User:Dr Ashton

Independent Study on Wikipedia

I would like to invite York College Psychology majors to join me for an independent study (Psy 49x) using Wikipedia. Students who have taken this independent study have had very enjoyable experiences, learned much about Psychology, developed a portfolio for graduate school, and have helped other people who needed to consult Wikipedia. For example, one student created several high quality Wikipedia pages; and one of their pages was awarded good article status!

In this independent study, students will be able to:

• develop their understanding of different areas in Psychology
• develop their ability to work independently
• develop their writing skills
• build a portfolio of work to attest to achievement of the above goals
• have their work published on Wikipedia!
• interact with other Wikipedia editors; develop collaboration skills and develop contacts outside of York College!

I will act as a colleague to the student by reviewing their work and giving them direction.

Most majors are unclear on the concept of an independent study. The activities the student engages in are jointly chosen by the student and faculty member. That is, the student is working independently. Some students sign on to do this Wikipedia independent study with me without being aware that the independent study is their deal. Students need to have an idea of what they want to do and they need to set the pace. Wikipedia is an excellent format for an independent study. I don't have to teach a student to use Wikipedia. Wikipedia is designed to teach editors how to edit Wikipedia.

Also, most majors are unaware that all independent study (Psy 49x) courses have specific goals based on department policy. They are:

Learning Objective Title	Objective
PSLO 2.1	Use scientific reasoning and critical thinking to interpret psychological phenomena.
PSLO 2.2	Interpret, design, and conduct basic psychological research (e.g., being able to explain the importance of research/evidence and different types of research; being able to design and conduct experiments; analyze and interpret data).
PSLO 2.3	Demonstrate psychological information literacy (e.g., being able to find appropriate scientific sources; navigate databases; read and interpret scientific writing).
PSLO 3.1	Craft clear and concise written communication using psychological concepts and principles.
PSLO 3.2	Employ the standards and conventions of APA writing style in an effective manner.
PSLO 3.3	Communicate quantitative information using statistics, tables and graphs.
PSLO 4.1	Students will apply ethical standards (i.e. APA code of ethics) to evaluate psychological science and practice.
PSLO 4.2	Students will consider issues of sociocultural diversity and societal inequality in their evaluations of psychological theory, science, and practice.

Students creating and editing good Wikipedia articles on psychology will easily meet all of these requirements; but they are requirements none the less.

So here's the deal. I'll do an independent study with any psych major and do it any semester. There are only two rules to this deal:

1. The Wikipedia articles you create and edit need to be under the topics of Psychology. Ideally, the articles will be part of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Psychology/APS-Wikipedia Initiative.
2. You need to ask for the independent study by messaging me on Wikipedia.

Message me on Wikipedia asking for the independent study: Before you message me you should create a Wikipedia account, go through the basic Wikipedia training, and edit 4 articles on Wikipedia. The edits don't need to be on psychology articles. The edits should range from about 10 to 25 words each (longer is okay). Edit any page. York's page, a page of a favorite artist or music group, etc.

By doing this you will have shown me that you can work independently (you taught yourself Wikipedia editing).

Introducing Me

I'm an associate professor in the Psychology discipline at York College, City University of New York.

York College in Autumn

I am not a hard-core Wikipedian. That is, I don't consider myself someone who is motivated to edit Wikipedia. Maybe I'm too old and Wikipedia is something new. Maybe I just don't have time and think that if I'm writing it should be something I can get published professionally. So why am I here?

• Because I realized that learning about Wikipedia is important to my students. This is something new (am I an old dog learning a new trick?). I've realized that a critical part of information literacy skills in the 21th century is to understand how online information is created. Wikipedia is one of the major sources of online information.

• I feel that teaching students about Wikipedia's standards of evidence, along with Psychology's standards, gives my students a better perspective on the quality of evidence, in general, and a better understanding of what makes Psychology unique.

• Finally, Wikipedia offers a unique opportunity for students to enter into public conversations with Wikipedia editors (or other Wikipedia editors) and have their work published publicly.

Links

Wikipedia:WikiProject Psychology/APS-Wikipedia Initiative

Wikipedia:WikiProject Psychology

You can view my work information and my vita here.

Projects

New page: Defensive attribution hypothesis

Defensive attribution hypothesis

Student Wikipedia assignment

Spring, 2014 Independent Study

User:Dr_Ashton/sandbox: stash of old class

User:Dr_Ashton/Portfolio example

User's Userboxes

This user plays Team Fortress 2.

Wikipedia:Babel

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01001000
01101001There are
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This user's favourite subject is Psychology.

PhDThis user has a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Social Psychology.

This user is or at one time was a RedHawk of Miami University.

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Earlham College.

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