This document describes an assignment given to first year human geography students at the University of Portsmouth. The assignment involves having each student extend the Wikipedia article on an assigned English village by adding historical information and references. Students conduct entirely online research using resources like Vision of Britain and historical gazetteers. The goals are to introduce students to independent research and editing Wikipedia. Students are assessed on inclusion of information, source use, article structure, and referencing among other criteria.

1. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Introducing Students to
Independent Research through
Editing Wikipedia Articles on
English Villages
Humphrey Southall
(University of Portsmouth/
Great Britain Historical GIS)

2. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Applied Human Geography course
• Course for first year human geographers at the
University of Portsmouth
• This year only c. 50 students on course, but
introduced in 2011-12 when a “bulge” intake meant we
had 103 students on course
– Need for a practical course that could handle a lot of students
with limited staffing
• Course runs weekly over year, but during first half of
the year they do a different assignment where tutorial
groups do fieldwork around Portsmouth
– One requirement was developing a clearly distinct assignment
– So in second half they work individually and entirely online
– Reports on the two assignments contribute equal marks
1st November 2013

3. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
The assignment – from the handout (1):
• In the second half of the year we will be using on-line
resources to study places you do not know personally
and will not be visiting.
• Each student is assigned a different place, and more
specifically the Wikipedia article about that place.
These articles already exist but are very short.
• Your task is to substantially extend your
assigned Wikipedia article to provide a rounded
description of the place and, in particular, an
account of its historical development.
• The final article must be of not more than four pages
when printed using Wikipedia's default settings.
1st November 2013

4. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
The assignment – from the handout (2):
• Because you will be writing about villages well
away from Portsmouth you have no personal
knowledge of, or opinions about, everything you
say must be supported by referencing, sentence
by sentence.
• Your sources of information will mainly be other web
sites, and your mark will depend on how thoughtfully
these are chosen, how carefully they are referenced,
and how you respond to comments from others.
• The reliability and usefulness of the information you
add is much more important than the amount.
1st November 2013

5. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Course Programme for 2013
Date
Session
Topic
25 Jan
Lecture
Introduction: Writing about places
28 Jan
Class
Working with Wikipedia 1: Each student has to register, find an
article to work on, and add descriptive sentence to it
1 Feb
Lecture
Researching places on-line: Systematic sources about parishes
28 Jan
Class
Working with Wikipedia 2: Adding text from a 19th century gazetteer,
and a population time series, plus source references for both
8 Feb
Lecture
Researching places on-line 2: Qualitative sources about places
Then
weekly
Surgery
I am available in my office to discuss content, and the two postgrads
are available to help with using Wikipedia
22 Feb
Guest
Andrew Gray (British Library): Working with Wikipedia community
22 Mar
Lecture
When and how to cite online; when and how to copy; plagiarism
Late
March
Tutorials
Formative Assessment: draft articles presented to tutorial groups
9 May
Deadline! Submission of printed version of final article to department office
1st November 2013

6. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Criteria for choosing articles (1):
Criterion
Yes
I have never been there and have no plans to visit before May 9
2013. As far as I know, I have no connection with this place. (If
answer is “no”, return sheet unmarked for someone else.)
✔
The existing article is very short, and contains no socioeconomic statistics other than, possibly, the population in 2001
(Look at the article itself, within Wikipedia)
✔
The article can be edited, but has not been edited other than by
a "bot" since the start of 2013 (Is there an "Edit" link?; check the
article's "View history" link).
✔
There is not a separate linked article or articles for separate
villages within the parish, or they are also very short (if such
articles exist, discuss them with us).
✔
There is a settlement there, visible on a modern map (Click on
coordinate at top right of article, and then on Bing Maps/OS
Maps, but if your answer is no you must get us to agree).
1st November 2013
✔
No

7. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Creating a shortlist of villages with Toolserver
• Possible to systematically extract lists of articles from
Wikipedia meeting some of these criteria:
– http://tools.wmflabs.org/catscan2/catscan2.php?categories=Civil
+parishes+in+North+Yorkshire&show_redirects=no&before=201
20101&smaller=1500&doit=1
• Results for North
Yorkshire
– There used to be
more, before
course started!
– Deepest thanks to
Andrew Gray for
showing me this
1st November 2013

8. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Criteria for choosing articles (2):
Criterion
Yes
The place is currently a Civil Parish. (Go to
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk; type in the place
name; click on "more areas" and select "Parish", then Search).
✔
There is a "place page" for the same place within A Vision of
Britain through Time. (Go to www.visionofbritain.org.uk and type
the place name … into the main search box).
✔
There is a descriptive gazetteer entry from the 19th century (This
should appear on the place page in Vision of Britain).
✔
A population time series is available for at least three census
years (From the Vision of Britain place page, click on "Units and
Statistics”; click on a unit which has "CP" against its name; click
on "Population"; click on "Total Population”).
✔
Occupational statistics are available for 1881 (Still in Vision of
Britain, click on "Census Reports" in the sidebar; click on
1881/10: "Occupations of Males and Females …" if this exists).
✔
1st November 2013
No

9. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Getting started with Sawley, North Yorkshire
1st November 2013

10. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Wikipedia article for
Sawley, North Yorkshire:
Before

11. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Googling for Sawley
1st November 2013

12. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
List of more formal source for parishes
1st November 2013

13. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Wikipedia article for
Sawley, North Yorkshire:
After

14. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Wikipedia article for
Sawley, North Yorkshire:
References
•
•
•
The students are banned from
visiting “their” village
Nothing in Portsmouth libraries
So research must be entirely online

15. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Placename data for
Sawley from Survey
of English Place
Names

16. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
BBC
Domesday
material for
Sawley

17. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Monumental
Trees for
Sawley (!)

18. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
2011 Census Key Statistics
for Sawley from
Neighbourhood Statistics

19. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Population
data for Sawley
1881-1961 from
Vision of
Britain

20. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Occupational
Statistics for
Sawley in 1881
from Vision of
Britain
1st November 2013

21. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Population data
for Sawley 180151 from Hist-Pop
(Essex)

22. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
This is the best of the
2A articles – but four
students got first
class marks
Wikipedia article for
Sawley, North Yorkshire:
References
•
•
•
The students are banned from
visiting “their” village
Nothing in Portsmouth libraries
So research must be entirely online

23. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
History page for Sawley
1st November 2013

24. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Assessment -- You will be marked on seven criteria:
1. Inclusion of required systematic information
Statistical trends from the census + parish administrative history
2. Effective use of sources to create a sense of place
and a sense of historical evolution
3. Originality in use of sources
Have you gone usefully beyond the sources we suggested?
4. How well your article is laid out and illustrated
5. Quality of referencing
Wherever possible include a hyperlink to the source, but each
footnote should clearly identify the source and enable the reader to
assess its quality, without following links
6. Engagement with other Wikipedia users
7. Adherence to Wikipedia guidelines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_UK_geography/How_to_write_about_settlements
1st November 2013

25. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
“Engaging with other Wikipedia users”
• Criterion added after 2012 Eduwiki meeting
• Partly about how students respond to comments from
and edits by other users
• But primarily about whether they have a complete
article complete in time for other Wikipedians to
engage with it and improve it before submission
deadline
– Deadline is in second week back after Easter
– Criterion is whether a reasonably complete article exists by
end of term before Easter
– I am trying to train students not to leave everything until the
last minute!
1st November 2013

26. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Practical Issues:
• Students required to register using univ email addresses
– Discovered students could not upload directly into article until
their account had made TEN edits, and waited four days
– Failed to discover this when I tested instructions as my account
had been around much longer
• Strange undocumented “features”:
1st November 2013

27. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Practical Issues:
• Students required to register using univ email addresses
– Discovered students could not upload directly into article until
their account had made TEN edits, and waited four days
– Failed to discover this when I tested instructions as my account
had been around much longer
• Strange undocumented “features”:
1st November 2013

28. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Practical Issues:
• Students required to register using univ email addresses
– Discovered students could not upload directly into article until
their account had made TEN edits, and waited four days
– Failed to discover this when I tested instructions as my account
had been around much longer
• Strange undocumented “features”:
Running a course like
this you really need
access to an Andrew
Gray …
1st November 2013

29. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
Conclusions:
• The students found working “in public” challenging
– In first year course ran, some thought they could just hand in a
conventional course paper instead
• They learnt a lot about referencing
– Biggest problem, and commonest reason for fails, was copying
text from other sites, including a hyperlink to the source but not
identifying text as quotation -- still plagiarism!
• … and, in the end, most students clearly took great
pride in what they had done
– Excellent introduction to doing independent research
– Manageable for first years because sources so systematic
• I hope we didn’t place too big a burden on other
Wikipedians
– Deepest thanks to KeithD
1st November 2013

30. Great Britain Historical GIS Project:
A Vision of Britain though Time
All about Keith D
1st November 2013