.m Comparative anatomy, Rat-bite fever, Laboratory rat, Muridae, Rodent
Ramen Scientist Lamprey
My Unique Deoxyribonucleic Acid Cat anatomy, Amia (fish)
Sunsetblvd13 Julia Pastrana, Perch, Osteichthyes
DuneBuggy123 Cephalochordate, Bat flight
On The Nile Julia Pastrana, Moulting Julia Pastrana
Jazzmk2000 Lamprey
Elephantidae123 Julia Pastrana, Perch
Scientist06 Bat flight
LepidopteraMonarch Comparative Anatomy
CherishScheidhauer

Timeline

Week 1

Course meetings
Wednesday, 9 February 2022   |   Friday, 11 February 2022
In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia project

Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with me to see if there are other pages you should be following as well. 


This page breaks down contributing to a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia. 


 Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page. 

Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia (2.5pts)

Individual Assignment Due Friday, Feb. 11

  • Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link I sent you (and is posted on Sakai). (To avoid hitting Wikipedia's account creation limits, this is best done outside of class. Only 6 new accounts may be created per day from the same IP address.) 
  •  It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Above, you'll find the full set of online trainings you'll need to take. Modules will re-appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete or repeat them! Incomplete trainings will reflect poorly on your preparation for this work. 
  •  When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page. 
  • Assignment checklist:
    1. Begin the Wikipedia training
    2. Create an account
    3. Join the course page
    4. Introduce yourself to a colleague on THEIR Talk page
Milestones

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account and should have begun using sandboxes

Week 2

Course meetings
Monday, 14 February 2022   |   Wednesday, 16 February 2022   |   Friday, 18 February 2022
Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia (5pts)

Individual Assignment Due Friday

It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article related to the course and draft suggestions for improving it in your sandbox. You may even decide to also leave suggestions for improvement on the article's Talk page. 

 

  • Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked in this timeline block).
  •  Create a section in your sandbox titled "Article evaluation" where you'll leave notes about your observations and things you learned. 
  •  Choose an article from the list linked below related to our course to read and evaluate.
    • No more than 3 individuals can choose the same article, so make sure you sign up early to get the best choice.
    • LINK TO LIST   (you must be logged in to your PLU account to gain access)
    • Sign up to review one of the Wikipedia articles via the google spreadsheet I posted here (you can only access it via your PLU gmail account).
  • IN YOUR SANBOX:
    • Identify the article you are reviewing and link to it
    • As you read, consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
      • 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?
      • Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
      • Check a few citations. 
        • Are they properly formatted?
        • Do the links work? 
        • Does the source support the claims in the article?
        •  Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted? 
        • Are there any instances of plagiarism on the page?
        • Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
        • Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? 
        • How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
        • How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
        • Did you choose to review one of the articles on comparative anatomists that I posted or did you find your own? here is some information for you to consider:
  • Assignment checklist:
    1. Continue completing your training and focus on the specific training modules relevant for this week (remember all training was due 2/19/21 and must be complete by week 4)
    2. Choose an article and assign it to yourself
      1. Here is how: 
        1. Log in on dashboard.wikiedu.org and go to your course page.
        2. Go to the Articles tab. In the My Articles section of the Home tab, assign articles to yourself to review. 
        3. After selecting to assign yourself an article, enter the name of the article you want to review. Make sure that you have the article title written down correctly (no misspellings or wrong capitalizations, the title you have is the exact way the article is titled on Wikipedia), as this can cause you to pick the wrong article - or to assume that there is no available article. 
  • Create and complete an Article Evaluation section for your chosen article in your sandbox.
In class - Discussion
What's a content gap?

Group Assignment Due Friday at the end of class. Groups will share a summary of their discussions

Check out the spreadsheet where you signed up and find the other individuals who evaluated the same page. 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"?
  • ASSIGNMENT:
  • 1. Make sure all individuals working on the same page have assigned themselves that page both on the spreadsheet and in our course dashboard:
    • **# Log in on dashboard.wikiedu.org and go to your course page.
      1. Go to the Articles tab. In the My Articles section of the Home tab, assign articles to yourself to review. 
      2. After selecting to assign yourself an article, enter the name of the article you want to review. Make sure that you have the article title written down correctly (no misspellings or wrong capitalizations, the title you have is the exact way the article is titled on Wikipedia), as this can cause you to pick the wrong article - or to assume that there is no available article. 
    • 2. As a group, choose at least 1 question relevant to an article you're evaluating (you may choose more than one, but this is the minimum). If all members of your team are reviewing the same article OR if each member is reviewing a separate one. Just choose one question or comment that you might feel comfortable leaving in the talk page for that article.
    • Designate which team member will leave the group's evaluation on the article's Talk page on the sign-up LINK TO LIST   and during your class discussion be sure draft your question on that team member's sandbox.  By the end of Friday, leave the group's evaluation on the article's Talk page XXX IF YOU DO NOT FEEL COMFORTABLE AS A GROUP ADDING SOMETHING TO THE TALK PAGE, YOU CAN LEAVE THAT IN YOUR SANDBOX. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Azyla.m (talk) 17:36, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Be sure to review: Editing Wikipedia pages 9 and 17

