Wikipedia talk:WikiProject United States Public Policy/Courses/Spring 2011/Politics of Piracy (Max Klein and Patrick Berger)/13

Using the Wikipedia interface for class interaction and assignment completion was a new and exciting experience for me. Before taking this course, I wasn’t even a contributing member of Wikipedia, so it was a bit overbearing at first to learn the coding and etiquette of the Wikipedia community. I thought it was a great idea to introduce the Wikipedia interface through the homework first because it definitely made making the final project edits more intuitive when the time came. The homework assignments helped me grow accustomed to the technical mark-ups. There are a few drawbacks I can point out in using Wikipedia for class assignments. I definitely see that there are limitations in expressing certain types of material (ex: pie charts, complex arithmetic etc). Also, I feel that the Wikiepdia interface is not as well integrated with auto-email update functions as bSpace. For example, when professors post resources on bSpace, an email update is automatically sent to students’ inboxes. Dlchu1230 (talk) 03:51, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I loved using Wikipedia as a home-base for the class, which was especially apropos considering the course material and assignments. Navigating through the Wikipedia interface on a weekly basis definitely made the transition into editing easier – though I don't really understand why, since using it for class was actually pretty intuitive to begin with. While I agree that mass email notifications are nice, I don't think they are necessary for this type of course. We all knew that we had to check back here for instructions and readings, and I don't recall a single instance when an urgent last-minute notification needed to be sent out. Dlchu1230's concern about expressing certain types of material isn't as pressing for me; if you posted complex arithmetic, I would ignore it whether it was legible or not. That being said, this type of class page probably isn't appropriate for all (or even most) classes, but for a decal (especially one on public policy and information sharing), it was perfect. Bromanski (talk) 09:28, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I thought it was really great being able to use Wikipedia as a space for the class syllbus and class agenda. The interface that Wikipedia provides laid out in a very linear fashion the objectives of the course, as well as the trajectory. Although I can this is my experience now, I must be honest that it has taken until this point in the course to be fully comfortable in using Wikipedia and all of its functions. I experienced a steep learning curve, but overall I've been glad to have learned some of the editing tools necessary for curating a Wikipedia page of my own outside of the classroom. I think that using it as a tool for classroom interaction, and learning is a great idea. Although, I will say that it seems to me most of what we used Wikipedia for could also have been achieved on Bspace. Aeforrest (talk) 21:04, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I thought us having to do our homework on Wikipedia was really helpful to understand how Wikipedia is edited, monitored, and contributed, all of which I had never knew before this class. I like the fact that we are actually contributing to information that is constantly being viewed by people all around the world. I think that after this class, and especially for future classes here at Cal, I'll be able to help people with Wikipedia issues or questions they have regarding using it. I would actually prefer this than using Bspace for my classes, especially for the discussion aspect. --Hectorromero (talk) 01:09, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

before taking this course, i did not even know Wikipedia has this user customized webpage functions that allow for hosting classes. Although it was a little bit confusing at the beginning, the Wikipedia interface experience was definitely something exciting and innovative as I use it more and more often through homework assignments and article editing. As far as drawbacks go, I definitely see there are plenty of room for potential improvements for UI, functionality and organizations. I agree with Bromanski that this style of class page is perfect for the purpose of our class but may not be appropriate for other types of classes. Discussion pages would look more organized if they were in a forum-like format so that users (classmates) could easily comment on each other's opinions without making this discussion page look messy. Zx4611869 (talk) 21:06, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I wanted to implement WP:LiquidThreads but I think it's in beta. Maximilianklein (talk) 22:06, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I feel like you can't really explore online piracy without exploring the internet and in that sense wikipedia is a must-see internet destination. I just enjoy the fact that people have the ability to contribute to content that is publicly available. Well I'm definitely more comfortable because the user interface makes editing simple. Also users can look at other people's edits and learn from them. The only drawback I see is that it is hard to embed an visual devices on the page e.g. videos/lectures, but at least is still possible to include links. I don't mind the simple aesthetic of the wikipedia.Dtslife (talk) 21:07, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I do believe now that I've gone through this class I am more comfortable editing wikipedia whereas before it wasnt even a possibility due to what I believe is a learning curve. Wikipedia is much like any other research paper I've written just with it's own culture and language which is probably why I was so hesitant in the past. Some constructive feedback would be having to go to two different websites to check homework and announcement blows. I think the reason why using bspace would be advantageous for this course is we wouldn't have to log in to two different sites daily.Gorozco1 (talk) 21:33, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

From my perspective as a student, I think Wikipedia turned out to be a great platform to stage classwork. While I've yet to really delve into the editing required for this course, I've dabbled in (anonymous) Wikipedia editing beforehand and had minimal exposure to the culture surrounding editing, but this class uncovered the editing policies and general Wikipedia culture for me that I would not have been exposed to otherwise. The technical markup symbols were no problem. Some drawbacks to using Wikipedia that I perceive are the potential to overwrite other students' work when many people are doing the homework before class and the unstructured wall of text that we use to host all of our work. However, I found that the latter "problem" actually provided a free and simple essence that really worked well for the purposes of this class. Hmanes (talk) 22:23, 19 April 2011 (UTC)