Grants:PEG/ITOCA/Train-the-trainer South Africa workshop/Report


Report accepted
This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2012-13 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
  • You are welcome to Email grants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.


Compliance and completion

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Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?
Answer YES or NO.
YES
Is your project completed?
Answer YES or NO.
YES
Did you use any of the grant funds?
Answer YES or NO.
YES

Activities and lessons learned

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This section describes what the grantee did, and what the grantee learned from implementing the project. This section should be useful to others implementing similar projects and is an opportunity for the grantee to reflect on the project's performance.

Activities

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The workshop was structured to include two weeks of online training and exercises prior to the two day intensive face to face training.

Activity List

  1. A workshop announcement was designed explaining the purpose of the course and the criteria for selection.
  2. An application form was designed to be attached to the course announcement
  3. The workshop announcement was sent to ITOCA's various networks in South Africa and ITOCA's contact database- universities, community libraries, colleges, banks and Non-Governmental Organizations
  4. Collation and review of received application forms - 39 applications were received
  5. Feed back and acceptance emails to selected participants- 32 applicants were selected
  6. Instrusctions were sent out requesting participants to start the two weeks online pre-workshop study and exercises.
  7. We prepared information notes for participants with hotel information, directions to the venue, starting times and other such detail related to the logistics of the workshop.
  8. Communicate with Wiki Ttrainer David Richfield on training material and printing requirements.
  9. Workshop venue hire
  10. Computer and internet equipment hire
  11. Training room setup
  12. Day 1 of the workshop began at 9am
  13. Assisted with co-facilitation where necessary
  14. Allocation of per diems to the participant
  15. Day2 of the workshop. Ended with a closing word from the director of ITOCA to encpourage participants to go and use the skils learnt.
  16. Sent out a post workshop email for feedback on the workshop
  17. Designed a post workshop survey, sent 2 months after the workshop and collected feedback


Lessons learned

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What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects? Consider the following questions and respond with 1 - 2 paragraphs.
What went well?

The response rate to the announcement was high with more people confirming their availability and interest than the number we needed. This meant that we were able to select more appropriately those we thought would use the training well. We had a well balanced mix of participants from academic institutions, public libraries as well as from the commercial sector. Everyone managed to have their own computer meaning they all had hands-on experience with Wikipedia. The interest during the workshop was very high and the participants’ knowledge of Wikipedia was very misinformed. Training on what Wikipedia is, brought so much positive feedback ,interest and a change of attitude towards Wikipedia.

What did not go well?

There were a few challenges with the internet connectivity on the first day. The backup internet as fast as it could have been, while the main source of internet was being set-up.

What would you do differently if you planned a similar project?

To avoid technology glitches such training workshops should in future be held mid-week starting from Tuesday to allow for setup and testing of all equipment and systems.

Project goal and measures of success

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This section should reference the project goals and measures of success described in the approved grant submission. See Grants:PEG/ITOCA/Train-the-trainer South Africa workshop to review the goals and metrics listed in the approved submission.

Project goal

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Provide the project goal here.

This workshop aimed at increasing awareness of Wikipedia and its core principles, encouraging participants to use Wikipedia efficiently and well, and attracting new contributors. The goals of the project included:

  • Central training of volunteer Wikipedians to embark on training others in the country.
  • Increasing the attention and support of Wikimedia by the cascading effect where those trained will go and train others.
  • The influencing of students and other community members to not only use Wikimedia but also contribute.
  • The training of the information experts to ensure that there are always trained experts who can be called on to help

The workshop emphasized this to partiipants from the announcement and reinforced some points to support these goals to the participants. The participants all agreed that they are willing to support Wikipedia and will seek to train others as much as they can.

Did you achieve your project goal? How do you know your goal was achieved? Please answer in 1 - 2 paragraphs.

The project goals were achieved as the participants were trained. Almost all of them were not registered users of Wikipedia until the training. They actively started contributing during the training and this was well embraced. When asked if they had trained someone after the training, a few confirmed that they have gone on to train someone or even groups for those in academic institutions. The other participants had intentions to train, with various reasons such as protocol, logistical arrangements and the time tables of students.

Measures of success

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List the measures of success exactly as provided in the approved grant submission, and evaluate your project according to each measure listed there.
  • Satisfaction of trainee-trainers from the central training, measured by a feedback survey. The survey would focus on the degree to which the trainees feel able to deliver training themselves..
  • The main measure of success would be the number of training events held by the trainees in their respective institutions and communities. We will consider the project a success if at least 75% of the participants deliver at least one training event within three months of the end of the central training.
  • Success will also be measured by getting feedback from those trained by the trained participants.
Provide an overall assessment of how your project went according to these measures.

The project managed to achieve the intended measures of success. This is because a survey was sent and almost half of the respondents agreed that they are able to deliver training others. The training was held towards the end of the year, due to many delays which the Wikimedia foundation is aware of. This may have affected those who went on to train within three months as those in academic institutions have only recently opened. We may track the other participants’ activities after another two-three months.

An email was sent about four weeks after the training asking the participants to give feedback on the training. Those who responded were very positive and felt that the training was a success which added value to their careers or expertise. We have had a few more inquiries from those who did not manage to get trained on when the next training workshop will be held. We also had an inquiry to whether we would also train beyond South Africa as we had inquiries from those outside the country including an inquiry from Asia.

7 months after the workshop another follow-up evaluation survey was sent to the participants. In total there were 25 respondents to the evaluation survey. The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9Q7JYLB

On satisfaction, 100% said that participating in the Wikipedia training was of benefit to them.

36 % said they contributed content to Wikipedia on your own. Some of the reasons given for this were time constrictions and language. Only 2 respondents said they delivered scheduled, frontal training (at least 1-2 hours) sessions.

