Type: Article

An educator framework for organizing Wikipedia editathons for computational biology

Sélem-Mojica, Nelly; Lubiana, Tiago; Hermoso Pulido, Toni; Gallego-Crespo, Aarón; Karakulak, Tulay; Hegde, Megha; Näpflin, Nicolas C.; Anjum, Audra; Dan DeBlasio, Pradeep Eranti; García-Chávez, Jorge Noé; Rangel-Chávez, Cynthia Paola; Rodriguez-Gomez, Divanery; López-Ramírez, Varinia; Vázquez-Martínez, Juan; Welch, Lonnie R .; Kilpatrick, Alastair M.; Rahman, Farzana;

Abstract:

Wikipedia is a vital open educational resource in computational biology; however, a significant knowledge gap exists between English and non-English Wikipedias. Reducing this knowledge gap via intensive editing events, or “editathons,” would be beneficial in reducing language barriers that disadvantage learners whose native language is not English. Results: We present a framework to guide educators in organizing editathons for learners to improve and create relevant Wikipedia articles. As a case study, we present the results of an editathon held at the 2024 ISCB Latin America conference, in which ten new articles were created for the Spanish-language edition of Wikipedia. We also present a web tool, “compbio-on-wiki,” which identifies relevant English Wikipedia articles missing in other languages. We demonstrate the value of editathons to expand the accessibility and visibility of computational biology content in multiple languages.