Best practices in assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework to students
- See this article in Ukrainian
Best practices in assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework to students is an introduction to using Wikipedia as a teaching tool. As demonstrated by the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative, a pilot project for using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in higher education, there are many benefits associated with exposing students to an open peer production community like Wikipedia.
Benefits to students | |||
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In contrast to traditional writing assignments, working with Wikipedia promises several advantages for students:
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Benefits to the Wikipedia community and its mission | |||
The community benefits because:
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Benefits to instructors | |||
The course leader benefits from using Wikipedia as a platform for education, because with the Wikipedia Ambassador program;
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Action Plan | |||
Phase A: Preparatory phase | 1. Recruit facilitators 2. Think of what goals your students should reach. Use the experience of your facilitators to check the feasibility. 3. Creating work plan / time table / list of tasks or articles | ||
Phase B: Course phase | 4. Teaching Wikipedia basics (formal requirements, editing, quality management, tutorial for advanced learners. If you invite a public speaker, there will be a more constructive feeling: “there are qualified humans behind the nicks and cooperation produce better content / course notes") (90 minutes) 5. Executing and monitoring all phases and operationalize on Wikipedia (encouraging students during the process, dealing with drawbacks) | ||
Models | Model A: Bachelor in Germany (Goal: Lesenswerte Artikel) | Model B: Master in Germany | Model C: Bachelor in the United States |
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Well proofed is the goal of creating content orientated on the criteria good or featured article. You ought not to use the local candidates, if there is no fixed timeline.
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Phase C: Conclusion phase | 6. Evaluating your course (finish your course, feedback of students, feedback for Wikipedia) |
Other resources
[edit]- Education/Countries – list of current and past education programs worldwide
- Wikipedia:School and university projects – list of current and past projects on the English Wikipedia
- Best practices documentation – other best practice pages on Outreach wiki
Further reading
[edit]- Robert E. Cummings: Are We Ready to Use Wikipedia to Teach Writing?, in: Inside higher Ed (March 12, 2009)
Tell people about our vision – Show your audience the numbers – Tell people how you have benefited from contributing to Wikipedia – Tell people why Wikipedia needs their help – Some themes that might be interesting to build your presentation around
Building a content partnership with a cultural institution in a nutshell – Don't liberate, help GLAMs to emancipate content
Create a timetable for your project – Recruit facilitators – Goals for your students – Teach important basics about Wikipedia – Invite a public speaker
Use eye-catchers to attract attention – Interact with the visitors