User:Will (Wiki Ed)/Wikidata GLAM Newsletter

Supporting newcomers in Wikidata training courses

This summer Wiki Education facilitated its first round of Wikidata training courses and an in-person workshop. As Wikidata gains traction in professional GLAM communities, Wiki Education hopes to support professionals who want to incorporate open data practices into their work. The results of these efforts have demonstrated not only support for participants' professional interests but also how their contributions can make Wikidata more representative and equitable for all. In creating these courses for the GLAM community and beyond, our staff at Wiki Education endeavored to design a dedicated, comprehensive, structured Wikidata course to train new editors how to edit Wikidata, regardless of linked data or Wikidata experience.

To create the curriculum, several community members were gracious enough to spend time with with us, helping us distill existing resources (tools, case studies, slides, and trainings), sharing best practices, and imparting pedagogical advice to help build a cohesive and digestible Wikidata curriculum for professional development courses. You can see the finished Wikidata training modules here, which are free and open to everyone.

38 newbies have participated in two paid online courses and one in-person workshop so far. During the workshop, which took place in New York City in July 2019, GLAM professionals (specifically librarians) expressed specific wants and needs they had about Wikidata that will help shape our future curricula. The first six-week long online courses flew by with participants making hundreds of edits. 13/14 of those online participants who took our end-of-course survey say they'll absolutely continue editing. We look forward to seeing how they will incorporate Wikidata into their professional lives. We currently have one course in progress and two starting later this month. To learn more, get involved, or stay updated, visit wikiedu.org/wikidata.