This document discusses the value of Wikimedians, or Wikipedia contributors, to universities. It notes that universities must invest in digital skills and addresses the real problem of gender inequality in science and technology fields. The document describes how assigning Wikipedia contributions in courses at Middlesex University has enhanced students' digital literacy skills, helped overcome writing blocks, led to published work, and provided an experience in encyclopedism. Student presentations are highlighted that involved Wikipedia projects on literary festivals, republishing historic articles, and fighting fake news. In conclusion, the document advocates for universities to recognize the benefits Wikipedia assignments can provide students.

1. The Value of
Wikimedians to
Universities
Melissa Highton
Assistant Principal
University of Edinburgh
@honeybhighton

2. Why you can’t afford not to.
You can’t
afford not to.

3. Universities must invest in digital skills
Gender inequality in
science and technology is real
Wikimedians will save us from Wikimedians

5. Fireworks over the castle at the end of the Edinburgh International
Festival. [Tricia Malley & Ross Gillespie]

8. Universities must
invest in digital
skills

10. Gender inequality
in science and
technology is real

13. Heather Ford and Judy Wajcman
‘Anyone can edit’, not everyone does: Wikipedia's
infrastructure and the gender gap’
Article in Social Studies of Science
May 2017

16. Wikimedians will save
us from Wikimedians

18. The Value of
Wikimedians to
Universities
Melissa Highton
University of Edinburgh
@honeybhighton

20. Wikimedia UK Education Summit 2017

21. Designing Wikipedia Assignments
(Or, how edtech saved my life)
Stefan Lutschinger (Middlesex University)
s.lutschinger@mdx.ac.uk

23. Research Project: MED3040 Publishing Cultures
Inspired by Wikimania London 2014 (Future of
Education conference)
Module features a Wikipedia assignment
Runs for 3 years now at Middlesex University
(Hendon campus) and City University Hong Kong
Collaborators: Fabian Tompsett, Ed Hands, Chamil
Rathnayake
Supported by Cybersalon

24. Enhancing academic practice
Digital literacy skills
Overcoming writer’s block
Published assignments
Experience of encyclopedism
Academic Confidence Building with Wikipedia

25. Enhancing Academic Practice
Argumentation and Criticality
Integrating Sources and Referencing
Developing Language
Working in Groups
Projects

26. Digital Literacy Skills
Critical engagement with collaborative text
Introducing computer languages with WML
Developing data literacy with Wikidata

27. Overcoming Writer’s Block
Experiencing text production as a dynamic
process involving social negotiation
Access to open education resources

28. Published Assignments
increased learner gratification through online
publishing and the experience of connection to a
wider community
gaining confidence through global peer review

29. Experience Of Encyclopedism
… as an engaging intellectual practice through the
participation in knowledge compilation and publication:
“The encyclopedic impulse diminished somewhat in the age of
print. In the 19th and 20th century, making encyclopedias
became a business rather than a philosophical or scholarly
endeavour. Today, however, the ideal of the encyclopedia as a
synthesis of knowledge has reemerged in a new form.”
Jay David Bolter, Writing Space. Computers, Hypertext and the
Remediation of Print (2001)

30. Experience Of Encyclopedism
Cp. Fabian Tompsett, Encyclopedism for
Development. From the Unity of Science Movement
to Cybernetics (2015)

31. Research Framework
Seminar notes, using ethnographic method to document
both teaching and learning experience, and student input
Wikipedia contributions: edit history, reviews, talk pages
Interviews: qualitative data collection in individual and group
tutorials
Surveys: quantitative data collection based on surveys
(Wikimedia 2016)
Formal and informal feedback processes through student
feedback, SLAs and module evaluation

32. Student Presentations: Lightning Talks
MED3040 Publishing Cultures (Team Leader: Behlul
Sulmani): The North London Literary Festival Wikipedia page,
part of the formative assignment
MED2040/PUB2100 Publishing Books and Magazines (TL:
Lauryna Sakalyte): Republishing project with Wikisource, the
free library of open source texts: Historic gender studies
articles in Popular Science Monthly
MED3053 Media Events and News Cultures (Adrianna
Jankowska): Fighting Fake News With Wikipedia

33. Thank you!
Questions?