Students write Wikipedia articles as
assessment
Sverker Johansson
Dalarna University
Ylva Lindberg
School of Education & Communication
University of Jönköping
Learning outcomes &
criteria for assessment
• To categorize information
• To build knowledge
• To identify gaps
Literary genres
Aristotle
Poetics
Epic
Poetry
Drama
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1 Literary genres
– 1.1 Action
– 1.2 Adventure
– 1.3 Comedy
– 1.4 Crime
– 1.5 Erotica
– 1.6 Faction
– 1.7 Fantasy
– 1.8 Historical
– 1.9 Horror
– 1.10 Mystery
– 1.11 Paranoid
– 1.12 Philosophical
– 1.13 Political
– 1.14 Romance
– 1.15 Saga
– 1.16 Satire
– 1.17 Science fiction
– 1.18 Slice of Life
– 1.19 Speculative
– 1.20 Thriller
– 1.21 Urban
2 Film genres
3 Television genres
4 See also
5 Video game genres
6 Music genres
7 References
Genres – ”Wikipedia style”
Learning outcomes &
criterias for assessment
• Information choice
• Adapt the writing to the reader
• Adapt to a genre
– Chronology
– Addition
– Cause and Effect
Authentic assessment
• Most assessment uses artificial assignments.
– Relevance? Student motivation?
• ”Authentic assessment” is meant to mimic ”the real
world” that we train students for.
– Still just mimic, not necessarily the real thing.
• Authentic assessment of skills such as identifying
knowledge gaps, structuring information, cooperative
writing, genre writing, and ability to explain complex
matters to non-experts?
• Can Wikipedia be the answer?
Wikipedia vs. private wiki
• Wiki software openly available, easy to start your
own wiki, as alternative to ”real” Wikipedia.
• Why use private wiki:
– Controlled environment, more comfortable for both
teacher and students
– Nobody else interferes with student writing
• Why use real Wikipedia:
– Authenticity!
– Student texts will actually have readers 
– Feedback from and cooperation with others
Our experiences with Wikipedia
writing as assessment
Courses:
• String theory (physics, final undergaduate level)
• Science fiction & fantasy literature
• Human evolution
• Origins and evolution
All courses undergraduate level at Jönköping University.
Taught in Swedish, writing on Swedish Wikipedia.
Student assignment
• Write a Wikipedia article on a topic relevant
for the course.
• The article should problematize its topic, and
should use relevant concepts from the course.
• The article should be accurate and based on
reliable sources, with proper references.
• The article should have appropriate links and
categorization.
Suitable and unsuitable courses
Suitable for Wikipedia assessment:
– Course goals compatible with collaborative writing of
encyclopedic texts for lay people.
– Course goals that include information seeking, information
structuring, and critical thinking.
– Course topic with many potential article topics and poor existing
Wikipedia coverage.
Not suitable:
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Course goals not served by encyclopedia writing.
Course topic well covered by Wikipedia, little left to write.
Course topic not separable into many article topics.
After several rounds of Wikipedia assessment on the same
topic, that part of Wikipedia will be ”exhausted”.
– No Wikipedia-experienced teacher in the course
Student reactions
Mixed reactions – some love it, some hate it.
• Some enjoy a real audience, some become nervous.
• Technical issues require some instruction, hurdle for
less tech-savvy students, but not a big problem.
• Some difficulties getting the genre right and in
general adapting to Wikipedia culture.
Assessing Wikipedia work
• Wikipedia tools to disentangle what each
student has contributed:
– ”User contributions” page
– Article ”history” tab
– ”Compare revisions” under history tab.
Examples of student work
• https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategori:Strängteori
• https://sv.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hård_science_ficti
on&oldid=9404921
• https://sv.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homo_antecessor
&oldid=14196339