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- Course name
- Wetland Ecology
- Institution
- Wells College
- Instructor
- Kinga Hill
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Ecology
- Course dates
- 2019-08-27 00:00:00 UTC – 2019-12-13 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 6
The goals of this course are to help students learn about how wetland ecosystems are structured and function, to train students in techniques professionals use to assess wetlands, and to get students excited about these fascinating systems. We will use the Wikipedia assignment to expand on understudied and underrepresented topics in wetland ecology. Students will learn how to search for good literature, discern between good and poor quality sources, cite sources, and to participate in the Wikipedia Community as reviewers, writers, and editors. The overall objective is to bring more knowledge about wetland ecosystems to the Wikipedia platform.
Timeline
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 5 September 2019
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline for Wetland Ecology, BIOL 363. This page will guide you through the steps you'll need to complete your Wikipedia assignment.
The majority of your work for this assigment will be done right here in this Dashboard. I will use our Moodle course page to remind you to complete the steps of this assignment.
This page breaks down writing 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 Content 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
- Create an account and join this course page, usingthis enrollment link. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)
- 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.
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Begin a blog, on Moodle, about your experiences. Reflect on the research and writing process. Create one, brief, blog entry each week during the Wikipedia assignment.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 12 September 2019
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. This week, 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 above).
- Complete the "How to edit: Wikicode vs Visual Editor" training (linked above).
Evaluate an article:
- I have compiled a list of starter articles for you in the Articles tab above, then Available Articles button. Choose one of those articles, open it in a new window, and then complete the exercise below to evaluate that article.
- Create a section called "Article Evalution" in your sandbox and take notes there while completing the "Evaluate an article" exercise below.
Below are two articles on Wikipedia that are well written and developed. Use them to help you visualize what a good article can look like on Wikipedia:
[[../../../training/students/evaluate-wikipedia-exercise|Evaluate an article]]
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 19 September 2019
- In class - Resources
Below are some online and printed resources that you can use to start compiling your source lists. I have several textbooks that I can loan out for short periods of time. You can also ask for texts through our library using Inter Library Loan.
Databases and Library:
JSTOR: Accessible through Wells library website
Google Scholar
Inter Library Loan: A service provided to students and faculty through the Wells College library
Credible Websites:
United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Geological Survey
NY State Department of Environmental Conservation
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Natural Resource Conservation Service
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Association of State Wetland Managers
Society of Wetland Scientists
National Geographic
Scientific American
Textbooks:
- ====== Wetlands by William Mitsch and James Gosselink (I have this book) ======
- ====== Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation, 2nd Edition by Paul Keddy (I have this book) ======
- ====== Wetland Ecosystems by William Mitsch and others (I have this book) ======
- ====== Pocketguide to Eastern Wetlands by T. Travis and Shanda Brown (I have this book) ======
- ====== The Biology of Freshwater Wetlands by Arnold van der Valk (I have this book) ======
- ====== Wetland Plants: Biology and Ecology by Julie Cronk and Siobhan Fennessy ======
- ====== Wetland Indicators, 2nd Edition by Ralph Tiner ======
- ====== Ecology of Freshwater and Estuarine Wetlands, Second Edition by Darold Batzer and Rebecca Sharitz (I have this book) ======
- Assignment - Choose a Topic and Find Sources
It's time to choose an article and assign it to yourself and work hard to find a good set of sources for the article.
In this class we are going to focus on expanding short articles on wetland ecology. The topics I have chosen are also within the Limnology and Oceanography Project group on Wikipedia and I have already made the project members aware that our class will be contributing to their project. Please visit their project page to familiarize yourself with their goals and objectives.
Before you finalize your selection, I strongly recommend that you do a literature search on your preferred selection. Can you find:
- ** Journal articles that are comprehensible to you.
- Journal articles that can be found on the accessible web (open source or posted on a non-subscription website, or available through the databases in our library).
- Non-journal sources (web pages, news articles, magazine articles). All of these sources need to be respectable, like government agencies, educational institutions, major scientific magazines, or major newspapers.
- Textbooks
Follow the "Choose your topic/Find your sources" exercise below. At the end of the exercise, complete these steps:
- *# Assign an article to yourself
- Write a few sentences in sandbox about what you plan to contribute to the article
- Create a list of at least six (6) potential, reliable sources for your article. Ideally you want to mix journal articles and other sources.
- Add the article to your Watchlist
- Post in the article's talk page and introduce yourself as a student editor
- Post your list of sources to the talk page of your article so that other editors can see it and potentially give you feedback on it
[[../../../training/students/choose-topic-from-list-exercise|Choose your topic / Find your sources]]
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 26 September 2019
- Assignment - Add to an article
The goal of this exercise is to familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding or modifying a sentence or two of content and adding a citation.
