Student to Author: Using Wikipedia to Improve Undergraduate Research &

Writing

Michele Van Hoeck & Margot HansonCalifornia Maritime AcademyMaritime Education Summit

October 19, 2014

Poll

When was the last time you used Wikipedia?

What did you use it for?

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)

LIB100 Final Project:Students contribute 1,000

words to a Wikipedia article

Tramp trade (before)

After: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tramp_trade&oldid=488770944

Wikipedia Part Of The

‘Information Ecosystem’ Of AcademiaChronicle of Higher Education op-ed,

2011

Wikipedia = Uncredentialed Authors

(often anonymous)

Scholarly Values Wikipedia

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

Audience Matters

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.

Assessment Data for pilot

• Research practices

• Citation analysis

Most Inconvenient Library Service?

Average variety = 3 source types per article

64%of student sources for Wikipedia articles

were books

Wikipedia Under the Hood

About Wikipedia

• Multilingual (287 languages)• Created in 2001• 30 million articles• 77,000 active contributors

6th most popular website in the world

Tour Summary

• History• Talk page• Article Ratings • WikiProjects

History: previous versions, list of editors

Talk pages: discussion, WikiProjects, ratings

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

Find your institution

• Recognize any editors in the History?

• When was the article first created?

Create a Wikipedia account

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