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Student Use of Wikipedia in the Academic Setting
I. Introduction
The up and coming generation of new undergraduate students have known the Internet all
of their lives. When a student is told to do research, or if they want to find the answer to a
burning question, the first course of action, and frequently the only course of action, would be to
go on the Internet and go to a search engine such as Google and from there to Wikipedia to get
information. “Internet users can currently access information more easily than any other time.
However, due to the complex characteristics of digital information, they face unique challenges
in discerning credible information from unfiltered information, and in selecting appropriate
information for their needs” (Lim, 2009, pgs. [1-2]). There have been a number of studies over
recent years that have noted student use of the Internet, and in particular the Wikipedia website,
for scholarly research. These studies all point out that there is a disconnect between today’s
undergraduate students and the academic library as well as a disconnect between their
information seeking skills and their ability to determine appropriate scholarly material, especially
concerning information accessed online.
A controversy that is very prominent in the academic setting is the student use of
Wikipedia when conducting research. There is currently no across the board consensus of how
Wikipedia should be used in the academic setting, or if Wikipedia should be used at all. Some
instructors ban the use of Wikipedia. Some instructors encourage use of Wikipedia as a starting
point but not to use as a citation. Then there are some instructors encourage use of Wikipedia as
a tool to develop information retrieval and evaluating skills and encourage their students to
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contribute to and edit Wikipedia articles to better understand the nature of Wikipedia. Now there
are scholarly articles being published in peer-reviewed journals that cite Wikipedia
(Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016). It is no wonder that students today are floundering when
it comes to seeking out acceptable information resources.
Many students are entering college straight from high school and only have a very basic
skill set when it comes to gathering and evaluating information. “Information literacy, as
librarians know, and what we hope to teach our user populations is that it is not only an
important skill, but also a skill that takes time to develop. Further, it is not a skill that one merely
needs for as long as they are in school, but anytime they need to find, synthesize, and analyze
information” (Haigh, 2013, pg.35). In order to successfully take these undergraduate students
and turn them into not only scholars, but citizens capable of gathering and evaluating
information, instructors and information professionals need to understand students’ information
behaviors and why sources such as Wikipedia are so appealing to students.
II. Literature Review
There are five areas of research that are important to consider concerning student use of
Wikipedia in the academic setting:
1. Information Behavior of Students
2. Concern of Instructors and Information Professionals about the Information
Behavior of Students
3. Wikipedia as a Source of Information
4. Student Information Behavior with Regard to Wikipedia
5. Instructors and Information Professionals View of Wikipedia as a Source of
Information
a. Information Behavior of Students
When trying to understand the information behavior of students, it is necessary to take
into account not only their information searching methods and making sense of the information
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gleaned, but their emotions as well. When presented with the task of doing research, the student
in the beginning of their search “tries to describe for another person not something he knows, but
rather something he does not know” (Taylor, 1968, pg125). This is a rather stressful and anxiety
producing act, especially when inquiring for help from an information professional whom they
are not acquainted with. When studying student information behavior, “a model representing the
user’s sense-making process of information seeking ought to incorporate three realms of activity:
physical, actions taken; affective, feelings experienced; and cognitive, thoughts concerning both
process and content” (Kuhlthau, 1991, pg. 362). A rather large stumbling block to students in
their search process are the feelings of confusion and frustration. Colon-Aguirre and Flemming
(2012) noticed this in their study, “students…expressed some level of frustration with the
process of interacting with the OPAC and database search platforms” (pg. 395). Denison and
Montgomery (2012) further elaborate “that when students do not know how to use an
information tool, whether it be because of semantic complexities, technical difficulties, or
cognitive processes, in order to avoid frustration, they will often stay away from the databases,
relying more heavily on information resources with which they are the most familiar” (pg. 386).
Instead of diving into a frustrating academic database, students will gravitate towards a system
that they are already familiar and comfortable with- Internet search engines and Wikipedia.
When students, particularly newer undergraduate students, are given an assignment that
requires research, they may not have a particular plan to follow in conducting their research.
Many students tend to engage in what Bates (1989) describes as her theory of ‘berrypicking.’
“Typical search queries are not static, but rather evolve, searchers commonly gather information
in bits and pieces instead of in one grand best retrieved set, searchers use a wide variety of search
techniques which extend beyond those commonly associated with bibliographic databases, and
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searchers use a wide variety of sources other than bibliographic databases” (Bates, 1989, pg
421). Most students start their search by using an Internet search engine such as Google and from
there usually one of the first hits is from Wikipedia. After that, if students are required to use
other materials such as peer-reviewed journals and books, they will glean information from these
sources as well.
b. Concern of Instructors and Information Professionals about the Information
Behavior of Students
Previous studies looking at the information behavior of students have noted that
instructors and other information professionals have concerns for the information behavior of
students including their search strategies, types of sources used and the ability to evaluate these
sources for credibility. Rose-Wiles and Hofmann (2013) have noted that “discussions with
teaching faculty members at both Rider University and Seton Hall University indicate that they
are frustrated and perplexed by their students’ inability to provide relevant and appropriate
citations for their papers” (pg. 157). Arnette and Forrestal (2012) found that “at Stevens Institute
of Technology…professors repeatedly complained to library staff that the quality of sources that
students use in term papers was not acceptable” (pg. 176). With these concerns there have been
attempts from instructors and information professionals to improve student information behavior.
“While academic institutions have worked diligently to improve the information literacy
instruction on their campuses, many higher education professionals, remain concerned about the
quality of college students' information literacy skills and their abilities to critique information.”
(Denison and Montgomery, 2012, pg. 380). Not only is it an ongoing struggle for students to
develop their information seeking skills, but it is also an ongoing struggle on the part of
instructors and information professionals to teach students how to develop these skills.
