Students write Wikipedia articles as assessment

Sverker JohanssonDalarna University

Ylva LindbergSchool of Education & Communication

University of Jönköping

Learning outcomes & criteria for assessment

• To categorize information• To build knowledge• To identify gaps

Aristotle Poetics

Epic PoetryDrama

Literary genres

Genres – ”Wikipedia style”• 1 Literary genres

– 1.1 Action– 1.2 Adventure– 1.3 Comedy– 1.4 Crime– 1.5 Erotica– 1.6 Faction– 1.7 Fantasy– 1.8 Historical– 1.9 Horror– 1.10 Mystery– 1.11 Paranoid– 1.12 Philosophical– 1.13 Political– 1.14 Romance– 1.15 Saga– 1.16 Satire– 1.17 Science fiction– 1.18 Slice of Life– 1.19 Speculative– 1.20 Thriller– 1.21 Urban

• 2 Film genres• 3 Television genres• 4 See also• 5 Video game genres• 6 Music genres• 7 References

Learning outcomes & criterias for assessment

• Information choice• Adapt the writing to the reader

• Adapt to a genre– Chronology– Addition – Cause and Effect

Modes:

Sound / Image

Authentic assessment

• Most assessment uses artificial assignments. – Relevance? Student motivation?

• ”Authentic assessment” is meant to mimic ”the real world” that we train students for.– Still just mimic, not necessarily the real thing.

• Authentic assessment of skills such as identifying knowledge gaps, structuring information, cooperative writing, genre writing, and ability to explain complex matters to non-experts?

• Can Wikipedia be the answer?

Wikipedia vs. private wiki

• Wiki software openly available, easy to start your own wiki, as alternative to ”real” Wikipedia.

• Why use private wiki:– Controlled environment, more comfortable for both

teacher and students– Nobody else interferes with student writing

• Why use real Wikipedia:– Authenticity!– Student texts will actually have readers – Feedback from and cooperation with others

Our experiences with Wikipedia writing as assessment

Courses:• String theory (physics, final undergaduate level)• Science fiction & fantasy literature• Human evolution• Origins and evolutionAll courses undergraduate level at Jönköping University. Taught in Swedish, writing on Swedish Wikipedia.

Student assignment

• Write a Wikipedia article on a topic relevant for the course.

• The article should problematize its topic, and should use relevant concepts from the course.

• The article should be accurate and based on reliable sources, with proper references.

• The article should have appropriate links and categorization.

Suitable and unsuitable courses

Suitable for Wikipedia assessment:– Course goals compatible with collaborative writing of encyclopedic

texts for lay people.– Course goals that include information seeking, information

structuring, and critical thinking.– Course topic with many potential article topics and poor existing

Wikipedia coverage.

Not suitable:– Course goals not served by encyclopedia writing.– Course topic well covered by Wikipedia, little left to write.– Course topic not separable into many article topics.– After several rounds of Wikipedia assessment on the same topic,

that part of Wikipedia will be ”exhausted”.– No Wikipedia-experienced teacher in the course

Student reactions

Mixed reactions – some love it, some hate it.• Some enjoy a real audience, some become nervous.• Technical issues require some instruction, hurdle for

less tech-savvy students, but not a big problem.• Some difficulties getting the genre right and in

general adapting to Wikipedia culture.

Assessing Wikipedia work

• Wikipedia tools to disentangle what each student has contributed:– ”User contributions” page – Article ”history” tab – ”Compare revisions” under history tab.

Examples of student work

• https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategori:Strängteori• https://

sv.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hård_science_fiction&oldid=9404921

• https://sv.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homo_antecessor&oldid=14196339