Wikipedia Editing for Beginners: First Nations Edition

In this video we will take a tour of Wikipedia. We’ll look at the Wikipedia Main Page, how to open and close some menus and how to search for articles on Wikipedia.

What is the difference between an article and a page on Wikipedia?

In this series I use both terms often. An article is an encyclopedic article on topics such as cats or the Titanic. Then there are other pages on Wikipedia like the Main Page or pages for help, Code of Conduct or Wikipedia’s copyright licence details. These pages wouldn’t be considered articles.

In this video we will continue our tour of Wikipedia. We’ll look at Wikipedia articles, and introduce links, Categories and Talk Pages, though we will be covering these in more depth later on too. Finally, we’ll look at how you can view Wikipedia in other languages.

Walk through a typical Wikipedia article and learn how the lead, headings, links, references, categories, talk page, and history tools fit together. After this lesson, you should be able to inspect an article before deciding whether and how to edit it.

In this video we will look at the rules, policies, and guidelines that govern Wikipedia. Understanding these is essential before making any edits.

Key topics covered include the five pillars of Wikipedia, the neutral point of view policy, verifiability requirements, and how Wikipedia's community handles disputes. All of these are documented in the downloadable resources for this lecture.

In this video we will cover how to log in and out of Wikipedia safely. You will also learn about the basic account settings that are worth checking when you first set up.

If you experience any login problems, common issues and solutions are covered in the downloadable resources for this section.

Learn where Wikipedia notifications appear, what they are for, and how Preferences shape your editing experience. After this lesson, you should know where to review account messages and adjust basic settings safely.

Preferences let you control your editing environment, privacy options, and how you receive notifications. They are worth reviewing early so your account is set up in a way that suits how you work. Key settings are documented in the downloadable resources.

Learn how Wikipedia skins change the editing interface and page layout. After this lesson, you should be able to recognise where appearance settings live and adjust your view without changing article content.

Learn what the newcomer homepage is and how it can point you to suggested edits, a mentor, and account tools. Use it as an orientation space before making public article edits.

The newcomer homepage is available to new accounts and provides a structured starting point. It is especially useful if you are not sure where to begin or which articles to look at first.

Learn what a Wikipedia user page is, how to find yours, and how to add a brief, appropriate introduction. Keep personal information minimal and avoid using the page as promotion or a resume.

Your user page is part of your Wikipedia identity. It can mention your editing interests and areas of focus. What you write there is visible publicly, so it is worth keeping it simple, professional, and focused on your role as an editor.

Learn how talk pages support editor discussion. You will see how messages work, how to leave a clear and civil note, and why discussion is useful before changing sensitive or contested content.

Every Wikipedia article has a talk page where editors can discuss changes. Using talk pages well — especially before editing articles on sensitive or contested topics — is one of the most important habits you can develop as a new editor.

In this video we will look at where to find help on Wikipedia from other Wikipedia volunteers.

Wikipedia has a range of support options including the Teahouse (a friendly space for new editors), Help pages, live chat support, and a mentoring system through the Growth features. Check the downloadable resources in this lecture for direct links to each of these.

If you need extra support during this course, use the Barayamal eMentoring support link in the lecture resources section.

Use the sandbox to practise before editing a live article. In this lesson, focus on making a small test edit, writing a useful edit summary and checking what changed.

Practice gate: keep public article edits for later unless your source, safety and help-pathway checks are clear.

Use the Barayamal Wikipedia Editing Practice page in the resources for source checks, neutral wording practice and sandbox exercises

Practise making a simple edit in the sandbox using Wikipedia's editor. Focus on changing text carefully, previewing your work, publishing with an edit summary, and checking the result before moving on to live articles.

Learn how to add useful internal links and basic formatting in Wikipedia's editor. Keep links relevant, avoid overlinking, and use the sandbox to practise before editing live articles.

