Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Radford University/BIOL 460 Insects and Society (Spring 2016)

This course is a discussion-based seminar. Success in the course depends upon: 1) critical reading of all assignments; 2) active and positive participation in class discussion; and 3) careful and consistent completion of in-class and out-of-class assignments. If you cannot or will not spend adequate time on this course, you should expect to receive a low grade but if you put in the time, you should expect to learn much! By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Learn the defining characteristics for the major orders of insects, and how particular orders may affect humans.

• Understand the complicated relationships between insects and humans.

• Learn how to update Wikipedia webpages, and make updates to Wikipedia pages.

• Learn to communicate scientific information better to non-scientists.

Week 2
Wikipedia Assignment 1. Worth 50 points.

1) Enroll in this course. 2) Complete the online training for students (there are 4 modules at the end of this post--make sure you complete all of them). During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.

After you complete the training, make sure that you've also done the following:


 * Created a User Page

You should also create a User Page, so people know who you are. Click on your newly created account name, which appears in red in the upper right hand corner of the Wikipedia page. You will then be redirected to your user page, which should have a header that reads “User:&lt;Your Username&gt;” In order to create your user page, click on the link towards the upper right hand corner where it says “Create.”

After clicking on the “Create” link, you will be redirected to a page with a header that reads “Editing User:&lt;Your Username&gt;” with a large text box. In the large text box compose 2-3 sentences about yourself, indicating that you are a student, and highlight your interests and areas of Wikipedia you wish to contribute. You can say that you are a Radford student working in particular on pages about insects. You can also tell something else about yourself to inspire others to start contributing, or mention any other areas you might contribute on in the future. This is your chance to show real people write for Wikipedia.

Scroll below and click “Save Page.” At this point the link containing your account name will change in color from red to blue indicating that a linked page now exists. In general, anything written by editors with identities is more trustworthy than information in red, throughout Wikipedia. Here is an example of a user page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Agelaia.


 * Put a photo of yourself on your page (Optional)

To put a photo of yourself on your page, when viewing your user page (by clicking on your account name at the upper right hand corner of the Wikipedia page) click on Edit near the top right of the page. Above the short description of yourself, input the following code:

Put your name where it says &lt;your name&gt; and replace the &lt;photo_file_name.jpg&gt; with a file name you would like for your photo followed by a .jpg extension (e.g. CVern.jpg). Save your changes. When you view your user page, you will notice that the photo has not shown up yet. This is because you need to upload an (open source—e.g. a photo taken by yourself that you don’t mind sharing (see below)) image of yourself. To do so, click on the file name you just created in the infobox you just created. This will take you to a file creation page, where you can upload your photo. Before you submit, make sure to give some details on where the photo is from and provide licensing info through the licensing pull down menu below the “upload file” button (suggestion is Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0).


 * Created a Sandbox (Click on “Sandbox” on the upper right corner of Wikipedia)

The sandbox feature of Wikipedia is a place where you can start and edit your contributions until you are ready to fully release it on Wikipedia. You will create a sandbox inside your user space. This sandbox will allow you to practice Wikipedia syntax and editing without being fully held to the standards in Wikipedia:Manual of Style. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style. You can work on your article in this space at first, but when assignments are due, they must be uploaded to fully visible Wikipedia.

Week 3

 * Overview of the course
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.

Handout: [http://wikiedu.org/editingwikipedia Editing Wikipedia ]

Week 5
Wikipedia Assignment 2. Worth: 50 points

You need to make substantive edits to the pages of your 3 assigned orders. The type of edits you make are entirely up to you (they can be adding material, adding citations, grammatical changes, etc.)--if you need help figuring out what to edit, please see Dr. Prather.

Week 7
You need to hand-in a proposal for your next round of Wikipedia edits to Dr. Prather in class. These edits need to be approved before you work on your next round of edits.

Week 12
Make substantial edits to pages related to your research this semester. Remember: there edits need to have been approved by Dr. Prather from your earlier proposal. Also, please use your sandbox to practice your edits and viewing them before making your edits on the live page. If you have any questions, please ask Dr. Prather or our Wikipedia help, Ian.