College credit for editing Wikipedia
The University of California, San Francisco attracted substantial media attention over its new course offering that will give credit to fourth-year medical students for editing Wikipedia articles about medicine. Fourth-year students at UCSF travel often, which makes the ability to perform work remotely an advantage. Amin Azzam, MD, MA, an associate professor at UCSF and an instructor for the new class, said:
| “ | Wikipedia is the second-most commonly used resource for "junior physicians" looking to learn more about medical information, so the goal of the course is to increase that information’s reliability. We’re [also] recognizing the impact Wikipedia can have to educate patients and healthcare providers across the globe, and want users to receive the most accurate publicly available, sound medical information possible. | ” |
The course is also designed to foster communication skills among medical professionals, and to help them accurately and efficiently share information using everyday language rather than medical jargon. Writing Wikipedia articles will help students in that endeavor. James Heilman, a Wikipedia editor himself (Doc James) and president of the WikiProject Med initiative, told the Signpost that most medical students ‘’use’’ Wikipedia, but the WikiProject would like to see most students contribute to it as well. Time will tell if this class can help achieve that lofty goal.
- Additional coverage
- Morning Break: Edit Wikipedia, Get Med School Credit
- Med Students Earn Credit by Editing Wikipedia Articles
- You Can Get Med School Credit For Editing Wikipedia Pages Now
- Medical Students Can Now Earn Credit for Editing Wikipedia
- Wikiproject Medicine
- Doctors prescribe better Wikipedia editors – themselves
- Doctors Decide They Need to Be the Ones Editing Medical Wikipedia Articles
- Wikipedia Goes To Medical School: UCSF Med Students Will Learn How To Improve Online Encyclopedia
- Do you trust Wikipedia with your health? Med students aim to make it better