Intensive course on research state of the art and Wikipedia for PhD students/Mendrisio
| Project | Events | Pilot | Syllabus | Methodology | Model |
A pilot to produce a replicable "Intensive course on research state of the art and Wikipedia for PhD students" is organised at SUPSI in Mendrisio, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Dates: 24-28 February 2025
- Location: SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Department for Environment Constructions and Design, Institute of Design, Campus Mendrisio, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Duration: from Monday to Friday.
- Modality: in presence, with the possibility of online participation; participation obligatory for 80% of the meetings. Online please use Wikimedia Italia BBB room "Wikimedia PhD Course" https://cvs5133.ergonet.host/b/iol-wkg-foq-zam
- Team: Iolanda Pensa (PI, organiser and documentation), Marco Chemello (Wikipedia tutor), Matthew Vetter (online, documentation and research methodology).
- Participants: 6 PhD students. The course is open to anyone interested.
- Language: English and Italian
- Assignment: Production of 1 or more complete Wikipedia articles. The article can be a new article (preferred choice) or a significant improvement of an existing article. The bare translation of an article is not considered sufficient.
| Pilot project at SUPSI in Mendrisio | Feedback / observations | |
|---|---|---|
| Frame | Pilot project to replicate the model. Course proposed to PhD students affiliated to the Institute of design at DACD, SUPSI. The course doesn't provide credits but it can provide a certificate. The project has been supported (and endorsed) by Wikimedia Italia and Wikimedia CH. | The PhD students were interested in participating, even without credits. Mainly interested in working on their research subject and sharing knowledge about it on an extremely visible platform (aware of the potential impact). |
| Fundings | Support from SUPSI (location, logistics, involvement of PhD students); Wikimedia Italia max 1000 euro for direct expenses and the collaboration of Marco Chemello as tutor; Wikimedia CH max 1000 chf for direct expenses. | Findings used for making the event more welcoming and friendly (breakfast, coffee breaks, some dinners). |
| Participants | 6 PhD students.
Students of design, pedagogy, philosophy, cultural heritage. Mainly arts and humanities. + 1 online participant (auditor). 5 female, 2 male. |
We had a participant online in the mornings.
Appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with other PhD students and having the chance to meet them and discuss with them. |
| Team |
|
Very active role of the Wikipedia tutor (lessons, tutoring, support). |
| Logistics | Organised in SUPSI. | Nice to have more than one room (library, other spaces) to avoid spending the entire week in one room. |
| Duration | We keep a very similar structure and we try to see if it is possible to reduce the total number of hours.
From Monday to Friday - 5 days 27 hours. Hours per day: 6 hours (from 9.30 to 12.30 and from 14.00 to 15.00). On Friday we finish at 12.30. |
Important to have breaks at least every hour and a half for 15 minutes.
It would make sense to develop two formats: 1 week (5 days - 27 hours) and 3 days (with an introductory online session of 1 hour). |
| Preparatory work | Email to ask participants to do some preparatory work. | 5 participants out of 6 have did the preparatory work (registration on Wikipedia and using the online educational resources). |
| Attendance | To receive the certification, it is necessary to attend 80% of the course. We collect signatures in the morning and afternoon. | First day all participants. |
| Programme | Lessons the morning on Monday (Wikipedia), Tuesday (Wikimedia Commons) and Wednesday (Wikidata).
Most of the time dedicated to work on your own article(s). Last day dedicated to peer review among participants and evaluation of the article quality. |
Positive feedback about the first day. Request to create longer breaks (15 minutes every hour and a half) and maybe increase the discussions and interactions.
Second day too long; it should be reduced the length of the frontal presentations. Useful to reduce the presentations of the second day; the presentation related to images and copyright could focus on 3 examples: reuse of images, upload of an image, upload of a table / simple chart. |
| Language | Course in English. Tutoring in Italian. Possibility to write articles in English or Italian. All participants speak Italian. We use Italian in the discussions and in the tutoring. | No problem in using English (the recording made its relevance more natural). |
| Certification | Participants receive a certificate of attendance and an evaluation. | Participants are interested in the certificate. |
| Peer-review by the participants | All articles received 3 reviews from other participants. All participants evaluated articles of other other participants. | We received the suggestion to make an oral review and discussion, to allow direct feedback and comments. |
| Evaluation | Evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria were presented. The technical review was visible to everyone and participants could improve their review by adding content or correct mistakes. | Positive feedback about the criteria. |
| Challenges |
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| Results |
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Find further information about participants and articles on Wikipedia in English!
Programme
[edit]| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | |
| Morning
9.30-12.30 |
Introduction to the course (Iolanda Pensa): objectives, programme (morning and afternoon), documentation, credits. Short description of the assignment, evaluation criteria and certificate.
Wikipedia (Marco Chemello): project pages of the course, account, signature, pillars. Basic editing of your user page (writing a short description of yourself, not adding personal data, what is a red links, how to edit wikitext, how to create a link, piped link, edit summary, how changes are recorded on Wikipedia...). |
Feedback from the first day and questions.
Images and open licenses - Wikimedia Commons (Marco Chemello): importance of images, which media can be uploaded on Wikimedia Commons, copyright, public domain and open licenses. Example of upload using upload wizard: license, significant title, caption, description with credits, date. Group photo. |
Dorine Barth from Wikimedia CH joins us for the day.
