How today’s college students use Wikipedia for course-related research (original) (raw)
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Lim, S. (2009). How and Why Do College Students Use Wikipedia? Journal of the
2015
The purposes of this study were to explore college students ’ perceptions, motivations and uses of Wikipedia and to understand their information behavior concerning Wikipedia based on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). A web survey was used to collect data in the spring of 2008. The study sample consisted of students from an introductory undergraduate course at a large public university in the mid-western United States. A total of 134 students participated in the study, resulting in a 32.8 % response rate. The major findings of the study include the following: approximately one-third of the students reported using Wikipedia for academic purposes. The students tended to use Wikipedia for checking quick facts and finding background information. They had positive past experiences with Wikipedia: however, interestingly, their perceptions of its information quality were not comparably high. The level of their confidence in evaluating its information quality was, at most, moderate. Respondent...
Students' use of Wikipedia as an academic resource — Patterns of use and perceptions of usefulness
The Internet and Higher Education, 2016
Wikipedia is now an established information source in contemporary society. With initial fears over its detrimental influence on scholarship and study habits now subsiding, this paper investigates what part Wikipedia plays in the academic lives of undergraduate students. The paper draws upon survey data gathered from students across two universities in Australia (n=1658), alongside follow-up interview data from a subsample of 35 students. Analysis of this data suggests that Wikipedia is now an embedded feature of most students' study, although to a lesser extent than other online information sources such as YouTube and Facebook. For the most part, Wikipedia was described as an introductory and/or supplementary source of informationproviding initial orientation and occasional clarification on study topics. While 87.5 per cent of students reported using Wikipedia it was seen to be of limited usefulness when compared with university-provided library resources, ebooks, learning management systems, lecture recordings and academic literature databases. These findings were notably patterned in terms of students' gender, year of study, first language spoken and subject of study.
How and why do college students use Wikipedia?
Journal of the American Society for Information Science …, 2009
The purposes of this study were to explore college students' perceptions, uses of, and motivations for using Wikipedia, and to understand their information behavior concerning Wikipedia based on social cognitive theory (SCT). AWeb survey was used to collect data in the spring of 2008. The study sample consisted of students from an introductory undergraduate course at a large public university in the midwestern United States. A total of 134 students participated in the study, resulting in a 32.8% response rate. The major findings of the study include the following: Approximately one-third of the students reported using Wikipedia for academic purposes. The students tended to use Wikipedia for quickly checking facts and finding background information. They had positive past experiences with Wikipedia; however, interestingly, their perceptions of its information quality were not correspondingly high. The level of their confidence in evaluating Wikipedia's information quality was, at most, moderate. Respondents' past experience with Wikipedia, their positive emotional state, their disposition to believe information inWikipedia, and information utility were positively related to their outcome expectations of Wikipedia. However, among the factors affecting outcome expectations, only information utility and respondents' positive emotions toward Wikipedia were related to their use of it. Further, when all of the independent variables, including the mediator, outcome expectations, were considered, only the variable information utility was related to Wikipedia use, which may imply a limited applicability of SCT to understanding Wikipedia use. However, more empirical evidence is needed to determine the applicability of this theory to Wikipedia use. Finally, this study supports the knowledge value of Wikipedia (Fallis, 2008), despite students' cautious attitudes toward Wikipedia. The study suggests that educators and librarians need to provide better guidelines for using Wikipedia, rather than prohibiting Wikipedia use altogether.
Wikipedia and the University, a case study
Teaching in Higher Education, 2012
This article discusses the use of Wikipedia by academics and students for learning and teaching activities at Liverpool Hope University. Hope has distinctive aspects but we consider the findings to be indicative of Wikipedia use at other British universities. First we discuss general issues of Wikipedia use within the university. Second, we examine existing research on Wikipedia use amongst students and academics. Based upon a sample of 133 academics and 1222 students, our princi- pal findings were: (1) 75% of academics and students use Wikipedia; (2) student use is typically confined to the initial stages of assessments; (3) a quarter of academics provide guidance on how to use Wikipedia and (4) 70% of academics use Wikipedia for background information for teaching purposes, something that it is not influenced by whether student use is tolerated or not. Our conclusion is that whilst Wikipedia is now unofficially integrated into universities, it is not ‘the’ information resource as feared by many and that an enlightened minority of academics have attempted to assimilate it into their teaching.
