Creating Wikipedia articles on health and technology topics can empower the writers and benefit the community

BACKGROUND: Publicly accessible information regarding imaging procedures is lacking, especially in non-English languages. Biomedical engineering students do not generally have opportunities to practice conveying scientific knowledge to the public. METHODS: As part of a Techniques and Clinical Usage of Medical Imaging Devices course, for extra credit, several biomedical engineering students choose to create and edit Wikipedia articles in the local language (Hebrew). The goal of this activity was to serve the local community, while improving students’ abilities and self-perception in reading and reporting scientific knowledge. Following task completion, individual interviews were conducted with the students to assess the impact of the task on student personal development, sense of meaning and their view of their role in educating the public. RESULTS: Most students considered the task meaningful and impactful on society. Additional academic credit was not perceived as the most important incentive for participating. CONCLUSIONS: Medical and other professional schools should seek to include tasks such as writing Wikipedia articles in their curricula. Educational assignments that integrate academic work, student identity development and direct community benefit can have a long-term beneficial impact on learners and society. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03389-5.