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c. Wikipedia as a Source of Information
Wikipedia, although an unconventional source, is a favorite source of students to gather
information. By its own definition, Wikipedia is “a multilingual, web-based, free-content
encyclopedia project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation and based on a model of openly
editable content” (2016). Wikipedia differs from traditional encyclopedias not only by having
been born digital, but anyone can write an article and edit an article. “The site's main criticism
relates to the authority and objectivity of the sources and authors of its information” (Colon-
Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 391). Because anyone can write or edit an article on
Wikipedia, a common misconception is that articles are not reviewed. “It is not true that articles
are not reviewed. On the contrary, they are scrutinised by far more editors than for any journal.
However, as the contributor is generally not an academic expert, so the reviewer is not generally
an academic expert.” (Knight and Pryke, 2012, pg. 651). The articles do get reviewed but not by
the same standards of scholarly, peer-reviewed, refereed journals that are considered vital to
research. “It is important to remember that Wikipedia not only depends on volunteers from the
general public to contribute with articles to the open encyclopedia, but also to edit the content
that might be genuinely incorrect or vandalized.” (Colon-Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 392).
While Wikipedia strives to be accurate and neutral in tone, it is also important to note that
Wikipedia in its own article, Researching with Wikipedia (2016) advises caution when using
Wikipedia as a source.
Tomaszewski and MacDonald (2016) have published “A Study of Citations to Wikipedia
in Scholarly Publications” and have made some interesting discoveries. Tomaszewski and
MacDonald (2016) have noted that “Google has optimized its searches such that Wikipedia
articles are placed close to or at the top of search results” (pg. 247). Naturally, when conducting
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an online information search, Internet users rarely go past the first page or two of a search.
Placing Wikipedia entries at the top of the search is prime real estate to draw traffic to the free,
online encyclopedia. Despite Wikipedia’s own warnings about using it as a source, scholarly,
peer-reviewed publications are publishing articles that cite the open-source online encyclopedia.
The findings from this study interestingly show that the highest use of Wikipedia as a citation is
in the science and engineering fields with less citations in the humanities and social sciences
fields (Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016, pg. 250). Within this study there continues to be
controversy over whether or not Wikipedia is authoritative. “Librarians would not cite Wikipedia
because it is not an authoritative source, anyone can edit it, and there are concerns with
information accuracy,” (Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016, pg. 248). On the other hand, “the
fact that the editors and reviewers of these journals are publishing articles with these citations
seems to imply that they have accepted Wikipedia as a credible source of information,”
(Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016, pg. 254). Another finding of Tomaszewski and
MacDonald (2016), is that “the majority of Wikipedia citations are in articles written by authors
affiliated with academic institutions, many of which are notable universities from around the
world” (pg. 254). This would suggest that the authors of published articles that cite Wikipedia
have enough cognitive authority to be able to discern the quality of the Wikipedia articles that
they have cited.
d. Student Information Behavior with Regard to Wikipedia
There is no denying the fact that students do, indeed, use Wikipedia, but how they use
Wikipedia and the reasons for using Wikipedia vary. A study done by Colon-Aguirre and
Flemming (2012) looks at three types of library users-avid, occasional and adverse users. In this
study it was found that in regards to Wikipedia usage, “Avid library users most frequently
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reported using Wikipedia to collect background information at the beginning of a class
project…in contrast, Occasional library users and library Avoiders tended to use Wikipedia as a
substitute for library resources” (Colon-Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 394). Interesting to
note that in their study, “most of the students interviewed expressed that they usually reach the
Wikipedia site by searching for a term on Google or another search engine and not by going
directly to Wikipedia.” (Colon-Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 394). Menchen-Trevino and
Hargittai (2010) note this in their study as well, “Students accessed Wikipedia in two different
ways. Some sought Wikipedia directly” (pg. 33) and other “students viewed information from
Wikipedia during their use of a search engine such as Google” (pg. 34). This is also confirmed
by Rand (2010) “Students using Google to search for articles will likely be presented with a
Wikipedia reference in the top 10 lists of results” (pg 924). If students insist on using Google, for
ease and convenience, and from there going to Wikipedia, perhaps instructors and information
professionals could introduce students to Google Scholar.
A study done in 2010 by Head and Eisenberg takes a further look at how students use
Wikipedia and their evaluations of the information that they have encountered. “We found that if
a student uses Wikipedia, it is surgically and methodically applied; usually in the very beginning
of the research process as a precursor to a more in–depth investigation of a topic.” (Head and
Eisenberg, 2010). Students in this study seem to have an understanding of how to access the
information that they encounter in Wikipedia. “Today’s students appear to negotiate the
accuracy of Wikipedia content, rather than assume it” (Head and Eisenberg, 2010). The
reasoning Head and Eisenberg (2010) provide for the student use of Wikipedia is “they use
Wikipedia just as most of us do — because it is a quick way to get started and it has some, but
not deep, credibility.” While the results of this study show mostly responsible use of Wikipedia,
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it is important to note that the student population studied “excluded any freshmen from our four–
year institution sample and students who had taken fewer than 12 units from our community
college sample” (Head and Eisenberg, 2010). Presumably the students have had taken at least
one course that had required some form of research.
Todorinova’s (2014) study with new university students comes to a different conclusion
from Head and Eisenberg’s (2010) study with upper classmen. Students in Todorinova’s study
“rated Wikipedia itself as ‘Credible,’ but not ‘Highly Credible.’ The new university students
seem to have at least a basic understanding of what is credible and has authority but they are
more concerned with convenience than the accountability of a source. “a majority of
respondents, 24 of 30, considered ease of access as the most important consideration when
working on a research paper, followed by the authority/quality of the sources found”
(Todorinova, 2014, pg. 211). Whether because of having only a basic understanding of authority
or because of the convenience factor, or a combination of both, Todorinova has noted a lack of
student use of the bibliography of Wikipedia articles. “Roughly two-thirds of respondents would
not choose to follow the links to citations in the bibliographies of Wikipedia articles. This
suggests that students are not taking full advantage of the potential of Wikipedia as a discovery
tool for library content” (Todorinova, 2014, pg. 211). This would confirm that “students seemed
however to be oriented to gathering facts and knowing a set of facts throughout the search
process, and for many students, the process of knowledge construction was one of finding facts
and adding facts to their knowledge base” (Todd, 2006, pg.[12 of 13]). It seems that these new
students could use some instruction in bibliographies and how it can actually be convenient for
them to use in their research as well as building up their research skills.
