Learning patterns/Evaluate student work

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Evaluating student work

problemHow to evaluate student contributions to Wikimedia for a grade or mark.

solutionSet up evaluation criteria before giving students an assignment on Wikimedia projects.

creator• KHarold (WMF)

created on16:13, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

If you have given a student an assignment to contribute content to Wikimedia projects as part of a course or education program, you may need to evaluate their work for a grade or mark at the end of the course. This learning pattern will share some methods that educators or program leaders use to evaluate student work.

What is the solution?

1. Know all the students' usernames on Wikipedia: Without knowing the students' usernames on Wikipedia, you won't be able to grade them. Create a page for the course on Wikipedia before the term starts (you can use the Education Extension to help you do this). Make sure all students enroll in the course page. Once all students have signed the list, you can come back later and click on "user contributions" (in the menu bar on the left hand side of your browser screen) to review all of the student's activities on Wikipedia.
2. Be specific about your expectations: this is crucial for grading. As an example: the assignment for the students could be to add a minimum of three new sections to an existing article. Students could also be asked to add a minimum of eight references to an existing article that lacks the appropriate sourcing, etc.
3. Break your Wikipedia assignment into key milestones: Based on experience of many educators, a milestone approach to Wikipedia assignments has proven to be useful to assessing performance, completing the assignment and grading student contribution. Additionally, it allows students and Wikipedia editors to engage together in the unique peer editing and collaboration process found on Wikipedia.

Note: Please don't grade students based on what stays in Wikipedia. Many factors may contribute to a student’s content not remaining in Wikipedia, and if students feel they must fight to control an article for the sake of their grade, this may create conflict with other editors. Remember: Wikipedia editing is a collaborative writing environment that is driven by verifiability, noteworthiness and neutral point of view – all of which have created challenges for students. Additionally, writing for an encyclopedia is different than writing a typical student persuasive paper.

See also

Education Toolkit Learning Pattern This learning pattern is part of the Education Program Toolkit. Go to the toolkit.