Have you thought about adopting a Wikipedia-based assignment, but are struggling with how exactly to incorporate it into your class? Have you ever wondered what other instructors teaching with Wikipedia are doing in their courses? Is this the first time you’ve heard of Wikipedia assignments, and you’d like to know more?
In October, we had the pleasure of welcoming Megan Osterbur and Naniette Coleman to Wiki Education’s San Francisco office to record an episode of Xavier University’s Teaching, Learning and Everything Else podcast. Megan contributes to the podcast as Assistant Professor of Political Science at Xavier, and Naniette has twice taught in our Classroom Program as an instructor in the University of Massachusetts, Lowell’s Department of Sociology. Their conversation with Wiki Education’s Classroom Program Manager Helaine Blumenthal and Research Fellow Zach McDowell on the subject of how to incorporate a Wikipedia-based assignment into a college or university-level course is now available in two segments on the podcast’s website:
Highlights from the interview:
- How Wikipedia assignments can be well-suited for online courses. Naniette draws from her experience integrating Wikipedia into her Sociology of Mass media class.
- Experiences of instructors teaching with Wikipedia for the first time. Megan and Naniette reflect on their experiences, and compare with Zach’s, a long-time instructor in the Classroom Program.
- Benefits of teaching with Wikipedia for both students and instructors.
- Challenges of adopting a Wikipedia-based assignment, and the best practices to navigate them.
- Zach’s ongoing research on student learning outcomes.
- How Wiki Education supports faculty and students contributing to Wikipedia as part of their coursework.
Many thanks again to Professor Osterbur for inviting Wiki Education to participate in this program.
If you’d like to learn more about teaching with Wikipedia, please send us an email – contact@wikiedu.org.
Photo: Naniette Coleman and Megan Osterbur at the Wiki Education Foundation office. By LiAnna Davis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
