Brazil Program/Education program/Learning/Brazil Pilot 1/Student Feedback

Introduction

Process

Responses by class and university (27% response rate)

The data represented here is from a survey administered to all the students of the courses in which Wikipedia was an optional assignment. The survey was sent via email to class lists, but given low response rates was also administered on paper to one course and inputted manually. A few disclaimers on the response rate:

We surveyed 27% of the total students in classes with Wikipedia. Note that not all the students participated in the assignment, so this number is artificially low. Over 75% of responses came from Pablo's class at USP, in which the majority of students did not directly contribute to WIkipedia. Also, Pablo's class was where we took the forms printed and asked them to fill it during the class (paper is still efficient). Based on the survey, 47% of students were female.

Class	Number of students	Number responses	Response rate
Cultural Policy (Pablo)	65	23	35%
Physics (Vera)	12	1	8%
Physics (Edivaldo)	14	3	21%
Memory & Experience (Heloisa)	20	3	15%

Key findings

One respondent put it beautifully:

I really enjoyed participating in the project. I had a pessimistic view of Wikipedia. I am a teacher in high school and did not recommend that students inquire throughout the Wikipedia. After this experience I realized just how important the free encyclopedia of knowledge is...

“

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Student response (Student survey, July 2012)

The good

Most students plan to edit Wikipedia into the future
93% of students agreed the program was beneficial

Areas for improvement

Incorporate editing into the classroom experience - so many students did not edit for the class
Teach more clearly syntax of Wikipedia
Involve the Online Ambassadors more

Opportunities

Follow-up with students after the semester! They are interested in editing and interested in more Wikipedia courses

On-wiki experience

Students did not have a lot of experience on the Wiki during the semester.

82% of students made <6 edits during the semester	Online Ambassadors did not have much interaction with the classes

"0" was not an option, but that should be added to the next survey

Past and future editing

No students had edited Wikipedia prior to the class, and they also indicated they were less comfortable with editing Wikipedia before taking the course. After the course, though 75% of students indicate they will continue to edit Wikipedia now that the class is over.

Low levels of comfort editing Wikipedia BEFORE the class
No students had edited Wikipedia prior to the class
Plans to edit Wikipedia in the future (by class)

Satisfaction

Students were very satisfied with their experiences.

93% of students agreed the program was beneficial	100% of students are Somewhat likely to Very Likely to recommend the Wikipedia assignment to a friend	50% of students preferred Wikipedia to a traditional assignment

		Not surprising, given the fact Pablo's course the assignment was optional at the end of the semester.

Editing feedback

Students were mostly uncomfortable editing Wikipedia before the class.

Over half the students indicated they were "Somewhat" to "Very Uncomfortable" in editing Wikipedia before the classroom activity. Despite this, however, they still indicated that they would want to participate in editing into the future.

Future motivation to edit

"Q: Por favor, descreva o que estimularia você a continuar editando a Wikipédia."

More teaching needed
"A proximidade com a ferramenta não foi estabelecida, não tenho estímulo para editar dado que não estou apta a fazê-lo"	"The proximity of the tool has not been established, I don't have incentive to edit because I'm not able to do it"
"Ter um maior tempo de aprender a editar na Wikipédia"	"Have a longer time to learn to edit on Wikipedia"
Editing features
"Recursos de edição mais simplificados (ícones)."	"More simplified editing features (icons)."

Biggest challenges in editing

Q: Qual foi a coisa mais difícil em relação a sua experiência ao editar a Wikipédia?"

Thing	Number of responses
Syntax: General	6
Syntax: Equations	2
Images	2
Lack of bibliography to make a good entry
Formatting	2
Userbox	1
Not knowing resources/Lack of a guide	2
Non-academic language/writing concisely	5
Time	1

Other comments

Q: "Por favor, use esse espaço para compartilhar experiências memoráveis ou deixe quaisquer comentários adicionais sobre sua participação no Projeto Wikipédia na Universidade. "

