Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Teaching Fellowship

The Wikipedia Teaching Fellowship program is being designed in concert with the Wikipedia Education Program. Professors who follow the Teaching Fellow requirements and use Wikipedia, with the assistance of Wikipedia Ambassadors, are awarded the designation of Wikipedia Teaching Fellow for the applicable term in recognition of their commitment to using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in higher education. Fellows are listed on a page on the Wikimedia Foundation's Outreach Wiki.

Below are the requirements for becoming a Wikipedia Teaching Fellow. Professors who agree to abide by these requirements should click the "Become a Wikipedia Teaching Fellow" link at the bottom of this page, and add in their name on the ensuing page. Please read the following requirements carefully and thoroughly if you are interested in being a Wikipedia Teaching Fellow.

Please see this list of past Teaching Fellows.

Wikipedia Teaching Fellowship Requirements

Thank you for participating in the Wikipedia Education Program! The contributions that you and your students will make can enhance Wikipedia's quality, and the process will familiarize you with an invaluable educational tool.

Contributing to Wikipedia offers significant pedagogical opportunities. Editing Wikipedia is an opportunity for students to write for a real-world audience of thousands of readers and often to gain quick feedback from the large community of Wikipedia editors. Students also learn how to follow editorial policies and collaborate with other editors. Wikipedia editing, furthermore, has been found to improve students' media literacy as well as their understanding of scholarly citations.

The following Wikipedia Teaching Fellowship requirements have been developed in collaboration with teachers and Wikipedians who already have experience using Wikipedia as a teaching tool.

Becoming a Teaching Fellow

1. Consult relevant resources while designing the Wikipedia assignment

Professor has reviewed these case studies if designing a new assignment for Wikipedia. Professor has selected relevant handouts to share with students

2. Complete the online orientation for professors

Professor has completed this online orientation before the beginning of the Wikipedia assignment.

3. Create a Course Page

The Professor has created a course page before the beginning of the semester. All students have logged in and added themselves to the student registry. Course Pages allow Ambassadors to interact with students in a helpful way. Without knowing student usernames, Ambassadors are unable to reach out for guidance or monitor work for suggestions. The new system, explained above, should help interact with students on-wiki in a constructive way that will help them develop their editing skills!

4. Complete a 30-minute virtual "interview" before the semester

To qualify for a Teaching Fellow, the professor will need to meet with a trained Wikipedia Ambassador for a brief check-in about assignment design. This will be an opportunity to receive feedback on the assignment and get help if needed. The trained Ambassadors have experience with many different assignments as well as editing Wikipedia, so they can help ensure that the class is set up for success from the beginning. To arrange a Skype/phone interview, please email Jami Mathewson at jmathewson@wikimedia.org.

5. Release assignments/syllabi under Creative Commons license

We're always trying to provide more resources for new professors who are interested in using Wikipedia as a teaching tool. To be named as a "Fellow," an Ambassador can help the professor post teaching materials on Wikimedia Commons.

Please sign...

If you agree to abide by the requirements above to become a Wikipedia Teaching Fellow, please click on link below to go to a page where you can sign the document. By signing this document, you agree to abide by the requirements listed above, and understand that at the end of the academic term the Wikimedia Foundation will reevaluate whether you've met these requirements and has the right to remove your Fellowship designation at that time if it is found that these requirements have not been met.

I am ready to sign the Teaching Fellowship requirements