Out of the File-Drawer & Into the World:Starting your Students writing for Wikipedia

Dr. Rosie Redfield, Associate Professor, UBCDr. Judy Chan, Sessional Lecturer, UBC

Jami Mathewson, Wiki Education FoundationClint Lalonde, BCcampus

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

The MorningTime Activity9:00 Introductions & Open Pedagogy9:10 Wikipedia Classroom Program9:25 Case Studies: Rosie Redfield & Judy Chan9:55 Why Wikipedia matters, Content Gaps10:05 Discussion: Wikipedia’s policies10:25 Break10:40 Activity: Benefits and challenges11:10 Guided exploration of Wikipedia11:20 Assignment design in small groups11:50 Wrap-up and next steps

Open Pedagogy

Open Pedagogy Maker EventTuesday 9am-NoonMary Burgess

“Disposable” Assignments“Disposable assignments are assignments that students complain about doing and faculty complain about grading.

They’re assignments that add no value to the world – after a student spends three hours creating it, a teacher spends 30 minutes grading it, and then the student throws it away.

Not only do these assignments add no value to the world, they actually suck value out of the world.”

What is Open Pedagogy? David Wiley, 2015 http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975

Wikipedia Educator Program

What students learn by editing Wikipedia

Rosie RedfieldDept. of Zoology

University of British Columbia@rosieredfield

My BIOL 345 course

• Upper-level non-majors class in ‘Human Ecology’• Students created (or improved) Wikipedia pages

about local ecology • They worked in pairs; draft pages were peer-

reviewed by classmates• Worth ~30% of their course grade

Pages by BIOL 345 students

Two kinds of benefits

• Information literacy• Social skills and values

An article about my cousin’s new

juice shop!Oh, this

juice shop is not ‘notable’

Choosing an article topic:• Is it ‘notable’? Evaluate the value of

an article.

• Is it needed? Find and evaluate existing Wikipedia articles.

An article about yoga!

Oh, yoga is already covered

in Wikipedia.A section about the parking

controversy

An article about the new mayorAn article

about me!

Gathering information:• Searching for sources of information

• Evaluating each source. • What kind of source is it? • Is it authoritative and unbiased?• Is it available to readers?

I’ll put my new data in my article

This source looks good!

The NewYork Timesis a better

source

Better use this review article in

a scientific journal

This blog makes clever

arguments!

Oops, it’s an OpEd,

not reporting

Oops, they’re trying to sell

me something!

Organizing information:• What points should the article make?

(What might a reader want to know?)

• How should the information be ordered?

I included everything Ifound out!

Sorry, here’s my annotated

outline

Presenting information clearly for a general reader:• Writing clearly and simply

• Avoiding technical terms

The scientists all use these fancy words

Using technical terms helps me

feel like an expert.

Making the issues easy to understand

was hard work!

Writing with a ‘neutral point of view’:• Recognizing bias in others’ writings

• Seeing issues from different points of view

• Eliminating bias in your own writing

I think this argument is

very convincing

Why should I present ideas I

think are wrong?

There arethree points of view about this

issue

But that doesn’t

mean it’s the only valid one

Using images and diagrams to clarify information:• Deciding what kinds of images to use

• Finding suitable images

• Creating suitable graphics

But it doesn’t help the reader understand the

article

This is a really cool

photo!

Avoiding plagiarism:• Finding your own words Why can’t I

just just use a direct quote?

But this article explains it so

clearly!

Understanding copyright and crediting sources:• Ethical issues

• Practical issues

I’m sharingmy diagram in Wikimedia Commons!

This graph has a CC-SA license.

I emailed the photographer

to ask for permission

This graph is from a copyright research paper

I’ll use this great photo I found on a

blog

Formatting text for clarity:• Using a new text editor

• Using headings to make a Table of Contents

• Formatting references and in-text links

Why can’t this work just like Microsoft Word?

Aha! Alltext editors

have common features!

Cooperating with strangers:• Dealing with criticism

• Letting other people ‘improve’ your work

Some idiot deleted my diagram!

I explained my reasons on the Talk

page. The editor meant well but

they were mistaken

It’s not MY article any

more, but it’s a better article

Why are other

editors so mean?

Doing coursework with real-world impact:

Nobody will ever see my lousy

term paper again

Learning is all about pretend situations

My errorswould

misinform others

People whocare will read

my work

• What you do in class matters beyond the classroom

• The value of openness

I can’t read this journal article unless I pay

$45!

Anyone anywhere in

the world can read my article!

FNH 200 Wikipedia Project

Festival of LearningJune 2016

Food, Nutrition, and Health 200

Food, Nutrition, and Health 200

Chemistry RegulationMicrobiology Diseases

Sensory Processing

●Diverse student population

100 to 120 students

5 to 6 students per team

2011 Posters

856 View since March 2015

Wikipedia Stub PagesIgunaq Mochi

Indian Ice Cream Natt

Baked Milk Maple Liqueur

Fish Sauce

Arak Bannock

Original

After Contribution:

Three Things I wish I’d known Better:

The use of images:

Support from Wikipedia:

MoS MoS MoS…

Why Wikipedia Matters/Content Gaps

A guided tour of a Wikipedia articleStart by searching for ‘Open Education Resources’:

A guided tour of a Wikipedia articleLog in

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

Links for me

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

Each ‘Article’ page has a ‘Talk’ page

TalkArticle

A guided tour of a Wikipedia articleThis is the ‘Talk’ page

Talk

A guided tour of a Wikipedia articleTalk

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

3 views of the ArticleRead HistoryEdit

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

Read the ArticleRead

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

Edit the Article in the Visual Editor

Edit

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

Edit the Article in the Source Editor

Edit

A guided tour of a Wikipedia article

See the Article’s history

History

Every past edit is recorded and can be examined and compared with any other version.

Next Steps & Resources

• Wiki Education Foundation wikiedu.org• Instructor Basics: How to use Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool (PDF)• Case Studies: How Instructors are Teaching with Wikipedia (PDF)• Instructor Orientation (self paced modules)

Slides at program session description sched.co/68vx