Updating the student user experience for Spring 2020
For the Spring 2020 term we’ve added a major set of features to the “My Articles” section of students’ course pages. The centerpiece of this update is the Progress Tracker which students can use at each stage of the Wikipedia article-writing process. The Progress Tracker will allow students to see what they should be doing, … Continued
Privacy policy updated
We’ve just updated the Wiki Education Privacy Policy. Like the last version, this one is adapted from the freely-licensed policy of Automattic, the company that makes the open source blogging software WordPress. We’ve based it on Automattic’s policy because they have a well-earned reputation for protecting users’ rights, along with the resources to cover their … Continued
Dashboard wins Coolest Tool Award
“Tools” — the various pieces of technology that work with Wikipedia but aren’t part of the core wiki software, most of them created and maintained by volunteers — are a huge part of the technology story for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. This year’s Wikimania conference included the first ever “Coolest Tool Award” ceremony to … Continued
New Dashboard feature simplifies student peer review
Wiki Education launched the Dashboard in 2015 and it has truly been a game changer for instructors and students running Wikipedia assignments. Since that time, we’ve been steadily improving the Dashboard so that instructors can more easily facilitate their Wikipedia assignments; students can make meaningful and lasting contributions to Wikipedia; and so we here at … Continued
The Dashboard now counts references!
We’ve added a new feature to the Wiki Education Dashboard: References Added. Thanks to Khyati Soneji, one of our outstanding summer interns, the Dashboard now keeps track of how many references were added or removed in each edit to a Wikipedia article. You’ll see the total references added for each course, and you can also see … Continued
Looking ahead: our plan for 2019-2020
We love to tell the stories of the thousands of students and hundreds of professionals making meaningful contributions to Wikipedia’s content through our programs every year. Those individuals make a big difference in spreading free, reliable knowledge globally. And we’re proud to share in their successes. Rarely, though, do we talk about the behind the … Continued
Welcome interns Amit, Khyati, and Ujjwal!
Last week we kicked off three exciting internship projects to improve the Wiki Education Dashboard. Over the next few months, Outreachy and Google Summer of Code students will join the Wiki Education technology team to build new features and tools for both Wiki Education programs and the global Wikimedia community. Amit Joki, an Information Technology … Continued
Prague Hackathon improves tools for users worldwide
This past week, Wiki Education’s technical team attended the 2019 Wikimedia Hackathon where the Program & Events Dashboard was featured as a prominent area of focus. While there, Sage Ross & I were able to meet with Czech users, network with other developers working on Wikipedia projects, and build a number of features for both our global tool and … Continued
Wikipedia is the ultimate open educational resource
Wikipedia is one of the most important resources for public education in the world. It’s free, openly licensed, and available to anyone who has internet access worldwide. No ads, no collecting or selling of personal data, and no fake news. So for Open Education Week, we’re highlighting how higher education instructors and their students use … Continued
Wikipedia Day: a year in review
Every year on January 15, we celebrate Wikipedia’s birthday. It takes thousands all around the world to make Wikipedia the resource that it is; Wikipedia Day is a great time to recognize all that hard work and successful collaboration. It’s also a day to speak to the importance of freely available knowledge and to continue conversations about … Continued