Wikipedia Education Program/News/15 October 2013

Welcome to the Wikipedia Education Program Update -- a newsletter from the Wikimedia Foundation about efforts to bring Wikipedia into higher education classrooms. The newsletter is released on the first and third Tuesday of each month. To be notified of the latest issue, add this page to your watchlist or email LiAnna Davis (ldaviswikimedia.org), the Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager, to be added to the distribution list.

More than 50 gather to celebrate third Egypt term

On October 3, more than 50 professors and students gathered at Ain Shams University to celebrate the success of the third term of the Wikipedia Education Program Egypt. Students in Egypt have been some of the most active contributors in the education program globally, contributing more than 12 million bytes of content last term alone. Professors from each university as well as student faculty leaders shared their experiences with the group, encouraging them to continue to participate in the program in the future. Professors, students, and volunteer Wikipedia Ambassadors were recognized for their contributions with certificates. Check out pictures from the event on Commons!

US Ambassador Emily Temple-Wood profiled

Despite being only 19 years old, Emily Temple-Wood has contributed an incredible amount of content to Wikipedia; after all, she started when she was 12. A Wikipedia Ambassador for the Wikipedia Education Program United States and Canada, Emily (who edits under the username Keilana) is a sophomore at Loyola University in Chicago and can be found supporting a number of efforts on Wikipedia outside the Education Program, including creating and expanding articles on women scientists, a particular area of interest for her. Read more about Emily on her profile on the Wikimedia blog.

Plagiarism study results released

One complaint we've heard from many English Wikipedia experts is that students in the Wikipedia Education Program in the United States and Canada often plagiarized in the articles they created or expanded for Wikipedia as part of their class assignments. While plagiarism is certainly a widespread problem throughout academia worldwide, we had heard anecdotally from several professors that the Wikipedia assignment led to less plagiarism than they were used to in their classes. So we investigated by doing a larger plagiarism study comparing our students' work to that of other new editors and experienced editors. While caveats apply, we found that students plagiarize less than other new editors, but more than experienced editors. See the results.