Wikipedia editing and information literacy: a case study

Abstract

Purpose: This paper evaluates the success of a Wikipedia editing assessment designed to improve the information literacy skills of a cohort of first-year undergraduate Health Sciences students.Design: In this Action Research case study (known hereafter as "the project" to differentiate this Action Research from the students' own research), students researched, wrote and published Wikipedia articles on Australia-centric health topics. Students were given a pre-and post-test to assess levels of self-confidence in finding, evaluating and referencing information. Student work was also analysed in terms of article length and quantity and the type of information sources used.Findings: Tests revealed that students' self-confidence in their information literacy skills improved overall. Analysis of student work revealed that students wrote longer articles and incorporated more references than expected. References used were of appropriate quality relevant to the article despite minimal instructions.Originality/Value: There are few studies that investigate information literacy development through Wikipedia editing in Australian universities. This study shows that Wikipedia editing is an effective way to carry out a student assessment prior to essay writing and an innovative platform through which to improve information literacy skills among undergraduate students.

Developing students’ academic literacies via Wikipedia-based tasks

“…Kuigi arvatakse, et tänapäeva õppijad tulevad tehnika ja tehno loogiaga hõlpsalt toime, ei ole see sageli nii (Miller, 2014). Wikipedia pakub õppijatele võimalust omandada lihtsaid tekstitöötlusoskusi, osaleda koostöise kirjutamise protsessis ja veebikogukonna tegevuses (Fessakis & Zoumpatianou, 2013 (Dawe & Robinson, 2017). Wikipedia artiklit kirjutades tunnevad õppijad end päris teadlastena (Crovitz & Smoot, 2009 Koostöise kirjutamise korral tehakse tekstis korduvalt parandusi, arutletakse sisu üle, edastatakse teavet ja jagatakse ära tööülesanded (Fessakis & Zoumpatianou, 2013).…”

“…Just auditooriumi tunnetamine on kirjaliku suhtluse tähtis osa, sest see muudab õpikogemuse tähenduslikumaks. (Forte & Bruckman, 2006) Enda jaoks tähenduslikke vikiartikleid kirjutades tegutsevad õppijad motiveeritumalt, mis ilmneb näiteks selles, et artiklid on ettenähtust pikemad ja sisaldavad rohkem allikaid (Dawe & Robinson, 2017). Samuti on õppijad näidanud üles valmisolekut tegelda oma vikiartikliga edasi väljaspool klassiruumi või luua vabatahtlikult uusi artikleid, mis on märk kaasa tusest ja elukestva õppe valmidusest (Pollard, 2008).…”

“…artikleid) -neid tuleb osata üles leida. Levinud on arvamus, et õppetöös kasutatava vikiülesande kaudu saab muuta õppijate tarbimispõhiseid arusaamu Wikipediast ja juhtida seeläbi tähelepanu loomise ehk kirjutamise kui protsessi tähtsusele (Dawe & Robinson, 2017). Veelgi enam, pooldajate leeri kuulub neidki, kes jagavad arusaama, et Wikipedia võimalused ei piirdu üksnes vastutustunde tekitamisega, vaid see kujutab endast ka mitmekülgset õpikeskkonda: Wikipedia pakub ainulaadset võimalust kaasata õppijaid protsessi, mille keskmes on kirjutamine reaalsele lugejaskonnale, žanritavade järgimine ning usaldusväärsuse, selguse ja eesmärgikohasuse tagamine (Crovitz & Smoot, 2009).…”

What Leads Ukrainian University Students to Use Wikipedia?

“…From the pedagogical point of view, Wikipedia is a vivid embodiment of the Web 2.0 tool and clearly explains to students how a collaborative activity works (for instance, as opposed to a cooperative one). While producing a wiki content in groups, students obviously improve their communication and interaction skills, and develop informational, digital and media literacy (Hafner et al, 2015;Walker & Li, 2016;Dawe & Robinson, 2017). Exposure to a new culture and netiquette in an online community can be as stressful to students as it is promising with regard to their opportunities for growth, learning and development (Brailas, Koskinas, Dafermos, & Alexias, 2015).…”

Wikipedia access and contribution: Language choice in multilingual communities . A case study

“…Along these lines, Lerga and Aibar (2015) recently published an extensive and detailed report of examples of such use, which is at the same time a very valuable guide to understand the type of activities that can be implemented, which range from the creation of articles to the critical analysis of existing ones. Their report is part of a wider research effort, which aims at accounting for the benefits of these activities as a way of fostering both collaboration and the development of media literacy skills among students, while participating in the open culture of the project Brailas et al, 2015;Ricuarte-Quijano and Álvarez, 2016;Dawe and Robinson, 2017). While most of these accounts openly advocate the formal use of Wikipedia in academic practices (see, e.g., Hafner et al, 2015;Walker and Li, 2016;Freire and Li, 2016;Meseguer-Artola et al, 2016;Di Lauro and Johinke, 2017), it is acknowledged that, in the university context, there are still important concerns among scholars regarding the use of this online encyclopedia (Llados et al, 2013;Aibar et al, 2015;Konieczny, 2014Konieczny, , 2016, even though such concerns have diminished over the last few years (Shachaf, 2009;Soules, 2015).…”