Changing the way stories are told: Engaging staff and students in improving Wikipedia content about women in Scotland

Abstract

The University of Edinburgh was the first UK university to employ a Wikimedian-in-Residence (WiR) to support students and staff across the whole university. Over the last five years, the project aimed to develop information literacy and digital research skills and to address the gender disparity of editors and participants in the community. The project has demonstrated the University of Edinburgh’s commitment to foster staff and student engagement as active digital citizens of the world and was awarded the 2019 Herald Higher Education Award for “Innovative Use of Technology in the Curriculum.” The residency also focuses on addressing the content on gender gaps and improving coverage of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Our first Wikipedia edit-a-thon in 2015 was based on “the Edinburgh Seven”—the first women to study medicine at the University. The WiR collaborated with the University archives team to develop an exhibit celebrating Scotland’s Suffragettes and facilitated a student internship that was awarded the Digital Humanities Award for Best Data Visualization 2019 for the Wikidata Map of Accused Witches in Scotland. This chapter will showcase stories of student engagement and collaboration inside and outside the curriculum, providing exemplars of how students have engaged with, and been intrinsically motivated by, researching and publishing their scholarship online in a real-world application of their learning. This chapter will also outline why employing a Wikimedian-in-Residence, alongside other learning technologists and digital skills trainers, is a worthwhile return of investment for universities.