Submissions:2014/Wikipedia Education Program: how student editors impact Wikipedia

Wikipedia Education Program: how student editors impact Wikipedia
 * Title of the submission:

Education
 * Themes (Proposal Themes - Community, Tech, Outreach, GLAM, Education):

Workshop
 * Type of submission (Presentation Types - Panel, Workshop, Presentation, etc):

Jami Mathewson
 * Author of the submission:

jami-at-wikiedfoundation.org
 * E-mail address:

Jami (Wiki Ed)
 * Username:

California
 * US state or country of origin:

Wiki Education Foundation
 * Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.):

Wiki Education Foundation
 * Personal homepage or blog:

The Wikipedia Education Program is in its 8th term in the US, and more than 400 courses have used this type of assignment—but why? Jami Mathewson has been supporting the classroom program for more than two years, and she will also invite experienced Wikipedia Ambassadors in attendance to help facilitate this workshop. We will give an overview of instructor motivation (and how their students benefit), why courses are more successful when they have support, and how student editors positively impact the content gaps on Wikipedia.
 * Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal):

Jami will talk about trends in instructor motivation for using Wikipedia as a teaching tool. Since we have exerted little effort in recruiting instructors to teach with Wikipedia but instead have had to stretch our resources to meet the courses’ many needs, we think it’s important to consider why instructors value this type of assignment and why the instructors and student editors are more successful when they have training and support.

Now that we are all on the same page about how student editors benefit during the assignment, let’s talk about the positive impact they have on Wikipedia. When expanding support to more instructors in the Wikipedia Education Program, we have the potential to curate our resources to disciplines with minimal coverage on Wikipedia. As experts in that field, instructors identify content gaps and assign those articles to their students to research. Jami will present metrics from past terms to review this content diversity and invite Wikipedia editors in the audience to contribute to the strategy for making the most of this opportunity.

Finally, Wikipedia Ambassadors will have the chance to explain their role in the classroom program and answer questions about why they volunteer to support Wikipedia in education. We will discuss various ways to get involved in the program and how the Wiki Education Foundation plans to move forward with our volunteer community.

30 Minutes. This could be coupled with the Wiki Education Foundation's other 30-minute and 15-minute submissions.
 * Length of presentation/talk (see Presentation Types for lengths of different presentation types):

Yes
 * Will you attend WikiConference USA if your submission is not accepted?:

To come
 * Slides or further information (optional):

Please put this session on the agenda before the “The 7 biggest mistakes the Wikipedia Education Program has made — and what we’ve learned from them” curated talk.
 * Special request as to time of presentations:

Interested attendees
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