In class - Examples of what Sandboxes can look like

Your sandbox is a space where you can draft your work before it goes live on Wikipedia. In these first weeks, your sandbox is a space where you will complete your individual assignments. As time goes on and you are assigned to a group, you will continue to draft your work in your sandbox first, and then will begin to move it to the designated group member's sandbox (or if that is you, your team members will move their work to your sandbox). In the space below, I am providing you with some sample sandboxes created by previous students so that you can see the progression of the assignments and whole project and find a way to organize your work. 

The inclusion of these examples is not meant to dictate how you organize your sandbox. These are simply examples of sandbox formats used in the past for projects that worked well.

First, some general guidelines:

  • The more organized your sandbox is, the easier it is for you, your colleagues and for me to navigate, give feedback on and provide assistance with and grade.
  • Be sure to draft everything in your sandbox first. Editing directly onto Wikipedia is not a good idea.
    • This includes preparing citations, uploading images and learning how to adjust the Wikipedia article formats.
    • Your sandbox is a good place to experiment, but there are still general guidelines to abide by.

Sample Sandboxes:

  1. Reverse timeline format. The most recent work is on top of the page. Here is a second example of a reverse timeline.
  2. Standard timeline format with the most recent work on the bottom and with distinctions between individual work and group work. This sandbox was used as a personal and as a group sandbox.
  3. Another standard timeline format sandbox that was also a team sandbox. Notice how this box was also used to play around with some of the formatting in Wikipedia.
  4. A personal sandbox only in the standard format. Here is another example
  5. Another personal/group sanbox combo. Notice the great use of the space to also play with the organizational format AND the drafts for images to contribute.

Week 3

Course meetings
Wednesday, 23 February 2022   |   Friday, 25 February 2022
Assignment - Add to an article (15pts)

Individual Assignment Due Friday

Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding to an article. There are a few ways you can do this. Start here:

  1. ## Choose an article from the original list of articles you reviewed with your team last week. OR find an article that you would like to edit.
      1. If you choose this option, the article must:
        1. Relate to non-human vertebrates in some way.
        2. Must be vetted and approved by me before you begin, so it will serve you well to plan ahead if you choose this option. We will have time in lab to work on this but it will benefit you greatly to start looking at articles ahead of time.
    1. Assign yourself the article (see this explanation of how)
      1. This is REALLY important. Please check the Students tab of our course dashbard 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).
    2. Add to the article in one of the following ways:
      1. DO ALL PRELIMINARY WORK IN YOUR SANDBOX!
        1. Copy the material you want to edit there first
      2. Options for article edits:
        1. Copyedit the article.
          1. Choose an article. Read through it, thinking about ways to improve the language, such as fixing grammatical mistakes. Then, make the appropriate changes. You don’t need to contribute new information to the article.
          2. If some of the language is plagiarized, can you paraphrase the content so that more appropriate paraphrasing is employed?
        2. Add a new citation that supports existing content that is either uncited, has an existing citation that is low quality or needs a citation altogether.
          1. The Citation Hunt tool shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.
        3. Add 1-2 sentences and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
        4. NOTE: if you feel hesitant to making a full change to Wikipedia pages, you may choose to "propose" your change to the talk pages of the article to request some feedback from other wikipedians.  If this is something you choose to do, please make that annotation to your sandbox draft!
  • You will work with your team form last week. You can help each other BUT each contribution must be unique.
  • Be sure to use your sandbox to draft your work! 
    • You should ALWAYS DO THIS! for all Wikipedia work you do.
    • FYI: If two people are working on the same page at once, it will NOT work like google docs. Only one person at a time can work on a page.
    • ONLY ONE PERSON AT A TIME CAN WORK ON A PAGE 
  • 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 above.