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e. Instructors and Information Professionals View of Wikipedia as a Source of
Information
When it comes to the opinions of instructors and information professionals on students
use of Wikipedia, most professionals discourage the use of Wikipedia. Some instructors ban its
use altogether, most instructors allow the use of Wikipedia in the very beginning of research but
not for a reference source and a few instructors and information professionals encourage students
to use Wikipedia in a way to become more familiar with it and understand how it works. “The
predominant reason for academics not recommending Wikipedia to students was reliability,
closely followed by a concern that students would become overly reliant on it to the detriment of
more orthodox sources.” (Knight and Pryke, 2012, pg. 654). While Wikipedia is not
recommended for use, its use is permissible under certain circumstances. “Many academics
inform their students that there is a distinction between using Wikipedia ‘as a first port of call’
and using it as a reference. While academics were openly hostile to the second purpose, many
were tolerant of the first and use it for this purpose themselves. Here the overriding issue was
one of ‘internet literacy’, i.e. the ability to access, assess and use Internet based sources.” (Knight
and Pryke, 2012, pg. 654-655).
III. Proposed Methods
In order to better understand students’ use of Wikipedia in the academic setting, the
following study is proposed. Very similar in nature to Todorinova’s 2014 study, this study would
start with a control group, first year students in a single university taking a writing class, then
after a successful trial run, continue the study with all new undergraduates in the university. The
following year, the survey could be sent out to various universities across the United States. The
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study would take place over the course of a semester and has two parts- a survey for instructors
at the beginning of the semester and a survey for students at the end of the semester.
The first part would be an electronic survey issued to all instructors of writing courses
with a high percentage of first year students at the start of the semester. The purpose of this
survey is to understand the instructors’ views concerning Wikipedia and its use in the class. See
Appendix A for sample survey questions.
The second part of the study would be an electronics survey at the end of the semester for
the students. The reasoning behind giving the student survey at the end of the semester is to
gather information from the students after the students have conducted an information search and
written a paper during a natural scholarly setting and timeline. The purpose of this survey is to
gather information on the students information behaviors particularly concerning Wikipedia. See
Appendix A for sample survey questions.
There are some limitations to this proposed study that might lead to further study
concerning students’ information behavior concerning Wikipedia. One limitation is that this
study focuses on first year students who presumably have little to no experience in source
evaluation. A further study might look into the graduating class of students’ information
behavior concerning Wikipedia and a comparison of source evaluation skills between students
entering their first year of college and students about to graduate from college. As pointed out by
Brown, Collins and Duguid (1989) “people who use tools actively rather than just acquire them,
by contrast, build an increasingly rich implicit understanding of the world in which they use the
tools and of the tools themselves. The understanding, both of the world and of the tool,
continually changes as a result of their interaction” (pg. [4 of 25]). There is potential to observe
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the evolution of students’ source evaluation skills from their entry into college to their point of
graduation.
Another limitation of this proposed study is that it does not take into account the
possibility of students having received formal instruction in regards to information seeking and
source evaluation. Some instructors schedule a class period with an academic librarian for the
students to learn the basics of information gathering and source evaluation. Brown et al. point
out that “it is quite possible to acquire a tool but to be unable to use it” (pg. [3 of 25]). It would
be interesting to observe how effectual students find a single-class period instruction on how to
conduct research and evaluate sources.
IV. Conclusions
After reviewing the previous studies, there are several conclusions that can be made
regarding student information behavior and the academic use of Wikipedia. While Wikipedia can
be a good place to begin a general information search, it should not be used as a cited source in
scholarly papers, at least concerning new undergraduates who do not have a honed set of
research skills. Also instructors and information professionals should take active involvement in
helping students develop their information seeking and source evaluating techniques.
Wikipedia should not be used as a cited source by undergraduate students. Undergraduate
students are still developing their information seeking and source evaluating skills. Traditionally
encyclopedias and dictionaries are seen as excellent sources of quick information, but “as with
encyclopaedias of the past, nobody has ever suggested that it (Wikipedia) should be a referenced
source” (Knight and Pryke, 2012, pg. 658). Some of Wikipedia’s articles are supported by a very
in-depth bibliography and it is to those sources that students should turn to and consider if they
would like to use information that they found within the article.
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Even though it is not encouraged to be used as a source, Wikipedia can be a good starting
point for general information and getting acclimated with a topic. In their 2012 study, Knight and
Pryke found that “rather than suggesting that Wikipedia represents a revolutionary departure in
learning and teaching or an insidious threat to scholarship, our survey shows that it has quickly
become embedded as a knowledge resource, a now key resource but one that exists besides
others, online and more traditional” (pg. 658). Wikipedia is a very popular information resource
and its existence and use cannot be ignored or denied. Instead, Wikipedia should be
acknowledged with a variation of the old caveat- users beware- and use with a grain of caution.
While Wikipedia should not be used as an authoritative source, Wikipedia should not be
completely banned by instructors and information professionals. Instructors have a very heavy
influence over students’ choices of information sources (Haigh 2013 and Colon-Aguirre and
Flemming 2012) but there is no way to enforce a ban on the use of Wikipedia as a source
because students will continue to use it as at least a starting point even though they may not cite
it. Instead of banning the use of Wikipedia, instructors and information professionals can use
Wikipedia as a learning tool for how to evaluate sources.
