Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Community Toolkit For Greater Inclusivity Wikilearn Course (ID: 22582847)

Endorsement from Brahmavadini (talk)

A valid continuation of the 2018-2019 Community Toolkit For Greater Diversity (CTGD) project.

--Brahmavadini (talk) 14:30, 8 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you so much. -- Rohini (talk) 08:33, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

Follow-up comments on your grant application

Hello @Rohini,

Thank you for putting in your grant application. Here are the consolidated questions, comments and observations from the reviewers. Would you be able to provide a response to them? Thank you.

My replies are inline in italics. -- Rohini (talk) 08:34, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

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Feedback on activity proposed

1) In terms of the viability of this project in general, I do have concerns. It seems like the project is overly focused on the output (i.e. migrating static content onto WikiLearn) and less focused on impact. For example target # of participants is 0 for instance. Since the resource has already been created, I would be curious to know what outcomes have resulted from the initial toolkit (especially in relation to the Wikiwomen movement) - who used the resource, how many people, what did they do after, etc. Is it something that has a real need / audience?). Would you be able to elaborate more?

It is true that it is meant only to revise and migrate a resource that is already present. The toolkit was previously housed in a website (wikiinclusivity.in) where viewers could view it as learning modules (like on Coursera, for example). The website has been defunct since the funding ran out. Currently, the modules are PDFs on the Commons and not friendly to both learners and trainers. This is why they need to be migrated to a learning management system. Otherwise, they are just lying unused.

"who used the resource, how many people, what did they do after, etc." Unfortunately, we could not work more on adoption of the project. It officially ended in the first quarter of 2019. The project had attracted a lot of abuse and harassment and I was singled out for most of it (all records of that are public). We were burnt out by the time the project ended and were not in the position to promote it and work on it adoption. Then, in 2020, the pandemic started and that further thwarted any efforts. Some Wikimedians have told me in person and on social media that they want to adopt this and use this in their languages and contexts. However, I don't have documented proof such as survey or needs assessment exercise that there is a need for this kind of output. -- Rohini (talk) 08:42, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

2) In terms of use of Wiki Learn, the community development team has mostly been focusing on supporting affiliates and partners in content creation on the platform, with the hope of including individual wikimedians in the next phase. At this point in time, we would recommend contributors to connect with community development first before applying for a grant for course development as more broadly, we’re not ready to support more individual course creators at least until the end of this fiscal year (June 2024). This is because for now, we’re focusing on improving the infrastructure and experience for current course creators as well as setting up better processes before we host more courses.

This is useful to know. -- 11:15, 23 May 2024 (UTC) -- 11:18, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

Feedback on community notification

3) The first time I heard about the Inclusivity toolkit, was through Chinmayee Mishra, who is one of the co-leads for WikiWomen Camp India 2023. So my first thought was to try to understand their connection. Is there a shared history/ connection here that you can elaborate on?

She was one of the participants of the review workshop held in 2018 as a part of the Community Toolkit for Greater Diversity project. Workshop report: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Chinmayisk/Community_toolkit_for_Greater_Diversity/Workshop --Rohini (talk) 11:18, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

4) Another suggestion would be for the applicant to align with Wiki Women Camp co-leads to check if the proposed idea is within their next steps, and based on the released WWC declaration, whether there would be any unseen opportunity along the lines of the proposal?

Things to change/ improve:

5) Adding to the above, I agree that embedding this work in the WikiWomen Strategy process is important and aligning with their plans for a Steering Committee to hold strategy implementation following Camp.

6) I would suggest that a new angle for this funding could include updating the current format, creating pre-recorded sessions and then working with Let's Connect to run and refine the toolkit. This could then be updated on Wikimedia Commons. What do you think?

Consolidated response to #4, #5 and #6: Making this proposed Rapid Fund grant a part of the WikiWomenCamp process or Let's Connect will radically change its scope, methodology and budget. The budget for the Community Toolkit for Greater Diversity Project (2018-19) was USD 20,000. Considering that WikiLearn is not available/ suitable, the intent of this activity no longer stands. Thus, I am withdrawing the proposal. -- Rohini (talk) 12:00, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

7) The reviewer cost could be removed as they are asking Wikimedians for reviewing the content prepared by professional writers and approved by the Project Manager who is a well versed wikimedian.

Regards, Jacqueline on behalf of SA Regional Funds Committee and WMF staff who have contributed to the review of your application JChen (WMF) (talk) 03:13, 20 May 2024 (UTC)