Wiki-based Gene Reports in Medical

Genetics 421

Documenting the cancer genes…

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 were uniformly aware of Wikipedia, but very few (~2) had previously contributed to an entry

Course Format

• Lecture-based• Classical – sit, listen and ask questions• 50% of lectures by “guest” specialists

• Marks• 50% non-comprehensive exams (2)• 25% paper summaries (10)

» 1 page summaries of primary scientific literature

• 25% cancer gene report developed in MediaWiki

» Extra credit for top reports if posted to Wikipedia

» 6 of 35 reports were posted for credit; +1 voluntary

MediaWiki Training

• Critical to introduce the MediaWiki software to the students– Sample for key formats given

• http://burgundy.cmmt.ubc.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/User:Jlim

– Dedicated 45 minute tutorial early in the term

• Walked the students through creation of a page

• http://burgundy.cmmt.ubc.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/Medg421:Protected_page

Medg421 Wikipedia Gene Reports

• Course wiki• http://burgundy.cmmt.ubc.ca/medg421/wiki/index.php/Category:Genes

• Wikipedia Postings (extra credit)• Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC)

– http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deleted_in_Colorectal_CancerGENE

• Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 (DLC1)– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLC1

• Survivin– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivin

• Ecotropic viral integration site 1 (EVI1)– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVI1

• H19– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H19_%28gene%29

• Secreted frizzled-related protein (SFRP)– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secreted_frizzled-related_protein_1

Image from the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project. http://cgap.nci.nih.gov/Pathways/BioCarta/h_egfPathway

Unexpected Connection

• Creator of the “gene” pages watches all changes on all human gene entries

• Contacted me and made suggestions for next year• Taught me about existing user groups interested in

gene pages• Pointed me to Jon Beasley-Murray as an active

proponent of using Wikipedia in the classroom• Suggested that I consider using Citizendium as an

alternative to Wikipedia

Observations

• Students expressed surprising enthusiasm for the project

• Many students put in far greater effort than required for a good mark

• 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

Observations (2)

• Difficult to grade • Long entries• Content vs utility

• Exposes lack of understanding

• Suggest limiting such an assignment to classes of <30 students

Next Year

• Word Limits!• The student really got into it, but they did not revise text for

clarity

• 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

• Gene selection undetermined• Make students work on genes not covered previously? Allow

them to improve existing entries?