Transforming the Knowledge Commons: Faculty-Librarian Collaborations that Advance Open Educational Practices, Student Agency, and Equity

Abstract

Open educational practices (OEP) focus on open teaching and open content, offering students opportunities to do purposeful work that is available to a public beyond the classroom. Students can “contribute to the knowledge commons, not just consume it, in meaningful and lasting ways…shap[ing] the world as they encounter it” (DeRosa and Jhangiani, 2017). As active agents in their own learning, students need a community with which to explore their information privilege, test and contest ideas, and create meaning. Wikipedia provides students an authentic public community with which to participate. It also provides an outlet for publishing information on topics that are underrepresented or misrepresented in traditional publishing and by mainstream media, allowing students to see scholarship creation as part of an ongoing conversation rather than an end product. Wikipedia-editing permits diverse stories, histories, and contributors to become visible while promoting creative expression, connection, and collaboration among students. This poster is informed by a faculty-librarian collaboration that entailed developing scaffolded, renewable assignments involving Wikipedia across five years and two undergraduate Media Studies classes. Foundational knowledge of what OEP are, the characteristics of renewable assignments, and the infrastructure of Wikipedia’s platform will be covered. Data gathered from WikiEdu class dashboards and library edit-a-thons, as well as questions and student feedback from debriefing sessions, will be included in the poster. Finally, strategies for designing effective assignments involving Wikipedia-editing will also be offered as well as ideas for how librarians can best support faculty and students engaged in these activities.