Academic impact and perceived value of Wikipedia as a primary learning resource in higher education
Profesional de la información, 2020
Wikipedia is an open educational resource whose frequency of use and importance in higher education are growing. However, empirical evidence about Wikipedia’s contribution to students’ academic performance is scant and many higher education actors express concern regarding its value. By applying a combined theoretical and empirical approach, we examine the impact of Wikipedia as a primary learning resource on both students’ academic performance and the perceived value of Wikipedia. Based on an experimental research design conducted with 2,330 university students, we show that the primary use of Wikipedia in combination with conventional learning resources has a positive effect on students’ academic performance, and that this effect is moderated by course discipline. Furthermore, the students’ perceived value of Wikipedia is positive and, generally, not influenced by individual academic performance.
The Elephant in the Room: A Place for Wikipedia in Higher Education?
The article departs from a pilot survey among Norwegian teacher students that maps their usage, skills and attitudes in relation to the web based encyclopedia Wikipedia. The survey shows that the students are heavy users of Wikipedia content yet show a low level of knowledge as to how content is constructed or the ways in which Wikipedia differs from traditional, paper-based encyclopedias. The students also express little interest in parttaking in creating content or maintaining the site. The second part of the article argues that a way to remedy both lack of knowledge and interest among students is to bring Wikipedia actively into the classrooms and enable students to take part in creating and maintaining Wikipedia content. This way, Wikipedia may serve as an effective tool with which to address and enhance a range of central 21st century skills.
Wikipedia at university: what faculty think and do about it
The Electronic Library, 2015
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate university faculty perceptions and practices of using Wikipedia as a teaching resource. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on a large survey to all faculty members in two large public universities. A total of 913 valid responses were collected through an online questionnaire with 9 control variables and 41 Likert-scaled questions. Findings – The results do not support an overwhelming sceptical attitude among faculty towards Wikipedia. The overall quality of Wikipedia articles is highly valued and most faculty are regular users, just as students are. Though most faculty show a positive view on the teaching usefulness of Wikipedia, few of them actually use it for teaching purposes. A certain conflict has been detected between standard academic procedures of knowledge building and the open collaborative model on which Wikipedia rests. In the end, two important factors play a role in shaping faculty views: their collea...
This research study aims to investigate the role of Wikipedia in contemporary knowledge production as it is viewed by the various users of such tools in Greece. Academics, scientists, scholars and professionals provide a variety of argumentation on the pros and cons of the role of Wikipedia in contemporary knowledge production some of them rather conflicting to each other. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were collected at various establishments and a total of about 171 individuals from all walks of life, different backgrounds and age and cultures responded. The study results are clear. Wikipedia is a successful story, regardless of its credibility, despite its authors' anonymity and often lack a significant and/or particular academic or professional merit, but because it is a good start and a quick and easy source of finding free information that either will be confirmed by other more official sources or that can be used by "casual" info seekers. Many individuals in Greece make use of Wikipedia but no research was done so far as to the perception of its quality. Although this pilot study originated in Greece, E.U. but the authors suspect it is very likely the results apply to many other geographic regions and populations.
The Role of Wikipedia in Research and Education
This research study aims to investigate the role of Wikipedia in contemporary knowledge production as it is viewed by the various users of such tools in Greece. Academics, scientists, scholars and professionals provide a variety of argumentation on the pros and cons of the role of Wikipedia in contemporary knowledge production some of them rather conflicting to each other. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were collected at various establishments and a total of about 171 individuals from all walks of life, different backgrounds and age and cultures responded. The study results are clear. Wikipedia is a successful story, regardless of its credibility, despite its authors' anonymity and often lack a significant and/or particular academic or professional merit, but because it is a good start and a quick and easy source of finding free information that either will be confirmed by other more official sources or that can be used by "casual" in...