Greta Munger, Davidson College

Editing Wikipedia instead of writing a

paper

“to change the way people think”

–Denis Diderot (1750)

Encyclopedia

or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and

Crafts

Civic engagement

…to assist students in developing humane

instincts and disciplined and creative minds for

lives of leadership and service…

Davidson College Mission Statement

Developing the assignment

Defining an entry

Initial definition

Imagine this is all they read, what to know?

Methods

How do we define and measure this?

Specific results

This is the bulk of the article.

Theory

To the extent that there is some consensus.

Wikipedia assignment

Traditional literature review

Students work individually

1500-2000 words

4-6 peer reviewed sources

Wikipedia project

Students in pairs

No specific word count

Add 15 peer-reviewed sources

Wikipedia Day 1

Registering, linking, and markup User page details… Register at Wikipedia

Link to Davidson College (external)

Link to course page

APS template

Infobox user template (make it pretty!)

Talk to a fellow classmate on their User page

Say “hi” to Online Ambassador “Meet & greet” section of his talk page

Places to register… Register at APS

Add your name to the list of students on our course page

Wikipedia Day 2

Finding sources and adding references

Citation wizard, DOI search

Markup

What you see in textbox Mental rotation is the ability to manipulate mental representations of two-

dimensional and three-dimensional objects about various axes of rotation, with

larger orientation differences require more processing time<ref>{{cite

journal|last=Shepard|first=R. N.|coauthors=Metzler, J.|title=Mental Rotation of

Three-Dimensional

Objects|journal=Science|date=1971|volume=171|issue=3972|pages=701–

703|doi=10.1126/science.171.3972.701}}</ref> <ref>{{cite

book|last=Revlin|first=R|title=Human Cognition Theory and

Practice|year=2012|publisher=Worth Pub|isbn=9780716756675|pages=237-

241}}</ref>.

{{reflist}}

What you see as the preview (and when page is saved) Mental rotation is the ability to manipulate mental representations of two-

dimensional and three-dimensional objects about various axes of rotation, with

larger orientation differences require more processing time[1] [2].

1. ^ Shepard, R. N.; Metzler, J. (1971). "Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects".

Science 171 (3972): 701–703. doi:10.1126/science.171.3972.701.

2. ^ Revlin, R. Human Cognition Theory and Practice. Worth Pub. pp. 237-241.

ISBN 9780716756675.

Wikipedia Day 3

Articles & partners assigned

Article structure described

Develop tentative list of sources

Goal: 15 peer reviewed articles by next week

A quick visual

Writing concisely

Typical student sentence “In a study done by Brown and Munger (2010), they

manipulated whether the camera was rotating or translating through the scene and found larger representational momentum for rotations.”

APA rewrite “Brown and Munger (2010) found larger representational

momentum for camera rotations compared to translations.”

Wikipedia rewrite “More representational momentum occurs for camera

rotations compared to translations through a scene.[1]”

1. ^ Brown, Travis A.; Munger, Margaret P. (2010). "Representational momentum, spatial layout, and viewpoint dependency". Visual Cognition 18: 780–800. doi:10.1080/13506280903336535.

Content & focus, not just length

Results

200-level course 29 undergraduates, 220+ refs

Childhood amnesia

Confabulation

Culture in music cognition

Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm

Embodied cognition

Encoding specificity principle

Eyewitness memory

Flashbulb memory

Global precedence

Misinformation effect

Music and emotion

Psychological refractory period

Reminiscence bump

Subliminal stimuli

~6000 page views per month

400-level course 12 undergraduates, 180+

refs Door-in-the-face technique

Eustress

Impression formation

Insight

Latent learning

Obedience (human behavior)

Perfectionism (psychology)

Personnel Psychology

Posture (psychology)

Realistic conflict theory

Reminiscence therapy

Self-serving bias

~9000 page views per month

Summary

Student reflections Sense of purpose

Audience awareness

Concise writing

Argument

Source awareness Google ≠ PsycINFO

Wikipedia ≠ peer-reviewed journal

Discussion Article structure

Methods?

Theories?

History? Research vs. Researcher?

Undergraduates can accomplish

a lot!2 classes (N=41), 26 articles

400+ peer-reviewed sources added

Information on method & specific results

Assignment timeline & structure (1/2)

For sophomore lecture course 34% of final course grade

Read 5 pillars, brief discussion about anonymity Week 1

Registering, linking, and markup 1% of Wikipedia assignment

Week 2

Finding sources and adding references Library instruction on PsycINFO

Practice in sandbox using insert citation (1%)

Choosing a topic & partner

Week 3

Assignment timeline & structure(2/2)

For sophomore lecture course

Sources on sandbox draft/talk page (6%) Week 5

Moving to main space, content evaluated (30%) Week 9

Peer reviews (2 each) (6%) Week 10

"Final" article (50%) Week 13

Reflective essay (6%) Week 15

Week 14 included Thanksgiving

Accelerated assignment

structure

For senior majors 25% of final course grade

User accounts & topics (4%) Week 1

Moving to main space, content evaluated (28%) Week 3

Peer reviews (2 each) (8%) Week 4

"Final" article (56%) & Reflective essay (4%) Week 6 (end of senior exams)