wiki-based gene reports in medical genetics 421
DESCRIPTION
Presentation by Wyeth Wasserman, PhD Senior Scientist, CMMT, CFRI, UBC Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, UBC at Thinking Session III: Open Platforms for Open Education during EDUCamp 2010 last March 18.TRANSCRIPT
Wyeth WassermanCentre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics
Child and Family Research Institute
Department of Medical Genetics
Wiki-based Gene Reports in Medical Genetics 421
Medical Genetics 421
• ~35 advanced undergraduate students– Most destined for graduate school in life
sciences or medical school• High demand for long awaited return of course led
to student population with history of high performance
– Essentially an honours class
– Students are uniformly aware of Wikipedia, but few (3-4 on average) have previously contributed/modified an entry
Course Format
• Lecture-based• Classical – sit, listen and ask questions• 75% of lectures by “guest” specialists
• Marks• 50% non-comprehensive exams (2)• 25% paper summaries (10)
» 1 page summaries of primary scientific literature
• 18% cancer gene report developed in MediaWiki
» Extra credit for top reports if posted to Wikipedia
• 7% for team-based gene network MediaWiki report (combines the “related” genes)
MediaWiki Training
• Critical to introduce the MediaWiki software to the students– Sample for key formats given
• http://www.cisreg.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/User:Jlim
– Dedicated 30 minute tutorial early in the term
• Walk the students through creation of a page
• http://www.cisreg.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/Medg421:Protected_page
Medg421 Wikipedia Gene Reports
• Course wiki• http://www.cisreg.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/Category:Genes
• Example of Wikipedia Posting (extra credit)
• Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 (DLC1)– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLC1
Image from the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project. http://cgap.nci.nih.gov/Pathways/BioCarta/h_egfPathway
Observations
• Students expressed surprising enthusiasm for the project
• Many students put in far greater effort than required for a good mark
• Led to word count limits in recent year
• Provided continuity with the wide range of cancer processes addressed in class
• The relationship of ‘their gene’ to the theme of the week kept the students engaged
• In the initial year, students only did individual project; better experience when combining their efforts led to gene network extension
Observations (2)
• Difficult to grade • Limit length• Content vs utility (keep students focused on useful
information)• History logs reviewed to assess team project
contributions (a better system would be nice)
• Exposes lack of understanding
• Hard to grade (~30 minutes each). Team projects for larger classes would be best.
Lessons Learned
• Word Limits!• Keeps students focused• Revisions necessary to cover required information in allowed
space
• Plagiarism tutorial• Some students seemed to think that the wiki-format was
open license to copy text without attribution
• More explicit requirements• Incorporating more hyperlinks• Create a summary figure
• Limit selection of topics (genes)• Group projects require sets of related genes
What’s Next ?
• Collaborative wiki projects with cancer biology classes at other institutions
• Open-textbook and instructional materials developed in global partnership
• Popular text books, but not frequently updated
• Under consideration: student multi-media reports to introduce cancer concepts