Searching for Answers: The Impact of Student Access to Wikipedia

Laura Derksen, Catherine Michaud Leclerc and Pedro CL Souza
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Laura Derksen: University of Toronto
Catherine Michaud Leclerc: University of Toronto
Pedro CL Souza: University of Warwick

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: Can schools use the internet to promote reading and learning? We provided Wikipedia access to randomly-selected students in Malawian boarding secondary schools. Students used Wikipedia broadly and intensively, and found it trustworthy, including for information about news and safe sex. We find a 0.10s impact on English exam scores, and a higher impact among low achievers (0.20s). Students used Wikipedia to study Biology, and exam scores increased for low achievers (0.14s). Our results show that a source of engaging and accessible online material can encourage reading and affect educational outcomes.

Keywords: JEL Classification: I21; I28; O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict
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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... s/450-2019_souza.pdf

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cge:wacage:450

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