MedEdPublish (Jul 2019)
Wikipedia Editing Courses at Three US Medical Schools in the 2017-2018 Academic Year
Abstract
Introduction: Most medical students use Wikipedia, yet most medical schools do not train students to improve Wikipedia or use it critically. Methods: During academic year 2017 - 2018, the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina & University of Central Florida College of Medicine offered credit-bearing Wikipedia-editing courses to 4th year medical students. We sought to assess student experiences across these schools and courses. Results: 78 students participated in the courses, making 3,368 edits, adding 155,100 words to 71 health-related Wikipedia pages. Collectively student contributions were viewed 2,688,500 times (37,866/page) during active dates of each course. Feedback from the 18 students who completed our study survey (23% response rate) reflected that students 1) increased their perception on Wikipedia reliability, 2) increased their ability to practice evidence based medicine, 3) were positively inclined to encourage peers to also edit Wikipedia, and 4) desired to contribute to public good. All students felt they improved their respective articles, and all but one felt that editing Wikipedia was a good investment in the future of healthcare. Despite our low response rate, qualitative comments suggest several students felt their courses impacted their professional identity as future physicians. Conclusions: We encourage the implementation of similar Wikipedia-editing courses across all health professional schools. Study replication will help clarify generalizability of these findings. Standardizing outcome metrics (e.g. impact on students, impact on Wikipedia quality, and impact on readers of Wikipedia) will allow more robust assessment of the impact of Wikipedia-editing courses and assignments across health professional schools globally.
