Subject: [ADW] I have multiple students in my Mammalogy class this semester that would like
to...
To: gehri1tm@cmich.edu
From: Animal Diversity Web <adw.noreply@umich.edu>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 15:58:04 +0000
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----------------------------------------------------------------------> I have multiple students in my Mammalogy class this semester that
> would like to contribute an account as part of their course grade.
> Please let me know how I might advise the students on proceeding.
Hello Dr. Gehring,
Thank you very much for your interest in contributing to the Animal Diversity
Web. We would be happy to accept contributions of accounts from your
mammalogy course.
I am copying the text of a letter to instructors below. I hope it helps to get
a better idea of what this project/process entails. I'd be happy to answer any
other questions you have as well. You may reply to this email or directly to me
(tdewey@umich.edu).
Dear Contributing Instructor,
Thank you for considering the use of an ADW taxon account writing project in
your course curriculum. We strive to make the account writing process a
valuable learning experience. We hope that this kind of experience will help
your students to learn about finding and using reliable, scientific resources,
the incredible diversity of animal natural history, and the scientific process.
We also hope that this project provides valuable experience in scientific
writing. The ADW provides extensive materials and structure in support of
achieving these learning goals. If students are successful in writing a
complete account, with quality information, their work becomes part of one of
the largest natural history databases worldwide and is available to enrich the
education of countless ADW site users.
While a large part of what students do initially (research and writing) is
offline, it is essential that both instructors and students register and orient
themselves to the ADW course contribution site as early as possible. This
should help avert difficulties with navigating the site later on, typically when
deadlines are looming.
Animal Diversity Web staff members provide support to instructors and students
during the course of their contributions. The primary responsibility for
quality, scholarly work lies with the student, of course, but we rely on
instructors to provide the first level of editorial review. Instructors provide
comments on student work and encourage students to make suggested changes. Once
the instructor and the student consider the account complete, it is transferred
to ADW staff for final editorial review. We reserve the right to reject
accounts based on our review criteria.
Here is an overview of the taxon account writing process:
ß Instructor and students register in the workspace provided to them by ADW
staff. Remember your username and password! Make sure that you’ve registered
for the correct course workspace.
ß Instructor and students review the guidelines for contributors (found in the
workspace).
ß Students sign up for taxa. We prefer that undergraduates be restricted to
writing about species, rather than higher taxonomic groups. Our higher taxon
accounts are usually written by experts. Instructors should decide, beforehand,
whether there are restrictions on the taxa open to student sign up. For
example, your course may be taxon specific and students will only be allowed to
write about that taxon. You could also restrict students to animals of a
particular region, habitat, etc. The ADW maintains “wishlists†of animal names
these are species for which we are specifically seeking accounts and includes
species with accounts already published on the ADW that we want to replace (they
are of insufficient quality). If the ADW has an account for a particular
species already, and we are not looking for a replacement for that account,
students cannot write about that species. Students may have to try several
species before they find one that ADW will permit and (importantly!) for which
they can find sufficient resources to write about its natural history.
ß Students use the guidelines for contributors and the instructions found on the
online taxon account template to research and write their account. It is
important to stress that: 1) no template section should be left blank, 2) all
information should be written at the species level, and 3) all information
should be fully referenced! The guidelines cover this completely.
ß Students use the online account template to enter all of their references
(under the references tab).
ß Once students have composed the text of their account in a word processing
program (so that they can check spelling and grammar) they paste text into our
online account template. It is important that students have been using the
template structure to write their accounts from the beginning, as the template
structure is quite specific and helps to organize and structure their research
and writing.
ß Once all text has been placed in the online account template, students submit
their complete, fully referenced, first draft to their instructor
(electronically, via the workflow tab).
ß The instructor evaluates student work and returns the draft to students so
they can incorporate suggestions. Instructors accept and return student first
drafts in different ways, depending on their preference. ADW enables a
completely electronic review and submission process through our discussion
threads for each account and via our workflow tab, but many instructors prefer
to write comments on hard copies. We’ll do our best to help with any system you
prefer. However, instructors must also electronically return accounts to their
students this is pretty simple, involving a few mouse clicks, andd ADW staff is
happy to do it for you as long as we know when to do it!
ß Students make improvements to their first draft based on instructor comments
and ADW staff comments. ADW staff may occasionally provide comments and
suggestions via a discussion box associated with each account. We do this
purely to be helpful, if you’d rather we didn’t, please just let us know.
ß Students submit final drafts to their instructor (electronically, via the
workflow tab).
ß The instructor evaluates student final drafts. At this point, depending on
the structure of your course, it is often unlikely that students will be
motivated to work on the account again. Instructors will typically be assigning
the account a final grade. ADW asks that you decide whether the account is of
sufficient quality to be considered for ADW publication. If you’d rather have
ADW staff make that decision, just let us know. Often you’ll have accounts that
are simply bad, which we would ask that you “shelve†(similar to rejecting) via
the workflow tab. Others you may pass on for ADW review by selecting “submit to
ADW†in the workflow tab. Remember that all accounts submitted through your
courses will also bear your name as an editor. We begin our own editorial
process only after accounts have been submitted to us, so please remember this
step or your accounts may be left in limbo!
ß The ADW employs several content specialists and editors to review and edit
accounts. These are mostly people with some level of taxonomic expertise, often
graduate students. If we find that an account is missing too much information,
lacks quality references, is not written well, or is otherwise lacking in
quality, we will not publish it. We often find instances of plagiarism at this
stage. We will contact you if we detect potential plagiarism. Please discuss
plagiarism and the concept of citation with your students, it is being
increasingly encountered as more information is available online.
The final result of this process is a source of justifiable pride for your
students and yourself. We are very grateful to contributors such as you for
helping to create this truly unique and valuable resource.
Here are some examples of especially good accounts:
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Clethrionomys_rutilus.html
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Geogale_aurita.html
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Sialia_mexicana.html
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Polyodon_spathula.html
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tanya Dewey (tdewey@umich.edu), one of
- the Animal Diversity Web Zookeepers
----------------------------------------------------------------------If you would like to respond to this message, please visit:
<http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/feedback/contribute_request35>
This URL will be available for sixty days.
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