One way that information professionals can help steer students to more scholarly
resources is to make databases and other library resources easier to navigate. “Understanding
how students approach their complex academic information worlds is of primary importance
today as academic libraries and educational institutions face the challenge of pioneering a new
and relevant services in a variety of virtual and print formats under increasing budget
constraints” (Mizrachi and Bates, 2013 pg. 1590). With understanding information behavior by
looking at theories like Bates’ (1989) browsing and berry-picking techniques and Kuhlthau’s
(1991) perspective from inside of the information seeker, “it can also assist technology
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developers in understanding the way that individuals look for information so that information
systems can be made more intuitive and user-friendly.” (Denison and Montgomery, 2012, pg.
388). Students are attracted to Wikipedia because it is so user-friendly and students are
intimidated by many library websites and information databases because they are, or were, not
user-friendly.
Instructors and other information professionals, such as academic librarians, can help
sharpen students skills in information seeking and source evaluation by offering formal
instruction whether in a single class or over the course of an entire semester. “The need for
context–sensitive presearch sources and coaching services appears to be in high demand. There
is a need for solutions that logically bridge the early stages of research to the rest of the research
process and deliver the kinds of efficiencies students have come to expect” (Head and Eisenberg,
2010). At the very least, first year students, and transfer students, should be required to attend a
single class period introducing them to the academic library’s resources, such as the library
website and online databases, and how to conduct a successful information search using these
resources. “With ease and convenience playing a major role in how students conduct research,
taking the time to show them how becoming familiar with library resources can yield better
results” (Haigh, 2013, pg.35). Since learning how to use these resources takes time and practice,
encouraging students to ask questions and seek the help of their instructors and information
professionals throughout the semester will also yield better results.
Another noted suggestion is by Lim (2009) “educators and librarians need to provide
better guidelines for using Wikipedia, rather than prohibiting its use altogether” (pg. 2200) and
they can help contribute to Wikipedia’s articles by adding external links and visual clues as to
the credibility of the information presented in the article (Lim and Simon, 2011; Lim 2013). By
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providing a guideline for the use of and evaluating of Wikipedia at the beginning of the semester
along with the class syllabus, instructors are showing an active interest in helping students in
their academic careers and this may help ease the anxiety that many students feel during the
information seeking process. By assisting in editing a Wikipedia article and adding external links
in the references and providing visual clues such as the banner stating that “this article's factual
accuracy is disputed” (Wikipedia), educators and information professionals are assisting all
Wikipedia users, their students included, in evaluating the given information and providing
reliable sources to trace.
A last suggestion would be a sort of collaboration between information professionals,
information technology professionals and Google and Wikipedia. Some universities are making
technological and information strides with database searches by adding a button to articles and
books that they can click on to get the article or book through their university library or through
an inter-library loan. If this technology could be used with Wikipedia, Google, Google Scholar,
and other search engines, it would benefit not only scholars but also the sites in having
acknowledged reference sources and giving the sites credibility. Information professionals can
add scholarly sources to the bibliographies in Wikipedia and have a button that will link back to
the university’s databases. By putting a button on Wikipedia articles by sources in the
bibliographies and by searches within Google Scholar and other search engines, authority will be
established on the content and students would encounter less frustration in trying to find
scholarly material with databases that are not quite user-friendly at this time.
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Appendix A - Sample Surveys
 Electronic survey in beginning of semester for Instructors
o What subject is your class?
o In your class syllabus, do you ban the use of Wikipedia?
o When assigning a paper or other research, do you address the use of
Wikipedia?
o Have you ever seen an article published in a Scholarly journal that used
Wikipedia as a citation?
o Do you encourage students to use Wikipedia as a starting point only but
not a source to cite?
 Electronic survey at end of semester for students
o Does your professor ban Wikipedia in their syllabus?
1. Do you still look at Wikipedia?
2. How does this ban on Wikipedia make you feel?
o What is your professor’s attitude towards Wikipedia?
o Do you go directly to Wikipedia?
o Do you click on the Wikipedia entry when you enter a search into Google?
o Do you look at a Wikipedia entry while doing research for an assignment?
o Do you use Wikipedia as a source for an assignment?
o How much do you trust the information in Wikipedia?
o Are you aware of any rules Wikipedia has concerning content?
o Do you look at / verify any of the sources listed for a Wikipedia article?
o Have you seen an article published in a Peer-reviewed that cited
Wikipedia as a source?
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Brown, J. S., Collins, A. & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning.
