Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Wikipedia Educational Outreach in Mongolia

statusFunded

Wikimedia Alliances Fund

Wikipedia Educational Outreach in Mongolia

start date2024-07-012024-07-01T00:00:00Z

end date2025-06-302025-06-30T00:00:00Z

budget (local currency)219829043 MNT

budget (USD)65269.91 USD ^[1]

amount recommended (USD)45330

funding regionESEAP

decision fiscal year2023-24

funding program roundRound 2

organization (if applicable)• Progress Gateway NGO

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Applicant information

Organization name (required): Progress Gateway NGO

Did you previously receive a Wikimedia Alliances Fund? (required): Yes

Organization type: Non-profit organization, legally registered

Do you have a fiscal sponsor?: No

Fiscal organization name.: N/A

Main proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required): Wikipedia Educational Outreach in Mongolia

2. Proposed start dates. (required): 2024-07-01

3. Proposed end date. (required): 2025-06-30

4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required): Mongolia

5. What are your strategies and plans for this proposal? If you are a returning applicant and your proposal is similar to the earlier project, highlight the adjustments that you are making and explain in more detail. (required)

In your response, you are invited to explore any of the following (pick 1-3 areas most relevant to your project):

How will you increase brand awareness of Wikimedia projects and; or the Wikimedia movement?
How will the proposal be tailored to the needs of the local community?
Will your project build on Wikimedia software for internal or community use?
How will this project build content in local markets and serve to address knowledge and/or representation gaps online or within the community?
How will you introduce new networks to build the local Wikimedia community?
What is the potential of the proposal to unlock future institutional partnerships for your organization or the Wikimedia movement?

1.How will the proposal be tailored to the needs of the local community?

1.1.Increasing Wikipedia usage through offline mediums and learning processes: Currently 50% of families in Mongolia do not have home internet access. (rb.gy/2pvt7w) And our developed offline Wikipedia DVD is crucial tool to increase local Wikipedia users and immediately they turn into online users. As of this graph rb.gy/ekfbmd during our Wikipedia DVD distribution of 2023 local Wikipedia usage rate dramatically increased during peak seasons compare to previous year. A key advantage of DVD is it can be copied and passed around with many additional users. We will distribute 4800 offline Wikipedia DVDs to 30 (new) public schools and 480 DVDs to 30 remote rural libraries. And we will distribute 36 000 Wikipedia editing user guides to 30 public schools. We will teach Wikipedia involved English classes at 10 public schools to further calibrate our method to converge Wikipedia process with local English learning process by schools thus will develop our fresh improved version of English textbook for public schools. After this process we will distribute a new version of English textbooks (900 pcs) to cooperating 30 public schools.

1.2. Distributing updated English textbook with Wikipedia elements to offer fresh Wikipedia and education converged approach to local communities: The development of English textbook with Wikipedia elements is very crucial innovative approach for all communities and other Wikimedia communities in other countries hence our two years of effort will be important innovative approach to boost Wikipedia educational potential in newer ways and converging Wikimedia projects with the educational trends everywhere. Plus our offline users penetration approach was highly successful as of mentioned local view statistics and repeating our proven process will help for improving our 2024 Wikipedia Summer School organization process and will generate other fresh outcomes.

1.3.Educating school teachers about the importance of using Wikimedia projects to improve their teaching environment: Through our debates with school teachers we will educate local teachers that despite Wikipedia there are much more learning options available from Wikimedia projects and both online and offline usage options are available for students needs using our distributed materials.

2.How will you increase brand awareness of Wikimedia projects and; or the Wikimedia movement?

