Wikid! Student appreciation of Wikipedia / use of wikis in creating group reports in economics Nick Butler Julian Wells School of Economics

Introduction: whats a wiki? Everyone knows WikipediaWikipedia to be an encyclopædia, written and edited collectivelywritteneditedcollectively Not everyone knows what a wiki is or 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 articleWiki article from Wikipedia In other words, a generic software category

Two common problems: 1 Wiki-plagiarism Cut-and-paste from Wikipedia and elsewhere, of course More generally Failure to address resources critically

Two common problems: 2 Group work … Monitoring and assessing individual contributions Organising collaboration Economics has form here: Rob Watkins handbook for the HEA Economics Network … in skills modules A Foundation in Economics EC1228 Applied Economics Workshop AP2178

Common = frequent and = related Plagiarism makes life easy which is also motive for free-riding in group work and they dont know/understand about Wikipedia structure/process Collaboration is hard students life and business skills have not matured and because of complex extra-educational commitments

Hence, a common solution One forked project with 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 referencing will be required for all u/g economists at Level 4 Assignment 3 Group project including Wikipedia appreciation full field Applied Economists only, to start roll 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 plagiarism in group work

Why MediaWiki? Look-and-feel of real wiki credibility Better features Discussion pages, not comments Formatting for references, etc. Introduction to proper computing Use of mark-up language

Preliminary results 1 Students dont get it (easily) Its not a blog an appointment book a receptacle for Word documents etc.

It is a space where one can compose / edit text in a pre-set format Notion of collective production often absent Hence Wikipedia appreciation first? Preliminary results 2