student to author: using wikipedia to improve undergraduate research & writing
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Student to Author: Using Wikipedia to Improve Undergraduate Research &
Writing
Michele Van Hoeck & Margot HansonCalifornia Maritime AcademyMaritime Education Summit
October 19, 2014
Who Uses Wikipedia?
75% of college students use Wikipedia at least occasionally for school assignments
(Project Information Literacy, 2010)
69% of Internet users with a college degree
(Pew Research Center, 2011)
Tramp trade (before)
After: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tramp_trade&oldid=488770944
Common Value: Reliable, cited sources
• Scholarly, primary sources
• Citations
Traditional Scholarship
• Books, news (secondary sources)
• CitationsWikipedia
Common Value:Peer Review
• Credentialed reviewers
Traditional Scholarship
• Amateur reviewersWikipedia
Core Policy: Verifiability
Sources should be:• Reliable: fact checking, editorial
oversight
• Third-party: unaffiliated with subject
• Published: archived copy must exist
Fall 201
0
Public Policy
Initiative
Fall 2014
Spring 2013
23 institutions,40 courses
37 institutions, 100 courses
Authentic Audience
• Other than teacher
• In conjunction with task that fills genuine need
• Examples from our Faculty Learning Community:
– Economics: Election debate– Engineering: Solar charger
CAL MARITIME WIKIPEDIAN #1
Eric: Forest Dieback
For my project, I was interested in developing something that would stand the test of time.
…
I’m very happy with what I was able to produce. I go back every now and again and look at my page and see if anyone has done anything. It’s a great experience, I think.
…
Because the project was in a public domain, out on the internet for everybody to access, it adds a level of seriousness to what I’m doing. It will stay with me a long time. The public nature of it, you do the coding, and other people contribute, that makes it really fun.
CAL MARITIME WIKIPEDIAN #2
Andy: MV Dunedin Star
I wanted to do work that I was proud of and that other people would find interesting.
…The most beneficial thing is it would probably take me half the time to write a research paper than it would in the past, based on this experience.
Average variety = 3 source types per article
64%of student sources for Wikipedia articles
were books
About Wikipedia
• Multilingual (287 languages)• Created in 2001• 30 million articles• 77,000 active contributors
6th most popular website in the world
Article Ratings
• Featured Article (FA) : <.1%• Good Article (GA)• B• C• Start• Stub These need the most
work
WikiProject “To-Do/Brag” List
• Found on most WikiProject pages
• Organizes articles by quality and importance
• Follow number links to find stub articles
Workshop Activities
• Find discussion and WikiProjects on Talk page of 1991 Perfect Storm– https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Perfect_Storm
• View history of institution’s page• Create account• WikiCoding Tutorial
Wikicoding Tutorial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Training/For_educators/My_sandbox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial
Pitfalls/Challenges
• Public audience may be intimidating
• Finding a stub can be frustrating
• Encyclopedic style typical college paper
• Notability a tough requirement
SourcesBruff, Derek. “A Social Network Can Be a Learning Network.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (2011). Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/A-Social-Network-Can-Be-a/129609/
Grathwohl, Casper. “Wikipedia Comes of Age.” Chronicle of Higher Education 57, no. 20 (2011): B2.
Head, Alison. “How Today’s College Students Use Wikipedia for Course-related Research.” First Monday 15, no. 3 (2010), http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2830/2476.
Head, Alison J. Learning Curve: How College Students Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace. Sonoma, CA: Project Information Literacy, 2012, http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_fall2012_workplaceStudy_FullReport.pdf
Zickuhr, Kathleen and Lee Rainie.“Wikipedia, Past and Present.” Pew Internet and American Life Project (2011). Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Wikipedia.aspx.
Image Credits
• Life Magazine, 1952
• Wikipedia User CZmarlin
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