Graduate Student Use of Wikipedia
As the largest free web-based encyclopedia in the world, Wikipedia offers a huge collection of information.  The free editorship in Wikipedia keeps its information constantly updated.  Wikipedia is easy to access and navigated.  These unique features have made Wikipedia a popular information resource among online users, especially among university students.  Nevertheless, the use of Wikipedia for academic purposes has been controversial.  There has been a concern about the quality of information in Wikipedia.  The credentials of authors and editors of Wikipedia are not transparent.  There is suspicion concerning the knowledge and expertise levels of authors and editors in Wikipedia.  Due to lack of rigorousness in evaluation, there are errors in the content of Wikipedia.  These concerns have led most university professors to prohibit students from using Wikipedia information in course assignments.  However, there are arguments that Wikipedia should not be completely excluded from student learning.  This presentation contends that student voices should be heard in discussing controversies concerning Wikipedia use and its academic values.  How do students use Wikipedia?  What do student perceive the quality of Wikipedia?  What are reasons for students to use Wikipedia?  This presentation reports a study designed to investigate how graduate students relate to Wikipedia in terms of their uses, their perceptions about the quality of its information and their rationales why they choose to use Wikipedia.