Internal links connect readers to related Wikipedia articles and help with navigation. This lecture also covers basic formatting such as bold, italics, and headings — features you will use regularly once you start improving articles.

Learn how page history records every edit, how to compare versions, and how to review your own contribution list. Use undo and revert carefully, and leave clear edit summaries when you correct a mistake.

Page history is one of Wikipedia's most powerful transparency tools. It lets you see exactly what changed, when, and by whom. Understanding it helps you learn from other editors, track your own work, and respond appropriately if your edits are changed.

Learn how to add pages to your watchlist and use it to monitor changes on articles you care about. This helps you notice follow-up edits, discussions, or problems after you contribute.

Your watchlist shows recent changes to any article you are following. It is a simple but powerful tool for staying informed without having to check each article manually — particularly useful when you have made edits and want to know if they were accepted or discussed.

Learn what the Wikipedia Manual of Style is and why consistent article layout, tone, headings, and biography conventions matter. Use it as a reference when you are unsure how Wikipedia expects content to be written.

The Manual of Style covers formatting conventions for articles, including how to write dates, use capital letters, structure biographies, and handle culturally sensitive content. You do not need to memorise it — but knowing it exists and where to find it will help you write more confidently.

Learn why some pages are protected, what protection levels mean for new accounts, and what to do when you cannot edit a page directly. Use talk pages or help channels rather than forcing an edit.

Page protection is a common experience for new editors. High-traffic or controversial articles are often semi-protected, meaning only established accounts can edit them directly. Knowing how to work within these boundaries — and how to contribute through talk pages or Draft: space — is an important part of editing responsibly.

Creative Commons

In this video we will look at some copyright basics that are important when using Wikipedia. We’ll also look at the Creative Commons licence that covers most content on Wikipedia.

Learn why references matter, how Wikipedia evaluates reliable sources, and when primary or secondary sources are appropriate. Before editing, check whether a claim is verifiable and supported by a suitable source.

Reliable sourcing is the foundation of Wikipedia. This lecture covers what makes a source acceptable, why self-published or social media sources are generally not suitable, and how to match your citation to the specific claim it supports. Downloadable resources include a source checklist for your reference.

Practise adding citations from websites and books in the sandbox. Focus on matching the citation to the claim it supports, using reliable sources, and checking that the reference displays correctly.

This is one of the most important practical skills in the course. A citation needs to directly support the exact claim it sits next to — not just relate to the general topic. Use the Sandbox to practise adding multiple citation types and reviewing how they appear in the preview before publishing.

Learn how to add a references section so citations display properly on a page. This is a small but important step when building or repairing cited content in your sandbox.

Without a references section, your citations will not appear visibly at the bottom of the article. This lecture shows you exactly how to add this section using both the Visual Editor and Source Editor, and what to check before considering an edit complete.

Learn how to find articles that may be suitable for beginner improvements. Look for low-risk fixes such as citation-needed checks, broken links, formatting issues, or unclear wording that a reliable source can support.

For First Nations topics or sensitive identity and community material, choose observation or a help request before editing. The course includes a safe practice checklist to help you assess whether an article and edit type are appropriate for your current experience level.

Learn how to use pageview and statistics tools to understand article activity, readership, and edit patterns. Use statistics as context for research and planning, not as a reason to chase high-risk or sensitive edits.

Historical example: the linked First Nations Changemakers on Wiki Dashboard is a completed project record. Its editor, article, edit, word, reference, view and upload totals are not Udemy enrolments, Udemy completions or current learner activity. Wikimedia recalculates some metrics, so totals can change. Do not join this historical program; each future workshop or learner cohort should use a new Dashboard program and tracking period.

Use the historical example to learn how to interpret group-level impact responsibly. Statistics can help you prioritise well-sourced improvements, but they do not measure content quality, cultural safety or community benefit on their own.

Learn how Wikipedia's Content Translation tool can help translate articles between languages. Before publishing, check the translated text carefully, confirm sources still support the content, and respect the standards of the local language community.

