Improving Wikidata with Student-Generated Concept Maps

Authors

  • Hayden Freedman University of California Irvine
  • André van der Hoek University of California Irvine
  • Bill Tomlinson University of California, Irvine

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v16i1.19285

Keywords:

New social media applications; interfaces; interaction techniques, Engagement, motivations, incentives, and gamification.

Abstract

Wikidata is a publicly available, crowdsourced knowledge base that contains interlinked concepts structured for use by intelligent systems. While Wikidata has experienced rapid growth, it is far from complete and faces challenges that prevent it from being used to its full potential. In this paper, we propose a novel method for improving Wikidata by engaging undergraduate students to contribute previously missing knowledge via concept mapping assignments. Rather than allow students to edit Wikidata directly, we describe a workflow in which knowledge is constructed by students and then reviewed by an expert. We present a case study in which we deployed a workflow in a large undergraduate course about sustainability, and find that it was able to contribute a substantial number of high quality statements that persisted in and contributed previously missing knowledge to Wikidata. This work provides a preliminary workflow for improving Wikidata based on classroom assignments, as well as recommendations for how future educational projects could continue to improve Wikidata or other public knowledge bases.

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Published

2022-05-31

How to Cite

Freedman, H., Hoek, A. van der, & Tomlinson, B. (2022). Improving Wikidata with Student-Generated Concept Maps. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 16(1), 205-215. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v16i1.19285