A new frontier: developing an undergraduate assessment task aimed at improving the representation of biomedical scientific information on Wikipedia. Issue 5 (3rd May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fraser, Stuart T.
• Is Part Of: Studies in higher education. Volume 45:Issue 5(2020)
• Page Start: 972
• Page End: 983
• Publication Date: 2020-05-03
• Subjects: Wikipedia and science -- higher education -- assessment -- digital literacy; Education, Higher -- Periodicals; 378.005
• DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2020.1749794
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0307-5079

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The representation of scientific knowledge and information on Wikipedia is controversial. While some entries present established scientific fact, other entries are devoid of information or present information of questionable rigour. Taking this and the problems associated with essay topics as assessment tasks into consideration, an assessment task has been developed in which senior physiology or histology students edit a Wikipedia entry which is relevant to the themes in the unit of study. Students develop digital literacy skills while improving the quality of scientific information on Wikipedia. Teaching and learning resources have been developed to aid the students transition from writing in a typical 'essay style' to writing in a style appropriate to Wikipedia. The assessment task and design presented here can be readily adapted to any field of study and is designed to help academics introduce editing of Wikipedia articles into existing curricula in an efficient and effective manner.