Wiki’d!

Student appreciation of Wikipedia / use of wikis in creating group reports in economics

Nick Butlern.butler@kingston.ac.uk

Julian Wellsj.wells@kingston.ac.uk

School of Economics

Introduction: what’s a wiki?

Everyone ‘knows’ Wikipediato be an encyclopædia, written and edited collectively

Not everyone knows what a wiki isor even that Wikipedia is merely a particular wiki

Wikis‘a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language’

‘Wiki’ article from Wikipedia

In other words, a generic software category

Two common problems: 1

Wiki-plagiarismCut-and-pastefrom Wikipedia— and elsewhere, of course

More generallyFailure to address resources critically

Two common problems: 2

Group work …● Monitoring and assessing individual contributions

● Organising collaborationEconomics has form here:

Rob Watkins’ handbook for the HEA Economics Network

… in skills modulesA Foundation in

EconomicsEC1228

Applied Economics WorkshopAP2178

‘Common’ = ‘frequent’ and = ‘related’

Plagiarismmakes life easywhich is also motive for free-riding in group work

and they don’t know/understandabout Wikipedia structure/process

Collaborationis hardstudents’ life and business skills have not matured

and because of complex extra-educational commitments

Hence, a common solution

One forked projectwith two prongs● Appreciating Wikipedia

● Using wikis to prepare coursework

covered over two courses ...... and two years

Using MediaWiki ...software driving Wikipedia

... NOT StudySpace wiki engine

A Foundation in Economics

Assignment 1● My profile ● My favourite book

test of written English

● Plagiarism ● Harvard referencingwill be required for all u/g economists at Level 4

Assignment 3Group projectincluding Wikipedia appreciation

full field Applied Economists only, to startroll out to the entire level 4 cohort in 2010/11

Why wikis?

wikis ...Mediate and record

Assignment 1● composition ● tutor feedback● student response

Assignment 3● individual contribution ● collaboration

Eliminate paper shuffling

Ease assessment

Pinpoint plagiarismin group work

Why MediaWiki?

Look-and-feel of ‘real’ wiki

credibility

Better featuresDiscussion pages, not comments

Formatting for references, etc.

Introduction to ‘proper’ computingUse of mark-up language

Preliminary results 1

Students don’t get it (easily)It’s not• a blog • an appointment book • e-mail• a receptacle for Word documents • etc.

It isa space where one can compose / edittext in a pre-set format

Notion of collective production often absent

Hence Wikipedia appreciation first?

Preliminary results 2