Wikipedia Editing: Training the Trainer

Brian KellyInnovation AdvocateCetisUniversity of BoltonBolton, UK

Contact DetailsEmail: ukwebfocus@gmail.comTwitter: @briankellyCetis Web site: http://www.cetis.ac.uk/Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

Slides and further information available at http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/lilac-2014-information-literacy-wikipedia-edit-a-thon/

Slides prepared as a contingency for an Wikipedia edit-a-thon session to be held at LILAC 2014

Abstract

AbstractYou know about editing Wikipedia articles, including the technical aspects and the Wikipedia culture.This session will describe approaches for developing and delivering a Wikipedia training session for new Wikipedia users.The session will provide a case study based on the approaches taken for the Wikipedia workshop sessions at the LILAC 2014 conference.

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Acknowledgements: these slides are based on experiences in planning and delivering Wikipedia editing sessions with Tony Sant, Nancy Graham and Andrew Gray.

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Topics

Approaches to the following aspects:• Registration• Creating a Wikipedia profile• Editing existing articles• Creating new articles• What can go wrong?• Conforming with Wikipedia principles• Running a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon• Useful resources• Question time and discussion

The Wikipedia Editing session

The Wikipedia Edit-a-thon session

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Case Study 1

Based on one-hour workshop at • Wikipedia Editing Workshop at SpotOn 2013

conference• Abstract and resources available at

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/spoton-2013-wikipedia-editing-workshop/

• Report at http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/facilitating-a-wikipedia-editing-session-the-solo13-experience/

• Storify summary at http://storify.com/briankelly/wikipedia-editing-workshop-at-spoton-2013

Formed the basis of the session at the LILAC 2014 conference

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About the SpotOn Session

Aims:To ensure that science researchers (with own devices) created a Wikipedia account & user profile and could discuss use of Wikipedia for scientific researchers in an hour

Numbers: About 15-20 researchers/science communicatorsConcerns and Solutions:

Room not conducive to collaboration! Chairs moved into circles before session started.Would the WiFi work (firewalls, bandwidth, …)? Screenshots and discussions planned.Would session aims be achievable in time? Try it and see!Would participants find the session useful?Realtime evaluation by encouraging use of Twitter

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session:• About the session including Why

Wikipedia is important; About the facilitators & participants: 4 slidesB

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Some had edited articles; some had created an account in advance but others hadn’t

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session:• About the session• Creating an account: 1 slide.

Now login and do it! (not needed for some, so some moved on to next part, creating or editing user profile based on existing profiles)

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session:• About the session • Creating an account• Creating a user profile: 4 slides

Now create a profile using plain text

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session

• About the session • Creating an account• Creating a user profile• Wikimedia syntax

(formatting, headings and links): 1 slideNow improve your profile; feel free to reuse ideas for profiles we’ve shown. Slide left on screen during exercise.

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session• About the session • Creating an account• Creating a user profile• Wikimedia syntax (formatting,

headings and links)• Next steps (adding metadata and

finding pages to be improved): 4 slides

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session• About the session • Creating an account• Creating a user profile• Basic Wikimedia syntax

(formatting, headings and links)• Next steps (adding metadata and

finding pages to be improved)• Further information (relevant to

context): 5 slides

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session• About the session • Creating an account• Creating a user profile• Basic Wikimedia syntax (formatting,

headings and links)• Next steps (adding metadata and

finding pages to be improved)• Further information (relevant to context)• Creating new articles and Wikipedia

principles: 5 slidesBy now participants should have created content. Can now discuss the theory.

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session• About the session • Creating an account• Creating a user profile• Wikimedia syntax (formatting, headings

and links)• Next steps (adding metadata and

finding pages to be improved)• Further information (relevant to context)• Creating new articles and Wikipedia

principles• About the Wikimedia Foundation and

other Wikimedia projects: 4 slidesSlides prepared in case of technical problems or if time and interest

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Structure of Workshop

Structure of hour-long session• About the session • Creating an account• Creating a user profile• Wikimedia syntax (formatting, headings

and links)• Next steps (adding metadata and finding

pages to be improved)• Further information (relevant to context)• Creating new articles and Wikipedia

principles• About the Wikimedia Foundation and

other Wikimedia projects• Important but confusions syntax

(references) and conclusions: 2 slides

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Feedback

Approaches:• Live tweeting

encouraged• Photos welcomed• Storify summary of

tweets• Helped to gain

feedback and monitor timings

Timings of tweets:14.30-15.30 Workshop14.30-14.58 Interests

described14.49- User profiles

published

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Behind The Scenes

What we did to minimise risks:• Asked people to create Wikipedia account in

advance (as only six new accounts can be created from same IP address in a 24 hour period)

• Included annotated screenshots of key pages

• Support of experienced Wikipedia expert• Focus on editing, with discussions at end

and when relevant issues raised

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Questions:• What other possible problems might be (or

have been) encountered?• How would you respond to such problems?

