Wikipedia is much more straightforward using the new Visual Editor interface which makes editing Wikipedia now as easy as using Microsoft Word. Students can be taught how to edit in approximately 60 minutes and thereafter can research and write, with academic rigour, brand new Wikipedia articles.
The video interview provided by the University of Edinburgh’s Dr. Chris Harlow illustrates the Wikipedia research session he ran in September 2015.
Dr. Chris Harlow – Reproductive Biology (University of Edinburgh)
A practical example of engaging with Wikipedia in teaching and learning – watch Dr. Chris Harlow speak about his recent experiences introducing Wikipedia to his 3rd year Honours students to researching & writing a Wikipedia article.
Teaching with Wikipedia – Dr. Chris Harlow (Reproductive Biology research session)
Duration: (7:09)
User: Ewan McAndrew – Added: 03/06/16
YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIHlOWxepoc
Some additional resources & recent examples of approaches to teaching with Wikipedia are detailed here:
1. Teaching with Wikipedia (University of Edinburgh examples)
2. How to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool (PDF)
3. Wikipedia Education Program – Case Studies: How universities are teaching with Wikipedia (PDF)
If you would like to know more about how Wikipedia fits in with academia then these recent articles make very compelling reading:
2. Wikipedia the digital gateway to academic research
The project page for the residency with details on upcoming events is located here: Wikipedia: University of Edinburgh and the latest Wikipedia training session (30th June 2016) is available to book here: http://bit.ly/1UdQ4f6
Further video tutorials can be found on the Wikimedian in Residence Youtube channel here.
Further examples of Teaching with Wikipedia include:
Making use of Wikipedia’s new Content Translation tool – University College, London.
- The UCL’s Wikipedia ‘Translate-a-thon’ is written up here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/e-learning/teaching-translation-wikipedia
- In addition, UCL also ran a Wikipedia session for familiarising Year 1 undergraduates with using sources – making good use of the Wiki Education project dashboard to allow educators to manage & monitor class Wikipedia assignments & communicate with students from a central hub: https://prezi.com/apxnjcabgtdd/when-ucl-students-write-wikipedia.
- This one also includes how Wikipedia work complements UCL’s educational strategic aims.
Telling the stories of rural England with Wikipedia – The University of Portsmouth.
Dr Humphrey Southall, Reader in Geography, University of Portsmouth, written with Dr Martin Poulter, describe a Wikipedia-based assignment given to first-year students in Applied Human Geography and also looking at how academics can inform the widest public about their subject, and raise awareness of the reliable sources used in research.
In addition – Wiki Education resources
Wiki Education has a variety of materials which may be helpful.
- Here is a full collection of our tools and resources: https://wikiedu.org/for-instructors/
- The Wiki Education blog is full of examples of student work: https://wikiedu.org/blog/category/roundups/
- And we have a lot of instructor testimonials which can serve as case studies, most written by instructors themselves: https://wikiedu.org/blog/category/testimonials/
- Many have found our summary of evolving attitudes between wikipedia and academia to be useful: https://wikiedu.org/blog/2016/01/14/wikipedia-15-and-education/
- Here is a description of a medical course: https://wikiedu.org/blog/2016/04/05/medical-students-wikipedia/
- And this has been a very popular piece arguing for the use of Wikipedia in classrooms: https://wikiedu.org/blog/2016/03/28/five-reasons-a-wikipedia-assignment-is-better-than-a-term-paper/
- You can also find two pdf brochures: Case Studies and Theories, the first of which contains descriptions of classes and learning outcomes, the second contains class descriptions alongside discussion questions and a bibliography for courses.