This document discusses using Wikipedia to improve undergraduate research and writing. It provides examples of student projects where they contributed original content to Wikipedia articles. Studies found that most college students use Wikipedia for school assignments. The document advocates for using Wikipedia in the classroom in a way that aligns with scholarly values like relying on reliable sources and undergoing peer review. It describes challenges but also benefits to students, such as learning efficient research practices and citation analysis. Examples are given of assignments where students contributed to Wikipedia as an authentic audience.

1. Student to Author:
Using Wikipedia to Improve
Undergraduate Research & Writing
Michele Van Hoeck & Margot Hanson
California Maritime Academy
Maritime Education Summit
October 19, 2014

2. Poll
When was the last time you used Wikipedia?
What did you use it for?

3. 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)

4. LIB100 Final Project:
Students contribute 1,000 words
to a Wikipedia article

5. Tramp trade (before)
After: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tramp_trade&oldid=488770944

6. Wikipedia Part Of The
‘Information Ecosystem’
Of Academia
Chronicle of Higher Education op-ed, 2011

7. Wikipedia = Uncredentialed Authors
(often anonymous)
Scholarly
Values Wikipedia

8. Common Value:
Reliable, cited sources
•Scholarly, primary
sources
•Citations
Traditional
Scholarship
•Books, news
(secondary sources)
•Citations
Wikipedia

9. Common Value:
Peer Review
•Credentialed
reviewers
Traditional
Scholarship
•Amateur
reviewersWikipedia

11. Core Policy: Verifiability
Sources should be:
• Reliable: fact checking, editorial
oversight
• Third-party: unaffiliated with subject
• Published: archived copy must exist

12. Fall
2010
Public Policy
Initiative
Fall
2014
Spring
2013
23
institutions,
40 courses
37
institutions,
100 courses

13. Audience Matters

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Assessment Data for pilot
• Research practices
• Citation analysis

18. Most Inconvenient Library Service?
0
11%
22%
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
Spring 2010 Spring 2011 Spring 2012
%
Percent of LIB100 class using Interlibrary Loan
n=147 total students

19. Average variety = 3 source types per
article
64%of student sources for Wikipedia articles were books

20. Wikipedia Under the Hood

21. About Wikipedia
• Multilingual (287 languages)
• Created in 2001
• 30 million articles
• 77,000 active contributors
6th most popular website in the world

22. Tour Summary
• History
• Talk page
• Article Ratings
• WikiProjects

23. History:
previous versions, list of editors

24. Talk pages:
discussion, WikiProjects, ratings

25. Article Ratings
• Featured Article (FA) : <.1%
• Good Article (GA)
• B
• C
• Start
• Stub
These need the most work

26. WikiProject “To-Do/Brag” List
• Found on most
WikiProject pages
• Organizes articles by
quality and
importance
• Follow number links to
find stub articles

27. 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

28. Find your institution
• Recognize any editors in the History?
• When was the article first created?

29. Create a Wikipedia account

30. Wikicoding Tutorial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Trai
ning/For_educators/My_sandbox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tut
orial

31. Pitfalls/Challenges
• Public audience may be intimidating
• Finding a stub can be frustrating
• Encyclopedic style typical college
paper
• Notability a tough requirement

32. Sources
Bruff, 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/2830/24
76.
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.

33. Image Credits
• Life Magazine, 1952
• Wikipedia User CZmarlin