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RPFinal

  • 1. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 1 Student Use of Wikipedia in the Academic Setting I. Introduction The up and coming generation of new undergraduate students have known the Internet all of their lives. When a student is told to do research, or if they want to find the answer to a burning question, the first course of action, and frequently the only course of action, would be to go on the Internet and go to a search engine such as Google and from there to Wikipedia to get information. “Internet users can currently access information more easily than any other time. However, due to the complex characteristics of digital information, they face unique challenges in discerning credible information from unfiltered information, and in selecting appropriate information for their needs” (Lim, 2009, pgs. [1-2]). There have been a number of studies over recent years that have noted student use of the Internet, and in particular the Wikipedia website, for scholarly research. These studies all point out that there is a disconnect between today’s undergraduate students and the academic library as well as a disconnect between their information seeking skills and their ability to determine appropriate scholarly material, especially concerning information accessed online. A controversy that is very prominent in the academic setting is the student use of Wikipedia when conducting research. There is currently no across the board consensus of how Wikipedia should be used in the academic setting, or if Wikipedia should be used at all. Some instructors ban the use of Wikipedia. Some instructors encourage use of Wikipedia as a starting point but not to use as a citation. Then there are some instructors encourage use of Wikipedia as a tool to develop information retrieval and evaluating skills and encourage their students to
  • 2. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 2 contribute to and edit Wikipedia articles to better understand the nature of Wikipedia. Now there are scholarly articles being published in peer-reviewed journals that cite Wikipedia (Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016). It is no wonder that students today are floundering when it comes to seeking out acceptable information resources. Many students are entering college straight from high school and only have a very basic skill set when it comes to gathering and evaluating information. “Information literacy, as librarians know, and what we hope to teach our user populations is that it is not only an important skill, but also a skill that takes time to develop. Further, it is not a skill that one merely needs for as long as they are in school, but anytime they need to find, synthesize, and analyze information” (Haigh, 2013, pg.35). In order to successfully take these undergraduate students and turn them into not only scholars, but citizens capable of gathering and evaluating information, instructors and information professionals need to understand students’ information behaviors and why sources such as Wikipedia are so appealing to students. II. Literature Review There are five areas of research that are important to consider concerning student use of Wikipedia in the academic setting: 1. Information Behavior of Students 2. Concern of Instructors and Information Professionals about the Information Behavior of Students 3. Wikipedia as a Source of Information 4. Student Information Behavior with Regard to Wikipedia 5. Instructors and Information Professionals View of Wikipedia as a Source of Information a. Information Behavior of Students When trying to understand the information behavior of students, it is necessary to take into account not only their information searching methods and making sense of the information
  • 3. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 3 gleaned, but their emotions as well. When presented with the task of doing research, the student in the beginning of their search “tries to describe for another person not something he knows, but rather something he does not know” (Taylor, 1968, pg125). This is a rather stressful and anxiety producing act, especially when inquiring for help from an information professional whom they are not acquainted with. When studying student information behavior, “a model representing the user’s sense-making process of information seeking ought to incorporate three realms of activity: physical, actions taken; affective, feelings experienced; and cognitive, thoughts concerning both process and content” (Kuhlthau, 1991, pg. 362). A rather large stumbling block to students in their search process are the feelings of confusion and frustration. Colon-Aguirre and Flemming (2012) noticed this in their study, “students…expressed some level of frustration with the process of interacting with the OPAC and database search platforms” (pg. 395). Denison and Montgomery (2012) further elaborate “that when students do not know how to use an information tool, whether it be because of semantic complexities, technical difficulties, or cognitive processes, in order to avoid frustration, they will often stay away from the databases, relying more heavily on information resources with which they are the most familiar” (pg. 386). Instead of diving into a frustrating academic database, students will gravitate towards a system that they are already familiar and comfortable with- Internet search engines and Wikipedia. When students, particularly newer undergraduate students, are given an assignment that requires research, they may not have a particular plan to follow in conducting their research. Many students tend to engage in what Bates (1989) describes as her theory of ‘berrypicking.’ “Typical search queries are not static, but rather evolve, searchers commonly gather information in bits and pieces instead of in one grand best retrieved set, searchers use a wide variety of search techniques which extend beyond those commonly associated with bibliographic databases, and
  • 4. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 4 searchers use a wide variety of sources other than bibliographic databases” (Bates, 1989, pg 421). Most students start their search by using an Internet search engine such as Google and from there usually one of the first hits is from Wikipedia. After that, if students are required to use other materials such as peer-reviewed journals and books, they will glean information from these sources as well. b. Concern of Instructors and Information Professionals about the Information Behavior of Students Previous studies looking at the information behavior of students have noted that instructors and other information professionals have concerns for the information behavior of students including their search strategies, types of sources used and the ability to evaluate these sources for credibility. Rose-Wiles and Hofmann (2013) have noted that “discussions with teaching faculty members at both Rider University and Seton Hall University indicate that they are frustrated and perplexed by their students’ inability to provide relevant and appropriate citations for their papers” (pg. 157). Arnette and Forrestal (2012) found that “at Stevens Institute of Technology…professors repeatedly complained to library staff that the quality of sources that students use in term papers was not acceptable” (pg. 176). With these concerns there have been attempts from instructors and information professionals to improve student information behavior. “While academic institutions have worked diligently to improve the information literacy instruction on their campuses, many higher education professionals, remain concerned about the quality of college students' information literacy skills and their abilities to critique information.” (Denison and Montgomery, 2012, pg. 380). Not only is it an ongoing struggle for students to develop their information seeking skills, but it is also an ongoing struggle on the part of instructors and information professionals to teach students how to develop these skills.
