We like using Wikipedia in courses so much we published a paper in TREE about the experience; it includes a helpful week-by-week guide to the assignment. Here are a few other resources that may be useful if you are interested in including the editing or writing of Wikipedia entries in your courses.
- Wikipedia maintains a page of useful information, including a link to other courses that have done so here. Be sure to read the guide for educators. If your campus has an Wikipedia Campus Ambassador, take advantage of their help.
- The key for us is to break the assignment into smaller parts – you can see how we did so with the assignment we gave our students.
- A great discussion over at the Dynamic Ecology blog on a post by Meg Duffy that includes MANY helpful suggestions in the comments. Read the follow-up post too, it has a summary of steps to take if you want to include WP entries as assignments.
Good luck!