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Introduction to Teaching with Wikipedia
Wikipedia assignments can be valuable tools to help students develop information and digital literacies, composition and editorial skills, reference skills, and critical thinking ability. They can range from single close reading exercises to semester-long editing assignments with the goal of producing new pages, and can be integrated into courses from any discipline.
Resources at University of Michigan
For faculty and Graduate Student Instructors interested in teaching with Wikipedia, you'll find numerous resources to help you here at the University of Michigan Library and through our partners are CRLT and LSA Instructional Support Services.
Through ScholarSpace, schedule a consultation with a digital pedagogy librarian, and we'll help you with every stage of designing and implementing a learning activity:
- designing an assignment (learning goals, outcomes, reflection assignment, etc.)
- scheduling and providing classroom instruction
- holding additional office hours
- building and managing a WikiEdu course dashboard
- assigning modules and tutorials
- hosting or providing space for edit-a-thon events
- developing assessment tools
The U-M library also works closely with the Wiki Education, which supports the Wikipedia Education Program. We have supported Wikipedia editing assignments in numerous departments including Chemistry, History, Afroamerican and African Studies, Psychology, Economics, and others.
Resources through Wiki Education
"Wikipedia is an opportunity to teach students essential 21st century skills that most will use in their careers and personal lives. Wikipedia is a valuable public resource, and in a classroom environment students learn how to contribute and use it properly. Curricula can and should include Wikipedia!" Read more Reasons to use Wikipedia in teaching.
Visit the Portal for Educators for more information, including:
- Examples of Assignment Design based on the experiences of hundreds of professors worldwide.
- How to create a class Syllabus and examples of successful syllabi
- Case Studies to help you form a plan for how you can use Wikipedia as a teaching tool in your class
- Materials for Teaching (e.g. video tutorials for editing basics)
Helpful materials also inlcude the downloadable brochures “Instructor Basics” and “Case Studies” which describe best practices, learning objectives for assignments, and how to grade a Wikipedia assignment.
You can also view an online orientation for educators who are interested in using Wikipedia assignments in their classes, and training modules for students editing Wikipedia for an assignment.
We strongly suggest you to review these materials before you design the assignment with Wikipedia editing component. One important thing to note is that the style of students' writings needs to fit the encyclopedia style so that the articles would not get easily deleted by the community.
The experience of using Wikipedia for multiple class assignments is described in the article Improving Science Education and Understanding through Editing Wikipedia. by C. L. Moy, J. R. Locke, B. P. Coppola and A. J. McNeil in Journal of Chemical Education, 2010, 87 (11), 1159-1162.
See list of past and current courses in the U.S. under Wikipedia Education Program.
Wikipedia in the Classroom
Looking for ways to incorporate Wikipedia into course assignments?
References
Some of the contents of this page were borrowed and adapted from a Research Guide at UCLA.