Wikipedia in higher education: Changes in perceived value through content contribution

Soler-Adillon, Joan, Pavlovic, Dragana and Freixa, Pere Wikipedia in higher education: Changes in perceived value through content contribution. Comunicar, 2018, vol. 26, n. 54, pp. 39-48. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

Wikipedia is a widely used resource by university students, but it is not necessarily regarded as being reliable and trustworthy by them, nor is it seen as a context in which to make content contributions. This paper presents a teaching and research project that consisted in having students edit or create Wikipedia articles and testing whether or not this experience changed their perceived value of the platform. We conducted our experience at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) and University of Niš (Niš, Serbia) with a total number of 240 students. These students edited articles and answered two questionnaires, one before and one after the exercise. We compared the pre and post experience answers to the questionnaires with a series of paired samples ttests, through which our data showed that students did significantly change their perception of reliability and usefulness, and of likeliness of finding false information on Wikipedia. Their appreciation of the task of writing Wikipedia articles, in terms of it being interesting and challenge also increased. They did not significantly change, however, their judgement on the social value of the platform, neither in the university nor in the general context. In addition, the open questions and informal feedback allowed us to gather valuable insights towards the evaluation of the overall experience

Spanish abstract

Wikipedia es un recurso muy utilizado por estudiantes universitarios, pero no está necesariamente bien valorado en términos de fiabilidad, ni tampoco es visto como un entorno en el que hacer aportaciones de contenido. Este artículo presenta un proyecto de docencia e investigación que consiste en proponer que los estudiantes editen o creen artículos para la Wikipedia, y en comprobar si la experiencia modifica su valoración de la misma. Se realizó la experiencia en la Universidad Pompeu Fabra (España) y la Universidad de Niš (Serbia) con un total de 240 alumnos. Editaron artículos y respondieron dos cuestionarios, uno antes y otro después de la experiencia. Se compararon las respuestas mediante una serie de pruebas T para muestras emparejadas, a partir de las cuales pudimos comprobar que los datos mostraban un cambio significativo en su percepción sobre la fiabilidad y la utilidad de la Wikipedia y sobre la probabilidad de encontrar información falsa en ella. También cambió su apreciación de la tarea de editar artículos, que se valoró como interesante y representó un reto. En cambio, su valoración del prestigio social de la Wikipedia, tanto en el contexto universitario como el general, no varió significativamente. Adicionalmente, las preguntas abiertas y el feedback informal permitieron recoger informaciones muy valiosas respecto a la valoración del conjunto de la experiencia

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Collaborative learning, Internet, information, competence, university, students, literacy, digital culture, Aprendizaje colaborativo, Internet, información, competencia, universidad, estudiantes, alfabetización, cultura digital
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BJ. Communication
G. Industry, profession and education.
G. Industry, profession and education. > GH. Education.
Depositing user: Alex Ruiz
Date deposited: 16 Jan 2018 11:56
Last modified: 16 Jan 2018 11:56
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/32171

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