Best practices in assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework to students
Appearance
Best practices in assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework to students is a step by step introduction of using Wikipedia as a teaching tool. It is not difficult to combine the expertise of an university chair, modern university didactic for students and the skills of the Wikipedia community to generate better results for all participants.
Why assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework is beneficial for the students | |||
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In contrast to traditional writing assignments working with Wikipedia promises several advantages for students:
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Why assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework is beneficial for the Wikipedia community | |||
The community benefits as:
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Why assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework is beneficial for the course leader | |||
The course leader gains various benefits from using Wikipedia as a platform for education, in particular:
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Action Plan | |||
Phase A: Preparatory phase | 1. Recruit facilitators 2. Think of, what goals your students should reach. Use the experience of your facilitators to check the feasibility. 3. Creating work plan / timetable / list of tasks or articles | ||
Phase B: Course phase | 4. Teaching Wikipedia basics (formal requirements, editing, quality management, tutorial for advanced learners. If you invite a public speaker, there will be a more constructive feeling: “there are qualified humans behind the nicks and cooperation produce better content / course notes") (90 minutes) 5. Executing and monitoring (encouraging students during the process, dealing with drawbacks) | ||
Models | Model A: Bachelor in Germany (Goal: Lesenswerte Artikel) | Model B: Master in Germany | Model C: Bachelor in the United States |
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Well proofed is the goal of creating content orientated on the criteria good or featured article. You ought not use the local candidates, if there is no fixed timeline.
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Phase C: Conclusion phase | 6. Evaluating your course (finish your course, feedback of students, feedback for Wikipedia) |
Other resources
[edit]- en:Wikipedia:School and university projects – list of current and past projects on the English Wikipedia
- Best practices in public outreach – other best practice pages on public outreach
- Best practices in using Wikibooks in the classroom – using Wikibooks instead of Wikipedia
Further reading
[edit]- Robert E. Cummings: Are We Ready to Use Wikipedia to Teach Writing?, in: Inside higher Ed (March 12, 2009)
- Reilly, Colleen. "Teaching Wikipedia as a mirrored technology" First Monday [Online], Volume 16 Number 1 (18 December 2010).