Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Grand Valley State University/Bio 109 Plants in the world (Spring 2017)

Extra credit project

Week 1
Welcome to our Wikipedia extra credit project. This page will guide you through the requirements for the project.

Our course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the &quot;Get Help&quot; button on this page.

This project is worth 12 total points:


 * 1 point awarded for each complete training
 * 4 points for your article evaluation
 * 4 points for your contribution and reflection

To receive credit you will turn in a 1-2 page reflection paper that includes the following:


 * Your full article evaluation and learnings (400 words);
 * A summary of your edits on Wikipedia and why you felt they were a valuable contribution;
 * 1 point for each complete training, as tracked next to your name on the Students tab above.


 * Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
 * It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
 * Review the following handouts:
 * Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia
 * Editing Wikipedia articles on Species
 * Editing Wikipedia articles on Ecology

Week 2
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article and reflect on what you've learned.


 * Complete the &quot;Evaluating Articles and Sources&quot; training (linked below).
 * Create a section in your sandbox  where you leave your full article evaluation. You can use these notes later to help you write your final reflection.
 * Pick one of the following articles to read and evaluate:
 * Plant ecology
 * Herbalism
 * List of poisonous plants
 * Medicinal plants
 * Scientific method
 * While you read, consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
 * 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?
 * Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses the topic differ from the way we are talking about these subjects in class?
 * Read the &quot;talk&quot; page of each article. What do you find there?
 * How is the article rated? Take a look at the Wikipedia quality scale and compare it to your article. Where do you think it falls? If the article has a rating assigned to it, do you think it is accurate?
 * Optional: Choose at least 1 questions relevant to the article you're evaluating. Leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Shanonsingh (talk) 22:32, 22 April 2017 (UTC).

Week 3
First, choose an article. For help, review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia handout. Then, browse the following article lists on Wikipedia and pick one you'd like to improve (don't forget to dive into the sub-categories as well). If you have a subject you think you'd like to work on, search for it on Wikipedia first and then decide if there is room for improvement (hint: try to find a start or stub class article. We should not be editing any Good or Featured articles.)


 * Category:Botany stubs
 * Category:Plant stubs
 * Category:Medicinal plant stubs (if you choose to update a medicinal plant stub, please also take the Editing Medical Topics training)

Once you have your article selected, head to the Students tab above and assign yourself your chosen article topic.

Then, copyedit it: Read through it, thinking about ways to improve the language, such as fixing grammatical mistakes. Make the appropriate changes.

Finally, add new content. Try to add 1-2 new sentences and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training. If you like, you can draft your work in your sandbox  first before moving it live.

Don't forget to review the available support handouts as well:


 * Editing Wikipedia articles on Species
 * Editing Wikipedia articles on Ecology
 * Editing Wikipedia

Week 4
To receive credit you will turn in a 1-2 page reflection paper that includes the following:


 * Your full article evaluation and learnings (400 words);
 * A summary of your edits on Wikipedia and why you felt they were a valuable contribution
 * Tip: you can see a summary of what you contributed by heading to the Articles tab and then dropping down the row of the article you worked on. Then select &quot;show authorship with highlighting&quot;  and you can see highlighted exactly what you contributed!
 * 1 point for each complete training, as tracked next to your name on the Students tab above.