Wikipedia:GLAM/UAlbertaLibrary/Pedagogy

Wikipedia & Pedagogy: A Primer

If you are thinking about integrating a Wikipedia assignment or activity into your course design, this information is for you. This resource will offer guidance on using Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool, offer questions for instructors to consider before implementation, and provide examples and resources to get started.

What is Wikipedia?

While Wikipedia is one of the top visited sites in the world, many of us only know Wikipedia as the website that often has the answers to our Google queries. Wikipedia defines itself as “the free encyclopedia” and maintains guidelines to preserve the encyclopedic nature of its content (proper citations, reliable sourcing, objective writing, etc.). However, Wikipedia has evolved into a much more complex project than a traditional encyclopedia.

First, Wikipedia is crowd-sourced; anyone can edit Wikipedia. There are several thousand frequent editors on the site who are responsible for everything from small edits and article creation to content monitoring and consensus decision-making. Research by independent organizations and Wikipedia itself has shown that the editor pool is overwhelmingly white men, and this has led to content and citations that skew male as well. There are many projects underway to diversify the editor pool and improve the range of content on the site.

Second, Wikipedia is always evolving; there are two edits per second on the site. Each entry on Wikipedia has a ‘talk page’ where editors can collaborate, ask questions, and debate the content of the page. There are editors and bots who are constantly making improvements to citations, keeping content fresh, adding updates from the news media, and improving rhetoric.

Third, Wikipedia is built on emotional architecture; editors tend to work on entries that they have some affinity to or knowledge of. The collection of content on the site reflects the pool of editors who created it. Some projects underway are taking a methodical approach to identifying and filling gaps on the site, often in a specific subject area, to try to address this bias.

Fourth, Wikipedia has precise rules to ensure that a large community of editors is generating consistent work to improve the site. These include Wikipedia’s Five Pillars: this is an encyclopedia; it should be written from a neutral point of view; it’s free content that anyone can use or distribute; editors should treat each other with respect and civility; and there are no firm rules. Policies on notability and reliable sources are also key to the operations of Wikipedia.

Beyond all of the technical details about the site, Wikipedia is fun! It has democratized the presentation of encyclopedic information about our world. People with relatively little power to change society have the ability to shape one of the most ubiquitous and referenced sites in the internet age. The Wikipedia editor community’s main mantra is Be Bold: Make the Edit. Essentially, the value of Wikipedia is in its editors’ willingness to wade in and get editing.

Using Wikipedia assignments in the classroom

Pedagogical goals

Here are some learning objectives that a Wikipedia assignment could fulfill:

Research skills
- Conduct independent research using a variety of tactics and tools
- Understand how information is recorded, organized, and accessed offline and online
- Assess credibility of sources; who is considered credible and why?
- Assess gathered information for bias, gaps, weaknesses
- Organize information meaningfully
- Understand intellectual property: cite properly; avoid plagiarism; use images properly; and understand copyright, open access, and public domain
Writing skills
- Assess implications of creating written resources about a subject (consent, representation)
- Synthesize ideas collected from multiple sources
Develop intellectual curiosity and intellectual humility through engagement in public scholarship and debate

Incorporating Wikipedia assignments in your course

A Wikipedia article is a considerable undertaking; it takes a lot of time but doing it properly also requires learning about the editing process with smaller tasks first (the site actually requires this). We recommend a tiered approach to your assignment throughout the semester. Early semester assignments could include an assessment of an article against Wikipedia’s Good Articles criteria, proposing changes or additions to improve an existing article, and practising editing by fixing small errors in existing articles. These activities can help students build up their confidence with Wikipedia editing and become familiar with Wikipedia policies. This brochure summarizes WikiEdu’s recommended assignment approach:

Activity and assignment examples

Activity: Assessing an Wikipedia as a platform In the University of Alberta MACT program introductory course, Professor Gordon Gow has included a module about Wikipedia as an exercise in exploring internet governance and the process of collaboratively building the site. In groups, students delve into how pages are created, edited, and debated. For the online delivery of the exercise, Dr. Gow has created a detailed form to guide students in assessing a Wikipedia article.

Gap analysis assignment Working with digital librarian Erin Fields, this University of British Columbia course (FNIS220) features a Wikipedia gap analysis and editing assignment that uses a social constructivism approach to improve diversity of citations and perspectives included in articles. The class examined articles including Trans Mountain Pipeline and the University of British Columbia’s own page. Details about the course and Erin’s research into open pedagogy are available in a recorded webinar with slides (FNIS 220 information starts at 30:50 in the recording) and a published case study.

Organizing around an Art+Feminism Edit-A-Thon Jennifer Kennedy and Johanna Amos at Queen’s University teach a semester-long course on Art Feminisms, in which they teach students to research and write Wikipedia articles. The course culminates with the students organizing an Art+Feminism Edit-A-Thon where they teach the skills they have learned over the semester to participants from the community. They have created a handy guide to this classroom approach.

Full course based on WikiEdu Laurie Bridges at the Oregon State University has developed a full 2 credit course, Wikipedia: Universally Shared, Edited by Whom? Based on the WikiEdu modules. The course dashboard and a PDF syllabus are available online.

FAQ

What should the instructor’s skill level be with Wikipedia?

Great news: this doesn’t matter! You can assign a Wikipedia project in your course without being an expert yourself. There are plenty of resources available to help your students with the actual editing process. However, instructors’ expertise is critical in guiding students’ work assessing sources, identifying bias, discussing ‘what is neutral’, and contemplating issues of representation on the site.

How can Wikipedia tie in with the main content of the course?

There is almost always a way to make it work, but Wikipedia projects in post-secondary courses work well when at least some of the content matter is factual. Wikipedia requires that all entries are encyclopedic (not promotional or argumentative), written from a neutral perspective, and fully cited. A Wikipedia assignment can inspire good conversation about bias, representation, the writing of history, etc, but the actual contributions to the site need to be factual.

Resources

Wikipedia Education (WikiEdu)

WikiEdu is a robust site with training and practise activities for students working with Wikipedia in the classroom and tools for instructors to manage Wikipedia assignments.

WikiEdu training modules are free to access and can be used for both semester-long assignments and shorter activities. Modules cover technical topics like how to upload images and edit articles, and also include conceptual topics like how to evaluate an article, citation and plagiarism, and editing special topics. There are also training modules for instructors! The platform also offers exercises to practise learnings from the modules.

As an instructor using WikiEdu, you can create a dashboard for your students so the class can see who is working on what articles. Each class/instructor is assigned a WikiEdu support person who is available for the entire semester to answer questions and offer guidance. This person can also help you with instructional design before the semester begins.

The functionality of WikiEdu allows instructors to organize provided training modules into weekly tasks, add deadlines, and provide other relevant links. You can assign students to specific articles on Wikipedia and follow their progress. If you are interested in starting a WikiEdu dashboard for your class, contact WikiEdu staff using their simple online form.

NOTE: WikiEdu is limiting the number of schools it supports for Fall 2020 and requires an application to the program. You can apply by creating a dashboard and submitting it.

University of Alberta Library

Contact your Subject librarians to see if they can come to your class and speak about research, finding good sources, and proper citations.
Contact the Library via digitization [at] ualberta.ca to connect with a community of experienced Wikipedia editors at UofA, who can speak to your class or answer questions about how the platform works