Instructors examine Wikipedia’s competency

Mid-terms have passed, but final projects and essays are staring students in the face. Much to the discouragement of their professors, many seek refuge in the volunteer-driven online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Matt Dolloff, lecturer of English, said his English 101 students should know how to find scholarly articles in the library databases like Lexus Nexus and Academic Search Premier by the end of their first freshman semester.

“There are all these resources that they’re paying for, so why not use them,” Dolloff said.

Amberly Bradford, senior in retail and consumer science, said professors aren’t always clear about their expectations.

“None of my teachers have ever said don’t use (Wikipedia) as a source, you’ll get counted off if you do,” she said.

Bradford suggested that Wikipedia might be best used as a quick reference or a starting point for further research.

One teacher decided to explore Wikipedia’s credibility in a new way. Martha Groom, associate professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences at the University of Washington, asked her students to submit their papers to the Web site.

“They were doing a public service,” Groom said. “They would be improving a site and making it more credible.”

Since Groom began assigning the Wikipedia project for her classes, 50 Wikipedia sites have been created and maintained by her students. Groom said that students participating in the assignment have produced the best papers.

“Students began to understand that they wanted to be reliable,” she said. “They were more diligent about their work and more critical about the sources they used.”

Groom said she believes that Wikipedia’s quality has improved over the past few years, even if it is not a perfect system.

“There’s still crap on Wikipedia, but students can be a part of making it better,” Groom said.

Although Dolloff said he feels that students should take advantage of the academic databases and look for scholarly sources, he said that the best dialogue and debate sometimes comes from non-academic sources online.

“Anything is fair game as long as they note that the source may not be reliable,” he said.

He said students might cite an advertisement or a brand’s Web site in order to include their perspective in a discussion paper.

Dolloff also pointed out that other online encyclopedias like the Encyclopedia Britannica have the perks of a free, easily accessible Web site without the uncertainty.

However, some students like Robbie Wright, senior in English, are wary of the information on Wikipedia and prefer to use academic sources for their papers.

“I use Wikipedia to clarify concepts, but students need to be able to navigate academic databases and interpret scholarly information,” Wright said. “Especially if they plan on going to graduate school.”