Assignment checklist:

  1. Complete the training for this week
  2. Choose an article and assign it to yourself (unless it is already assigned to you)
  3. Decide how you plan on contributing to the article (see the list above)
  4. Draft your contribution in your sandbox and list HOW you contributed at the top so I know what to look for on the Wikipedia page.
  5. Make the change live on Wikipedia! (Only if you REALLY want to). All I want to see is the draft in your sanbox.
In class - Discussion
Thinking about sources and plagiarism. Proper paraphrasing
  • Discuss this with your group during our Wikipedia session and be prepared to share:
    • 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 are some other sources that may not be appropriate?
    • What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
    • What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
    • TO DO:
      • Spend 5 minutes brainstorming your answers to these questions in your sandbox.
      • Discuss with your group
      • Go back to your sandbox and annotate your original answers (what did you learn from the discussion?)
      • Share out from your group.

Week 4

Course meetings
Monday, 28 February 2022   |   Wednesday, 2 March 2022   |   Friday, 4 March 2022
Assignment - Getting ready to work on your project animals and pages (2 pts)

Individual Assignment Due Friday March 4

  • Your  group will work together for the rest of the semester on the Wikipedia assignment 
    • Your answers to this assignment will provide the information needed to start your work.
  • Your job is to propose pages for editing that are:
    • Related to your project animal
    • Coordinated with your group members
    • You can also choose to do some small side edits to another page that interests you 
  • Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
  • Assignment Checklist:
    • Create a section in your sandbox, where you: (it is now critical for you to have a well organized sandbox with headings and sub-headings)
    • You can also choose to just create a separate sandbox for this assignment
      • Choose three Wikipedia pages that you might like to edit as part of your semester long project and list them in order of preference with your top choice first.
      • For each of these pages, provide a one sentence reason as to why you chose it.
        • ***** This sentence should primarily focus on yourintellectual curiosity about the organism you will be dissecting although you may include a personal reason if suitable.
          • give a brief explanation of a few edits / contributions you could make for each page. If the page is not on the organism itself, state how the page is related to your organism.
          • THEN: List three related Wikipedia topics/pages with the associated urls that you may wish to edit or that are related to this main page. You can list the naked urls or practice creating links in your sandbox ( I STRONGLY SUGGEST THIS).
        • linked / related suggestions across your list are a VERY good idea. The associations between pages are yours to make.
    • You will use this information to then coordinate your edits within your team. 
    • LIST OF POTENTIAL PAGES (*** you may also find your own pages...I encourage this***):
Assignment - ALL RELEVANT TRAINING IS COMPLETE (1pt)

Week 5

Course meetings
Monday, 7 March 2022   |   Wednesday, 9 March 2022   |   Friday, 11 March 2022
Assignment - Find your sources (17pts)

Group assignment, due Friday, March 11.  Please complete these two steps:

  • === Step 1: ===
    • Assign yourself the article(s) that you will contribute to and create sandboxes for those drafts (Go to the home page and use the assign arcle button).
    • In thesandbox of a selected team member, you will collectively outline your draft game plan of contributions to the selected article(s) that relate to the topic/group you were assigned. 
    • NOTE: As always, draft your section in your own sandbox first.
    • It may be particularly useful for that individual to create a specific sandbox for the team's group work. That way their individual work and their team work can be kept separate.
    • All team members should link to the group sandbox from their individual pages
      • This article  explains how to create a new sandbox in your acocunt. This ability may be useful to you all in various different ways, not just creating a group sandbox!
      • 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:
        1. topics 
        2. articles
        3. images or other media
          1. Here's a great way to search for eligible media files
      • that you will work on as both a team and individuals.
    • Think back to when you did an article critique and perhaps your suggested edits from last time. 
      • 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 (peer reviewedbooks, journal articles, or other sources. Post that bibliography to the selected team member's sandbox and make sure you are citing appropriately. Remember your discussions on what is a reliable source. Go back to the citation training if you need to and practice.
      • Your final Wikipedia contribution should reference from 3-5 reputable sources per article/ article section dependent on length and content. There is no hard and fast rule, so see me with questions.
    • Then post relevant portions to 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.
    • FINALLY: Request that a content expert reviews your work:
      • To contact your Content Expert via Dashboard, go to your course page. At the top will be a box that says "get help". 
      • This feedback will take time, but it is tremendously useful.

When students enroll in a course page they will get an automatic edit made to their Sandbox that includes a "Get Help" button similar to the one on their course page.

 

 

 

By clicking that "Get Help" button students can request feedback on their drafts from their content experts.


 

 

  • ==== 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. 
  • 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.


Guides for writing / editing articles on topics relevant to us

Books

Ecology

Genes and Proteins

Medicine

Species

 

One stop page for information on editing in general

Week 6

Course meetings
Monday, 14 March 2022   |   Wednesday, 16 March 2022   |   Friday, 18 March 2022
Assignment - Draft 1 of your article (25)

Assignment, due Friday, March 15. 

You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to start writing and developing your draft image or media file contributions along with your cited content.
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 if you have not done so already. Some of you have already started to do that (wonderful!). For the rest of you, go back and look at the example sandboxes I posted previously.
  • 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 on the talk pages.

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?

Media Files

  • Not everyone will be able to find or create an image that supports the sections they are editing. However, since you are working as a team, it is very likely that you can help produce media files that support the content being created by a team mate. If that is the case, assign yourself those media and make sure that is clear in the sandbox and that you upload those materials there and to the actual articles yourself.
  • As you plan and draft media content for  your article contributions recall that Wikipedia has strict rules about what media can be added, so make sure to take Contributing Images and Media Files training linked above before you upload an image.
  • Go to the Week 10 summary to get more specific information on media content contributions and what you should be aiming for.




Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9

Draft a new Article

 

Week 7

Course meetings
Monday, 21 March 2022   |   Wednesday, 23 March 2022   |   Friday, 25 March 2022
In class - NO WORK DUE THIS WEEK. PREPARE FOR PEER REVIEW NEXT WEEK

Week 8

Course meetings
Friday, 1 April 2022
Assignment - Peer review and copy edit (25pts)

Assignment, due Friday, APRIL  9. 

  • Peer review your classmates' drafts. Leave suggestions on the Talk page of their collaborative sandbox. 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: 
      1. Neutral content
      2. Reliable sources
      3. Clear structure
        1. Is this draft well organized? Can you follow it easily?
        2. What pages will be edited?
        3. Who will do the editing/adding of what topics/ pages?
        4. Does there seem to be an even distribution of contribution form all team members?
        5. What sorts of contributions with regard to images are planned?
        6. Do you see where this content might fit from the information provided?
      4. Integration: Does anything link up with something you or your team is working on? How can you help each other?
      5. As you review,copy edit (in the talk page by editing a copy of their content) the material and make spelling, grammar, and other suggestions.  
  • As you perform your review, you may notice that your observations parallel those of other reviewers. If that is the case, make sure to provide some explicit feedback on how the content can be improved so that your colleagues can benefit from multiple perspectives even if they are parallel.

Week 9

Course meetings
Monday, 4 April 2022   |   Wednesday, 6 April 2022   |   Friday, 8 April 2022
Assignment - Respond to your peer review (15 pts)

Group assignment, due Friday, April 16.

You now have some feedback from 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. Reach out to your instructor or your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions. 
    • 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 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.
          • THEN: Paste these individual plans into your group sandbox

Week 10

Course meetings
Monday, 11 April 2022   |   Wednesday, 13 April 2022
In class - Nothing due. BREAK and catch up

You may wish to catch up from previous work during this week

Week 11

Course meetings
Monday, 18 April 2022   |   Wednesday, 20 April 2022   |   Friday, 22 April 2022
In class - Example media contributions

Here are various samples of PLU student contributed work over the years. Be sure to click on the "More details" button to see not only information about the image etc. but also the pages where it has been used. In some cases this now extends to pages beyond those edited by students. Notice that not all images are created by students. Some already existed and were in the public domain and are therefore open for use.

What do you notice about these contributions? Are there some ways that they could be improved to better educate the Wikipedia audience?

These are examples of images I contributed from manuscripts available in Wikimedia Commons:

Assignment - Expand your draft / Draft #2 (25 points)

Assignment, due Friday, April 30th.
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.