  • 5. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 5 c. Wikipedia as a Source of Information Wikipedia, although an unconventional source, is a favorite source of students to gather information. By its own definition, Wikipedia is “a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation and based on a model of openly editable content” (2016). Wikipedia differs from traditional encyclopedias not only by having been born digital, but anyone can write an article and edit an article. “The site's main criticism relates to the authority and objectivity of the sources and authors of its information” (Colon- Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 391). Because anyone can write or edit an article on Wikipedia, a common misconception is that articles are not reviewed. “It is not true that articles are not reviewed. On the contrary, they are scrutinised by far more editors than for any journal. However, as the contributor is generally not an academic expert, so the reviewer is not generally an academic expert.” (Knight and Pryke, 2012, pg. 651). The articles do get reviewed but not by the same standards of scholarly, peer-reviewed, refereed journals that are considered vital to research. “It is important to remember that Wikipedia not only depends on volunteers from the general public to contribute with articles to the open encyclopedia, but also to edit the content that might be genuinely incorrect or vandalized.” (Colon-Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 392). While Wikipedia strives to be accurate and neutral in tone, it is also important to note that Wikipedia in its own article, Researching with Wikipedia (2016) advises caution when using Wikipedia as a source. Tomaszewski and MacDonald (2016) have published “A Study of Citations to Wikipedia in Scholarly Publications” and have made some interesting discoveries. Tomaszewski and MacDonald (2016) have noted that “Google has optimized its searches such that Wikipedia articles are placed close to or at the top of search results” (pg. 247). Naturally, when conducting
  • 6. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 6 an online information search, Internet users rarely go past the first page or two of a search. Placing Wikipedia entries at the top of the search is prime real estate to draw traffic to the free, online encyclopedia. Despite Wikipedia’s own warnings about using it as a source, scholarly, peer-reviewed publications are publishing articles that cite the open-source online encyclopedia. The findings from this study interestingly show that the highest use of Wikipedia as a citation is in the science and engineering fields with less citations in the humanities and social sciences fields (Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016, pg. 250). Within this study there continues to be controversy over whether or not Wikipedia is authoritative. “Librarians would not cite Wikipedia because it is not an authoritative source, anyone can edit it, and there are concerns with information accuracy,” (Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016, pg. 248). On the other hand, “the fact that the editors and reviewers of these journals are publishing articles with these citations seems to imply that they have accepted Wikipedia as a credible source of information,” (Tomaszewski and MacDonald, 2016, pg. 254). Another finding of Tomaszewski and MacDonald (2016), is that “the majority of Wikipedia citations are in articles written by authors affiliated with academic institutions, many of which are notable universities from around the world” (pg. 254). This would suggest that the authors of published articles that cite Wikipedia have enough cognitive authority to be able to discern the quality of the Wikipedia articles that they have cited. d. Student Information Behavior with Regard to Wikipedia There is no denying the fact that students do, indeed, use Wikipedia, but how they use Wikipedia and the reasons for using Wikipedia vary. A study done by Colon-Aguirre and Flemming (2012) looks at three types of library users-avid, occasional and adverse users. In this study it was found that in regards to Wikipedia usage, “Avid library users most frequently
  • 7. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 7 reported using Wikipedia to collect background information at the beginning of a class project…in contrast, Occasional library users and library Avoiders tended to use Wikipedia as a substitute for library resources” (Colon-Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 394). Interesting to note that in their study, “most of the students interviewed expressed that they usually reach the Wikipedia site by searching for a term on Google or another search engine and not by going directly to Wikipedia.” (Colon-Aguirre and Flemming, 2012, pg. 394). Menchen-Trevino and Hargittai (2010) note this in their study as well, “Students accessed Wikipedia in two different ways. Some sought Wikipedia directly” (pg. 33) and other “students viewed information from Wikipedia during their use of a search engine such as Google” (pg. 34). This is also confirmed by Rand (2010) “Students using Google to search for articles will likely be presented with a Wikipedia reference in the top 10 lists of results” (pg 924). If students insist on using Google, for ease and convenience, and from there going to Wikipedia, perhaps instructors and information professionals could introduce students to Google Scholar. A study done in 2010 by Head and Eisenberg takes a further look at how students use Wikipedia and their evaluations of the information that they have encountered. “We found that if a student uses Wikipedia, it is surgically and methodically applied; usually in the very beginning of the research process as a precursor to a more in–depth investigation of a topic.” (Head and Eisenberg, 2010). Students in this study seem to have an understanding of how to access the information that they encounter in Wikipedia. “Today’s students appear to negotiate the accuracy of Wikipedia content, rather than assume it” (Head and Eisenberg, 2010). The reasoning Head and Eisenberg (2010) provide for the student use of Wikipedia is “they use Wikipedia just as most of us do — because it is a quick way to get started and it has some, but not deep, credibility.” While the results of this study show mostly responsible use of Wikipedia,
  • 8. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 8 it is important to note that the student population studied “excluded any freshmen from our four– year institution sample and students who had taken fewer than 12 units from our community college sample” (Head and Eisenberg, 2010). Presumably the students have had taken at least one course that had required some form of research. Todorinova’s (2014) study with new university students comes to a different conclusion from Head and Eisenberg’s (2010) study with upper classmen. Students in Todorinova’s study “rated Wikipedia itself as ‘Credible,’ but not ‘Highly Credible.’ The new university students seem to have at least a basic understanding of what is credible and has authority but they are more concerned with convenience than the accountability of a source. “a majority of respondents, 24 of 30, considered ease of access as the most important consideration when working on a research paper, followed by the authority/quality of the sources found” (Todorinova, 2014, pg. 211). Whether because of having only a basic understanding of authority or because of the convenience factor, or a combination of both, Todorinova has noted a lack of student use of the bibliography of Wikipedia articles. “Roughly two-thirds of respondents would not choose to follow the links to citations in the bibliographies of Wikipedia articles. This suggests that students are not taking full advantage of the potential of Wikipedia as a discovery tool for library content” (Todorinova, 2014, pg. 211). This would confirm that “students seemed however to be oriented to gathering facts and knowing a set of facts throughout the search process, and for many students, the process of knowledge construction was one of finding facts and adding facts to their knowledge base” (Todd, 2006, pg.[12 of 13]). It seems that these new students could use some instruction in bibliographies and how it can actually be convenient for them to use in their research as well as building up their research skills.
