Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Memorial University of Newfoundland/Animal Behaviour (Fall 2019)

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.

Week 2
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

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.

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Exercise
Evaluate an articleComplete the two training modules and the training exercise, then complete the assignment by evaluating a Wikipedia article about animal behaviour. Make your evaluation in your sandbox under a heading entitled &quot;Article Evaluation.&quot; You should address the article's content, tone, sources, and talk page, as stipulated in the assignment; however, you do not need to address every question mentioned in the assignment within each of these categories, as some questions may not be relevant. Make your comments 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.'''

Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Exercise
Add a citation

Exercise
Choose a topic

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

What's a content gap?

Week 6
Finalize your topic / Find your sources

As part of this assignment, you should 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

Ecology

Species

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Exercise
Add links to your article

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.

Thinking about Wikipedia

Week 8
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 9
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. Provide your feedback in the talk page of the sandbox containing the contribution, and 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.

Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 10
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.

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!

Nominating your article for Did You Know

Week 11
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

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!

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

Week 12
Guiding questions