- Complete the training on "Adding Citations" (linked above)
- Add or modify 1-2 sentences in the articled you selected last week and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training. Make sure you do all of this in the "live" article rather than the sandbox.
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 3 October 2019
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions
This week you will begin drafting you Wikipedia article in your sandbox. Before proceeding:
- Complete the "Plagiarism" and "Drafting in the sandbox" trainings (linked above)
- Read Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9
After you have finished the training:
DO ALL OF YOUR EDITTING IN YOUR SANDBOX, DO NOT EDIT IT IN THE MAIN WIKIPEDIA AT THIS POINT.
- Copy your entire article into your sandbox, then publish your sandpox page and note that you copied it. Make sure you copy from the Edit tab, not the Read tab.
- Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article:
- Are there enough/good headings?
- Is the tone neutral?
- Does it need citations?
- Are the reflerences reliable? Do the links work?
- Does it need images?
- What information is missing?
- Check the talk page of the article to see any conversation about this article
- Start to add notes, text, and citations as you read your sources. Don't delete everything that has been written, add to it and improve on it. Make notes about possible images you can add, but hold off on adding images for now because you will take a training soon about which images are appropriate.
- As you read your sources, make notes of key words and phrases in your sandbox, then when it is time, convert them into flowing sentences. This is the best way to avoid plagiarism.
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 10 October 2019
- Assignment - Instructor Review
You have been working hard on your article. During this week you will get review comments from me on your User Talk Page. The goal is to respond to these in as much depth as you can so that you have a well formed draft ready for peer review next week. Continue editing your article.
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 17 October 2019
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 24 October 2019
- Assignment - Peer review two articles
[[../../../training/students/peer-review|Guiding framework on reviewing]]
This week you will review two (2) draft articles that your fellow classmates are working on. I will assign the reviewers to the articles randomly. Before proceeding, complete the "Guiding framewrok on reviewing" training (linked above).
The more advice you provide to your peers, the better your grade in this part of the assignment will be. As you go about this exercise, please keep the following in mind:
- Do not just say "Nice job! That looks great!!". I expect you to provide meaningful feedback.
- Leave your comments on their user talk page, do not edit directly in their sandbox. Sign your name at the end of your comments.
- Continue to work on your article and integrate the comments you receive.
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
To Do:
- Read Editing Wikipedia, pages 10- 12 to learn about adding images and links to your article.
- Read the Illustrating Wikipedia guide
- Complete the "Contributing images and media files" training (linked above)
- Address your peer reviewers' comments on your Talk page. Explain your reasons for not implementing suggestions you decide to ignore
Consider the suggestions from myself and your classmates, decide whether they make your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes. Continue editing and sprucing up your article.
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions, especially if you are not sure about an image you want to use.
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 31 October 2019
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
This week it it time to move your article to the Wikipedia "mainspace."
- Complete the "Moving your work out of the sandbox" training (linked above)
- 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 every time. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
- After you have copied the entire article, continue to copyedit the LIVE article so that it flows.
After you make your article LIVE, you may start to get some comments from other Wikipedians. Your entire contribution may even get deleted. You should already have your article added to your Watchlist so you can be notified on any comments on the article's Talk page. You should also check your own user Talk page regularly.
- DO NOT WORRY if your live article gets heavily edited by others. I can see everything you add to Wikipedia, even if other Wikipedians remove it. Never ask anyone to stop improving an article because of your grade.
- If your article gets edited, engage in a conversation on the article's talk page about why the changes were made and how the article can be improved.
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 7 November 2019
- Assignment - Polish your work
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and links. Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 14 November 2019
- Assignment - Keep polishing your work
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 13
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 21 November 2019
- Assignment - Keep polishing your work
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 14
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 28 November 2019
- Assignment - Last Week of Polishing
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!
- In class - Prepare in-class presentation
Prepare a final in-class presentation of your experience with this exercise. You will have 5-6 minutes to present, followed by 1-2 minutes for discussion.
- No Powerpoint, just talk.
- This is very informal. Tell us whether you liked it, what you liked or disliked about it, what you learned, what was challenging
- Make suggestions for improvement of the article
- Make suggestions for improvement of Wikipedia as a teaching tool
- Do you have any plans to use/edit Wikipedia in the future:?
We will then have 1-2 minutes for discussion and class feedback. Your active participation in this part will be part of the grade.
- Assignment - Wikipedia assignment blog
Week 15
- Assignment - Article deadline!
- In class - Present your Wikipedia experience to the class