Changes in the Social Responsibility of University Students Involved in Wikipedia Article Edition

Resumen

Individual social responsibility is closely related to the civil engineers professional activity but, traditionally, their formation has been focused on the technical aspect, leaving the human dimension behind. In that regard, this study analyses how certain assignment can influence the social responsibility of civil engineering students. The selected assignment was a written research work, that would be delivered online, as a Wikipedia article. The study was conducted with 11 students from the third year, over the fifth and sixth semesters. For the study, students were assigned 3 research works, and half of the students were randomly required to deliver the work online, as a Wikipedia article, while the rest would deliver it to the teacher on a traditional paper format. To check students background and track the changes in the social responsibility, a previously defined and tested likert questionnaire was used. Students were also asked about other aspects related to frequency consulting civil engineering topics and editing Wikipedia. Students were required to fill the questionnaire before the first assignment and after each one, four times in total. Likert questionnaire showed how students perception on the articles published in Wikipedia changed during both semesters. Although initial hypothesis could not be confirmed, no changes in social responsibility were identified, results revealed some interesting information about certain social responsibility dimensions, such as lack of student awareness on the impact formation had on their social responsibility.