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Engineering Students as Knowledge Producers and Ethical Practitioners: Learning Outcomes of Wikipedia Writing in the Engineering Classroom

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Conference

2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference

Location

Vancouver

Publication Date

May 12, 2022

Start Date

May 12, 2022

End Date

May 14, 2022

Conference Session

Equity and Ethics in Engineering-I

Tagged Topic

Conference Submission

Page Count

3

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44730

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/44730

Download Count

134

Paper Authors

biography

Helen Choi University of Southern California

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Helen Choi is a Senior Lecturer at Engineering in Society Program at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

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Abstract

Engineering Students as Knowledge Producers and Ethical Practitioners: Learning Outcomes of Wikipedia Writing in the Engineering Classroom

In this presentation, an instructor in the Engineering in Society Program at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, will discuss the pedagogical implications of Wikipedia writing for engineering students. This presentation will be based on student feedback and instructor reflections from sixteen sections of an upper-division writing and communications course for engineering students from fall 2019 to fall 2021. Since fall 2019, 295 engineering students in this course have written over 100 Wikipedia articles in science and engineering with the addition of 3,781 references and over 260,000 words. These contributions have been viewed over 7 million times by Wikipedia readers all over the world.

As an open-collaboration project with hundreds of millions of volunteer editors, Wikipedia is the world’s largest encyclopedia that is continually revised and expanded for accuracy and completeness. College students, who are actively acquiring research, writing, and analytical skills in their courses, are well-positioned to contribute to Wikipedia and expand the knowledge base of millions around the world. Students' positionality is leveraged in this Wikipedia group assignment, as students engage in self-reflection about their roles as knowledge consumers and their ethical responsibilities as information producers.

Student feedback about their Wikipedia group work aligns with research by rhetoric and writing scholars which notes that Wikipedia writing provides college students with extensive practice in writing and research, as well as with opportunities for collaboration with other Wikipedia editors inside and outside the classroom. Researchers also note that writing for a real-world audience provides public writing experiences that can increase student motivation to work conscientiously and accurately.

Student feedback also indicates that Wikipedia writing offered opportunities to practice digital citizenship - which was defined as the desire to contribute and ensure the accuracy and accessibility of information for the benefit of society. As this sentiment aligns with foundational principles of professional engineering ethics, such as promoting societal well-being and being honest and truthful, writing for Wikipedia may be a way for engineering students to apply ethical principals with immediacy in a highly relevant and visible context.

In this presentation, attendees will learn how Wikipedia was integrated into the writing curriculum for engineering students, examine the impact of this group project on students' perceptions about their writing, communication, and collaborative skills, and identify connections between Wikipedia writing principles and engineering ethics.

Choi, H. (2022, May), Engineering Students as Knowledge Producers and Ethical Practitioners: Learning Outcomes of Wikipedia Writing in the Engineering Classroom Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference, Vancouver. 10.18260/1-2--44730

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