Panel: Editing Wikipedia for Medical School Credit-- You Can Too!
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Abstract
Introduction:
Admit it—you use Wikipedia extensively. Who doesn’t? But do you use it for medical information? Physicians, medical students and patients all do! So if Wikipedia is the most widely used medical reference in the world, why not be a part of increasing the quality of reliable information there by becoming a WikiProject: Medicine Wikipedia editor? This workshop will teach you how, and share lessons learned from an effort to do this as a pilot fourth-year medical student elective that debuted in the fall of 2013 at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine.
Medical students are expected learn how to seek, evaluate, and interpret the medical literature, for themselves, their peers, and their patients. Early (e.g. 1st and 2nd year) students learn this in lecture or small group sessions, while later (e.g. 3rd and 4th year) students apply this knowledge in hospitals and clinics. Writing & editing Wikipedia Medicine articles requires a similar skill-set and carries the “extra” benefit of being durable and beneficial to the public. Furthermore, exposing students to the “underbelly” of how Wikipedia works – how Wikipedia articles are rated, cited, and peer-reviewed – teaches a vital skill, the ability to navigate the rapidly evolving world of information retrieval and production that they will enter as physicians and that their patients already are extensively using now.
The objectives of this workshop are to:
1. Understand the strengths and limitations of Wikipedia as a medical reference.
2. Learn how to edit a Wikipedia medically-related article.
3. Learn how writing and editing WikiProject Medicine can be used to teach core information retrieval and quality assessment competencies to health trainees and professionals alike.
4. Debate whether (and when) health professional trainees have sufficient expertise to be contributing to Wikipedia medically-related articles.
5. Debate whether digital contributions should be a health professional optional norm of behavior vs. obligation to society.
Intended Outcomes:
1. To gain exposure to the process of editing a Wikipedia Medicine article.
2. To explore, through doing, the way health professional learners could gain research and knowledge competencies through this process.
3. Become a savvier user of Wikipedia, and be able to communicate its strengths and limitations to others.
4. Consider creating elective experiences for trainees at other schools through lessons learned at ours!
To engage fully in the workshop, consider bringing with you the internet-connected device (tablet, laptop, etc.) that you are most comfortable for adding (not just retrieving) content.
Admit it—you use Wikipedia extensively. Who doesn’t? But do you use it for medical information? Physicians, medical students and patients all do! So if Wikipedia is the most widely used medical reference in the world, why not be a part of increasing the quality of reliable information there by becoming a WikiProject: Medicine Wikipedia editor? This workshop will teach you how, and share lessons learned from an effort to do this as a pilot fourth-year medical student elective that debuted in the fall of 2013 at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine.
Medical students are expected learn how to seek, evaluate, and interpret the medical literature, for themselves, their peers, and their patients. Early (e.g. 1st and 2nd year) students learn this in lecture or small group sessions, while later (e.g. 3rd and 4th year) students apply this knowledge in hospitals and clinics. Writing & editing Wikipedia Medicine articles requires a similar skill-set and carries the “extra” benefit of being durable and beneficial to the public. Furthermore, exposing students to the “underbelly” of how Wikipedia works – how Wikipedia articles are rated, cited, and peer-reviewed – teaches a vital skill, the ability to navigate the rapidly evolving world of information retrieval and production that they will enter as physicians and that their patients already are extensively using now.
The objectives of this workshop are to:
1. Understand the strengths and limitations of Wikipedia as a medical reference.
2. Learn how to edit a Wikipedia medically-related article.
3. Learn how writing and editing WikiProject Medicine can be used to teach core information retrieval and quality assessment competencies to health trainees and professionals alike.
4. Debate whether (and when) health professional trainees have sufficient expertise to be contributing to Wikipedia medically-related articles.
5. Debate whether digital contributions should be a health professional optional norm of behavior vs. obligation to society.
Intended Outcomes:
1. To gain exposure to the process of editing a Wikipedia Medicine article.
2. To explore, through doing, the way health professional learners could gain research and knowledge competencies through this process.
3. Become a savvier user of Wikipedia, and be able to communicate its strengths and limitations to others.
4. Consider creating elective experiences for trainees at other schools through lessons learned at ours!
To engage fully in the workshop, consider bringing with you the internet-connected device (tablet, laptop, etc.) that you are most comfortable for adding (not just retrieving) content.
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