Welcome to a new edition of WikiLearn News! Take a few minutes to discover how online learning is helping develop Wikidata skills and the new courses coming up this quarter.
What’s WikiLearn?
WikiLearn is a free online learning platform by and for the Wikimedia movement. It offers quality online courses created by Wikimedia affiliates, experienced organizers, and partners that foster social learning and recognize learners’ achievements. The platform is managed by the Community Development team and it’s available in multiple languages – at the moment, you can find self-paced and instructor-led courses launched in 7 languages!
Spotlight on Wikidata
WikiLearn courses are supporting Wikimedians in developing key practical skills of their interest. For example, there are 523 editors who have enrolled on a WikiLearn course that strengthens their Wikidata skills. One of these courses is the Requêtes SPARQL sur Wikidata (developed by Wikimedia France) which has been completed by more than 60% of the learners who enrolled in it. After completing the course, the percentage of edits reverted on Wikidata from these learners went from 6% to 0.58%. Similarly, after learners took the Wikidata 101: An Introduction course (Wikimedia France and Wikimedia Germany), their percentage of edits reverted went from 1.69% to 0.76%. And along with a decrease in edits reverted, learners from the Spanish Wikidata course Curso de formación en Wikidata (Wikimedia Chile) also increased their editing activity from an average of 150 edits to 160 edits per month. These examples demonstrate not only the effectiveness and engagement of the curricula developed by these Wikimedia affiliates, but the consistent interest in Wikidata training opportunities from multiple language communities. It’s important to acknowledge that this can be a case of correlation and not necessarily causation, which makes us eager to gain a better understanding of the features and methodologies that make courses like these impactful for diverse groups of learners.
Our team recently chatted with Mohammed Sadat Abdulai and Zita Zage from the Wikimedia Germany team. Mohammed and Zita are days away from wrapping up the third edition (on WikiLearn) of the Wikidata 101 online course – with curriculum developed by Wikimedia France and later translated and adapted by Wikimedia Germany. Mohammed and Zita are investing in online learning because it enables knowledge sharing across diverse communities in a cost-effective and practical way. Additionally, being part of a course cohort in WikiLearn helps newcomers feel less intimidated by complex platforms like Wikidata, offering a supportive, judgment-free space to ask questions and build confidence. They share that self-paced courses are especially important in regions with limited internet access, allowing learners to decide when and how best to engage with the curriculum. Mohammed says that “although countless Wikidata tutorials exist, they’re often scattered across blogs, wikis, and videos. Wikidata 101 provides a step-by-step framework: from basic Item creation all the way to basic SPARQL queries, all in one place. This structured approach helps learners build on each lesson logically, resulting in deeper understanding and more immediate application of new skills.”
We strive to make WikiLearn stand out to course creators with a user-friendly design, making it easy to create and navigate courses—even for first-time users. Zita highlighted features like the customizable landing pages and the discussion forums as elements that helped her foster engagement and peer support among her learners. The team has also shared the insights they gathered from 58 participants across 5 continents who completed the Wikidata 101 course and they’re actively using this information to improve the next iterations. Our team appreciates working closely with course creators because their experiences and feedback allow us to continuously make improvements to the platform.
Eager to dive more into Wikidata? Keep an eye out for upcoming Wikidata 101 and Wikidata 201 courses on WikiLearn! Whether you’re a beginner, educator, or language enthusiast, course creators like Mohammed and Zita are developing self-paced curriculum to offer a friendly space to connect and grow your Wikidata skills.
How can you take advantage of WikiLearn?
Find the right opportunity for you and your community:
- As a learner: Browse the Catalog to find open self-paced courses, you only need a Wikipedia account to enroll! This quarter, you can find three courses from the Organizers Lab to strengthen your knowledge about topics for impact, the gender gap, and audience-based design for Wikimedia campaigns. For Spanish speakers, a new edition of the Habilidades Digitales Verdes course is about to start and you can register here.
- As a course creator: What does it take to build a course on WikiLearn? Catch the Let’s Connect sessions where the WikiLearn team together with Carla Toro (Wikimedia Chile) and James Gaunt (Wikimedia Australia) shared their experiences and provided a look at the behind-the-scenes process. If you’re an experienced organizer or part of a Wikimedia affiliate interested in hosting a course on the platform, use this short form to send your proposal.
- As a translator: You can also help make courses available in new languages! If you’re interested in translating any existing courses on WikiLearn, don’t hesitate to reach out to the team.
If you have any feedback to share about your experience on WikiLearn, please reach out via comdevteam@wikimedia.org
📣 Stay tuned for a next edition of WikiLearn News coming in a few months!
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