Many professors prohibit students from using Wikipedia for class assignments, considering it to be an unreliable source, but a nationwide initiative is working toward increasing the site’s credibility through student involvement.
This past academic year, MSU teamed up with the Wikimedia Foundation to participate in the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative, a program that enables students to edit, contribute to and write their own public policy-related Wikipedia articles.
The initiative started with 14 classes in fall 2010 and grew to 33 by spring 2011. LiAnna Davis, communications associate for the Public Policy Initiative, said Wikimedia hopes to more than double that number by next year and open the program up to any discipline at any university worldwide.
Jonathan Obar, visiting assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at MSU, said the goal was to help Wikipedia improve the quality of policy-related articles by connecting with universities and allowing experts within those universities to supervise the students, he said.
“I was new to Wikipedia to begin with, and so it was kind of interesting that we were going to be doing that type of program in class,” telecommunication, information studies and media senior James Komar said.
Two classes at MSU, media and communication policy and telecommunication policy analysis, participated in the initiative in the spring 2011 semester and were among the top contributors in the nation. Students in media and communication policy ranked first in total bytes added to Wikipedia articles, and telecommunication policy analysis students ranked third in average number of characters added per student.
“The content of the articles that the students have written has been of exceptional quality,” Davis said. “We are all really excited about both of the classes at MSU. We look forward to working with Michigan State (again) in the future.”
In addition to editing and contributing to articles throughout the semester, students had a final project that required them write their own Wikipedia article — topics ranged from wireless broadband to cyber security to media ownership.
Like other term papers, articles had to be well researched and include multiple credible sources, Johannes Bauer, telecommunication policy analysis professor, said.
Students who participated benefitted in a variety of ways, Obar said. They were able to connect to new media literacy as well as social media and learn to identify credible sources.
“Material was read as well as evaluated and critiqued by people across the world,” Obar said. “It was a innovative way to teach course material.”
Help was available to students who needed it. Wikimedia provided handouts and instructional material for instructors to learn how to teach their students. Campus ambassadors were trained to help students better understand how to edit articles using Wikipedia’s style.
Online ambassadors — experienced Wikipedians — also were available to assist students when they were working online, offering feedback and suggestions as well as answering student questions. Students also had the option of taking their work to MSU’s Writing Center before publishing it.
Bauer said some students struggled with the editing process and were apprehensive about having their work available to such a wide audience. But the majority of his students enjoyed participating in the initiative.
Some students such as Komar relished the opportunity to learn the intricacies of Wikipedia from behind the scenes.
“To be actually involved in the community and the other side of things was pretty cool,” Komar said.
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