  • Draft in your sandbox first then move the content to your team sandbox.
  •  Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own.  Good Wikipedia articles are connected to the rest of Wikipedia. There are no direct benchmarks on the number of articles you should link to. Rather, links to all relevant articles should be made and it is your job to make sure you find them.
    • Your final edits will provide all relevant links or explanations where necessary.
  • References /Sources: Remember that your draft should have 3-5 reputable sources.
  • Keep working on transforming your article into a complete and clean first draft. Get the draft ready for peer-review. 
  • Make sure that you are clear as to which pages each team member is contributing content to. 
  •  If you'd like a Wikipedia 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!
  • Continue preliminary drafting of media content for your article contributions.You will have a specific assignment for media content next week, but you need to have made progress on this portion by now.
  • Wikipedia has strict rules about what media can be added, so make sure to take Contributing Images and Media Files training before you upload an image.
    • Even if an image is in your sandbox, the rules for intellectual property still apply.
    • It is possible that the image you develop does not end up going live (for multiple reasons). However, you should be developing a plan for a media contribution that you think would be relevant to the content you are editing/developing and that plan and potential image drafts should appear in your sandbox.
      • Remember to go to Week 12 for a summary of training and sources.
  • See this XX rubric for criteria on the different sections of an article (also available on Sakai) and what I will use to evaluate your work.

Week 12

Course meetings
Monday, 25 April 2022   |   Wednesday, 27 April 2022   |   Friday, 29 April 2022
Assignment - Illustrate an article
DRAFT (20 points)

Assignment, due Friday, April 30.

You'll want to find or create an appropriate photo, illustration, or piece of video/audio to add to an article. For most of you, this assignment is done and you are simply editing images and captions to make sure you are ready to share them in your articles. If you are still working on your images, here are some reminders:


  • Before you start, review the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook, or see Editing Wikipedia pages 10–11. Reading the handbook carefully will help you tremendously.
  • Wikimedia guide on first steps
  • When you've reviewed those pages, take the training linked below.
  • What can you find in the scientific literature that is in the public domain (see the handbook for an explanation)?
  • Look up your vertebrate or relevant structure in Wikimedia Commons  first and then 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 media element into your article. 
  • Final reminders:
  1. See the broad rubric for image/media contributios
  2. Have you proofread your caption?
  3. Is the image your own?
  4. Can a reader easily understand what they are looking at?
  5. Does the image supplement and improve the article?
  6. Are your references ok? Remember to check our slide deck
Continue improving your article

Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.


  •  Continue to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 as a reminder of how to do this. 
  •  Article linkage not only helps to integrate Wikipedia, but also helps readers get supplemental information on complex topics or vocabulary
  • TEAMWORK is now critical. In your final bouts of activity, I expect to see you helping colleagues get their content right. Particularly within your groups. Help colleagues edit and clarify content, fix bad links and resolve citation issues. 
  • Want to know how many eyes have seen articles since students from our class first posted live elements on them? Go to students and look under the "views" column by the contributions. Some have already climbed into the thousands.
Assignment - Tuesday's lab
Begin moving your work to Wikipedia (2.5) points if you have

Group assignment. Will have time in lab to work on this together a bit.
Do not rush to move materials if you are not ready. Edit in your Sandbox and move small bits at a time.Move one thing this week. 
 
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?

Week 13

Course meetings
Monday, 2 May 2022   |   Wednesday, 4 May 2022   |   Friday, 6 May 2022
Assignment - Final edits and submissions (60pts)

Group assignment, due Friday, May 11th.
It's the final week to develop and upload your content.


  • 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 and elements of emphasis to this list:
      1. 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.
      2. 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.
      3. 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.
      4. Are your citations in good order? 
        1. **### **#### The format is appropriate
            1. The links work
            2. Citations are NOT duplicated in the article reference section (a common issue)
      5. Do you have enough citations? Remember that your final Wikipedia contribution should reference from 3-5 reputable sources per article/ article section dependent on length and content.
  • Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Content Expert at any time!
  • Your final product should meet the following criteria:
    1. Do you meet the criteria listed above and on the checklist with regard to the content and organization of your written contributions?
    2. You submitted images:
      1. Have you proofread your caption/legend?
      2. Does the image have the proper attribution
        1. If your own, submission is accurate and if you have made edits, you update the existing image instead of uploading a whole new one.
        2. If you have modified an existing image in the public domain, you provide attribution to the original author of the image/
      3. Can a reader easily understand what they are looking at?
        1. Do the legend and labeling make sense and is the labeling easily visible and understood?
      4. Does the image supplement and improve the article?
        1. Is there a good relationship between the content and the image?
      5. 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 14

Course meetings
Monday, 9 May 2022   |   Wednesday, 11 May 2022   |   Friday, 13 May 2022
Assignment - Reflective essay (25 pts)

Assignment Due Friday 5/21.
Write a reflective essay (2–5 pages) on your Wikipedia contributions. These will be submitted to the appropriate "assignment' in Sakai.


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? 
  • 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?