Wiki writing in medicine and students’ perceptions: The case of an English- in-the-Discipline course in Hong Kong

Abstract

As a prominent online repository of general information, Wikipedia has been increasingly used as a tool to teach writing in academic literacy courses. This chapter presents a wiki writing project in an English-in-the-Discipline course for medical students in a university in Hong Kong. Drawing on principles of the process-based approach, the course guides students through various stages of the project – uncovering the nature and generic features of Wikipedia, selecting a notable topic and searching for reliable secondary sources, technical training, working on language and structure, writing, peer reviewing and revising, and finally publishing articles into Wikipedia’s mainspace. Results of a questionnaire suggest that students perceived the wiki writing experience as very useful for enhancing their research and communication skills in disciplinary studies. The project provided valuable opportunities for medical students to interpret medical literature and present scientific information in a concise and coherent manner for an audience ranging from general to specialist. Student feedback also pointed to the need for teachers to enrich their knowledge about the genre conventions of Wikipedia as well as improve their competence in using Wikipedia’s interface and content guidelines.