Wikidata (Marco Chemello): Wikipedia templates and data, structured data, structure of data on Wikidata, proprieties; the value and relevance of Wikidata. How to search for data. |
Editing | Peer-review by the participants Evaluation by the Wikipedia tutor and organiser. |
| 11.00-11.15 - Break 15 minutes | |||||
| Discussion of article topics. Each participant presents the topic/articles he/she wants to focus on. | Wikimedia Commons (Marco Fossati): structured data, opportunities and challenges.
Group photo. |
||||
| Afternoon
14.00-17:00 |
Review of Wikipedia existing articles related to the topic selected by each participant (adding articles and possible articles to edit on the personal userpage).
Wikipedia sandbox (Marco Chemello): what is a sandbox. An example, by copying and pasting part of a Wikipedia article: adding bold, links, titles. The structure of an article: incipit, history, historiography of a topic... |
References and sources (Marco Chemello). Relevant sources, how to cite a source.
Editing. |
Editing. | End of the programme at 12.30. | |
| 19.30 Welcome dinner. Osteria Vignetta | 19.30 Raviolata | 19.30 Dinner together. Crotto | |||
| Assignment | Identify your topic/article
Take or bring a photo for tomorrow |
Editing
Register an ID ORCID |
Editing | Finishing editing | |
Steps
[edit]History of how the project and the pilot course in Mendrisio were organised, with all the necessary steps and an evaluation of the experience.
| Date | Activity | |
|---|---|---|
| October 28, 2024 | Launch | Proposal to Matthew Vetter to collaborate in the project "Intensive course on research state of the art and Wikipedia for PhD students". |
| November 6, 2024 | Launch | Meeting with Matthew Vetter. |
| November 13, 20234 | WikiLearn | Meeting with Melissa Guadalupe Huertas to understand how to contribute to WikiLearn with the documentation of this course. |
| November 21, 2024 | Launch | Creation of the project page on Meta-Wiki. |
| November 23, 2024 | WikiLearn | Melissa Guadalupe Huertas creates on WikiLearn a space for the course "Wikipedia course for PhD students". |
| December 2, 2024 | Model | Matthew Vetter prepares the questions for the interview. And later will add the new questions for the organisers. |
| December 13, 2024 | Model | Interview with the Wikimedia trainers of the Intensive course on Science, technology, society and Wikipedia for PhD students: Andy Mabbett, Niccolò Caranti and Marco Chemello; moderators Iolanda Pensa and Matthew Vetter. Recording under CC BY-SA 4.0 unedited. |
| January 7, 2025 | Partners | Application for a microgrant to Wikimedia Italia. |
| January 11, 2025 | Partners | Presentation of the project to Wikimedia CH community manager for Ticino. Proposal to endorse the project and eventually to support some of the expenses related to catering. Request to apply for a grant. |
| January 23, 2025 | Model | Interview with the organisers at Politecnico di Milano of the Intensive course on Science, technology, society and Wikipedia for PhD students: Fabio Parmeggiani and Guido Raos (with the contribution of Chiara Castiglioni); moderators Iolanda Pensa and Matthew Vetter. Recording under CC BY-SA 4.0 unedited. |
| January 23, 2025 | Partners | Application for a grant to Wikimedia CH. |
| February 3, 2025 | Preliminary | Matthew Vetter works on the preparatory materials. |
| February 11, 2025 | Preliminary | Meeting Iolanda Pensa, Marco Chemello, Matthew Vetter. |
| February 13, 2025 | Preliminary | Creation of the project pages on Wikipedia in English and Wikipedia in Italian |
| February 17, 2025 | Participants | Email to the participants (to be sent at least 1 week before the event) |
| February 24-28, 2025 | Course | Course in Mendrisio. Asking the authorisation to record, document and take photos |
Documentation
[edit]The course on Wikipedia
- On Wikipedia in English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/SUPSI/PhD_Course_2025
- On Wikipedia in Italian https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:Coordinamento/Universit%C3%A0/SUPSI/Dottorandi_2025
General documentation about the course
- Resources
- Preparatory work
- History of the pilot course in Mendrisio organised in February 2025.
- Email to the participants before the course
- Evaluation criteria
Recordings
[edit]First day of the Intensive course on research state of the art and Wikipedia for PhD students: one-week intensive course dedicated to PhD students in arts and humanities.
- Introduction (Iolanda Pensa)
- Wikipedia (Marco Chemello)
Second day of the Intensive course on research state of the art and Wikipedia for PhD students: one-week intensive course dedicated to PhD students in arts and humanities. Images and copyright (Marco Chemello)
Some examples of technical developments on Wikimedia Commons (Marco Fossati)
Sources and references on Wikipedia (Marco Chemello)
Third day of the Intensive course on research state of the art and Wikipedia for PhD students: one-week intensive course dedicated to PhD students in arts and humanities. Wikidata (Marco Chemello)
[Watch the unedited recording]
Thank you
[edit]- Thanks to SUPSI for providing the location and for supporting the design of innovative and experimental teaching and methodologies.
- Thanks to Wikimedia Italia for its microgrant allowing the involvement of Marco Chemello as Wikipedia tutor of the course and supporting his expenses and part of the other direct expenses of accommodation and food.
- Thanks to Wikimedia CH for supporting part of the direct expenses of catering.
- Thanks to the participants, accepting to commit to this pilot project and allowing the experience to be recorded and documented.