Education/News/May 2021/“Writing a Wikipedia article isn’t as difficult and unimaginable as it seems”: A case for Wikipedia Education Program in Ukraine

“Writing a Wikipedia article isn’t as difficult and unimaginable as it seems”: A case for Wikipedia Education Program in Ukraine

Author: Anton Protsiuk, Program Coordinator at Wikimedia Ukraine

Ukrainian universities have been joining the Wikipedia Education Program for years, and one of this spring’s highlights is the work of culture studies students at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Around 30 culturology juniors learned how to edit Wikipedia as a course assignment – and found that it’s easier than one imagines.

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  Logo of Wikimedia Ukraine
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  Logo of Ukrainian Catholic University

Ukrainian Catholic University is a small but prestigious university in Lviv, the largest city in Western Ukraine. This spring, the university’s third-year culturology students tried their hand at editing Wikipedia in the course of their studies.

Thanks to training and mentorship from Ukrainian Wikipedia volunteer Yurii Bulka, as well as the involvement of the course’s professor Hrystyna Rutar. the students created or significantly improved almost 30 articles'. The articles have received around 7,500 views so far.

For example, Ukrainian Wikipedia now has a new informative article on the concept of postmemory and a much-improved entry on historical reenactment.

As one student described her experience, “It turned out that writing a Wikipedia article isn’t as difficult and unimaginable as it might seem at first glance. Of course, you have to know certain rules, particularly how to abide by Wikipedia style, structure articles, and honour copyright. Nevertheless, it doesn’t change the fact: writing a Wikipedia article is both possible and interesting. The main thing is to just start writing”.

Although preliminary results have already been published by the university, we are preparing a more detailed analysis of the course results and are hoping to share it soon. Wikimedia Ukraine’s team is also working on systematizing the experience of various schools and universities using Wikimedia projects for educational purposes to prepare a go-to portal for educators in the Ukrainian-language Wikipedia edition.

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