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Case Study 2

Based on plans for 1.5 hour-long workshop:• Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Workshop at LILAC 2014• We currently don’t know if the plans will work!

The workshop leaders will then provide basic training on editing Wikipedia and participants will set up a Wikipedia account and undertake some small edits to improve their confidence. The group will also be shown how to contribute to the Talk page and begin online discussions with other editors.Finally participants will then be set into small groups and with guidance from the workshop leaders will begin editing small sections of the Information Literacy page, making improvements to the current structure and content.Intended outcomes:

• Improved knowledge of Wikipedia and in particular the Information Literacy page

• Gaining skills and confidence in editing Wikipedia• Small improvements to the IL Wikipedia page• Start of online discussion about the Information Literacy page

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Information Literacy Wikipedia article

The Information Literacy Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_literacy

Encouragement to improve article

Article has a US bias

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Case Study 2: Plans

Options for an edit-a-thon session at LILAC 2014:• Participants to improve existing random

articles• Create new articles based on participant’s

personal interests• Create new article(s) based on participant’s

shared interests• Edit an existing article

What we felt:• Wikipedia is about collaborative work• LILAC participants will have shared interests in information literacy

• We should seek to collaboratively edit a relevant Wikipedia article

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Information Literacy Talk Page

Plans to inform the community of intentions to update IL article to be shared on talk page

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Using the Talk Page

Existing suggestions (in Jan 2014):

• Info about LILAC conferences

• Significant overhaul of article

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Using The Talk Page

My signature

Announcing intention to add (significant) new content / section.

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Dangers of Edit Conflicts

Human protocols to minimise edit conflicts at edit-a-thons?

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Monitoring the Talk Page

Set up a Watch list for the ‘Talk’ page (rather than Article page)

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Possible Options

Aim: To update the IL Wikipedia article with information about UK perspectives on IL

Approaches:• Create new section in

article• Inform IL community of

plans on Talk page• Agree on sub-sections

and core text with IL community

• Create as a draft article• Publish at LILAC 2014• Update (including new

sub-sections) at Wikipedia session

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What We Did

We:• Decided to focus

on IL in the UK• Agreed on an

appropriate structure for a new article

• Created the structure

• Used section headings to minimise edit conflicts

• Delivered the workshop

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Case Study 2: Draft Timetable

Outline timetable for the edit-a-thon

Timing Section Activity5 mins Introduction Facilitator gives talk10 mins Show IL page ALL talking and demonstrating structure of section and what is

problematic about it. Also talk about the Edit and Talk pages to show the pattern of edits etc.

10 mins Show proposed IL in the UK structure

Facilitator to explain why editing current IL page is problematic at this stage.Facilitator to explain that proposed structure is indicative and that groups need to discuss this and come up with agreed sections.

5 mins Organise groups Facilitator and others to appoint 5 or 6 groups (depending on numbers) around the room

10 mins Group discussion on new sections

Groups to look at new structure and discuss if the headings are relevant and what content should go in them.Groups to use IL website, UNESCO document page for UK and other sources to help them to find content and links.

5-10 mins Feedback Facilitator to take notes on what changes have been agreed by groups.

30 mins Group work Groups to work on adding content to each section including text, links and images.

10 mins Feedback and see where we are

Facilitator to round up what has been achieved in group session and ask about demand for future edit-a-thons around the UK

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Further Plans

We have described approaches for collaborative editing of an article of shared interest

But what if some participants :

• Prefer to work on their own

• Prefer to master editing basics before editing a live article

• Don’t have an interest in the topic

Or something goes wrong with access to the article e.g.

• Article is locked (cf. Margaret Thatcher article)

• Access to page is not available

• Community disagrees with update plans; …)

• No network access available!

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Additional approaches taken:• Additional related articles identified• Links provided to pages which have been flagged for

updating• Discussion group exercises planned

What else could be done?

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Basic Wikipedia Training (1)

https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Basic_Wikipedia_training

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Basic Wikipedia Training (2)

https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Basic_Wikipedia_training

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Basic Wikipedia Training (3)

Useful to ensure examples and context is relevant to participants interests (e.g. science researchers; librarians; …)

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Advanced Approaches to TrainingFurther areas which could be covered (in a longer session)Content:

• References• Templates: how to use; how to create• WikiMedia Commons: how to upload; how to

use• …

Training environment:• SysAdmin privileges• Templates: templates for training courses e.g.

used in Queen Victoria Diaries edit-a-thon:{{QueenVic}}

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Questions

Any questions, comments, …?

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This presentation, “Wikipedia Editing: Training the Trainer” by Brian Kelly, Cetis is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Note the licence covers most of the text in this presentation. Images may have other licence conditions. Where possible links are provided to the source of images so that licence conditions can be found.

Slides and further information available athttp://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/lilac-2014-information-literacy-wikipedia-edit-a-thon/

Licence and Additional Resources