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Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Oregon/Long Term Environmental Change (Fall 2018)

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Course name
Long Term Environmental Change
Institution
University of Oregon
Instructor
Dan Gavin
Wikipedia Expert
Ian (Wiki Ed)
Subject
Paleoclimate and paleoenvironment
Course dates
2018-09-24 00:00:00 UTC – 2018-12-06 23:59:59 UTC
Approximate number of student editors
10


Climate and the pattern of life on Earth has changed continuously for millions of years resulting in the landscapes we know today. Records of past environmental changes have been assembled from a variety of different paleoenivronmental indicators. This course focuses on the methods used for paleoenvironmental reconstruction, how Earth's climate has varied over a range of different time scales, how the biota, especially vegetation, has varied in concert with climate, and the theories that have emerged to explain those variations. Emphasis will be placed on data synthesis and use of models to help understand the mechanisms underlying change in natural systems.

Student Assigned Reviewing
Arctic flora fun Climate and Vegetation Interactions in the Arctic
Alpiniste17 Late Pleistocene Environmental Factors on Early North American Migration
Monruw Peat swamp forest

Timeline

Week 1

Course meetings
Tuesday, 25 September 2018   |   Thursday, 27 September 2018

Week 2

Course meetings
Tuesday, 2 October 2018   |   Thursday, 4 October 2018

Week 3

Course meetings
Tuesday, 9 October 2018   |   Thursday, 11 October 2018
In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia Project

Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline, a guide to help you learn how to improve Wikipedia. This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones, including online trainings that will teach you how to contribute to Wikipedia.


Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. Check your User talk page on Wikipedia for their notes and recommendations. You can reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page if you run into problems.

In class - Get Started on Wikipedia
  • Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (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. This week, you should complete the first set of online trainings, which are required for your assignment. Be sure to check back and complete new trainings each week.
  •  When you finish the trainings, please review the following handouts: 
Milestones

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 4

Course meetings
Tuesday, 16 October 2018   |   Thursday, 18 October 2018
Assignment - Choose a source publication and a theme

Click the links below and explore the publications. Then, select one publication and a section within the publication, that you want to work with for the rest of the assignment. Note the publication and citation information for the source.  

 

Potential sources for this project:

In your sandbox, create a section called "source evaluation" and provide notes about your findings. While you read the source, reflect on the following questions: 

  • who is the publication directed to?
  • what main topics or themes does your chosen section of the publication cover?  

At the end of this assignment you should have reviewed at least one publication.  

Milestones

By now, everyone should have begun reading the source publication and selected a topical theme.

Week 5

Course meetings
Tuesday, 23 October 2018   |   Thursday, 25 October 2018
In class - Find your article on Wikipedia
  • Review page 6 of Editing Wikipedia and the "Finding your Article" training.
  • Look up 3–5 potential topics on Wikipedia related to your source that you might be able to improve. Review the content of the Wikipedia article, and check the Talk page to see if other Wikipedians are discussing the content. 
  • Identify one or two sections from each Wikipedia article that you could improve using what you learned from the publication. 
  • Finally, select one Wikipedia article that you're excited to tackle for the assignment. On the Students tab, assign yourself the Wikipedia article. Ensure another student has not already selected the same Wikipedia article to edit this term.
Assignment - Evaluate your article

It's time to think critically about your Wikipedia article. 


  • Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
  • Create a section in your sandbox titled "Article evaluation" where you'll leave notes about your observations and learnings. 
  •  As you read your selected Wikipedia article, consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these): 
    • Check a few citations. 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? 
    • Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
    • What did I read about in my publication that is missing from this topic? 
    • What information here is missing proper citations that I could provide using my source? 
    • 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?

Week 6

Course meetings
Tuesday, 30 October 2018   |   Thursday, 1 November 2018
Assignment - Prepare your contribution

You've picked a topic and reviewed your source. Now it's time to start writing. Before you begin, take the "Moving work out of the sandbox" training. 


You've already identified what's missing from the Wikipedia article you selected for this project. Identify content from the publication that is missing but belongs in the Wikipedia article. Use your sandbox to start drafting your ideas. 

 

Other Resources: 

Week 7

Course meetings
Tuesday, 6 November 2018   |   Thursday, 8 November 2018
In class - Begin writing the first draft of your Wikipedia article

The concepts and information you use from the source publication must be cited properly.  If the publication is citing another study (i.e., an original research article) then it may be more appropriate to cite that article directly.  For help with citations, review the "Sources and Citations" training. You cannot copy and paste directly for your source unless it has an open-source license.  

Copy and paste into your sandbox the section of the article you wish to edit. Then edit the material with new information.  Remember to add citations as you go.

File:Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Noun project - crayon.svg/30px-Noun project - crayon.svg.png

| Edit: Correct any formatting issues with the text, add headings and subheadings, change any wording not suitable for Wikipedia, and add links to other articles. You can read Editing Wikipediapage 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.

File:Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Inkwell icon - Noun Project 2512.svg/30px-Inkwell icon - Noun Project 2512.svg.png

| Consider the style: The layout, style, and tone of writing of the source text should fit Wikipedia's standards. If you've started a brand new article, the first sentence should be a definition of the subject (the Wikipedia article title). For guidance, find another Wikipedia article, and mimic its style. When integrating other sources, you should distinguish opinions and interpretations made by the original author from verifiable, neutral facts. To do this, you may have to refocus the text on surveying the topic, removing interpretations, and attributing points of view within the work. Attributing points of view can be done by adding citations to either the source text or its references, and by adding in-text attribution of these opinions e.g "According to [ORIGINAL AUTHOR], "[QUOTE]".

 

Milestones

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 8

Course meetings
Tuesday, 13 November 2018   |   Thursday, 15 November 2018
In class - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia

If you've been working in your sandbox  to draft your work, now is the time to move it live into your article! 

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! 
  •  Be sure to copy text from your sandbox while the sandbox page is in 'Edit' mode. This ensures that the formatting is transferred correctly. 

Creating a new article?

Week 9

Course meetings
Tuesday, 20 November 2018
Assignment - Final article

It's the final week to develop your article.


  • Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
  • Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!
  • Here are a few additional ways you can improve your work:

File:Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/VisualEditor - Icon - Picture.svg/30px-VisualEditor - Icon - Picture.svg.png | Add media: Search for appropriate images for the article on Wikimedia commons (but be sure the image is truly helpful to the article. You may also contribute your own image to Wikimedia commons, but most published images are copyrighted and cannot be uploaded.  Review the "Contributing Images and Media Files" training for help on how to do this. You can also add in tables to the article; if the table is in a pdf, Tabula may be helpful.

File:Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/VisualEditor - Toolbar - Linking (small).png/30px-VisualEditor - Toolbar - Linking (small).png | Link: Create links to the article from other Wikipedia articles. Use the find link tool to identify and create links to the article.

Week 10

Course meetings
Tuesday, 27 November 2018   |   Thursday, 29 November 2018
Milestones

Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.

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