The Content Translation tool is available from within Wikipedia and lets you build a draft translation in your Sandbox before publishing. This lecture covers how to use it responsibly — including checking that machine-generated sections are accurate and culturally appropriate before any content goes live.

Notability Introduction

In this section we will look at notability, and why this is important when creating new articles on Wikipedia.

I briefly mentioned notability when we previously looked at basic editing and some of Wikipedia’s guides and policies.

It’s important to look at Wikipedia's notability guidelines if you want to create a new article on Wikipedia, because, unfortunately, not everything is considered notable enough for Wikipedia.

This doesn’t mean that someone isn’t important. But it might mean they haven’t been written about enough to show how important they are.

Unfortunately, this does mean the biases present around the world are also present on Wikipedia, as some people, either due to their place of birth, gender, or other factors, haven’t been written about in as great detail as others throughout history.

Even some well respected and well known people just haven’t gotten the media coverage from reliable sources that you would assume, making it hard to argue their notability on Wikipedia.

Over the next pages we will look at different guides for notability.

Additional sources and further reading

General notability

Let’s look at the General notability guideline on Wikipedia. You can find it by typing WP:N into the search bar on Wikipedia (

Some of the most important things to consider before creating a new article on Wikipedia, is whether your subject has “received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject”

The Notability guide gives this example:

“The book-length history of IBM by Robert Sobel is plainly non-trivial coverage of IBM”, while “Martin Walker's statement, in a newspaper article about Bill Clinton, that "In high school, he was part of a jazz band called Three Blind Mice" is plainly a trivial mention of that band.”

We’ve already looked at what reliable sources are, but remember they should be secondary sources, independent of the subject, and for notability, there should be multiple good sources available. Finding three or five good sources that provide significant coverage of your subject is a good indication they are notable.

But if your subject doesn’t meet these criteria, they might still be useful to include within another existing article related to the subject in some way.

That’s a general guide to notability. But then there are specific guides for different types of articles, such as those on academics and scientists, books, films, music, companies, and people.

We'll look at two of these on the next pages.

Notability guidelines for Books

Here’s the notability guidelines for Books ( So if you want to create a Wikipedia article about a book, this is what you need to consider first

• A book is presumed notable, and to generally merit an article, if it verifiably meets through reliable sources, one or more of the following criteria:

• The book has been the subject of two or more non-trivial published works appearing in sources that are independent of the book itself. This can include published works in all forms, such as newspaper articles, other books, television documentaries, bestseller lists, and reviews. This excludes media re-prints of press releases, flap copy, or other publications where the author, its publisher, agent, or other self-interested parties advertise or speak about the book.

• The book has won a major literary award.

• The book has been considered by reliable sources to have made a significant contribution to a notable or significant motion picture, or other art form, or event or political or religious movement.

• The book is, or has been, the subject of instruction at two or more schools, colleges, universities or post-graduate programs in any particular country.

• The book's author is so historically significant that any of the author's written works may be considered notable. This does not simply mean that the book's author is notable by Wikipedia's standards; rather, the book's author is exceptionally significant, and the author's life and body of written work would be a common subject of academic study.

There are other things to consider, and you can read the full guide by typing WP:NB into the search bar on Wikipedia, or by clicking here

Notability guidelines for Academics

The second guide we'll look at is for academics, including scientists. For people ( the notability requirements are mostly the same, in that they have to have been written about. But there are generally additional requirements too, such as for academics below

Academics meeting any one of the following conditions, as substantiated through reliable sources, are notable. Academics meeting none of these conditions may still be notable if they meet the conditions of Wikipedia's notability guide for people or other notability criteria. The merits of an article on the academic will depend largely on the extent to which it is verifiable.

• The person's research has had a significant impact in their scholarly discipline, broadly construed, as demonstrated by independent reliable sources.

