CZ:Eduzendium Testimonials

See this press release for a few positive testimonials.

CZ:(U00984) Appetite and Obesity, University of Edinburgh 2009

Students in groups of 3 to 5 were asked to write an article on one of pre-selected subjects related to Obesity. To ensure a ‘smooth’ registration, we organized an ‘Introduction to CZ’ tutorial during which all students requested their account. Students were also shown how to navigate in the site and were explained a series of ‘How to’ (edit, save, include references, pictures….). As a result only a couple of students had problems with their registration (problem fixed really quickly by reconfirming their email address). Despite the tutorial, half of the students still found the website difficult to use. I suspect this reflects difficulty in following the CZ format rather than navigating through the site. For instance, although I gave clear examples in how to include references using the CZ format, most of the students still did not follow it.

Overall it was an extremely positive experience from both students and tutors perspectives. All students participated very well to their article and reading their feedback, most of them really enjoyed it. It was a fairly time consuming activity but help and support from the CZ people made it easy to organise and manage. To finish a big Thank you to Matt Innis and Daniel Mietchen for their help in setting up and support throughout.

Celine Caquineau 14:01, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

CZ:Biol 201: General Microbiology

Instead of having my students write a lab report, which would be discarded after the semester's end, I decided to have my students create a citizendium page for a microbe of their choice.

The experiment was successful. 90% of my students contributed considerable original content. Most students were enthusiastic participants, and those who weren't enthusiastic were mostly discouraged by the learning curve involved in creating content. I think these people may have not had much familiarity with computers, thus the assignment may have been intimidating for them. However, this is all the greater reason why I felt this assignment was important. Familiarity with computers is probably critical for many careers and it is important for students to gain experience in college and elsewhere.

I had underestimated the amount of work it would be. In retrospect, I should have devoted more time to the exercise, for both the students and myself. One consequence is that I have not had much opportunity to fact check their work, but hopefully this will resolve itself as future authors edit the work.

I have left more comments on CZ Talk:Home#Eduzendium Experience

--John J. Dennehy 16:21, 19 May 2008 (CDT)

See also

• similar projects in the English Wikipedia
• a blog about another such trial at Wikipedia
• yet another such blog post

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