research-article

Successful Online Socialization: Lessons from the Wikipedia Education Program

Authors:

Chinmay Kulkarni,

Robert E. KrautAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 4, Issue CSCW1

Article No.: 50, Pages 1 - 24

https://doi.org/10.1145/3392857

Published: 29 May 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Attracting and retaining newcomers is critical and challenging for online production communities such as Wikipedia, both because volunteers need specialized training and are likely to leave before being integrated into the community. In response to these challenges, the Wikimedia Foundation started the Wiki Education Project (Wiki Ed), an online program in which college students edit Wikipedia articles as class assignments. The Wiki Ed program incorporates many components of institutional socialization, a process many conventional organizations successfully use to integrate new employees through formalized on-boarding practices. Research has not adequately investigated whether Wiki Ed and similar programs are effective ways to integrate volunteers in online communities, and, if so, the mechanisms involved. This paper evaluates the Wiki Ed program by comparing 16,819 student editors in 770 Wiki Ed classes with new editors who joined Wikipedia in the conventional way. The evaluation shows that the Wiki Ed students did more work, improved articles more, and were more committed to Wikipedia. For example, compared to new editors who joined Wikipedia in the conventional way they were twice as likely to still be editing Wikipedia a year after their Wiki Ed class was finished. Further, students in classrooms that encouraged joint activity, a key component of institutional socialization, produced better quality work than those in classrooms where students worked independently. These findings are consistent with an interpretation that the Wiki Ed program was successful because it incorporated elements of institutionalized socialization.

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Cited By

Yim AVetter MAkiyoshi J(2024)“I Don’t Feel Like It Is ‘Mine’ at All”: Assessing Wikipedia Editors’ Sense of Individual and Community OwnershipWritten Communication10.1177/0741088324124210341:3(419-448)Online publication date: 27-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/07410883241242103
Lim HLee DLee UKostakos VKay JHoang T(2024)Unraveling Temporal Dependencies in Stress: Insights from Self-Reported Stress DataCompanion of the 2024 on ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing10.1145/3675094.3678421(717-720)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2024
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Index Terms

Successful Online Socialization: Lessons from the Wikipedia Education Program
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Published In

cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 4, Issue CSCW1

CSCW

May 2020

1285 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3403424

Editors:
Cliff Lampe
University of Michigan
,
Jeff Nichols
Google
,
Karrie Karahalios
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
,
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Uichin Lee
KAIST
,
Andres Monroy-Hernandez
Microsoft Research
,
Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
Simon Fraser University, Canada

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Publication History

Published: 29 May 2020

Published in PACMHCI Volume 4, Issue CSCW1

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Cited By

Yim AVetter MAkiyoshi J(2024)“I Don’t Feel Like It Is ‘Mine’ at All”: Assessing Wikipedia Editors’ Sense of Individual and Community OwnershipWritten Communication10.1177/0741088324124210341:3(419-448)Online publication date: 27-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/07410883241242103
Lim HLee DLee UKostakos VKay JHoang T(2024)Unraveling Temporal Dependencies in Stress: Insights from Self-Reported Stress DataCompanion of the 2024 on ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing10.1145/3675094.3678421(717-720)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3675094.3678421
Li WGao RXiong JZhou JWang LMao XYi EZhang D(2024)WiFi-CSI Difference ParadigmProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36596088:2(1-29)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659608
Seredko AHillman T(2024)What Does a Downvote Do? Performing Complementary and Competing Knowledge Practices on an Online PlatformProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36536928:CSCW1(1-28)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653692
Fu H(2024)Navigating the inception stage in online peer production communities: a comparative study on community building activities, user roles and interaction dynamicsOnline Information Review10.1108/OIR-07-2023-0360Online publication date: 11-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-07-2023-0360
Zhang YHan FYang PFeng YYan YGuan R(2023)Wi-Cyclops: Room-Scale WiFi Sensing System for Respiration Detection Based on Single-AntennaACM Transactions on Sensor Networks10.1145/3632958Online publication date: 16-Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1145/3632958
Ren YZhang HKraut R(2023)How Did They Build the Free Encyclopedia? A Literature Review of Collaboration and Coordination among Wikipedia EditorsACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/361736931:1(1-48)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3617369
Warncke-Wang MHo RMiller MJohnson I(2023)Increasing Participation in Peer Production Communities with the Newcomer HomepageProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36100717:CSCW2(1-26)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610071
Nanchen AMeegahapola LDroz WGatica-Perez D(2023)Keep Sensors in Check: Disentangling Country-Level Generalization Issues in Mobile Sensor-Based Models with Diversity ScoresProceedings of the 2023 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society10.1145/3600211.3604688(217-228)Online publication date: 8-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3600211.3604688
Yu HSano A(2023)Semi-Supervised Learning for Wearable-based Momentary Stress Detection in the WildProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/35962467:2(1-23)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3596246
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