Education/Newsletter/December 2016/Third term of Wikipedia editing at the University of Oslo

Third term of Wikipedia editing at the University of Oslo

Wikipedia training at The University of Oslo.

By Jorid Martinsen (WMNO)

Snippet: For the third time, master’s students in Oslo have Wikipedia editing as a part of the curriculum.

The fall of 2016 have been the third semester where Wikimedia Norway have giving Wikipedia editing training to master’s students in History and Archaeology.

The subject “Communicating History” (Historieformidling), where students learn to share their knowledge through making podcasts, writing editorials and editing Wikipedia, has been a great success. The subject was started by associate professor John McNicol, who recently was named on of Norway’s top 10 lecturers.

Student Gabrielle Legrand Gjedset, who has taken the subject, have said the following about the Wikipedia training:

"Contributing to Wikipedia gives a professional confidence and leads me to check my own statements more thoroughly. It makes me a better student. Besides, it's fun to contribute to my field being presented credibly in an encyclopedia that's used this much."

For us in Wikimedia Norway it is great to see that Wikipedia and higher education goes so well together, and we are currently working to give even more students this possibility to learn the joy of collaborative writing!