The UAB and Wikipedia collaborate on disseminating science and on cooperative learning

03/07/2015

The students write and update articles related to the subjects they are taking, under the supervision of their lecturers. This system, named Eduwiki, is a new form of cooperative learning, which is highly prized by teachers. During the process the students are trained by Wikipedia personnel and their own lecturers to adapt their articles to the content and style of the most widely read online encyclopaedia in the world.

Articles on the engineering of household appliances
This year has seen the first Wiki-project of a technical nature at the UAB, with Computer Engineering students writing content on embedded systems. These are electronic mechanisms with one particular use, unlike computers, which have multiple uses. Most of the electronic appliances that we use every day come under this heading, such as microwave ovens, control units in cars or domestic routers.

The project is part of the subject "Prototyping Embedded Systems", whose near on 40 students have had to extend or improve entries in this field. Marius Morton, the lecturer coordinating this subject, sees this initiative as being important because "it is a topic area that, in my opinion, has not been sufficiently explored in Wikipedia". Through this Eduwiki project, the Computer Engineering students have learnt to write on a specific topic in the neutral style of an encyclopaedia article and have had to consult and cite various sources.

Articles on archaeology
In 2014/2015, students of the subject Archaeology of Hunting and Harvesting Societies, of the Bachelor's Degree in Archaeology, have updated existing content and created new content, covering all the palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites in Catalonia.
 
The project aims to place all current knowledge of Catalan archaeology on Wikipedia in this way. The project is backed by the UAB, the CSIC, Amical Wikimedia, Museus de les Mines Prehistòriques de Gavà, Museu d’Història de Sabadell, Museu Arqueològic de Banyoles and Parc Arqueològic de la Draga.
 
Classical Studies
In the previous year Wikiclassics was created: a portal for content on classical literature provided by students on the UAB Bachelor's Degree in Classical Studies. This year it was awarded the Didàscalia Prize for teaching innovation, by the journal Auriga.
 
Second- and third-year undergraduates had to write an article within the Wikipedia guideline. This was followed by tutoring from the lecturer in charge and a final assessment. The activity has continued this year.
 
Sebastià Giralt, a UAB lecturer in Latin Philology and coordinator of Wikiclassics sees this as "a highly positive experience because it increases students' motivation to see their work published in a huge medium like Wikipedia rather than being put away in a drawer somewhere."

Amical Wikimedia promotes Wikipedia, an open-access encyclopaedia written by volunteers, along with the related projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia gets 345 million visits per month, has 430,000 articles in Catalan and between 1,500 and 2,000 regular editors. The organisation's goal is to make all human knowledge freely available in Catalan, and to make knowledge of Catalan culture accessible to all in any language. In 2014 it received the National Culture Award from the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat).

The content provided by UAB students to Wikipedia is as follows.
 
Archiving:

• Wiki-project:Archiving and ICT 2011-2012
• Wiki-project:Archiving and ICT 2012-2013
• Wiki-project:Archiving and ICT 2013-2014

• Wiki-project:Wikiclassics/Greek Drama
• Wiki-project:Wikiclassics/Greek epigraphy
• Wiki-project:Wikiclassics/Latin Literature
• Wiki-project:Wikiclassics/Latin Literature/2014
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