International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract

Since Wikipedia's founding in 2001, higher education has found it controversial as a teaching and learning resource. Many faculty members still ban students from using Wikipedia for their coursework. But a noticeable disparity exists between how academics in STEM (science, technology, engineering, & mathematics) and those in the humanities understand and engage Wikipedia as a teaching and learning resource. Wikipedia, as the scholarly research shows, is a far more credible source than generally acknowledged; and as many educators in STEM, and particularly the natural sciences, have also shown, Wikipedia can be a vital part of the undergraduate and graduate curricula. This study reviews the scholarship on Wikipedia; examines how Wikipedia can have a vital role in humanities education, including that of preparing students to write better and to do scholarly research; and argues why Wikipedia should be part of the humanities curricula globally.