2.1.Propagating Wikimedia brand and projects through learning and editing activities: The Wikipedia is known big educational resource in Mongolia, however due to limited communities internet access rate the Wikipedia usage rate and local articles volume are low (currently local Wikipedia has 23 000 articles mn.wikipedia.org). Hence our collaborations with 30 public schools and local libraries through Wikipedia editing events and Wikipedia Summer school activities we will bring Wikimedia projects and Wikimedia movement to the local communities. As of general Wikipedia statistics https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias Mongolian Wikipedia's depth level is 93 which is much higher than neighboring Wikipedias. This clearly tells that however with small size our Wikipedia being used by local communities much actively so our operation can awaken many other offline communities and our operation will increase educational values of Wikimedia projects for our communities and plus to create an example that to be learned by other communities. Especially our Wikipedia User Editing Guide presents other Wikimedia projects url link and description and over 19000 copies been distributed to 20 public schools and with new round of project we are planning to distribute to additional 30 schools. And as of the attached graph figure showing from Files and Documents section traditional lowest Wikipedia usage cycle of January and February of 2024 are showing record highest usage rate which showing the effects of how our distributed materials are already getting used by thousands of users.

2.2. Using of social networks: Majority of students and teachers use Facebook, Instagram, Youtube dominantly according to our study. Hence we will increase our outreach through these channels alongside launching our new User group pages distribution activities. Our partnering libraries and NGOs have also similar channels thus collaborating with them we will outreach numerous different new audience zones to propagate Wikimedia brand.

2.3. Traditional channels: We will use posters for public places and news sites that will connect us with new communities and then educate them about Wikimedia projects importance. For example uploading new useful photos and videos into Commons can help us for promoting local culture to the global audience etc.

3.How will you introduce new networks to build the local Wikimedia community?

3.1. Creating local User group through educational basis: There are many educational development opportunities for converging of Wikimedia projects with our local educational trends. From this User groups list https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups we will choose and study best suited groups activities and will adapt their strategies into our ways as a template. Since majority of Wikimedia projects features are aligned with developing, learning, diversifying and sharing educational processes we will develop our Wikimedia community activities through on demand approach based on those processes but pursues Open knowledge development framework.

3.2. To sustain members in User groups use realistic current causes: One big risk of passive User group situation is poor organization of events and concentrating on weak causes to work on. Hence we will concentrate on more realistic subjects and socially significant subjects to motivate future editors to work on developing of local and international Wikimedia projects.

3.3. Encouraging of new partners: Since many of Wikimedia projects offer scientific and social development features we will approach and encourage potential future aligned partner organizations to work on Wikimedia projects hence they will expand their online presence in fresh direct and indirect ways. This is another important operation to strengthen local User groups development that will expand our functioning space.

6. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)


Category	Yes/No
Education	Yes
Culture, heritage or GLAM	No
Gender and diversity	Yes
Community support and engagement	Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests	No
Other	No

Education

9.1.1. Select all your programs and activities for Education. (required): Wiki Club, Editing Wikipedia Training; Other programs and activities if any: N/A
9.1.2. Select all relevant audience groups for Education. (required): Vocational, tertiary, or higher education, Teachers or professors; Other groups if any: N/A

Gender and diversity

9.3. Select all your programs and activities for Gender and diversity.: Bringing in women and/or gender diverse participants and editors, Focusing on creating content about women and/or gender diverse groups, including biographies, intersectional topic areas and/or adding images; Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Community support and engagement

9.4. Select all your programs and activities for Community support and engagement.: On-wiki training of community members, Off-wiki training of community members, Organizing meetups, conferences, and community events; Other programs and activities if any: N/A
7. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required): https://wmf.fluxx.io/s3/model_doc/76/11048113

8. Describe your team. (required)

- Bat-Orgil Choijilsuren, Project manager. He is been worked for our educational projects since 2011.

Tuul Amarsaikhan, Project staff. She is been worked for our educational projects since 2011.

Undram Bat-Itgel, Project teacher. She is been worked for our projects as supporter and teacher since 2019.

Khandjav Terbish PhD, Project advisor, she is been working for our educational projects since 2017.

Dolgorsuren Baasandorj PhD, Project advisor, she is been working for our educational projects since 2017.

Darcy Maier US Peace Corps volunteer teacher, she is been worked for our project as a volunteer since 2023. Currently she works as an English teacher at school #24.

Christopher Wizda US Peace Corps volunteer teacher, he is been worked for our project as a volunteer since 2023. Currently he works as an English teacher at school #23.

Jeff Coombers US Peace Corps volunteer teacher, he is been worked for our project as a volunteer since 2023. Currently he works as an English teacher at school #33.