When asked “have you faced any challenges or do you plan on training?” Many responded that they could not get support from their institution. Fro others it was an issue of availability of faculty and academics.


If you were to plan a similar project, would you measure it differently? If yes, please explain how.

We would add more measures if we were to do a similar project such as:

  • the number or frequency of contributions to Wikipedia by those trained
  • the number of participants who join the local Wikimedia chapter after the training
  • the number of participants whom we can join as observers during their trainings


Impact

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This section ties this project to Wikimedia's broader goals, and shows what the project accomplished.

What impact did this project have on WMF's mission and the strategic goals? Please answer in 1 -2 paragraphs and include specific measures of impact such as the number of readers or editors reached by a particular project, or the number of articles edited or improved.
Stabilize infrastructure
Increase participation
Improve quality
Increase reach
Encourage innovation

The project’s impact was varied and fitted within the WMF’s mission and strategic goals. An increase in the participation and reach was achieved by training trainers who are based at public institutions where there is a higher cascading effect to the greater number of potential contributors as well as users of Wikipedia. The trainers will be able to train their students, clients as well as library users who can be encouraged to be innovative in their contributions to Wikipedia. Some of the participants who were trained at the workshop came up with innovative ideas on topics and information that plan to contribute to Wikipedia.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

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This section describes the grant's use of funds

Documentation

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Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grants at wikimedia dot org, according to the guidelines here? Answer "Yes" or "No".

Yes

Documentation of expenditures has been received by WMF.

Expenses

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Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions and dates. Review the instructions here.
These expenses should be listed in the same format as the budget table in your approved submission so that anyone reading this report may be able to easily compare budgeted vs. actual expenses.
Note that variances in the project budget over 10% per expense category must be approved in advance by WMF Grants Program staff. For all other variances, please provide an explanation in the table below.


Expense Item No. Days Rate Total in Rand Total in USD Remarks
1 Travel
1.1 Participants travel 0 3 0 0 0 Participants institutions to pay for transport
1.2 Local transport 3200 427 Participants local transport. Shuttle company provided their invoice of R1540, the remaining R1660 was fuel costs.
Sub-Total 1 3200 427
2 Accommodation
2.1 Participants (lodge B and B) 12 3 560 20160 2688 Road Lodge only 12 of the Participants stayed at the hotel, the rest commuted.
2.2 Participants per diem (Dinner) 12 3 120 4320 576
Sub-Total 2 24480 3264
3 Venue Hire
3.1 Conference package 34 2 280 19040 2539
Sub-Total 3 19040 2539
4 Materials & Supplies
4.1 Computer hire 9907 1321 Computer hire
4.2 Internet (Data) 987 132
4.3 Stationery and DVDs 34 30 1020 136
Sub-Total 4 11914 1589
5 Trainers
5.1 Accommodation 0 0 0 0 0
5.2 Dinners 0 0 0 0 0
5.3 Local Transport 0 0 0 0 0 The trainer volunteered to pay all his transport costs.
5.4 Flight Trainer was based locally and commuted everyday
Sub-Total 5 0 0
6 Sub-Total 58634 7819
6.1 Project Management of Evaluation 2760 325
6.2 Project Management 7371 1021
68765 9165
NOTES
Exchnage rate $1=R7.5


Total project budget (from your approved grant submission)
Budget No. Days Rate Total in Rand Total in USD Remarks
1 Travel
1.1 Participants travel 30 3 0 0 0 Participants institutions to pay for transport
1.2 Local transport 30 2 80 4800 640 Participants local transport
Sub-Total 1 4800 640
2 Accommodation
2.1 Participants (lodge B and B) 30 3 520 46800 6240 Road Lodge-Centurion 3 nights
2.2 Participants per diem (Lunch + Dinner) 30 3 150 13500 1800 Lunch @R75 + Dinner @R75 per day
2.3 Tea breaks x2 64 3 15 2880 384 Two tea-breaks per day
Sub-Total 2 60300 8424
3 Materials & Supplies
3.1 Computer lab hire (30 PCs) 1 2 1000 2000 267 Computer lab hire
3.2 Printing-workbook 30 1 15 450 60 Training materials printing
3.3 Stationery/photocopies 30 4 5 600 80
Sub-Total 3 3050 407
4 Trainers
4.1 Accommodation 1 3 520 1560 208
4.2 Dinners 1 2 200 400 53
4.3 Local Transport 1 3 200 600 80 Including airport transfer
4.4 Flight 1 1 1 3000 400 Return flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg
Sub-Total 4 5560 741
5 Sub-Total 73710 10212
5.1 Project Management 7371 1021
81081 11233
NOTES
Exchnage rate $1=R7.5
Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission, this total will be the same as the total project budget if the WMF grant is your only funding source)

R81081 (USD11233)

Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above)

R68765 (USD9168)

Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project (this total will be the same as the total amount spent if the WMF grant is your only funding source)

R68765 (USD9168)

Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.

None

Remaining funds

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Remaining funds from this grant have been returned to WMF in the amount of US$1100.
Remaining funds have been used or will be used for other approved mission-aligned activities. This use has been requested in writing and approved by WMF.
Are there any grant funds remaining?
Answer YES or NO.

YES

Please list the total amount (specify currency) remaining here. (This is the amount you did not use, or the amount you still have after completing your grant.)

R12316 (USD2068)

If funds are remaining they must be returned to WMF, reallocated to mission-aligned activities, or applied to another approved grant.
Please state here if you intend to return unused funds to WMF, submit a request for reallocation, or submit a new grant request, and then follow the instructions on your approved grant submission.

Request for reallocation