The document discusses the evolving role of Wikipedia in higher education, outlining its progression from being viewed as a questionable source to being utilized as a teaching tool and public face of research. It presents a model for educators to integrate Wikipedia into their curricula, encouraging students to engage actively with the platform. Ultimately, it advocates for overcoming academic biases against Wikipedia to enhance knowledge integration in formal research processes.

1. Wikipedia and
Higher Education
Dr. Robert E. Cummings
Associate Professor of English, University of Mississippi
SLAM Fellow, University of Sydney
US Fulbright Senior Specialist in OER

2. Two Parts to This Presentation
Part One:
The Role of Wikipedia in
Higher Education
Part Two:
Some examples of
successful assignments
teaching with Wikipedia
from students and teachers
around the world

3. Part One: The Four Phases of Higher
Education’s Engagement with
Wikipedia
1. Understanding Wikipedia as a source (2001 – present)
2. Wikipedia as a teaching tool (2003-present)
3. Wikipedia as the public face of research (2011 – present)
4. Wikipedia as identity site for disciplines (?)

4. 1. Higher Education
Understanding Wikipedia
as a Source
Wikipedia first appears on
15 January, 2001, as an
alternative to Nupedia.
Nupedia had been an
online, peer-reviewed
encyclopedia project which
suffered from lack of
contributions. With little to
lose, Jimmy Wales, et al.,
decided to open the gates
and allow anyone to
contribute to the
encyclopedia. And content
exploded.

5. 1. Higher Education
Understanding Wikipedia
as a Source
Higher Education begins
to take notice of
Wikipedia.
“First” example of higher
education engagement
with Wikipedia: 11 July
2003. Andrew Lih
(“Fuzzheado”) teaches a
course “You’ve Got Mail:
Interactive Media, News,
and Communication” at
University of Hong
Kong.

6. 1. Higher Education
Understanding Wikipedia
as a Source
Which is soon followed by
its banishment:
February 2007: Middlebury
History Department bans
Wikipedia citations in
student papers.

7. 2. Wikipedia as a teaching tool
List of Institutions Currently Registered as Teaching with
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Institutions

8. 3. Wikipedia as the public face
of research
At its 2011 meeting, the
Association for
Psychological Science
urged its members to begin
editing Wikipedia to ensure
“represents psychology
fully and accurately.”
Mahzarin R. Banaji, a
psychology professor at
Harvard University, stated
that she knows it will be
difficult to engage
academics in editing
Wikipedia. Photo. From The Project on Law and Mind Sciences. 2008.

9. 3. Wikipedia as the public face
of research
After reading articles on psychology on Wikipedia, Banaji
observed that “They were really old, out-of-date stuff.”
But Wikipedia gets 13 million visitors a day, so these
inaccuracies, she realized, were the public face of
Psychology, far more than any professional journal.
Of 5,500 psychology articles in the online reference, only
nine have been rated as good by Wikipedia’s peer-
assessment process, according to the psychology
association.

10. 3. Wikipedia as the public face
of research
Disciplines -- even in “high
stakes” areas – start to
realize through their
Wikipedia pedagogy that
public access to information
is vital to their professions.
Professor Arnin Azzam’s
course teaches future
medical professionals how
to edit Wikipedia.
“As these students are going
to become the next
generation of health care
providers we need them to
be able to communicate in
language that the general
population understands”

11. 4. Wikipedia as identity site for
disciplines ?
As the academy begins to understand the expanding role
for Wikipedia and the face of public knowledge, I predict
that disciplines will become more organized in engaging
editors.
As the public’s expectation and appetite for authority –
bolstered by academic presence – grows within Wikipedia,
I predict that disciplines will begin to compare their
presences on Wikipedia.
Disciplines which are more oriented to providing accurate
public knowledge will move first.
As their awareness of their relative successes grows, they
will compete amongst themselves to achieve the best
presence.

12. Getting Started:
A Model for Teaching
with Wikipedia
Consider
your
Course
Learning
Objectives
Determine
Course
Topic to
Take to
Wikipedia
Teach Students the
Wikipedia Context
through Five Pillars:
* Encyclopedia
* NPOV
*CC-BY-SA
* Civility and
Community
*Be Bold
Register
your class
with
Education
Program
Locate the content on
Wikipedia and propose
improvements in class,
and online:
copy edit? Extend a
stub? Take an article to
the next level?
Translate? Write a
requested article?
Practice
making those
improvements
in your
sandbox while
awaiting
feedback
Make those
improvement
s
Reflect on
the lessons
learned, as
they relate
to to . . .

13. Step 1 of 7
Consider Your Course Learning
Objectives or Outcomes
How will teaching with Wikipedia support your course
learning outcomes?
Almost all Wikipedia assignments are keyed off of student
“mastery” of your course content in some way.
Once students are on the way toward achieving a course
outcome, their experience in Wikipedia can reinforce their
progress.
Activity: Step 1 on your worksheet

14. Step 1 of 7
Consider Your Course Learning
Objectives or Outcomes
Example:
In my first-year writing course, my course outcomes are:
Writing Process: Students will demonstrate writing as a process that requires
brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.
Exploration and Argument: Students will use writing to respond to readings, explore
unfamiliar ideas, question thinking different from their own, reflect on personal
experiences, and develop sound arguments.
Purposes and Audience: Students will produce writing suitable for a variety of
purposes, with an emphasis on academic purposes.
Research: Students will integrate primary sources with their own ideas through
summary, paraphrase, and quotation, and document those sources properly.
Conventions and Mechanics: Students will produce writing that is free of serious
grammatical and mechanical errors.