"Antes de conhecer a wiki mais de perto, acreditava que esse conteúdo era um pouco "suspeito", pois muitas pessoas podem editar, achava que qualquer coisa poderia ser postada, sem critérios. No entanto, ao conhecer um pouco do sistema, de saber que existe todo um respaldo, uma equipe que verifica a legitimidade do conteúdo, sinto-me mais segura para utilizar a wiki como uma ferramenta de pesquisa. O que me preocupa, ainda, são os critérios da objetividade do conhecimento, uma vez que aquilo que é mandado, querendo ou não passa por algum tipo de filtro e toda seleção implica numa exclusão, e esse, acredito ser o grande impasse para o livre compartilhamento de informações, mas essa é uma preocupação que todo cientista social tem, ou deveria ter."	"Before meeting wiki more closely, believed that content was a little "suspect" because many people can edit, thought that anything could be posted without criteria. However, to know a little of the system, knowing that there's a whole support a team that verifies the legitimacy of content, I feel safer to use the wiki as a research tool. What worries me, though, are the criteria of objectivity of knowledge, since what is sent, or not wanting to go through some sort of filter, and all selection implies an exclusion, and this I believe to be the major obstacle for the free information sharing, but this is a concern that every social scientist has, or should have."
"Gostei muito de participar do projeto. Tinha uma visão pessimista da Wikipédia. Sou professora no Ensino Médio e não recomendava que os alunos pesquisassem pela Wikipédia. Depois dessa experiência percebi quão importante é a enciclopédia de conhecimento livre, os textos são escritos com critérios rigorosos. Acho que poderia haver tutores responsáveis para tema específico independente de ser parte de um curso. Eles seriam importantes para esclarecer dúvidas e mediar discussões entre os editores."	"I enjoyed participating in the project. I had a pessimistic view of Wikipedia. I am a teacher in high school and did not recommend that students inquire throughout the Wikipedia. After this experience I realized how important the free encyclopedia of knowledge, the texts are written with strict criteria. I think that could be responsible for specific subject tutors regardless of being part of a course. They would be important to answer questions and mediate discussions between the editors."
"Acho muito importante e positivo o Projeto. A Wikipédia é um fonte de conhecimento incrível, e deve ser aprimorada para, assim, ganhar mais legitimidade - talvez até no mundo acadêmico"	"I find it very important and positive Project. Wikipedia is an amazing source of knowledge, and should be improved to thereby gain more legitimacy - perhaps even in academia."
"O projeto deverá continuar na USP Leste, em caráter de utilidade pública do conhecimento gerado pelos alunos."	"The project should continue in USP Leste in character of public utility of the knowledge generated by the students."
"Gostaria de deixar aqui meu total apoio ao projeto da Wikipédia na universidade. Não há lugar melhor para se encontrar pessoas que possam contribuir em artigos e, mais ainda, pessoas com disposição para isso. É sempre excelente para uma pessoa que quer ser cientista ou qualquer profissional do meio acadêmico discursar acerca de um tema. Como disse um professor meu, certa vez: "A melhor forma de aprender é ensinar alguém". A Wikipédia nos dá a oportunidade de ter que escrever para ensinar a alguém e isso, com certeza, nos faz refletir melhor sobre um determinado tema e aprofundá-lo. É uma excelente experiência e sou muito grato por ter participado do projeto."	"I want to make my full support to the project of Wikipedia in the university. There is no better place to find people who can contribute articles and even more people in the mood for it. It is always great for a person who wants to be a scientist or any professional academic discourse on a subject. As a teacher of mine said once: "The best way to learn is to teach someone." Wikipedia gives us the opportunity of having to teach someone to write and it certainly makes us think more about a certain topic and deepen it. It's a great experience and I'm very grateful to have participated in the project."
" Muito usado na educação básica e agora será mais usado por mim, pois garantiram mais confiança e credibilidade dos documentos publicados."	"Widely used in basic education and now will be used by me, for it secured more confidence and credibility of the public documents."
"Concluindo, foi um prazer participar da Wikipédia pois contribuí com o processo de possibilitar o acesso à informação de boa qualidade a um grande contingente populacional"	"In conclusion, it was a pleasure to participate in Wikipedia because it contributed to the process of granting access to good quality information to a large contingent of the population"

Things to change for next survey

Include a retro-active question (How comfortable are you with editing AFTER the semester)
Add "0" option to # of total edits for next semester

Pre-semester survey

Students are mostly uncomfortable editing Wikipedia

At the beginning of the semester, we conducted a survey of students to understand their base-level of knowledge. This survey had only 16 respondents, but of those we found only 2 had edited Wikipedia in the past, and the vast majority were unfamiliar with or uncomfortable editing in Wikipedia.

Notes

See this Google doc for all the questions on the survey.