Can you make sure my students' work doesn't get deleted?

answered 2015-10-01 19:00:34 -0500

Jami (Wiki Ed)

The best way to make sure your students' edits aren't deleted is to encourage high quality work. In the Instructor Basics handbook, we review the typical structure of a Wikipedia article. In the Evaluating Wikipedia handbook, we offer a checklist for signs of bad article quality. Review these with your students. You can also learn about creating good and featured articles on Wikipedia by reading about featured article criteria.

To avoid a contribution getting deleted or reverted, follow Wiki Ed's best practices:

• Grade the Wikipedia assignment based on milestones, effort, and the quality of your student's contribution. Do not grade them on whether their content "sticks" by the end of the term.
• Assign the student training.
• Encourage your students to make edits in small sections. If they add a large contribution at once, and an editor thinks it's more trouble than it's worth, they may revert the entire edit. Avoid this by making small contributions throughout the assignment.
• Incorporate time for students to respond to feedback. A Wikipedia Content Expert will likely catch any flags that will lead to deletion. Make sure your students pay attention to their feedback and make subsequent improvements.