Wikipedia
Anne Leonard
Library
LIB/ARCH 2205ID Learning Places
Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity
Guidelines for Wikipedia Assignment: Creating and editing Wikipedia content, including media in Wikimedia Commons, is an essential part of our class and is 15% of your grade. The Wikipedia assignment is evaluated through our course dashboard. You’ll need to create a Wikipedia account and use it every time you complete a training module, make edits to Wikipedia, or contribute media to Wikimedia Commons. Individual and group Wikipedia contributions & edits and Wikimedia Commons contributions are due by <date>.
Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?
The assignment helps meet several learning outcomes:
Gen Ed LOs: Demonstrate and apply information literacy aptitude by gathering, interpreting, evaluating and applying information discerningly from a variety of sources
Interdisciplinary LOs: Synthesize and transfer knowledge across disciplinary boundaries; Think critically, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively
Course LOs: Develop, document, catalogue, and organize information to make it accessible to the public.
Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?
One 2 hour workshop facilitated by a Wikipedia expert* that covers Wikipedia writing, editing, and documenting; part or all of an additional class period to review research strategies, topics and articles to write and edit, the 5 pillars of Wikipedia that guide the process of contributing, writing, and editing.
*Wikiedu.org and the local Wikimedia NYC chapter can help with this
Students should be able to complete the assignment in about 1-2 hours of time outside of class
Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?
Students need to have a topic to write about and the ability to do research to document information they write about. The assignment is 15% of the final grade, so a medium-to-low stakes assignment. See assignment guidelines on course OpenLab site for instructions given to students.
Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?
Please see the assignment guidelines link for the rubric and self-assessment checklist
Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?
Students were thrilled to write and publish for a wide audience, yet were disappointed when the active community of Wikipedia writers overwrote their contributions. Students were encouraged to make use of the Talk page to discuss their contributions with other Wikipedia editors. The Wikiedu dashboard (dashboard.wikiedu.org) helps the instructor keep track of students' contributions, even if they don't persist in the final article.
Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.
Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab
