Can’t get enough of other instructors’ experiences with the Wikipedia assignment? Dr. Laura Ingallinella of the University of Toronto has just published an excellent journal article in the Bibliotheca Dantesca: Journal of Dante Studies that details her successes, challenges, and learnings incorporating Wikipedia editing into her teaching at Wellesley College.
Dr. Ingallinella outlines the benefits of utilizing the Wikipedia assignment in her undergraduate class, which is dedicated to reading Dante’s Divine Comedy in English. Her insights can be applied across disciplines, beyond Dante Studies. In the article, Dr. Ingallinella covers the educational outcomes of the assignment and other applications of this work for educators interested in digital public scholarship and knowledge equity. And she lays out a set of best practices for utilizing Wiki Education’s free resources. Reading this, you’ll find a blueprint for how one instructor incorporates our trainings and Dashboard into an actual classroom environment. She answers questions like:
- What does the assignment look like day by day?
- How does the task of writing Wikipedia articles fit into larger discussions of knowledge equity in your field?
- How do you set expectations with students who haven’t edited Wikipedia before, and have actually been told never to use it?
Dr. Ingallinella also provides insights into Academia’s acceptance (and nonacceptance) of Wikipedia, how representation of scholarly journal articles on Wikipedia benefits both public audiences and the academic field, and how a Wikipedia assignment provides students with a good entry point into the reference works important to your field.
Thank you Dr. Ingallinella for sharing your insights with us and our instructor community. We’re proud to support your work and that of many others each term. Every instructor who utilizes our resources (there are hundreds of you!) is part of a community doing this work across the US and Canada through our program. Reach out to us and each other, attend our office hours, present at conferences together, and let us know when you publish work like this. We love to share it. Read the article here!
Visit teach.wikiedu.org to find out more about how you can incorporate a Wikipedia project into your syllabus.
The article (very insightful!) can be directly referenced here: https://repository.upenn.edu/entities/journal/933e516c-746c-4a48-8dcf-d4658db88f10