Digital volunteering with Wikipedia

Wikipedia editing as part of The Edinburgh Award.

  • Five students standing in the Edinburgh Old College courtyard. Background: a lawn, encircling campus buildings, a tower
  • Three student and the project leader posing happily in front of the screen listing awards for Digital Volunteering with Wikipedia
  • Edinburgh Award students in Argyle House, with sunny Edinburgh in background out the window
  • 2024 achievers holding up their Wikipedia t-shirts

About this Edinburgh Award

We invite all driven and committed students to participate in this year's Digital Volunteering with Wikipedia Edinburgh Award. Develop your research, digital literacy, and science communication skills while making knowledge freely accessible to millions of readers worldwide. As part of the Edinburgh Award, you can contribute to Wikipedia and receive recognition for your volunteering and skills development.

Recent participants have improved Wikipedia's coverage of topics including Japanese fashion history and subcultures, Pictish stones, cultural heritage objects of Uganda and Congo, notable Singaporean biographies, and many more.

The Award encourages you to view your skills development as a three-step process:

  1. Identify the subject area(s) you wish to research (and improve Wikipedia's coverage of).
  2. Develop Wikipedia editing skills, copyright literacy, academic referencing and more through self-directed learning,  workshops and group work.
  3. Learn how to write for different audiences through publishing new and improved pages to Wikipedia.
  4. Stage fun & impactful editing events to encourage others in different schools, student societies to participate in an open knowledge community (optional). 

  • To learn research planning skills.
  • To become aware of your strengths.
  • To identify areas for development.
  • To achieve a positive and lasting impact in your subject area(s).

Come to our introductory workshop

The first workshop of 2026/2027 academic year will take place on Wednesday, 21st October.

Our introductory workshop will show you why Wikipedia matters and how to start editing. You'll learn how to:

By the end of it you can then decide if you would like to undertake this Edinburgh Award and consider the subject area(s) you are interested in.

You can work individually or in groups, supporting each other throughout the programme. Explore your topic of interest and organise your own Wikipedia editing events to encourage others to contribute to open knowledge! 

Timeline for this Edinburgh Award

NB: The expectation is you would undertake 55-80 hours from October to March and attend the mandatory in-person Input sessions in this time.

21 October 2026Input 1 Workshop: Room 1.07, Main Library, 5.30pm-7:00pm
1 November 2026First reflection exercise deadline: 12:00 am
4 November 2026Wikipedia Training Workshop: Room 1.07, Main Library, 3:00pm-7.30pm
18 November 2026Project Discussion Day: Room 1.07, Main Library, 4:00pm-7.30pm
2 December 2026

Input 2 Workshop: Room 1.07, Main Library 4:00pm-7:30pm

Combined Christmas get-together with the Digital Skills Specialist award participants, 7:00pm-9:00pm (TBC)

11 January 2027Second reflection exercise deadline: 12:00 am
20 January 2027Midpoint progress check: Room 1.07, Main Library 4:00pm-7:00pm
28 January 2027Project goals to be agreed: Room 1.07, Main Library 4:00pm-7:00pm
3 February 2027Group research workshop: Room 1.07, Main Library 3:00pm-7.30pm
17 February 2027Group research workshop: Room 1.07, Main Library 3:00pm-7.30pm
3 March 2027Group research workshop: Room 1.07, Main Library 3:00pm-7.30pm
17 March 2027Group research workshop: Room 1.07, Main Library 3:00pm-7.30pm
31 March 2027Input 3 workshop, Room 1.07, Main Library 3:00pm-7.30pm
31 March 2027Third (Final) reflection exercise deadline: 12:00am
April 2027 (Reading week)Celebration event for all Edinburgh Award achievers at Playfair Library.

Staff involvement - suggest ideas and resources

If you are a member of staff at the University then you can also get involved by suggesting topic areas (and resources... like course reading lists) that would be helpful and of interest to the students for project idea inspiration as to where they could so some good improving topic coverage on Wikipedia.

This article was published on