Monthly Report, July 2018
Highlights Jennifer Sadler and her students from the University of Mississippi visited Wiki Education’s San Francisco office in July. During their visit, the students learned what it means to work for a mission-driven non-profit in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a great opportunity for staff to share their professional paths and contextualize the … Continued
Changing students and the world: why instructors continue to teach with Wikipedia
Term after term, virtually all of the instructors who participate in our Classroom Program (between 97 and 99%) indicate that they will run another Wikipedia assignment in the near future. While we’re happy to report this success year after year, a far more interesting story is why so many instructors adopt the Wikipedia assignment as a main-stay … Continued
Four reasons why psychology students should improve Wikipedia
In 2016, Dr. Eric Youngstrom’s students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill learned how to improve Wikipedia articles as a class assignment. That term, a group of students improved the article about sleep disorders, adding a section about the use of melatonin as a possible treatment. As research shows, melatonin pills can help people fall … Continued
Now hiring: Wikipedia Content Expert
As our Classroom Program and our emerging professional development program both continue to grow, we’re looking for an additional, part-time staff member to support our new and returning participants as they make meaningful contributions to Wikipedia. The Wikipedia Content Expert will spend time monitoring and tracking contributions by Wiki Education program participants, answering questions, and … Continued
Monthly Report, June 2018
Highlights Wiki Education held its second in-person board meeting for the 2017-2018 fiscal year in Tiburon. Our Senior Leadership team informed the Board of key initiatives the organization is planning to undertake in fiscal year 2018–19. Board members also discussed and approved Wiki Education’s new strategic plan, as well as the annual plan and budget … Continued
Monthly Report, May 2018
Highlights The success of our Wikipedia Fellows pilot was featured in the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) publication Footnotes. It’s great to see that academic associations like ASA and their members are as excited as we are about the prospects of academics learning how to improve Wikipedia. Read the article by Community Engagement Manager Ryan McGrady … Continued
Teaching students to contribute to Wikipedia
Dr. Tracy Perkins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Howard University. In Fall of 2017 she taught with Wikipedia in her course, Sociology of Food and Agriculture, in which her students added nearly 8,000 words to Wikipedia. Here she shares why she’ll incorporate a Wikipedia assignment into her course again in … Continued
Using Wikipedia in the college composition classroom
Dr. Tawyna (Ravy) Azar taught her undergraduate students how to improve Wikipedia as an assignment in her Spring 2018 course Research, Authoring, and Audience in the Age of New Media at George Washington University. Here she reflects on how her students responded and what place Wikipedia may hold in larger pedagogical conversations. Last semester, I partnered with … Continued
Interdisciplinary scholars are bringing their expertise to Wikipedia
Our new program trains scholars to improve Wikipedia articles in their areas of expertise. The 3-month online course (which meets virtually once a week) presents an opportunity for professional development and public scholarship, equipping scholars with the tools they need to expand the impact of research in their discipline. So far, cohorts are improving Wikipedia’s … Continued
Monthly Report, April 2018
Highlights We hit a major milestone this month in our Classroom Program. Students have officially contributed more words to Wikipedia since our program’s inception in 2010 than were published in the last print edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Executive Director Frank Schulenburg wrote a piece about the significance of this milestone, which can be read … Continued