Learn about Wikipedia in a self-paced, online class over four weeks. It consists of 4 online modules which include activities such as discussion forums, readings and tutorials where you will gain insight into the value of Wikipedia as a viable reference and build the skills and knowledge needed to evaluate articles on Wikipedia for yourself or your patrons, with a specific focus on health and medical topics. For public and academic librarians and other information workers with an interest in improving the quality of health information on Wikipedia. This class addresses increasing health information access and use, and the NNLM initiatives of confronting health misinformation and citizen science by engaging communities in editing Wikipedia health-related articles with well-sourced additions, and gaining insight into the value of Wikipedia as a viable reference tool for health and medical topics.
As a result of participating, you will be able to
- Understand the history, organization, guidelines, and editorial processes of Wikipedia, and apply this knowledge to library work
- Confidently evaluate the reliability of health and medical articles found in Wikipedia
- Identify the reliable sources guidelines and article standards for health-related content
- Edit citations and know where to go for editing help outside the boundaries of the course
- Engage and empower your community members to build information literacy skills and to access authoritative information on health-related topics