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Universities on Wikipedia: Georgetown

Professor: Dr. Rochelle Davis

Ambassadors:Rob PongsajapanYonatan Moskowitz

Classes:Theorizing Culture and Politics (Undergrad)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_United_States_Public_Policy/Courses/Theorizing_Culture_and_Politics_fall_2010

Introduction to the Study of the Arab World (Graduate)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_United_States_Public_Policy/Courses/Introduction_to_Study_of_Arab_World_fall_2010

Feel free to click around on the website as I discuss the project if you want to get a better feel:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_United_States_Public_Policy

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Professor Constructs Assignment

Example

Selects learning objectives: Prof. Davis wanted students to learn what it took to construct an unbiased, communally acceptable summary of facts in order to teach them how to conduct a literature review

Solicits input from experienced Wikipedians: Prof. Davis met with her Campus Ambassadors before she wrote the assignment, we discussed making new articles vs. expanding existing ones, expectations of how much time the community needs to respond to changes, and the best approach to grading the assignments

Distribution of Assignment: Prof. Davis gave her assignment to her students and invited us Campus Ambassadors in to give a short 15 minute introduction to Wikipedia and the Public Policy Initiative. During that introduction we gave them the tools necessary to start an account, select an article, and begin interacting with the community by editing their “course page”

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Course Page1. Campus Ambassadors set up the page given the information from our meeting with Prof. Davis2. Students create accounts, select articles, and add their information to the relevant areas on the page in order to get familiar with the wiki-editing process

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In-Class Lab

Topics Discussed

• Etiquette, Wikiprojects, IRC channels, other resources

• Bullets, numbers, and links

• Headers, info boxes, and pictures

• Creating a page, turning on gadgets, saving a page

• Commenting, responding to comments, signing comments

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SandboxesAfter the in-class lab, the students’ had enough tools to complete

their first real assignment: creating a sandbox on their topic off of their user page.

Address

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Article Writing

The majority of the actual article crafting was homework. Students had multiple resources if they chose to take advantage of them.

Resources

• Wikipedia Online Ambassadors (IRC Channel, e-mail, “talk pages”, etc.)

• Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors (office hours, e-mail, “talk pages”, etc.)

• Prof. Davis• Various Wikiprojects they joined• Various online materials either put together by the Wikimedia

foundation for this project, or just general wiki-editing information

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Final Lab

The purpose of the final lab was to help students put the finishing touches on their articles. This lab was much more more hands on than previous labs.

Topics Discussed

• Wikiprojects• Pictures, copyright• How to apply for DYK• How to apply for a GA review

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Challenges

1. Some online ambassadors gave advice that conflicted with the assignment of the professor

2. Students procrastinate, not enough time to get meaningful community feedback after their sandbox/before going live and after going live/before end of assignment

3. Students doing it just for grade, some Wikipedians weren’t prepared for that

How We Plan to Improve1. Professors are now requested

to make students request input from online ambassadors early in the semester while they are choosing articles

2. Students are being given more guidance on what they can reasonably expect from the community before they begin, and professors have been asked to construct classes with more time in between deadlines,

3. Online ambassadors are being given more training on how to deal with students, and what kind of effort they can expect

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End Result

Georgetown’s two classes:• 42 articles either created or substantially improved• 10 articles featured on the front page of Wikipedia’s

website in the “Did You Know?” Section• Almost 1,000,000 bytes added to the article

namespace

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Questions?

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Universities on Wikipedia: Yours?

Primary Steps/Considerations

• Fit with the current mandate, and expansion of mandate in the near future

• Campus/Online Ambassadors• Contact the Wikimedia Foundation and/or

ambassadors in order to construct reasonable assignment

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Beyond Public PolicyOther potential assignments that could build off of the backbone we are creating:Topic Oriented Projects (1)

Similar to Public Policy assignments, students more or less learn how to conduct a literature review under the watchful eye of a critical audienceEx: Economics, History, Popular Culture/Media, etc.

Topic Oriented Projects (2)Not so much a literature review as an exercise in how to translate a complex topic into layman’s terms.Ex: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Astronomy, Engineering, etc.

Grammar/Article Design Oriented ProjectsFor ESL learners, or even for introductory university English classes, can teach students how to summarize, keep a neutral point of view, and force them to defend their choices in public.

Computer/Network Studies Oriented ProjectsStudents would document how the community interacts, and or enter into examinations of the technology behind Wikipedia and how Wikipedians interact with this technology

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General Lessons and Implications

Lessons and Implications

1. Article selection is very important2. Some Students need different kinds of feedback than others3. Students will be students (procrastination), so benchmarks are

imperative in any assignment4. Grades need to be transparent, and flexible5. Communication is key

And finally…

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Conclusion

It is worth it. As long as educators understand what to watch out for (see above), they will put together an assignment that students will get excited about.

For once students feel that the fruits of their labor affect more than just a grade; their research is used to improve an information resource that they and their peers use daily.

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Questions?