Brittany Paloma Fiedler, Maggie Bukowski, Chelsea Heinbach, Eduardo Martinez-Flores, and Rosan Mitola

“ Since peer coaches regularly co-teach instruction sessions, they were involved in developing and creating the training. When peer coaches first start working in the Libraries, they go through a comprehensive training program that involves discussions of pedagogy, conducting teaching observations, teaching mock lessons, and finally being assessed when they co-teach. Because of these experiences, senior peer coaches were particularly well-positioned to create a curriculum for Wikipedia edit-a-thon training that included lesson plans, learning activities, and assessment. ”

“ There are many possibilities for the future of the team’s Wikipedia work, and all of them will include the voices, perspectives, and efforts of peer coaches. e peer coaches share their expertise in very event-specific ways such as editing Wikipedia and teaching others to edit. Preparing for and working the event also contributes to the peer coaches’ professional development because they are able to expand their skills in areas such as project management, leadership, research, and information literacy. ”

“ University Libraries has hosted two Wikipedia edit-a-thons each year. These are organized by a planning team of three librarians, one staff member, and seven Mason Undergraduate Peer Research Coaches (known as peer coaches) . The planning team is a large group with different backgrounds, ideas, strengths, and areas of expertise. At each edit-a-thon, participants are greeted and registered by a peer coach before they go to the Orientation Station to create an account and learn basic editing. ”

“ During one event planning meeting, the peer coaches and library faculty and staff had different scopes in mind for the edit-a-thon about Indigenous people. Originally, library faculty and staff thought the event would focus on Indigenous people from what is now the United States, but the peer coaches wanted to include Indigenous people throughout the world. After a discussion about scope, the team expanded the theme to include Indigenous people from all of North and South America. ”

“ On the other hand, some peer coaches preferred to learn about important people who have different identities than their own. Although none of the peer coaches are Indigenous, two identified the Indigenous edit-a-thon as their favorite because they had an opportunity to learn more about American history. ”

“ Peer coaches generally felt this work improved their skills in event planning, leadership, technology, and research. Almost every peer coach described increased confidence in teaching, specifically discussing different sources, understanding open access, and utilizing Wikipedia in the research process. ”

“ All the peer coaches felt the edit-a-thons are important and the focus on underrepresented groups is particularly salient because of UNLV’s student population. Many students see themselves in the identities the edita-thons have explored. ”

“ While this seems contradictory, librarians do not need to create the teaching plan from nothing. Find an existing online resource about editing and dedicate adequate time for everyone to learn together (Bukowski & Heinbach, 2020) . ”