Wiki Education Foundation

The Wiki Education Foundation (sometimes called Wiki Education or Wiki Edu) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Chico, California, United States.^[1] It promotes the integration of Wikipedia into coursework by educators in the United States and Canada.^[2]

Wiki Education Foundation

Location	Chico, California, United States
Key people	Executive Director: Frank Schulenburg Chair, Board of Directors: PJ Tabit
Website	wikiedu.org

History

A pilot project was started by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2010, then called the Public Policy Initiative, to engage students and faculty from universities around the world in improving academic articles.^[3][4] The project spun-off into its own nonprofit after three years.^[5]

In 2016, Wiki Education chose a theme for the year, which was around improving science articles.^[6][5][7]

Leadership

In 2014, Frank Schulenburg, former senior director of programs at WMF, became the organization's first executive director.^[8][9] Diana Strassmann was named Chair of the board of directors in 2013.^[9] Robert Cummings, director of the Center for Writing and Rhetoric and associate professor of English at the University of Mississippi,^[10] and Adrianne Wadewitz served on the board as of 2014.^[11][12]

Initiatives and impact

The foundation recruits and provides technical assistance to professors to create or improve Wikipedia entries instead of writing an essay.^[2][7] As of 2016, Wiki Education's survey found most faculty who entered the program saw an increase in their students' media literacy.^[2] Piotr Konieczny's 2012 meta-analysis of five years of incorporating Wikipedia in the classroom found benefits for teachers, students and the wider public.^[13] He cited studies where students found it rewarding that their hard work was being used in the world as well as gaining useful digital literacy skillsets such as understanding how open-source projects like Wikipedia work.^[13][14]

Starting in 2016, NIOSH coordinated with professors using the Wiki Education platform to incorporate Wikipedia editing into 15 courses between then and 2021, resulting in 2000 references added over 205 articles.^[15]