This course page is an automatically-updated version of the main course page at dashboard.wikiedu.org. Please do not edit this page directly; any changes will be overwritten the next time the main course page gets updated.
Current research in biology, with an emphasis on plant science, will provide students with opportunities to practice and improve skills needed for successful written communication in the sciences.
Assignment - Create your account and learn the basics
Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
Week 2
Course meetings
Tuesday, 13 September 2016 | Thursday, 15 September 2016
Assignment - What's your article?
Bring a Wikipedia article to class that you will critique.
Assignment - Critique an article
Review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your own.
Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.
A few questions to consider (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Is any information out of date?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?