Wikipedia projects for classes

In a recent Faculty Focus article, John Orlando describes how his medical ethics students at Norwich University worked with Wikipedians to create a new article.

While we’ve addressed this topic before (Wikipedia gains academic acceptance), there is renewed interest as Wikipedia becomes increasingly entrenched in our lives.

Most educators tell students not to cite Wikipedia in a formal paper, but it is the world’s most popular reference work and one of its most visited websites, averaging more than 1100 page views per second! Currently, 125,000 people are actively editing Wikipedia pages and a quarter of those individuals are 21 years old or younger.

The nonprofit group WikiEd has been active in the US and Canada since 2010, serving as academia’s bridge to Wikipedia. WikiEd also strives to cultivate deeper learning through course assignments that expand Wikipedia articles: see their instructor page with ready-made handouts and other resources. The podcast below features WikiEd leaders talking about their efforts with the Cat Food blog at Xavier U (LA).

Wikipedia Education Program

Through its School and University Projects, Wikipedia provides materials, procedures, and standards designed to help interested educators. The site includes lots of training materials and a template for creating a course page, which is a space for coordinating and monitoring student activities.