USING WIKIPEDIA AND WIKIVOYAGE IN TOURISM STUDIES

Abstract

The essence of the educational program of Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia and which students often use for learning, is justified. Unfortunately, few people know that anyone can contribute to Wikipedia, and even fewer people do it. The Wikipedia educational program is designed to change this and teach students how to create and edit articles, acquiring new knowledge and skills (encyclopedic style of articles, principles of copyright, reliable sources, etc.) and deepening what they have learned within academic disciplines. This is also a good opportunity for teacher to make the learning process more interesting and effective. The implementation of this program in the educational process of the Department of Tourism of Lviv Polytechnic National University is analyzed. This experience is about using Wikipedia and Wikivoyage to teach students within specific disciplines, in particular, “Geography of Tourism and Tourism Regional Studies”, “World Tourism Centers” and “Special Types of International Tourism”. The features of using Wikipedia and Wikivoyage for teaching students of tourism specialty are characterized. Wikivoyage is one of the sister projects of Wikipedia, which is thematically related to tourism and travel. It is possible to practice using Wikivoyage and also Wikipedia in different formats: during laboratory and practical works, for completing control works at the end of the semester and reports on local history practice, etc. One of the main conditions for this is for teacher to organize wikitraining for students, preferably with the involvement of an experienced wikipedian. A survey was conducted among students of the Department who participated in the Wikipedia educational program in different years regarding their experience of creating new and/or improving existing articles on tourism topics. Based on the survey results, the main advantages, as well as challenges, of using Wikipedia and Wikivoyage for learning are highlighted. The main challenge is related to the insufficient or completely absent motivation among students to be participants in wikiprojects in the long term.