The events feature musical playlists, a Wikipedia trivia game, and prizes—all designed and created by peer coaches. They are also responsible for selecting all the source materials and generating lists of Wikipedia pages that participants use (bit.ly/unlvwikipedia). e scope of the events has grown because the peer coaches’ roles have expanded. This chapter will provide an overview of UNLV’s institutional context, outline how library faculty and staff collaborate with peer coaches at each stage, and share thoughts from the peer coaches themselves.
Institutional Context
UNLV is a public, doctoral-granting research institution with just over 30,000 students enrolled (UNLV, n.d.-b). It is currently ranked the second most ethnically diverse university in the United States for undergraduate students (MacNeil, 2020) with 61 percent of students identifying as racial or ethnic minorities (UNLV, n.d.-a). Although the university doesn’t track LGBTQ+ identities, Nevada is ranked third for the highest percentage of LGBTQ+ people in the United States (UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, 2019). In order to increase representation on Wikipedia and to empower and excite UNLV’s students, each edit-a-thon focuses on members of different underrepresented groups.
Since 2007 the University Libraries has been home to the Mason Undergraduate Peer Research Coaches, a peer learning program composed of six to seven undergraduate students who work in the library twenty hours or less a week for hourly pay (Rinto et al., 2017). Peer learning can lead to improved classroom experiences for students who may prefer to ask a peer for assistance and can also result in more student-centered library programs when peer leaders are encouraged to share their own thoughts, ideas, and suggestions (Rinto et al., 2017). The peer coaches contribute to the teaching and outreach efforts of the Educational Initiatives department by co-teaching library instruction sessions alongside library faculty and staff and connecting with students through cocurricular learning activities.
