of times they edited anyWikipedia page, time they spent editing,
and the number of words they added or deleted. The
portal also provided a list of pages each student edited, number
of edits for each page, and number of words added and
deleted. Once students chose specific article pages to improve,
the faculty could view a list of all the students who
worked on that article and view the additions and deletions
that each individual student or the whole group made to the
article, as shown in Figure 2. This tool for viewing the details
of students’ contributions is especially important in the context
of Wikipedia, where articles are collaboratively written.
Although some students wrote articles from scratch, more
typically they started with existing material. As they wrote,
other community members could simultaneously edit the article,
including enhancing or removing the students’ work.
Newcomers who receive feedback from the existing members
of a community, both in the form of positive feedback or constructive
criticism, are more likely to contribute and feel more
committed to the community [5]. To receive feedback from
the community, we encouraged the faculty to ask students to
post on article talkpages 6 before editing the article and to ask
for feedback from editors who already edited the page. As
we discuss in more detail in the section on“Community acceptance,”
some members of the Wikipedia community are
hostile to newcomers, and their feedback had negative consequences
for student motivation and commitment.