students selected. All of the public domain images that were scanned for these courses are accessible on Wikimedia Commons. By doing this, visibility and usability have increased. This shows in the analytics of file usage in other Wikis. Images that are still under copyright are listed to be undeleted when they become public domain. Maastricht University Library recently decided that all scanned, copyright-free images from the Special Collections should be available on Wikimedia Commons (2020), and in Wikidata as Linked Open Data.
Limitations and Future Recommendations
Although evaluation of the Wikipedia Education Program courses suggests a valuable impact on multiple levels, there are also areas of improvement. First, past experiences in the course Historical Book Review indicate that many students struggle with finding relevant information about the historical context of the book. Students tend to primarily search for references and texts directly linked to the book title. Future courses should focus on training students to find relevant information that is not directly linked to the book title. Second, some of the articles written by the students remain unpublished. The final draft of an article is generally graded when it is still in the student’s sandbox. Sometimes only a few minor adjustments have to be made in order to publish the article. For future courses, it is paramount that all articles are published if they meet the course criteria and Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines. Third, not all the books or authors students selected are suitable for a Wikipedia article. Some books are relatively unknown and did not receive a lot of media attention. The effort and time students invested in researching these books is not always visible. Future courses could benefit from identifying poorly covered topics and contribute to filling Wikipedia’s knowledge gaps. Last, not so much an area of improvement as an observation, these courses and projects fit better with smaller classes. Maastricht University uses a problem-and research-based learning approach working in small groups of ten to fifteen students. In bigger classes it is difficult to monitor students’ work and provide feedback. Universities with a more traditional mode of learning should take this into account.
