| This project page documents a project currently in progress. |
Certificating training is a project aiming at providing volunteers and people working on Wikimedia offline projects the support to accomplish the best results and the endorsement to acknowledge their informal education within the formal education system. With Wikimedia offline projects we mean activities and initiatives related to outreach, education, partnerships with GLAMs, and presentations.
The idea of creating a certificate system responds to two needs
- Providing people who already know and have competences an acknowledgment which can be useful in their work, education career, working career and in their role within the Wikimedia movement.
- Facilitating the involvement of new volunteers and people in the Wikimedia offline projects, by supporting them with training and by being able to more easily involving them by acknowledging what they know and can contribute to.
The project responds to a demand coming from chapters/groups/affiliates and other institutions (needing skilled volunteers and staff) and from the volunteers (needing training, support or an acknowledgment of their skills).
The certification can be made in two ways
- It can be a sort of Wikimedia barnstar.
- It can be obtained within the higher education system (basic education courses - bachelors and masters - continuing education). This kind of certification requires of attending a certain number of hours of courses.
We will start by focusing on the sort of Wikimedia barnstar.
What we do NOT do:
- We do not certificate skills and experience related to Wikipedia and other online Wikimedia projects. Our aim is to certificate offline skills or skills specifically related to activities promoted by chapters/groups/affiliates and other institutions.
- Our aim is not to reject people, but to support them in getting the knowledge, experience and skills to implement the activities with a reasonable standard (and to feel they can do more).
The project is structured in a series of steps
 Done Brainstorming on the project structure and approach. Discussions by email and during events.- Structure of the auto-evaluation and the survey. Preparation of the survey, discussion about it.
- Involvement of relevant people from chapters/groups/affiliates and other institutions and from the international community working on educational projects (feedback, hints, materials).
- Survey.
- Role game: examiners against examinees (and then the other way around). A team of people who can identify skills and knowledge needed for each role-task, identify which is the bottom line for each role-task ("you absolutely need to know this", you absolutely need to be able to do this thing"), provide hints where to find the knowledge needed (or produce that knowledge), provide hints on how to assist people in gaining skills (i.e. having a tutor when you prepare your first important presentation). The team can invite all exporters and people they want/need to support them in the process. Implementation of a pilot project in Lugano. The pilot is developed within the frame of the project The Alps on Wikipedia. The pilot project aims at testing the methodology and to create a scalable structure for the system if successful.
- Structuring the training materials and certification system.
- Collecting feedback after the training; collecting the certification results, collecting feedback 6 months after the training.
- Pilot project. Feedback of the training participants (after the training, and 6 months after the training).
- Pilot project. Feedback of the organizers (after the training) - report
- Results of the certification. Engagement of the people getting the certification in new projects and activities.
The certificating training can be considered a relevant tool if the system is promoted and implemented in further training and educational projects in other cities and countries.
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