Wikipedia

Abstract. Open collaborative authoring systems such as Wikipedia are growing in use and impact. How well does this model work for the devel- opment of educational resources? In particular, can volunteers contribute materials of sufficient quality? Could they create resources that meet stu- dents specific learning needs and engage their personal characteristics? Our experiment explored these questions using a novel web-based tool for authoring worked examples. Participants were professional teachers (math and non-math) and amateurs. Participants were randomly as- signed to the basic tool, or to an enhanced version that prompted authors to create materials for a specific (fictitious) student. We find that while there are differences by teaching status, all three groups make contribu- tions of worth and that targeting a specific student leads contributors to author materials with greater potential to engage students. The exper- iment suggests that community authoring of educational resources is a feasible model of development and can enable new levels of personaliza- tion. Aleahmad, Aleven & Kraut, 2008Aleahmad, T., Aleven, V., & Kraut, R. E. (2008). Open community authoring of targeted worked example problems. In Intelligent tutoring systems (216--227).