Representing knowledge accurately and extensively for the public is integral to Wikipedia’s mission and that of Wiki Education. Millions of people look to Wikipedia to make political and behavioral decisions in their lives, so we’re taking purposeful steps to improve the site’s coverage of subject areas like public policy, political science, law, history, environmental science, and sociology. … Continued
Did You Know … that extraterrestrial diamonds in meteorites preserve their history from before the Solar System formed? Extraterrestrial diamonds are a common substance (not much bigger than a molecule) found in space, often in meteorites and stars. If you were to read the Wikipedia article about them, you could learn about their formation in our … Continued
Millions of people visit Wikipedia every month for information on a wide range of topics. When it comes to scientific topics, Wikipedia is one of the main sources of information available to the public. It is therefore crucial that that information is accurate and comprehensive, especially when readers use that information to make political and … Continued
The more relevant coursework is to a student’s life or career, the more they will agree that their education has been worth the cost. Strada and Gallup released a study last month, From College to Life: Relevance and the Value of Higher Education, which seeks to understand students’ perspectives on the value of their higher education. … Continued
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, User:Rosiestep on Wikipedia, is a prolific editor who improves the encyclopedia in a number of ways. One of these ways is by uploading photos of pre-20th century women writers to Wikimedia Commons, which she then uses to illustrate biography articles that she’s written about them. Thanks to access to academic databases provided by Northeastern University, … Continued
Jane Lee, a student in Dr. Joan Strassmann’s Behavioral Ecology course at Washington University in St. Louis, vastly improved a Wikipedia article about the Small heath butterfly species last fall. She added 4,723 words and went into depth about the butterfly’s taxonomy, life cycle, habitat, and behavior. And her work has been viewed more than 1,000 times by curious … Continued
Paul Thomas is User:Gen. Quon, an active Wikipedian who has helped an impressive 267 Wikipedia articles reach Good Article status, as well as several to reach Featured Article status. In October, we announced that Paul would receive access to scholarly databases to help in his efforts to improve the world’s favorite online encyclopedia. And now, thanks to the … Continued
Every experienced Wikipedia editor has a different way of improving the valuable resource that is Wikipedia. There are plenty of tasks that fall to these volunteers editors, not only in terms of adding missing content, but also in copy-editing existing material, fact-checking sourced content, checking sources for reliability, consulting with other editors about Wikipedia policy, … Continued
Dr. Zach McDowell, Assistant Professor of Communications, gave a talk on March 2 as part of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Learning Sciences Research Institute Speaker Series. In his talk, “Don’t Cite it, Write it! Student Learning Outcomes and the Wikipedia Assignment,” Dr. McDowell walks through how a Wikipedia assignment works, what tools and support Wiki … Continued