The Wiki Education (sometimes called Wiki Edu or the Wiki Education Foundation) is a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

based in Chico, California, United States. It promotes the integration of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

into coursework by educators around the world.

History

A pilot project was started by the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

in 2010, then called the Public Policy Initiative, to engage students and faculty from universities around the world in improving academic articles. The project spun-off into its own nonprofit after three years. The Wiki Education Foundation incorporated in 2013, a process that the Wikimedia Foundation began in 2012 to give the education program "more focused and specialized support" and to "develop additional programs to promote academic research and teaching that engage with Wikipedia". In 2016, Wiki Education chose a theme for the year, which was around improving science articles. At the celebration of its 10th anniversary in 2024, the foundation reported having supported more than 6,500 classes and 130,000 students. At the same time it reported that 60% of the participating students identified as women, in itself a contribution to reducing the gender gap among Wikipedia editors.

Leadership

In 2014, Frank Schulenburg, former senior director of programs at WMF, became the organization's first executive director. Diana Strassmann was named Chair of the board of directors in 2013. Robert Cummings, director of the Center for Writing and Rhetoric and associate professor of English at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

, and Adrianne Wadewitz served on the board as of 2014.

Initiatives and impact

The foundation provides technical assistance to professors to create or improve wikipedia entries instead of writing an essay. As of 2016, Wiki Education's survey found most faculty who entered the program saw an increase in their students' media literacy. Piotr Konieczny's 2012 meta-analysis of five years of incorporating Wikipedia in the classroom found benefits for teachers, students and the wider public. He cited studies where students found it rewarding that their hard work was being used in the world as well as gaining useful digital literacy skillsets such as understanding how open-source projects like Wikipedia work. Starting in 2016,

NIOSH The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury, illness, disability, and death. It ...

coordinated with professors using the Wiki Education platform to incorporate Wikipedia editing into 15 courses between then and 2021, resulting in 2000 references added over 205 articles.

References

External links

* * Wiki Education Foundation at Meta-Wiki
Teach with Wikipedia
Diversifying Economic Quality,

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...

{{Portal bar, Canada, Education, United States, Mexico 2013 establishments in California 501(c)(3) organizations Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco Organizations established in 2013 Wikipedia