Learning patterns/Working constructively with the Wikimedia community

A learning pattern forEducation

Learning Pattern Library

Working constructively with the Wikimedia community

problemCommunity members are reverting student edits or deleting user pages.

solutionPay close attention to best practices for working with the community whenever using Wikimedia projects in education.

creator• KHarold (WMF)

created on19 December, 2014

What problem does this solve?

Educators and students often edit or contribute content to Wikimedia projects as a way to achieve learning objectives and also to improve the access to and quality of free knowledge. They may not realize that there is a community of Wikimedians around the world who work as volunteers to write, organize, edit and monitor content in order to maintain and improve the quality Wikimedia projects.

While the community of Wikimedians welcome contributions from people learning to edit, it can be overwhelming to review and correct mistakes made by many new editors in a short period of time which can cause tension between the community and education program participants. One way to ease and prevent tension is to understand the reasons why community members may revert edits or delete articles and user pages. It is also helpful to learn how to work with the community to resolve disputes.

See also

Education Toolkit Learning Pattern This learning pattern is part of the Education Program Toolkit. Go to the toolkit.