  • 9. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 9 e. Instructors and Information Professionals View of Wikipedia as a Source of Information When it comes to the opinions of instructors and information professionals on students use of Wikipedia, most professionals discourage the use of Wikipedia. Some instructors ban its use altogether, most instructors allow the use of Wikipedia in the very beginning of research but not for a reference source and a few instructors and information professionals encourage students to use Wikipedia in a way to become more familiar with it and understand how it works. “The predominant reason for academics not recommending Wikipedia to students was reliability, closely followed by a concern that students would become overly reliant on it to the detriment of more orthodox sources.” (Knight and Pryke, 2012, pg. 654). While Wikipedia is not recommended for use, its use is permissible under certain circumstances. “Many academics inform their students that there is a distinction between using Wikipedia ‘as a first port of call’ and using it as a reference. While academics were openly hostile to the second purpose, many were tolerant of the first and use it for this purpose themselves. Here the overriding issue was one of ‘internet literacy’, i.e. the ability to access, assess and use Internet based sources.” (Knight and Pryke, 2012, pg. 654-655). III. Proposed Methods In order to better understand students’ use of Wikipedia in the academic setting, the following study is proposed. Very similar in nature to Todorinova’s 2014 study, this study would start with a control group, first year students in a single university taking a writing class, then after a successful trial run, continue the study with all new undergraduates in the university. The following year, the survey could be sent out to various universities across the United States. The
  • 10. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 10 study would take place over the course of a semester and has two parts- a survey for instructors at the beginning of the semester and a survey for students at the end of the semester. The first part would be an electronic survey issued to all instructors of writing courses with a high percentage of first year students at the start of the semester. The purpose of this survey is to understand the instructors’ views concerning Wikipedia and its use in the class. See Appendix A for sample survey questions. The second part of the study would be an electronics survey at the end of the semester for the students. The reasoning behind giving the student survey at the end of the semester is to gather information from the students after the students have conducted an information search and written a paper during a natural scholarly setting and timeline. The purpose of this survey is to gather information on the students information behaviors particularly concerning Wikipedia. See Appendix A for sample survey questions. There are some limitations to this proposed study that might lead to further study concerning students’ information behavior concerning Wikipedia. One limitation is that this study focuses on first year students who presumably have little to no experience in source evaluation. A further study might look into the graduating class of students’ information behavior concerning Wikipedia and a comparison of source evaluation skills between students entering their first year of college and students about to graduate from college. As pointed out by Brown, Collins and Duguid (1989) “people who use tools actively rather than just acquire them, by contrast, build an increasingly rich implicit understanding of the world in which they use the tools and of the tools themselves. The understanding, both of the world and of the tool, continually changes as a result of their interaction” (pg. [4 of 25]). There is potential to observe
  • 11. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 11 the evolution of students’ source evaluation skills from their entry into college to their point of graduation. Another limitation of this proposed study is that it does not take into account the possibility of students having received formal instruction in regards to information seeking and source evaluation. Some instructors schedule a class period with an academic librarian for the students to learn the basics of information gathering and source evaluation. Brown et al. point out that “it is quite possible to acquire a tool but to be unable to use it” (pg. [3 of 25]). It would be interesting to observe how effectual students find a single-class period instruction on how to conduct research and evaluate sources. IV. Conclusions After reviewing the previous studies, there are several conclusions that can be made regarding student information behavior and the academic use of Wikipedia. While Wikipedia can be a good place to begin a general information search, it should not be used as a cited source in scholarly papers, at least concerning new undergraduates who do not have a honed set of research skills. Also instructors and information professionals should take active involvement in helping students develop their information seeking and source evaluating techniques. Wikipedia should not be used as a cited source by undergraduate students. Undergraduate students are still developing their information seeking and source evaluating skills. Traditionally encyclopedias and dictionaries are seen as excellent sources of quick information, but “as with encyclopaedias of the past, nobody has ever suggested that it (Wikipedia) should be a referenced source” (Knight and Pryke, 2012, pg. 658). Some of Wikipedia’s articles are supported by a very in-depth bibliography and it is to those sources that students should turn to and consider if they would like to use information that they found within the article.
  • 12. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 12 Even though it is not encouraged to be used as a source, Wikipedia can be a good starting point for general information and getting acclimated with a topic. In their 2012 study, Knight and Pryke found that “rather than suggesting that Wikipedia represents a revolutionary departure in learning and teaching or an insidious threat to scholarship, our survey shows that it has quickly become embedded as a knowledge resource, a now key resource but one that exists besides others, online and more traditional” (pg. 658). Wikipedia is a very popular information resource and its existence and use cannot be ignored or denied. Instead, Wikipedia should be acknowledged with a variation of the old caveat- users beware- and use with a grain of caution. While Wikipedia should not be used as an authoritative source, Wikipedia should not be completely banned by instructors and information professionals. Instructors have a very heavy influence over students’ choices of information sources (Haigh 2013 and Colon-Aguirre and Flemming 2012) but there is no way to enforce a ban on the use of Wikipedia as a source because students will continue to use it as at least a starting point even though they may not cite it. Instead of banning the use of Wikipedia, instructors and information professionals can use Wikipedia as a learning tool for how to evaluate sources. One way that information professionals can help steer students to more scholarly resources is to make databases and other library resources easier to navigate. “Understanding how students approach their complex academic information worlds is of primary importance today as academic libraries and educational institutions face the challenge of pioneering a new and relevant services in a variety of virtual and print formats under increasing budget constraints” (Mizrachi and Bates, 2013 pg. 1590). With understanding information behavior by looking at theories like Bates’ (1989) browsing and berry-picking techniques and Kuhlthau’s (1991) perspective from inside of the information seeker, “it can also assist technology
  • 13. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 13 developers in understanding the way that individuals look for information so that information systems can be made more intuitive and user-friendly.” (Denison and Montgomery, 2012, pg. 388). Students are attracted to Wikipedia because it is so user-friendly and students are intimidated by many library websites and information databases because they are, or were, not user-friendly. Instructors and other information professionals, such as academic librarians, can help sharpen students skills in information seeking and source evaluation by offering formal instruction whether in a single class or over the course of an entire semester. “The need for context–sensitive presearch sources and coaching services appears to be in high demand. There is a need for solutions that logically bridge the early stages of research to the rest of the research process and deliver the kinds of efficiencies students have come to expect” (Head and Eisenberg, 2010). At the very least, first year students, and transfer students, should be required to attend a single class period introducing them to the academic library’s resources, such as the library website and online databases, and how to conduct a successful information search using these resources. “With ease and convenience playing a major role in how students conduct research, taking the time to show them how becoming familiar with library resources can yield better results” (Haigh, 2013, pg.35). Since learning how to use these resources takes time and practice, encouraging students to ask questions and seek the help of their instructors and information professionals throughout the semester will also yield better results. Another noted suggestion is by Lim (2009) “educators and librarians need to provide better guidelines for using Wikipedia, rather than prohibiting its use altogether” (pg. 2200) and they can help contribute to Wikipedia’s articles by adding external links and visual clues as to the credibility of the information presented in the article (Lim and Simon, 2011; Lim 2013). By
  • 14. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 14 providing a guideline for the use of and evaluating of Wikipedia at the beginning of the semester along with the class syllabus, instructors are showing an active interest in helping students in their academic careers and this may help ease the anxiety that many students feel during the information seeking process. By assisting in editing a Wikipedia article and adding external links in the references and providing visual clues such as the banner stating that “this article's factual accuracy is disputed” (Wikipedia), educators and information professionals are assisting all Wikipedia users, their students included, in evaluating the given information and providing reliable sources to trace. A last suggestion would be a sort of collaboration between information professionals, information technology professionals and Google and Wikipedia. Some universities are making technological and information strides with database searches by adding a button to articles and books that they can click on to get the article or book through their university library or through an inter-library loan. If this technology could be used with Wikipedia, Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines, it would benefit not only scholars but also the sites in having acknowledged reference sources and giving the sites credibility. Information professionals can add scholarly sources to the bibliographies in Wikipedia and have a button that will link back to the university’s databases. By putting a button on Wikipedia articles by sources in the bibliographies and by searches within Google Scholar and other search engines, authority will be established on the content and students would encounter less frustration in trying to find scholarly material with databases that are not quite user-friendly at this time.
