Is your organization passionate about preserving and sharing history? Are you also interested in linked, open data? Wikidata can help you disseminate the history of your community, state, or region to a global audience. Wiki Education is continuing its partnership with the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) to improve Wikipedia’s depth and coverage of American history, including federal, state, and local articles. Course participants will receive training from Wikidata experts to learn about one of the largest free and open knowledge bases available. Note: this is not a Wikipedia course. We are offering Wikipedia courses, but this one is geared to those interested in learning about linked data.
We encourage enrollment from practitioners who will be able to attend all six (6) of the weekly, hour-long meetings. Please note that, in addition to these live sessions, participants will be asked to do about three (3) hours of reading and writing work each week.
Registration closes on Friday, July 17th at 11:59 p.m. PT, with approximately 30 spots available per course. We will invite course participants in a timely manner and asked to confirm their participation.
Are you ready to improve the historical content on the world’s largest open knoweldge base, with 120 million linked items? Click the purple ENROLL NOW button to the right to apply!
This course is presented in partnership with the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). Visit aaslh.org to learn more.
The Wiki Scholars course details
What is a Wiki Scholars course? We teach subject matter how to edit Wikidata an 6-week virtual course. We’ll take a deep dive into Wikidata’s coverage of United States history and add high-quality information to Wikidata to inform the public with such crucial knowledge for understanding our past, present, and future. From July 22 – August 26, 2026, you’ll have the opportunity to attend a series of virtual classes facilitated by Wiki Education’s Wikidata experts.
Meet Wednesdays: 6 live sessions with our Wikidata experts and a focused group of 20-30 other history experts.
3 hours per week of light reading, researching your chosen topic and writing directly on Wikipedia
Access a collaborative community of Wikidata experts and professional peers
Amplify the history of the United States from your laptop, reaching an audience of millions
Week 1: Introductions
Get to know each other and begin to see Wikidata as a powerful tool for communicating information regarding US history.
Weeks 2–3: Joining the community
Discover more about Wikidata’s community, and select your Wikidata article. We’ll show you how to identify what information is missing from Wikidata and how to add it according to Wikidata’s guidelines. You’ll begin drafting content for pages that get as many as thousands of readers every day!
Weeks 4–6: Educating the public
You’ll take what you’ve learned and continue to make edits. Your peers and Wiki Education’s experts will help you polish your work to make sure you meet readers with the best information out there. And you’ll get to commune with them about any challenges and successes you’ve experienced so far.
What will you achieve?
- Extensive knowledge dissemination: Contributions on Wikidata about the history of the United States have the potential to reach millions, offering immense potential for knowledge dissemination and educating the public about topics still relevant to them today.
- Engagement in a vibrant community: Forge professional connections across fields, and interact with Wikidata volunteer community. Interact closely with a dedicated group each week, sharing expertise and inspiration.
- Wikidata proficiency: From crafting initial Wikipedia articles to refining editing skills, this course ensures confidence in contributing to Wikidata, embedding expertise within your institution and field.
- And much more!
Email scholars@wikiedu.org with questions.
