User:Chess/studentassignments

Student assignments can help improve Wikipedia, but they can also cause the encyclopedia more harm than good when not directed properly. Volunteer editors are sometimes left with a mess and the burden of fixing poor-quality edits, cleaning up or reverting original research, merging content forks, and deleting articles. Even experienced Wikipedia editors who are classroom instructors have had mixed experiences.^[1] Despite the difficulties, successful assignments and classrooms do exist; this information page is intended to point the way to achieving good outcomes. A successful assignment requires careful crafting, with its grading system in accordance with Wikipedia needs and Wikipedia norms (known as policies and guidelines). If you have any questions about anything related to student assignments, please ask at the education noticeboard.

Instructors are expected to have a good working knowledge of Wikipedia, and should be willing to help address core content policy violations in student work. The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) supports a global Wikipedia Education Program that can be contacted through their page on the Outreach Wiki and has resources for many countries. The program's purpose is to help instructors and students learn about Wikipedia and avoid common pitfalls. There is also a separate Wiki Education Foundation (WikiEd) that offers support for classes held at institutions in the United States and Canada. Either the Education Program or WikiEd (depending on the country where the course is based) should always be contacted prior to starting classes.^[2] Each assignment should have a course page, so editors can direct constructive feedback to the right place. The user pages of students should link to the course page and any draft. Instructors should be identified at the course page, and their user page should provide contact details (or the option to receive email through Wikipedia should be enabled). If issues such as copyright infringement develop, rapid contact with the instructor can be necessary in order to resolve issues before they negatively affect students' experiences.

Established editors should welcome student editors, and students should learn to communicate via the normal Wikipedia channels, such as on article talk pages and user talk pages. If editors contact an instructor, they should try to be helpful. Likewise, if an instructor receives constructive feedback on a classroom assignment, they should be responsive. Improving medicine and health topics often requires particularly careful use of sources. Specific examples of best practices are also shown below.

^ Jon Beasley-Murray, an academic and Wikipedian, has shared his views from 2012 on the use of Wikipedia in higher education, offered his advice from his early experiences, and more recently presented this paper at Wikimania 2015. His user page shows examples of his successful classes.
This discussion from 2013 provides an example where a student assignment caused disruption and necessitated substantial clean up efforts from the Wikipedia community, and led to an academic deciding not to participate further in Wikipedia, a bad outcome from all perspectives.
An unusually serious problem occurred in a 2017 course about controversial current events where, after multiple discussions across different noticeboards, conversations on article and user talk pages, and deletion discussions, editors and the instructor failed to reach an understanding about neutral article content and inappropriate advocacy. This article is, however, a good example where talk page discussions with students successfully led to policy-compliant content, but community consensus ultimately imposed a block on the instructor that included a ban on running future class projects. This was an extreme case, but it does demonstrate the problems that may develop when communication breaks down, and that the Wikipedia community can and will act to protect the integrity of the encyclopedia.
^ Please consider delaying your Wikipedia assignment to next semester if you are not familiar with how things work. You and your students will benefit from good planning.

[1] Jon Beasley-Murray, an academic and Wikipedian, has shared his views from 2012 on the use of Wikipedia in higher education, offered his advice from his early experiences, and more recently presented this paper at Wikimania 2015. His user page shows examples of his successful classes.
This discussion from 2013 provides an example where a student assignment caused disruption and necessitated substantial clean up efforts from the Wikipedia community, and led to an academic deciding not to participate further in Wikipedia, a bad outcome from all perspectives.
An unusually serious problem occurred in a 2017 course about controversial current events where, after multiple discussions across different noticeboards, conversations on article and user talk pages, and deletion discussions, editors and the instructor failed to reach an understanding about neutral article content and inappropriate advocacy. This article is, however, a good example where talk page discussions with students successfully led to policy-compliant content, but community consensus ultimately imposed a block on the instructor that included a ban on running future class projects. This was an extreme case, but it does demonstrate the problems that may develop when communication breaks down, and that the Wikipedia community can and will act to protect the integrity of the encyclopedia.

[2] Please consider delaying your Wikipedia assignment to next semester if you are not familiar with how things work. You and your students will benefit from good planning.

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