Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Memorial University of Newfoundland/Animal Behaviour (Fall 2021)
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- Course name
- Animal Behaviour
- Institution
- Memorial University of Newfoundland
- Instructor
- David Wilson
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- animal behaviour
- Course dates
- 2021-09-09 00:00:00 UTC – 2021-12-03 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 46
This third-year course will introduce students to the integrative study of animal behaviour. Lectures will emphasize how an animal's behaviour adapts it to its environment, why different species behave in different ways, and why, within species, there are behavioural differences among individuals. The Wikipedia assignment will introduce students to the Wikipedia platform and teach them necessary skills for critically reviewing, editing, and contributing to existing articles. Students will also create a new article or develop an existing article related to animal behaviour, and then present that topic and their Wikipedia experience to the class during a brief oral presentation.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Friday, 10 September 2021
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.
Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia (5%)
Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (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). Complete the two training modules, which, together, are worth 5% of your total Wikipedia assignment.
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 13 September 2021 | Wednesday, 15 September 2021 | Friday, 17 September 2021
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia (10%)
Complete the two training modules. Then complete the exercise, which includes evaluating a Wikipedia article about animal behaviour. You should address the article's content, tone, sources, and talk page, as stipulated in the exercise; however, you do not need to address every question mentioned in the 'Evaluate an Article' template that is provided, as some questions may not be relevant. Make the comments in your article evaluation specific and constructive, and avoid simply saying that 'everything looks good.' Write in full sentences; spelling and grammar are important in this assignment, as they are in all assignments. Remember to include the name of the article in your evaluation. This assignment is worth 10% of your total Wikipedia assignment.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 20 September 2021 | Wednesday, 22 September 2021 | Friday, 24 September 2021
- Assignment - Add to an article (10%)
Complete the training module entitled 'Adding citations," including the embedded tutorial entitled "Citing sources." Then complete the exercise entitled 'Add to an article,' which involves adding a citation to a new or existing article. The article you choose for the exercise should be related to animal behaviour, but does not need to be the same article as the one you ultimately choose for the final Wiki assignment (see weeks 4 and 5).
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 27 September 2021 | Wednesday, 29 September 2021 | Friday, 1 October 2021
- Assignment - Choose possible topics (not evaluated)
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 4 October 2021 | Wednesday, 6 October 2021 | Friday, 8 October 2021
- Assignment - Exercise (not evaluated)
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions (10%)
As part of this assignment, you should have selected the article you will work on and assigned it to yourself. Be sure that it has not already been assigned to one of you classmates by checking the students tab. The article does not have to be focused exclusively on animal behaviour, but your contribution to it should be focused primarily on animal behaviour or implications for animal behaviour. Complete the two training modules, then begin drafting your contribution in a new or existing sandbox. At this point, an outline or a few sentences is sufficient, but we need to see that you have made a start on your article. Be sure to label your contribution appropriately so that we can easily recognize it.
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 13 October 2021
- Assignment - Continue improving your article (not evaluated)
Exercise
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 other media.
- In class - Discussion
Week 7
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 18 October 2021 | Wednesday, 20 October 2021 | Friday, 22 October 2021
- Assignment - Complete first draft of article (5%)
At this stage, please place your draft article in a new or existing sandbox; do not make your contributions to the live article on Wikipedia.org. If you are adding to an existing article, rather than creating a new one, only include in your sandbox the new paragraphs and any paragraphs that you are editing. Do not copy an entire article into your sandbox (unless you are editing every paragraph within in), as this is a copyright violation.
Week 8
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 25 October 2021 | Wednesday, 27 October 2021 | Friday, 29 October 2021
- Assignment - Peer review two articles (10%)
Guiding frameworkAll students have been assigned two of their peers' articles for review. You can find the two articles that have been assigned to you by navigating to your user profile in the 'students' tab'. For this assignment, you must provide constructive feedback on each of those articles following the guidance provided in the tutorial. If an article already exists on Wikipedia.org, be sure to read the live page and the contribution that the student is making in their sandbox. You can comment on all aspects of the article, but should focus your comments on the student's contribution and its fit within the overall article. Be sure to include your username so that the student and instructors know who the feedback is from (e.g., Peer review of article Deceptive Signalling by user Sneaker male). If you did not complete a draft of your article during the week 8 assignment, then you will not receive peer review, but you are still expected to provide peer review to the two articles assigned to you.
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 1 November 2021 | Wednesday, 3 November 2021 | Friday, 5 November 2021
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review (not evaluated)
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
- Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.
- Assignment - Polish your work (not evaluated)
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 - Exercise (not evaluated)
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 8 November 2021 | Wednesday, 10 November 2021 | Friday, 12 November 2021
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia (not evaluated)
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13
- Assignment - Final article (30%)
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!
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 15 November 2021 | Wednesday, 17 November 2021 | Friday, 19 November 2021
- Assignment - Presentation (20%)
Each student will have 5 minutes to describe their topic and their experience in a pre-recorded video (preferably .mp4 format) that they upload to the Brightspace dropbox. The presentation could be a video of a Powerpoint presentation with a voiceover, a video of you lecturing in front of projector screen, a mini documentary, or any other format that you wish to use. You can include photos, text, audio, videos, and any other materials you think would be helpful in describing your Wiki topic and your Wiki experience. A grading rubric is available on Brightspace and provides additional details about presentation preparation.