Crowdsourcing for class

Yesterday I read the article Crowdsourcing and Self Instruction: Turning the production of teaching materials into a learning objective by Matthew Charles Wilson. This article really has me thinking about how crowdsourcing might apply to teaching at my work institution. This article discussed how students brought together different pieces of information about political science in Latin America. The end result was a "180-page manuscript comprising historical timelines for 19 countries in Latin America."  

I was impressed by this result as well as the positive responses from students that they preferred this over a traditional course paper. I wondered if having students in a class, working together on a large project fit with what I knew about crowdsourcing.  This course had just 50 students. Here is wikipedia's definition, a crowdsourcing venue in its own right. This suggests that crowdsourcing involves a  "large, relatively open and often rapidly evolving group of participants." Dictionary.com offers a similar definition suggesting engagement of the general public. 

After thinking about this for a day, here are some thoughts. 

1) For a class of 50 students, I would call this a collaborative project rather than crowdsourcing. However, I still love the idea. One item I do in my class is to ask students to identify community resources that would help patients. The we try to use that list to respond to different patient scenarios. I usually compile the list but I am thinking that for the future I could create a collaboration site. Maybe using diigo or another Web 2.0 tool.  

2) What if students in a class did a project where they crowdsourced to collect thoughts. For example I have taught a quality improvement course. Students are asked to design a quality improvement project related to health. Many of them pick topics that impact undergraduate students like STIs detection, proper hand washing, water consumption, exercise.  What if they shared their topic and starter idea through a crowdsourcing venue and received feedback? 

3) What if students participated in a crowdsourcing challenge project.  I looked through the list at HeroX. Perhaps maybe the 2021 Shark Tank of Wellness Student Global Competition or the Global Hope Challenge.  I even found this transcription experience with the library of congress - maybe it could be useful and authentic for a history class? Or this one in Zooniverse that looks at environmental changes and plants. 

So many fun ideas.

Wilson, M. C. (2018). Crowdsourcing and self-instruction: Turning the production of teaching materials Into a learning objectiveLinks to an external site.. Journal of Political Science Education, 14(3), 400-408. doi:10.1080/15512169.2017.1415813