15. Step 2 of 7
Consider The Course Content You Would
Like Students to Engage on Wikipedia
How will teaching with Wikipedia support your course learning
outcomes?
At some point in your learning outcomes, students will have
obtained a level of working engagement with your course
content. They will not be experts, but they will know more than
most of the public.
All teaching with Wikipedia works by reinforcing a student’s
developing expertise with your course content. There are
several types of Wikipedia assignments, but all rely on a
student’s comparative knowledge advantage in you course
content.
Activity: Step 2 on your worksheet

16. Step 2 of 7
Consider The Course Content You Would
Like Students to Engage on Wikipedia
Example:
In my WRIT 101 course, I chose for my students to work with
film pages on Wikipedia. They were allowed to choose a film
that interested them, and they could work in groups, or as
individuals.
Students were not experts in film.
However, after some research in to the film of their choosing,
they knew more about their chosen film than most of the
public.

17. Step 3 of 7
Introduce Students to
the Wikipedia Environment
Give students an opportunity to express their experience,
attitudes, and background with Wikipedia, both inside and
outside the classroom.
Remind students that the purpose of a university
education is to move them from being “information
consumers” to “information producers” and that writing in
Wikipedia is an opportunity to try their hand at producing
information which the public will find valuable.
Assure students that you (and Wiki Ed ambassadors) are
there to help and support them throughout the project.
Activity: Step 3a on your worksheet

18. Step 3 of 7
Introduce Students to
the Wikipedia Environment
Review the Five Pillars of Wikipedia:
1. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.
2. Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view.
3. Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use,
modify, and distribute.
4. Editors should treat each other with respect and civility.
5. Wikipedia does not have firm rules.
Activity: Step 3b on your worksheet

19. Step 3 of 7
Introduce Students to
the Wikipedia Environment
Examples:
Students writing essays, and simultaneously violating (1)
no original research, (2) NPOV and (3) purpose of an
encyclopedia.
Students failing to accord due weight.
Students not offering sufficient citations.
Students plagiarizing.
Biting the newcomers.

20. Step 4 of 7
Register Your Course with the Wikipedia
Education Program
Visit the Wikipedia Education Program Page.
Benefits include online ambassadors for your course
interaction with Wikipedia, and more structure for your
course page.
Or, alternatively, post a notice of your course on the
School and University Projects page.

21. Step 5 of 7
Decide How Your Class Project Will
Contribute to Wikipedia
Determine the overall framework of your Wikipedia
assignment. Here are a few common types (cf. Case
Studies pamphlet):
copy edit?
Extend a stub?
Take an article to the next level?
Translate?
Write a requested article?

22. Step 6 of 7
Locate the content on Wikipedia and propose
improvements in class, and online
In the assignment, design a method for students to
practice and propose their edits. The process is generally:
1. Identify and evaluate the article
2. Propose the edits to the class
3. Propose the edits to the Wikipedia editing community via
the article’s talk page
4. Practice the edits in a sandbox (attached to the user
page)
5. Make the edits!

23. Step 7 of 7
Design Reflection
In my Wikipedia assignments, I include reflection at the
end of the sequence.
Reflection allows students to express their opinions
about any aspect of the assignment, but, more
meaningfully, it allows them to make connections
between their editing experience and the value it
provides them, sometimes in terms of SLOs, but other
times more broadly.
Students’ unit grades are calculated based on their
participation in the overall process – NOT whether or
not their proposed edits were retained by Wikipedia.

24. Some Questions . . .
Why not Wikiversity?
Whither OER? Why won’t Wikipedia replace all classroom
content? (cf. university model from Israel of simply
challenge testing students who read and review Wikipedia
articles.)

25. Some Resources . . .
Wiki Ed Foundation
Teaching with Wikipedia Listserv
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Using_Wikipedia_as_a_teaching_tool_in_higher_education_%
28Bookshelf%29/Introduction:_Using_Wikipedia_as_a_teaching_tool_in_higher_education
Wikipedia Education Program:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program
Logan, Sandal, Gardner, Manske and Bateman. “Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia.” Plos
Computational Biology 6(9). (2010).
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1000941
Wikipedia Education Program Newsletter
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News

26. Closing Thought
It is not an easy task to overcome the prejudices against Wikipedia
in academic circles, but accomplishing that will serve us all and
solidify an important new layer of knowledge in the online-
information ecosystem. Wikipedia's first decade was marked by its
meteoric rise. Let's mark its second decade by its integration into
the formal research process.
--Casper Grathwohl
Vice President and Publisher of Digital and Reference Content
Oxford University Press
“Wikipedia Comes of Age.” Chronicle of Higher Education
7 January 2011

27. Works Cited
Banaji, Mahzarin. Photo. From The Project on Law and Mind Sciences. 2008.
Web. 14 Feb. 2104.
--.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2010/dec
ember-10/anyone-can-edit-wikipedia-have-you.html
Cohen, Norm. “A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia as a Research
Source.” The New York Times. 21 Feb. 2007.Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
Fischman, Josh. “Academics, in New Move, Begin to Work with Wikipedia.”
Chronicle of Higher Education. Wired Campus Blog. 28 May 2011. Web. 14
Feb. 2014.
Lih, Andrew, Deryck Chan, and Emily Temple-Wood. “Ten years of Wikipedia
outreach in Hong Kong.” Wikimania 2013
, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Feb. 2014.
Web. 14 Feb. 2014.