Resources for teaching with Wikipedia
If you’re interested in adding a Wikipedia assignment to your course, please visit teach.wikiedu.org to get started. There, you’ll find step-by-step guidance for teaching with Wikipedia. This page serves as a useful reference once you’re participating in our program.
Since 2010, our staff has helped thousands of higher education instructors in the United States and Canada run Wikipedia assignments. We’ve collected their experiences and feedback to create guidelines and trainings for you and your students.
Questions? Please reach out to us at studentprogram(at)wikiedu.org.
Resources for instructors
Before you begin, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with Wikipedia editing and community guidelines. Our online instructor orientation will walk you through the basics. You may want to take a look at the student trainings, too — that way you’ll see exactly what your students learn about Wikipedia (and perhaps pick up some new editing skills yourself).
Our Instructor Basics brochure contains crucial information for designing successful Wikipedia assignments. Our Case Studies brochure spotlights the variety of successful strategies for incorporating Wikipedia assignments. Finally, for courses that engage in theoretical thinking around Wikipedia and knowledge production, we offer a Theories handbook for instructors.
Getting students ready
Your class is about more than Wikipedia, so class time should still focus on the topic of your course. That’s why we’ve created an online training that helps students learn the basics of Wikipedia editing. This training will help students throughout the term, and takes about an hour in total. Completing the training is the first step in any Wikipedia assignment.
We also offer online copies of three brochures for your students — Editing Wikipedia, Illustrating Wikipedia, and Evaluating Wikipedia.
Subject-specific handouts for students
Some content areas in Wikipedia have topic-specific guidelines for contributors. This can range from specific details on sourcing and citations, or ethical or legal guidelines specific to that field. Provide these handouts to students if you teach in these subjects.
