Author: Guest Contributor

Posts by Guest Contributor

Change Is Uncomfortable: How the Wikipedia Assignment Moves Students from Knowledge Receivers to Knowledge Producers

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Jennifer Bernstein, PhD Editor-in-Chief, Case Studies in the Environment Faculty, Texas Tech University In an eight-week, online introductory environmental science course, I assigned the Wikipedia assignment in lieu of a traditional research paper. Students selected an article from a list of geoscience terms and improved it through editing and contributing text, references, and media. My … Continued

UW senior creates new Wikipedia article on oil spill in Nigeria

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Marketing and Information Systems major Tim Qian is a senior at the University of Washington. As part of his Wikipedia assignment, Tim created the new Wikipedia article on the 2008 Shell Bodo Oil Spill. Tim, creating a brand new Wikipedia article is a big deal! Why did you choose to work on this article?  In … Continued

From uncertainty to insight: Student helps bring unknown painter to light

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By Kaelynn Ross, student at the University of Alaska Anchorage Trying to figure out a direction for my Wikipedia assignment last term proved to be tricky. I hadn’t spent much time on Wikipedia previously, and all of the things I was interested in also seemed to be loved by many other editors, so finding additional … Continued

Chemistry professor reflects on first Wikipedia assignment

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David Minh is the Robert E. Frey, Jr. Endowed Chair in Chemistry at Illinois Institute of Technology and the Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Biagon Inc.  Introduction This semester was the first time I had students complete the Wikipedia assignment, where they evaluated and made edits to an article in the free online encyclopedia. … Continued

Strengthening skills, building confidence: 6 questions with a student editor

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Michenael is a first-year student at Rutgers University-Newark. She plans to major in diagnostic medical imaging to become a sonographer. As part of her Wikipedia assignment in fall 2025, Michenael improved the Wikipedia article focused on tech entrepreneur and activist Judith Adem Owigar. 1. Was your work on Wikipedia meaningful to you? In what way? … Continued

Wikipedia on the Tenure Track

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Jane Sancinito is Assistant Professor of History at University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is an ancient historian, focusing on merchants, artisans and working people in the Roman Empire, a numismatist, studying ancient coinage, and a specialist in the concept of greed in the pre-modern world. I never considered myself much of a Wikipedia editor. I … Continued

Professor, student reflect on Wikipedia assignment experience

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Jennifer Lynn Stoever is an Associate Professor of English at Binghamton University, Editor-in-Chief of Sounding Out!, and author of The Sonic Color Line (NYU Press). She is an interdisciplinary scholar who researches the role of sound in constructing racial identities. Her current book-in-progress details how Black women and their record collections were fundamental to the … Continued

Wikipedia Editing as Public Scholarship in an AI-Shaped Information Landscape

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Dr. Jennifer Bernstein is Editor-in-Chief of the University of California Press journal “Case Studies in the Environment” and adjunct faculty at Texas Tech and Tarleton State Universities. A Graduate-level Wikipedia editing assignment in Environmental Studies Course: ENVS 5185: Research and Writing in Environmental Studies (Tarleton State University) Enrollment: 18 graduate students Final reflections analyzed: 16 … Continued

Comparing Wikipedia, Traditional Encyclopedias, and Generative AI: The Wikipedia Assignment as Tool for Student Information Literacies

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Professor Katie Holt holds the Alieen Dunham Chair in History at The College of Wooster. I’ve long been an advocate for teaching with Wikipedia as a pedagogical approach to help students strengthen their information literacy skills. The guided trainings provided by Wiki Education help students think about how to critically evaluate different sources of information. … Continued