Wikipedia vs. Academia: An Investigation into the Role of the Internet in Education, with a Special Focus on Wikipedia

Thomas Hodel,Timo Staub

doi:10.13189/ujer.2016.040205

Abstract

This paper considers Wikipedia and collaborative editing in general: what is Wikipedia, how does it work as a collaborative editing project? Who publishes there, how do these people collaborate, is there a hierarchy among them? And what about Wikipedia quality control: is it efficient, how good is the factual quality of the content? Can Wikipedia be re-used for academic work - and if so, where and how? How does Wikipedia cope with research findings; can they be found on the platform? What influence does Wikipedia have on research and education; how should universities cope with the fact that open knowledge can be found there within a matter of seconds? This paper addresses the issue in a rather hands-on and down-to-earth approach that will allow us to draw some interesting conclusions about the role of open Internet knowledge (such as that which can be found on Wikipedia) for and knowledge creation. We will be placing a special focus on academia: for instance, how should universities of applied sciences define competency based learning at a time when so many answers can be readily found on Wikipedia? Here the paper does not strive to come to generalized conclusions, but it does strive to find some modest, surprising and - last but not least - also practical answers. The current paper is based on library research, an online analysis of the current Wikipedia website, and interviews with Swiss Wikipedia activists.

Highlights

Globalization has become a reality: many basic manufacturing tasks have been relocated from the Western world to China, and companies which could not cope with the ever quicker pace of innovation have had to close their doors
Experience does not have a big influence on quality: articles written by Wikipedia newbies are not worse than articles written by Wikipedia veterans. [9]
We interviewed three Swiss Wikipedia authors

Summary

Introduction

Globalization has become a reality: many basic manufacturing tasks have been relocated from the Western world to China, and companies which could not cope with the ever quicker pace of innovation have had to close their doors. The Internet has changed the way economies work. The same goes for people, too: workplaces look different nowadays, and knowledge workers such as engineers and scientists need both a computer and an open Internet access. This is relevant because the digital revolution has changed the way people work, live, and learn. The notion of competency has changed: understanding and research skills have become more important, facts and figures have (probably?) become less important because they can be found on the Internet anyway. Should we not update all our curricula to include the teaching of basic Internet research skills and knowledge, such as relevance feedback or information evaluation? Universities of applied sciences should be struggling with this new kind of definition: if we really wanted to focus on competencies rather than factual knowledge, why do we forbid the use of the Internet during examinations? Even more important, should we not update all our curricula to include the teaching of basic Internet research skills and knowledge, such as relevance feedback or information evaluation? In short, how do we define competency at a time when information about ideas, more or less proven concepts and descriptive texts can be found and re-used all over the place?

Methods

Results

Conclusion