Learning with wikipedia in higher education: Academic performance and students’ quality perception

Abstract

Despite some quality concerns, the success of Wikipedia as a resource of information is influencing education. New technology-enhanced learning strategies are recently developed to include this open educational resource in courses’ design. Although research about the use of Wikipedia in higher education and its quality perception is scarce, there are some empirical evidences showing its positive effect on the students’ academic performance and its positive quality perception. In line with this, the main aim of this paper is to prove statistically that Wikipedia’s usage improves the final marks of the students enrolled in topics from different knowledge areas. Additionally, we study the Wikipedia’s quality perception among students. Based on an experimental research design with 2330 students, and using data from a questionnaire and from their course marks, we prove through different statistical tests that (1) the academic active use of Wikipedia has a positive influence on the student’s academic performance, which is moderated by knowledge areas, and that (2) Wikipedia’s quality perception is positive and it does not depend on the student’s performance.