Wikipedia Education Program/News/2 April 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.

Education project improves Catalan Wikipedia

Esther Solé from Amical Viquipèdia wrote a post for the Wikimedia Foundation blog about the "Viquimoderisme" project to improve articles related to modernism on the Catalan Wikipedia. Around 100 art history students at the University of Barcelona are working with researchers to create new articles on Catalan modernism, a topic important to the cultural history of Catalonia. Esther's report highlights their learnings from the initial phase, and they're currently embarking on the second phase, in which a museum in Barcelona will also offer students access to resources they can use in their articles. Read more about the project.

Online student trainings deemed a success

A post on the Wikimedia Foundation blog highlights the successful development of an online training for students piloted on the English Wikipedia with the United States and Canada programs. In the post, author Sage Ross describes how early feedback and user testing has led to iterative improvements to the content of the training. This term, more than 400 students (about one third of all students participating in the program) have successfully completed the training. Read more about the online training.

The Wikipedia Education Program video

Education Program featured in video

Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager LiAnna Davis and former Program Manager Annie Lin were featured in a video describing the basics of the education program. In the short video, Annie and LiAnna describe how the program works and talk about the impact the program has had in the last three years. Watch the video.

Brazil professor featured on Wikimedia blog

Professor Ruy de Queiroz of Brazil is one of the pioneers of using Wikipedia in his classroom. In 2005, he was browsing the Portuguese Wikipedia in logic and theory of computation — his study areas — and found the Portuguese version lacking in comparison to the English version. Over the last seven years, he and his students have added content to more than 125 articles on the Portuguese Wikipedia in an effort to improve access to information. Read more about his work.