• The person has received a highly prestigious academic award or honor at a national or international level.

• The person has been an elected member of a highly selective and prestigious scholarly society or association (e.g., a National Academy of Sciences or the Royal Society) or a fellow of a major scholarly society which reserves fellow status as a highly selective honor (e.g., Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics).

• The person's academic work has made a significant impact in the area of higher education, affecting a substantial number of academic institutions.

• The person has held a named chair appointment or distinguished professor appointment at a major institution of higher education and research, or an equivalent position in countries where named chairs are uncommon.

• The person has held a highest-level elected or appointed administrative post at a major academic institution or major academic society.

• The person has had a substantial impact outside academia in their academic capacity.

• The person has been the head or chief editor of a major, well-established academic journal in their subject area.

The page says that you should see the General notes and Specific criteria notes sections on the page before applying just these criteria. And you can see them yourself by typing WP:PROF into the search bar on Wikipedia, or by clicking here

More Notability and additional resources

As you can see, there are lots of aspects of notability to consider, and I hope it’s given you an idea of why not everyone or everything has an article on Wikipedia.

Another thing to consider, is that if you create a new article on Wikipedia, it's up to you to prove your subject is notable. So, if you create an article about someone that you consider meets the notability criteria, but your references don’t back that up, then your article might be tagged as not being notable, or tagged for deletion.

Of course, just because something might not meet these criteria now, doesn’t mean they never will.

Hopefully you won’t be discouraged, and you will take the time to include additional references to show notability. If you’re unsure, you can always ask someone else to look at it before you publish the article.

Creating Wikipedia articles

In this video we will look at creating new articles on Wikipedia, and moving them from your Sandbox.

Additional steps

After you've created your Wikipedia article, there are some additional steps such as creating the Talk page, adding it to a WikiProject, adding it to Wikidata, and possibly also creating a new Wikidata item.

If you aren’t creating a new Wikipedia article right now, these steps might not be relevant to you, but the information will be here for you to come back to later.

Creating a Talk page and adding WikiProjects

After you have just created a new article, you’ll notice the Talk page link is red. Click it and then click Create Source, in the right hand side. This will create the page using Source Editor.

We want to add some WikiProjects, and which ones you add will depend on the subject of your article. Remember you can find a list of WikiProjects here -

Let’s say your project is about something or someone Australian, so we want to add it to WikiProject Australia. We can do this by clicking the puzzle icon, to insert a template, then type WikiProject Australia, and select WikiProject Australia.

This will add the following code to your Talkpage: {{WikiProject Australia}} which will display a banner for WikiProject Australia.

Once done, you can click Publish page. You can always go back and add more projects later.

Adding your article to Wikidata

Adding your article to Wikidata and Creating a Wikidata item.

After you create a new article, you can add it to Wikidata. This helps collect together different language versions of the same article.

Goto Wikidata.org and make sure you’re logged in. You can use the same username you use on Wikipedia.

Next, search for your subject. There might already be a Wikidata item for it. If that’s the case, then go to the bottom of the page, and under Wikipedia, click edit.

In the first box, type en and a box should appear below, click on English. This means your article is on the English Wikipedia. Then, in the second box, type in the name of your page or article. A box should appear below with the name of your article, click it and then click Publish. That’s done.

But what if you can’t find the subject on Wikidata? Well, you can create a new item by clicking Create a new item, on the left side. Under label, type in the name of your article. Then under description, give a short description of the subject. For example, Australian painter. Under Aliases you can list other names your subject might be known as, such as their full name or nickname, or you can leave it blank.

Then follow the steps as above to add the Wikipedia article. But you should also add some more details to Wikidata too.

For example, instance of, and then what your subject is. Eg. human, company, city, etc.

Here’s some examples to look at.

See how much information you can add. Each contribution will add to your edit count on Wikidata and Wikimedia projects.

If you’re interested in learning more about Wikidata, the Help page is a great place to start