Submissions:2016/Why medical schools should embrace Wikipedia

Title

Why medical schools should embrace Wikipedia

Theme

education

Academic Peer Review option

yes

Type of submission

presentation

Author

(presenter to be determined), but credit to

• Amin Azzam, MD, MA
• David Bresler, MD, MA
• Armando Leon, MD
• Lauren Maggio, PhD
• Evans Whitaker, MD, MLIS
• James Heilman, MD, BSc
• Jake Orlowitz, BA
• Valerie Swisher, BA
• Lane Rasberry, BS
• Kingsley Otoide, BS
• Fred Trotter, BS
• Will Ross, BS
• Jack McCue, MD

E-mail address

lrasberry@consumer.org

Username

bluerasberry and various

Affiliation

various, but especially University of California, San Francisco

Abstract

"Why medical schools should embrace Wikipedia: Analysis of final-year medical student contributions to Wikipedia articles for academic credit at one school" is a paper which will be published in Academic Medicine soon. Any of the papers' authors who are able to attend WikiConference would like to present its findings.

The abstract -

At the end of 2013, Wikipedia's medical content contained over 155,000 articles across 255 languages, supported by over 950,000 references. Most medical students use Wikipedia as an information source, yet medical schools don't train students to improve or use Wikipedia critically. Between November 2013 - November 2015, the authors offered fourth-year medical students a credit-bearing course to edit Wikipedia. The course was designed, delivered and evaluated by faculty, medical librarians, WikiProject Medicine, Wikipedia Education Foundation, and Translators Without Borders. The authors assessed Impact of the student edits on Wikipedia's content, impact of the course on student participants, and readership of students' chosen articles. Fourty-three enrolled students made 1,528 edits (average 36/student), contributing 493,994 content bytes (average 11,488/student). They added higher and removed lower quality sources for a net addition of 274 references (average 7/student). In two subsequent years, none of the contributions of the first 28 students were Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries Systems Corporation reversed or vandalized. Students discovered a tension between comprehensiveness vs. readability and translatability, yet readability of most articles increased. Students felt they improved their articles, enjoyed giving back "specifically to Wikipedia," and broadened their sense of physician responsibilities in the socially networked information era. During only the active editing months, Wikipedia traffic statistics indicate the 43 articles were collectively viewed 1,116,065 times. Subsequent to students' efforts, these articles have been viewed over 22 million times. If other schools replicate and improve on this initiative, future multi-institution studies could more accurately measure the impact of medical students on Wikipedia, and vice versa.

Length of presentation

30 minutes

Special schedule requests

Preferred room size

50

Will you attend WikiConference North America if your submission is not accepted?

yes

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