Wikipedia Education Program/News/19 March 2013

Welcome to the Wikipedia Education Program Update -- a newsletter from the Wikimedia Foundation about efforts to bring Wikipedia into higher education classrooms. The newsletter is released on the first and third Tuesday of each month. To be notified of the latest issue, add this page to your watchlist or email LiAnna Davis (ldaviswikimedia.org), the Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager, to be added to the distribution list.

Egypt program celebrates end of second term

The second term of the Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt wrapped up last month with a celebration conference at Cairo University. Dr. Abeer Abd El-Hafez, a professor of Spanish from Cairo University, opened the conference and spoke about the spirit of the program and its importance in the lives of students and teachers in terms of skills development and new experiences. Faris El-Gwely, the education program consultant who runs the program in Egypt, shared results from the second term, and the best students and Ambassadors from the program received certificates recognizing their hard work. Students and professors also shared information about their experiences in the program. Check out photos from the event.

U.S. student shares special Wikipedia story

University of San Francisco master's student Jacqueline McCrory wrote the Wikipedia article on habitat conservation plans for her class with Professor Aaron Frank in spring 2012 — and was then astonished to discover that she'd been assigned to read the article in a different class in fall 2012! Jacqueline talks about how her Wikipedia article experience gave her additional responsibility at work and kudos from professors in her department in a post on the Wikimedia Foundation blog. Read the post.

Quebec professor's work featured in WMF blog

Professor Simon Villeneuve of physics and astronomy at Cégep de Chicoutimi, a college in Quebec, has been using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in his classroom since 2008. Overall, his students have created more than 150 articles on the French Wikipedia on topics related to astronomy and physics, and Simon has learned a lot about the best ways of doing Wikipedia assignments. Read a post he wrote for the Wikimedia blog about his work.

P2PU Wikipedia course kicks off

A free online course, Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics and Beyond, kicked off this morning, as part of the launch of Peer to Peer University's School of Open. The course is taught by longterm Wikipedia editor Pete Forsyth, who helped design the model for the pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program. The course will teach students how to edit Wikipedia articles, with an emphasis on Open Educational Resources and related topics. The first webinar was held this morning, so students enrolling now should watch the archive of the first lesson. Learn more and enroll in the class.

News coverage highlights Poland, Ukraine programs

An article in the Global Post published today highlights the work being done in Poland and Ukraine related to the Wikipedia Education Program. The Ukraine program ran a pilot last term that produced 23 improved articles. The Poland program is working with a university to replace a bachelor's thesis with a Wikipedia article. Learn more by reading the article.