RESUMO
Introduction: The need for social isolation to reduce the spread of COVID-19 has changed several areas, such as education, due to the halt of in-person activities. In this regard, active learning methodologies have been used as an alternative to mitigate the potential damage in the education process. The development of Wikipedia’s articles has been a motivational tool for complementing learning. Since 2018, a group of Brazilian students has developed several Wikipedia articles about several topics on Speech Language Pathology and Audiology. Wikipedia has about one million articles in Portuguese, hence it is the main reference source on the internet. In this way, students become active producers of knowledge and the protagonists of their learning by writing and editing articles. In addition, continuous improvement of subjects available on Wikipedia broadens and democratizes access to scientific knowledge, which is fundamental to health communication. Due to the global advance of the pandemic, hearing and vestibular symptoms have been reported in the population affected by this disease; as a result, the scientific literature started to indicate a possible relationship between those manifestations and COVID-19. Therefore, by combining the student’s interests in the field with an increasing demand for lead information, it created a test page in order to host contents that can contribute to improving articles related to COVID-19. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of the interventions made by students in the articles on SPL-Audiology in Wikipedia during the pandemic. Methodology: The study group was monitored and instructed about Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, its manual of style, the visual editor, and multimedia and translation tools. The Outreach Dashboard platform was used to coordinate and oversee the students’ edits on Audiology articles and also to keep track of their activities. The analysis of effectiveness considered the number of views and respective content in the quality range. Due to the type of research, submission to the CEP was not necessary. Results: In the Portuguese Wikipedia, the grade score varies from 1 (sketch) to 6 (high-quality), and it is attributed by a classification algorithm. By using Toolforge statistical tools, it was possible to identify that: 19 articles were created or translated (14 with an increase of 20% in a number of views in 30 days before and after student interventions); 11 were improved ranging positively in the grade score, and other 4 remained unchanged. The mean of the quality score has evolved by 2.4 to 3.7 (+50%) and two articles have increased 3 points in range, is “Presbycusis'' from 2 to 5 (+150%) and “Baha Implant'' from 1 to 4 (+300%); in 19 new articles, the quality range was 2.8. Conclusion: Thus, it becomes evident the efficacy of Wikipedia as an education technology tool for undergraduate and graduate programs. Based on the effective improvement of quality and an increasing number of views, the platform may be used in science dissemination, which is a relevant action to health communication.