A field experiment evaluating The Wikipedia Adventure (TWA) showed that inviting new editors to use the interactive tutorial did not significantly affect their subsequent editing contributions—such as the overall number of edits, talk page contributions, or edit quality—when compared to a control group.

Effect of The Wikipedia Adventure (TWA) on Editing Contributions

- 22% of invited editors completed some part of the tutorial.
- 46% of participating editors played until the seventh and final mission.
- The first mission lost the most editors (24% after completion), with dropout rates decreasing after the first mission.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Google

Purpose:
- How new users perceive the system design and tone (via survey~11,000 editors)
- If using TWA led to making more contributions prior to being invited to participate in the tutorial (via field experiment~1,967 editors)

Results:
- From the survey, users found TWA engaging and well-designed for new users.
- Even though new users say that TWA is very useful and helps new editors, the results from the field experiment report that TWA did not effect editing contributions)


Purpose and Summary of Results

- 91% of respondents said that TWA is an useful introduction to edit Wikipedia

- 90% of respondents agreed (strongly agreed) that TWA made them feel more confident as an editor and helped them develop a better understanding of Wikipedia

- 85% said that TWA is very useful on reviewing Wiki's policies

- 80% responded that TWA encourages them to make more edits. They also reported that they felt welcome and supported

Survey Results

After using TWA, new editors will:
- Increase the number of overall contributions
- Increase the number of contributions on talk pages
- Create contributions of greater quality

Hypotheses

Researchers evaluated The Wikipedia Adventure (TWA) tutorial using a survey and a field experiment. For the survey, approximately 11,000 new editors were invited to use the tutorial via the Wiki talks page and were subsequently surveyed about their confidence and engagement in editing Wikipedia. For the field experiment, 1,967 accounts were selected: 1,751 accounts were randomly assigned to the treatment group and invited to use the tutorial, while the remaining 216 accounts were assigned to a control group and not invited. Each group was observed for their editing behavior 180 days since they were invited or not invited.

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