  • 15. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 15 Appendix A - Sample Surveys  Electronic survey in beginning of semester for Instructors o What subject is your class? o In your class syllabus, do you ban the use of Wikipedia? o When assigning a paper or other research, do you address the use of Wikipedia? o Have you ever seen an article published in a Scholarly journal that used Wikipedia as a citation? o Do you encourage students to use Wikipedia as a starting point only but not a source to cite?  Electronic survey at end of semester for students o Does your professor ban Wikipedia in their syllabus? 1. Do you still look at Wikipedia? 2. How does this ban on Wikipedia make you feel? o What is your professor’s attitude towards Wikipedia? o Do you go directly to Wikipedia? o Do you click on the Wikipedia entry when you enter a search into Google? o Do you look at a Wikipedia entry while doing research for an assignment? o Do you use Wikipedia as a source for an assignment? o How much do you trust the information in Wikipedia? o Are you aware of any rules Wikipedia has concerning content? o Do you look at / verify any of the sources listed for a Wikipedia article? o Have you seen an article published in a Peer-reviewed that cited Wikipedia as a source?
  • 16. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 16 Bibliography Arnett, Barbara & Forrestal, Valerie. (2012). Bridging the Gap from Wikipedia to Scholarly Sources: A Simple Discovery Tool, College & Undergraduate Libraries, 19:2-4, 176- 188, DOI: 10.1080/10691316.2012.693361. Bates, M. J. (1989). The design of browsing and berry-picking techniques for online search interface. Online Review, 13, 407-424. Brown, J. S., Collins, A. & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Educational Researcher, 18 (1): 32-42. Colon-Aguirre, M., & Flemming-May, R. A. (2012). "You Just Type in What You Are Looking For": Undergraduates' Use of Library Resources vs. Wikipedia. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 38(6), 391-399. Retrieved October 8, 2016, from Articles+. Denison, D. and Montgomery, D. (2012), “Annoyance or delight? College students’ perspectives on looking for information”, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 38 No. 6, pp. 380-390. Haigh, A. (2013). You Can Lead Students to the Library, but Can You Make Them Do Research? The Effect of Syllabus Design and Content on Undergraduates’ Perceptions and Use of the Academic Library, Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 18:33- 48, DOI: 10.1080/08963568.2012.737658. Head, A. J., and M. B. Eisenberg. 2010. How today’s college students use Wikipedia for course- related research. First Monday 15 (3). DOI:10.5210/fm.v15i3.2830. Kuhlthau, C. C. (1991). Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42, 361-371. Knight, C. and Pryke, S. (2012). “Wikipedia and the university, a case study”, Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 17 No. 6, pp. 649-659. Lim, S. (2009). “How and why do college students use Wikipedia?”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Vol. 60 No. 11, pp. 2189-2202. Lim, S., and C. Simon. (2011). Credibility judgment and verification behavior of college students concerning Wikipedia. First Monday 16 (4). DOI:10.5210/fm.v16i4.3263. Lim, S. (2012). College students' credibility judgements and heuristics concerning Wikipedia. Information Processing and Management, 49, 405-419. Retrieved October 8, 2016, from Articles+.
  • 17. Rachel Pieters 12/22/2016 610:510:90-Final Paper 17 Menchen-Treviño, E., and E. Hargittai. (2011). Young adults’ credibility assessment of Wikipedia. Information, Communication & Society 14 (1): 24–51. DOI:10.1080/13691181003695173. Mizrachi, D. and Bates, M. (2013). “Undergraduates’ personal academic information management and the consideration of time and task-urgency”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Vol. 64 No. 8, pp. 1590-1607. Rand, A. D. (2010). Mediating at the student–Wikipedia intersection. Journal of Library Administration 50 (7–8): 923–32. DOI:10.1080/01930826.2010.488994. Rose-Wiles, L. and Hofmann, M. (2013). “Still desperately seeking citations: undergraduate research in the age of web-scale discovery”, Journal of Library Administration, Vol. 53 Nos 2/3, pp. 147-166. Taylor, R. S. (1968). Question negotiation and information seeking in libraries. College & Research Libraries, 28, 178-194. Todd, R.J. (2006). From information to knowledge: charting and measuring changes in students' knowledge of a curriculum topic. Information Research, 11(4) paper 264. Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/11-4/paper264.html Todorinova, L. (2014). Wikipedia and undergraduate research trajectories. New Library World 116(3/4) 201-212. DOI:10.1108/NLW-07-2014-0086. Tomaszewski, R & MacDonald, K. (2016). A Study of Citations to Wikipedia in Scholarly Publications, Science & Technology Libraries, 35:3, 246-261, DOI:10.1080/0194262X.2016.1206052 Wikipedia. (2016, 22 December). Wikipedia: About. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About Wikipedia. (2016, 22 December). Wikipedia: Researching with Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia