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This course enables students to improve and enrich the quality of reliable information read by patients on Wikipedia by becoming a WikiProject Medicine Editor.
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.
Assignment - Wikipedia as a Medical Student
This is where we think specifically about how editing Wikipedia as a medical student might differ from editing as a "lay person."
Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
By 5pm on Thurdsay 1/12 post your final Workplan. So that you can engage with the Wikipedian community members who are interested & actively following your article, post your Workplan on the talk page of your selected Wikipedia article. If you are working on a team, I want you to be explicit about what section(s) you will individually be responsible for. Consider explicitly declaring any/all of the following:
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.
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Is any information out of date?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?
Which sections will I prioritize?
What resources do I intend to look up, and when?
How will I decide what things (signs, symptoms, side-effects, etc.) to explicitly include? To explicitly exclude?
Will I also embed additional links to other Wiki pages?
How will I ensure I avoid "doctor-speak" and not use jargon?
These activities will occur on Zoom On Friday 01/13 9a-10a you will informally present your work-in-progress to Dr. Lebowitz and/or Dr. Dexter. We will help troubleshoot or discuss your evolving thoughts on your work.
Monday, 16 January 2023 | Tuesday, 17 January 2023 | Wednesday, 18 January 2023 | Thursday, 19 January 2023 | Friday, 20 January 2023
Milestones
This is to remind you that adding images to WP articles can be just as important as adding text. Here's the general information about doing that scope of work as part of your efforts:
Identify an article that would benefit from illustration, create or find an appropriate photo, illustration, or audio/video, and add it to the article.
All media uploaded to Wikipedia must fall under a "free license," which means they can be used or shared by anyone. Examples of media you can use are photos that you take yourself, images and text in the public domain, and works created by someone else who has given permission for their work to be used by others. For more information about which types of media can be uploaded to Wikipedia, see
Commons:Help desk.
To add a media file to an article, you must first upload it to Wikimedia Commons. For instructions on how to upload files to Commons, refer to
Illustrating Wikipedia. This brochure will also provide you with detailed information about which files are acceptable to upload to Wikipedia and the value of contributing media to Wikipedia articles.
Milestones
Based on our discussions on the first two days of class, it is my expectation that by Week 2 you will be editing your selected article(s) "live" on Wiki and not merely in your sandboxes!
In class - WP-WIP#2
Thursday 1/19 @ 3p-4p
These activities will occur on Zoom
On Thursday 1/19 3p-4p you will informally present your work-in-progress to Dr. Lebowitz and/or Dr. Dexter. We will help troubleshoot or discuss your evolving thoughts on your work.
Monday, 23 January 2023 | Tuesday, 24 January 2023 | Wednesday, 25 January 2023 | Thursday, 26 January 2023 | Friday, 27 January 2023
In class - WP-WIP#3
Thursday 1/26 @ 3p-4p
These activities will occur on Zoom
On Thursday 1/26 3p-4p you will informally present your work-in-progress to Dr. Lebowitz and/or Dr. Dexter. We will help troubleshoot or discuss your evolving thoughts on your work.
Post your Review to the talk page of the article you are reviewing.
Aim for finishing your peer review BEFORE Wed 2/1!
How to conduct peer review? Themes/questions that emerged:
Make sure it's understandable to the indended WP audience
Make sure we include appropriate sources, mostly NOT primary literature. But OK to use primary literature when there is no secondary literature
Also OK to use closed-access resources
Look at the workplan and compare/contrast to actual work done
Don't be harsh on your classmate
Spot check a few links to ensure links are not broken
Ensure structure of article flows understandably
Follow readability guidelines (no sentences longer than 26 words)
Lots of periods, few commas or semicolons
Consider reviewing prior students’ declaration of intended work, as well as prior students’ peer reviews from our sister course UCSF. All can be found on the talk pages of the articles they edited and peer-reviewed. Wide range in quality, but you can find all prior cycles of the elective here:
On Fri 2/3 9a we will convene for a 1-2 hour meeting to share accomplishments and discuss lessons learned. Final presentations will be structured as follows: round robin "reports" (maximum of 10 minutes each) from each of you as follows:
What did I accomplish this month (broad overview)?
What did I learn?
What will I take forward with me into the future?
Now in hindsight, is there anything I would have done differently?
We will conclude our meeting with a focus group about the elective overall. This will include:
Strategies for improvement for future cycles of the elective