1. Editing Wikipedia instead of writing a
paper
Greta Munger, Davidson College
“to change the way people think”
–Denis Diderot (1750)
Encyclopedia
or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and
Crafts

2. Civic engagement
 …to assist students in developing humane
instincts and disciplined and creative minds for
lives of leadership and service…
 Davidson College Mission Statement

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. Wikipedia Day 2
 Finding sources and adding references
 Citation wizard, DOI search

7. 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.

8. Wikipedia Day 3
 Articles & partners assigned
 Article
structure described
 Develop tentative list of sources
 Goal: 15 peer reviewed articles by next week

9. A quick visual

10. 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.

11. Content & focus, not just length

12. Results
 200-level course  400-level course
 29 undergraduates, 220+ refs  12 undergraduates, 180+
 Childhood amnesia refs
 Confabulation  Door-in-the-face technique
 Culture in music cognition  Eustress
 Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm  Impression formation
 Embodied cognition  Insight
 Encoding specificity principle  Latent learning
 Eyewitness memory  Obedience (human behavior)
 Flashbulb memory  Perfectionism (psychology)
 Global precedence  Personnel Psychology
 Misinformation effect  Posture (psychology)
 Music and emotion  Realistic conflict theory
 Psychological refractory period  Reminiscence therapy
 Reminiscence bump  Self-serving bias
 Subliminal stimuli  ~9000 page views per month
 ~6000 page views per month

13. Summary
 Student reflections
 Sense of purpose
Undergraduates can accomplish
 Audience awareness
a lot!
 Concise writing 2 classes (N=41), 26 articles
 Argument 400+ peer-reviewed sources added
 Source awareness Information on method & specific results
 Google ≠ PsycINFO
 Wikipedia ≠ peer-reviewed journal
 Discussion
 Article structure
 Methods?
 Theories?
 History?
 Research vs. Researcher?

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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)