1.
Wiki-based Gene Reports in Medical Genetics 421 Documenting the cancer genes…

2.
Medical Genetics 421 <ul><li>35 advanced undergraduate students </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Most destined for graduate school in life sciences or medical school </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>High demand for long awaited return of course led to student population with history of high performance </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Essentially an honours class </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Students were uniformly aware of Wikipedia, but very few (~2) had previously contributed to an entry </li></ul></ul>

3.
Course Format <ul><li>Lecture-based </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Classical – sit, listen and ask questions </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>50% of lectures by “guest” specialists </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Marks </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>50% non-comprehensive exams (2) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>25% paper summaries (10) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>1 page summaries of primary scientific literature </li></ul></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>25% cancer gene report developed in MediaWiki </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Extra credit for top reports if posted to Wikipedia </li></ul></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>6 of 35 reports were posted for credit; +1 voluntary </li></ul></ul></ul></ul></ul>

4.
MediaWiki Training <ul><li>Critical to introduce the MediaWiki software to the students </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Sample for key formats given </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://burgundy.cmmt.ubc.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/User:Jlim </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Dedicated 45 minute tutorial early in the term </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Walked the students through creation of a page </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://burgundy.cmmt.ubc.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/Medg421:Protected_page </li></ul></ul></ul>

5.
Medg421 Wikipedia Gene Reports <ul><li>Course wiki </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://burgundy.cmmt.ubc.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/Category:Genes </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Wikipedia Postings (extra credit) </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deleted_in_Colorectal_CancerGENE </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 (DLC1) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLC1 </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Survivin </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivin </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Ecotropic viral integration site 1 (EVI1) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVI1 </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>H19 </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H19_%28gene%29 </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Secreted frizzled-related protein (SFRP) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secreted_frizzled-related_protein_1 </li></ul></ul></ul></ul>Image from the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project. http://cgap.nci.nih.gov/Pathways/BioCarta/h_egfPathway

6.
Unexpected Connection <ul><li>Creator of the “gene” pages watches all changes on all human gene entries </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Contacted me and made suggestions for next year </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Taught me about existing user groups interested in gene pages </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Pointed me to Jon Beasley-Murray as an active proponent of using Wikipedia in the classroom </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Suggested that I consider using Citizendium as an alternative to Wikipedia </li></ul></ul></ul>

7.
Observations <ul><li>Students expressed surprising enthusiasm for the project </li></ul><ul><li>Many students put in far greater effort than required for a good mark </li></ul><ul><li>Provided continuity with the wide range of cancer processes addressed in class </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>The relationship of ‘their gene’ to the theme of the week kept the students engaged </li></ul></ul></ul>

8.
Observations (2) <ul><li>Difficult to grade </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Long entries </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Content vs utility </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Exposes lack of understanding </li></ul><ul><li>Suggest limiting such an assignment to classes of <30 students </li></ul>

9.
Next Year <ul><li>Word Limits! </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>The student really got into it, but they did not revise text for clarity </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Plagiarism tutorial </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Some students seemed to think that the wiki-format was open license to copy text without attribution </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>More explicit requirements </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Incorporating more hyperlinks </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Create a summary figure </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Gene selection undetermined </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Make students work on genes not covered previously? Allow them to improve existing entries? </li></ul></ul></ul>