Education/Archive/Case Studies/writearticle

Write an article

Juliana Bastos Marques

Professor

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO)
Brazil

Course name
Special Topics in Ancient History — Roman History in Wikipedia

Course level (undergraduate/graduate)
Advanced undergraduates

Learning objectives
Writing Skills Development    
Media and Information Literacy    
Critical Thinking and Research Skills    
Collaboration
Wiki Technical and Communication Skills    

Discipline of course
History

Class size
20

Individual or group assignment
Individual

Duration of assignment
13 weeks

Assignment

For the first four weeks, I asked my students to write a 3-page report where they analyze the current state of the articles chosen for future revision, with critical reading of both content and form.

I gave them seven weeks after this to edit their chosen articles in sandboxes with feedback from me and the Ambassadors. Finally, I asked them to complete a 3-page individual assessment and feedback for the course.

By far, learning how to interpret texts and write clearly and concisely in their own words, with references, was the most positive aspect of the activity. This is difficult, necessary, and comes with practice. Students were very apathetic at first, perhaps showing resistance to a very new activity proposed by the professor. Only close to the deadline did they understand the implications of what they were doing. The assignments were thus a paradigm shift for the students as well.

(CC-BY-SA 3.0) by Matthew Roth