Wiki Education Foundation

The Wiki Education Foundation (Wiki Ed) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit devoted to connecting academic resources to the publishing power of Wikipedia, and expanding access to information for all. In our most established program, university instructors across the USA and Canada assign students to add content to Wikipedia articles related to their coursework. Students gain key skills such as writing, research, critical thinking, and media literacy. Meanwhile, Wikipedia’s content grows. It’s an elegant solution that has connected thousands of students to millions of readers.

A spin-off of the Wikimedia Foundation, the Wiki Education Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California, USA.

Current programs and major initiatives

Classroom Program

The Wiki Education Foundation provides support for university instructors in the United States and Canada who are interested in assigning students to contribute content to Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects as part of their coursework. See Teach with Wikipedia on Wiki Ed's external website for more information about getting started, or visit our Dashboard to see up-to-date results.

Professional development courses

Our professional development courses give scholars, scientists, and other professionals a technical, procedural, and cultural understanding of Wikipedia and equip them with the know-how needed to bring their knowledge to the world's most popular reference work. We launched the pilot program, Wikipedia Fellows, in 2018. We published an evaluation in May 2018.

Visiting Scholars Program

Wikipedia Visiting Scholars tap into your university’s digital resources (such as special collections, research databases, rare volumes, or paywalled journals) to write high-quality Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia Visiting Scholars is a program developed by The Wikipedia Library and administered in the United States and Canada by the Wiki Education Foundation. See the Visiting Scholars portal on the English Wikipedia for more information.

Communicating Science

The Wikipedia Year of Science was an large-scale initiative in 2016 to improve Wikipedia’s potential for communicating science to the public. Going forward, we’re continuing these efforts through the Communicating Science initiative. By connecting higher education classrooms to the publishing power of Wikipedia, the Wiki Education Foundation helped future scientists learn about science communication, while improving Wikipedia’s science coverage for millions of readers worldwide. Wiki Ed published a full evaluation of the program in 2017.

People involved

Board

• PJ Tabit, Chair
• Carwil Bjork-James, Vice-chair
• Ted Yang, Treasurer
• Robert Cummings, Secretary
• Sue Gardner
• Richard Knipel
• Karen A. Twitchell

Staff

• Frank Schulenburg, Executive Director
• LiAnna Davis, Chief Programs Officer; Deputy Director
• TJ Bliss, Chief Advancement Officer
• Sage Ross, Chief Technology Officer
• Helaine Blumenthal, Wikipedia Student Program Manager
• Özge Gündoğdu, HR Associate and Executive Assistant
• Will Kent, Wikidata Student Program Manager
• Jami Mathewson, Director of Partnerships
• Ryan McGrady, Scholars & Scientists Program Manager
• Ian Ramjohn, Senior Wikipedia Expert
• Shalor Toncray, Wikipedia Expert
• Cassidy Villeneuve, Marketing and Communications Associate
• Samantha Weald, Customer Success Manager
• Elysia Webb, Wikipedia Expert

More information

Follow the Wiki Education Foundation on Twitter and Facebook or visit our website at www.wikiedu.org. You can reach us by email at contactwikiedu.org.

Monthly reports

2018

• January: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• February: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• March: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• April: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• May: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• June: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• July: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• August: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• September: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• October: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• November: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• December: PDF, on-wiki, blog.

2017

• January: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• February: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• March: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• April: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• May: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• June: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• July: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• August: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• September: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• October: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• November: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• December: PDF, on-wiki, blog.

2016

• January: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• February: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• March: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• April: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• May: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• June: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• July: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• August: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• September: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• October: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• November: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• December: PDF, on-wiki, blog.

2015

• January: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• February: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• March: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• April: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• May: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• June: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• July: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• August: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• September: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• October: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• November: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• December: PDF, on-wiki, blog.

2014

• December: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• November: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• October: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• September: PDF, on-wiki, blog.
• August: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• July: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• June: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• May: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• April: PDF, on-wiki, blog
• March: PDF, on-wiki
• February: PDF
• January 8 (Village Pump)

2013

• November 25 (Village Pump)
• November (Village Pump)
• Late October (Village Pump)
• Mid-October, Village Pump note
• October (Village Pump)
• September
• August
• July
• May
• April

Press releases

• 7 July 2016: Ted Yang elected to Wiki Education Foundation board
• 7 March 2016: Dr. Carwil Bjork-James elected to Wiki Education Foundation board
• 22 July 2015: WikiConference USA to be held at the National Archives in October
• 21 July 2015: Sue Gardner, Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer elected to Wiki Education Foundation board
• 18 August 2014: Lorraine Hariton elected to Wiki Education Foundation board
• 20 June 2014: Wiki Education Foundation board adds Karen George
• 11 June 2014: Karen A. Twitchell joins Wiki Education Foundation board
• 8 May 2014: John Willinsky joins Wiki Education Foundation board
• 14 April 2014: Wiki Education Foundation receives grant to support programmatic activities
• 12 February 2014: Frank Schulenburg named executive director of new WEF (joint press release with the Wikimedia Foundation)

Annual plan, board minutes and bylaws

Further information can be found in our current Annual Plan. See also the board wiki, which has a public page with minutes of board meetings and the current version of the organization's bylaws.

History

The original bylaws agreed by the interim board of the Wiki Education Foundation in consultation with its pro bono legal counsel are available on Wikimedia Commons (PDF).

Many more details about the original structure and proposed working of the Wiki Education Foundation can be found in the original proposal for the organization. Much has changed since that proposal, however, and the information there may be out of date or incomplete. More current information can be found in the grant proposal to the Stanton Foundation from March 2014. See also the foundation's (approved) request for funds from the WMF and its private wiki, which has a public page with the minutes of board meetings.