Education/Newsletter/September 2016/Psychology students of Uludag University are very proud of contributing Turkish Wikipedia
By Basak Tosun (Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey)
Snippet: Psychology students create articles on major psychology theories and theorists on Turkish Wikipedia at Uludag University, Bursa.
The Turkish Wikipedia has received important contributions from junior students of Uludag University psychology department in the spring term of the 2015/2016 academic year. At the begining of the term, Professor Banu Dikec agreed to give a Wikipedia assignment to her students that required them to create or edit articles related to the history of psychology. 102 students attended the course and they worked in groups for their Wikipedia assignment. This was the first time our user group -- the Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey (WMTR) -- has organized a Wikipedia Education Program for graduate level students. And it was also the first time we have experienced working with such large group of students.
Turkey's Wikipedia Education Program was first organized at the same department in previous academic term when Assoc. Prof. Dr. Leman Pınar Tosun gave Wikipedia assignments to her students in a graduate level course. That experience encouraged us to organize another program for graduate students. We had recognized that in Turkish Wikipedia, the content related to psychology was very weak and every contribution on this subject would be very valuable.
At the end of the academic term, we were happy to learn that writing a Wikipedia article was a valuable experience for the students as well. On the final exam day, the students were asked to write their thoughts about the Wikipedia assignment and the professor shared their responses with WMTR. Most of the students mentioned how they were proud of themselves for writing a Wikipedia article. Some expressed that it feels like this was the first time they were putting the knowledge they have acquired at school to the service of the public. They explained that this assignment was different than any other assignment because as they worked on it, their biggest concern was not their grade but the benefit to possible readers of the article. This concern motivated them to work even more carefully. We are so happy to receive such awesome feedback and we are looking forward to organizing more Wikipedia Education Programs in other departments and other institutions.
Read more about the Wikipedia Education Program in Turkey here.