What to try next: Wikipedia assignment ideas across disciplines
Looking for inspiration for your course this spring? These instructors are raving about how easy it is to adapt the Wikipedia assignment to their own disciplines. Sign up on the Dashboard today and follow their roadmaps! Archaeology: Dr. Kate Grillo published an article last year about the value of a Wikipedia assignment in archaeology courses. … Continued
What students fighting misinformation online looks like
Facebook announced a new policy last week banning “deepfakes”, or digitally altered videos, from its platform. Not surprisingly, thousands turned to the Wikipedia page about deepfakes to understand more. Thanks to University of Southern California students from Helen Choi’s course last fall, the page provides some helpful context. In the last few years, the world’s … Continued
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt
We’ve all been told—or been the one telling people—to not use Wikipedia as a source. There’s a variety of reasons, of course, with the main one being the credibility of the information. The Wikipedia community is aware of this and has made a series of changes aimed at rectifying this. Wiki Education’s programs are also … Continued
Celebrating your students’ work at the end of the term
Our favorite (and also busiest!) time of the fall term has rolled around again. During these last few weeks before the holidays, students move all their final edits live, resulting in thousands of words added to Wikipedia overnight! It’s fascinating to see the breadth and depth of interesting new content that suddenly appears. As instructors … Continued
Adding to Wikipedia as an assignment? It’s a pizza cake…
Information Services and Instruction Librarian Melissa Kahili-Heede and Dr. Richard Kasuya led their students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in a Wikipedia writing assignment last term that changed the way they worked with both students and faculty. This was the second time they’ve had medical … Continued
Penn students feel connection to local history while writing Wikipedia page for local mosque
As is often the case when teaching with Wikipedia, Dr. Heather Sharkey adapted her original vision of a Wikipedia writing assignment based on what inspired students about the task. The result is a great story of collaboration, archiving of local history, and pride. Dr. Sharkey conducted her first Wikipedia writing assignment using our resources and … Continued
Writing with a purpose: history teachers revise Wikipedia
Rachel Tamar Van is an Assistant Professor of early American history at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Here she reflects on what a Wikipedia assignment meant for her history classroom. For many writing assignments, the exercise is in the writing. Students cherish every word of feedback. They thoughtfully apply comments to … Continued
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
Wiki Education awarded Spark Grant to update Dashboard
Wiki Education has been awarded a Spark Grant for their Wikipedia Student Program. This program supports Wikipedia writing assignments in higher education, giving students the rare and powerful opportunity to write for a real audience as part of their course work. The assignments go from guided critical thinking about Wikipedia pages — how they are … Continued
An ecology student becomes a Wikipedian
“You’re not always able to make a huge impact, but at least you can make a dent.” Kai Medina learned how to add content to Wikipedia pages as a student in Dr. Randi Rotjan’s marine biology course this Spring. Since then, he has remained an active editor on Wikipedia, adding content, photos, and field recordings … Continued