Jordan Stoneking US Peace Corps volunteer teacher, he is been worked for our project as a volunteer since 2024. Currently he works as an English teacher at school #1.

Sarah Taylor US Peace Corps volunteer teacher, she is our newest volunteer teacher. Currently she works as an English teacher at school #48.

Four part time staffs will help us to cooperate with multiple schools that they will organize multiple in class learning based Wikipedia articles creation sessions thus expanding local Wikipedia.

And we will recruit 5 volunteers from local Teachers university for all kinds of technical tasks assistance.

9. How will you be working and partnering with the Wikimedia community and/or affiliate/group. How are you engaging them in the planning, participation and/or execution of this proposal? Include details if you are engaging with the Wikimedia movement. Add any on-wiki discussion links. (required)

During this project we are planning to create local User group to better develop local Wikimedia projects and regarding this we will be mainly study and import examples from other Asian Users groups. Currently we have numerous supporters in local provinces so based on those network we will create various Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects based editing initiatives that closely cover various local educational and collaboration needs. In our communities we are having more of international languages speakers thus we will use them to translate our local pages into other language based Wikimedia projects. Especially we have contacts with Korean, German and Japanese speakers to utilize their manpower.

Metrics

Wikimedia Metrics

10. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)

10.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers
Metrics name	Target	Description
Number of all participants	33	We will distribute our DVDs to 30 public schools. And will try to cooperate some other public libraries for more Wikipedia editing training. Plus Youthinc NGO and Childrens development library will involve with our activities.
Number of all editors	100	N/A
Number of new editors	85
Number of retained editors	10
Number of all organizers	12	Public schools and public libraries will be chosen as Wikimedia activities co-organizers.
Number of new organizers	10

10.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)

Contributions to Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia project	Created	Edited or improved
Wikipedia	2300	200
Wikimedia Commons	800	200
Wikidata
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote	20	10
Wikivoyage	30	15
Wikibooks
Wikiversity	30	15
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia

Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

Other Metrics

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required): Yes


Other Metrics	Description	Target
Wikipedia Summer School 2024	During July 2024 and January 2025 we will co-organize Wikipedia Summer School in support of US Peace Corps volunteer teachers. This is important event to enhance Wikimedia projects influence to local communities and this allows us to do more closer study on Wikipedia effects on students learning process. As of March 2024 USPC volunteer Darcy Maier, Christopher Wizda, Alexander Erdman have offered their help as to work our Summer School teacher. During this operation we will further study the English to Mongolian Wikipedia articles translation effects on students language skills development alongside other researches.	2
Mongolia's User Group	Our project will create Wikimedia projects development oriented User group during 2024-2025. We will import other Asian user groups operational examples that adapted with local situation. During 2023 we have collected more than 100 English teachers emails and phone numbers from 20 public schools and this will help us to recruit suitable members for our user group.	1
Learn English with Wikipedia textbook	We will develop newer improved version of Learn English with Wikipedia textbook. With more calibrated operation and with more staffs involvement we will release more improved version of our textbook.	1
Converting new tool into learning tool	We have transformed our Wikipedia Editing guide as English learning lesson tool and suggested this to 20 public schools during 2023. And with second year of operation we will further press on this effort and will closely cooperate with the schools on how this tool usage can ideally fit their learning operation.	1
N/A	N/A	N/A

Budget

12. Your local currency. (required): MNT

13. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required): 219829043 MNT

14. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this Alliances Fund. (required)


Budget category	Amount in local currency
Staff and contactor costs	116100000 MNT
Operational costs	19851024 MNT
Programmatic costs	83878019 MNT

15. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

Additional information

16. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

Recruiting of US Peace Corps volunteers was crucial step for us to improve our project impacts in local communities during 2023 and we are planning to do this again in 2024 activities. The highest ranking students in local public schools much lacks with communication with natural English speaker teachers which such training only provided with very expensive local few private schools and private expensive language courses. But USPC volunteers provide this opportunity for free to our Summer School students and for us this allows us to attract most skilled students which in their respective local communities they are educational influencers that will further spread our impact. This process allows us bring Wikimedia project process much closer to students learning environment and to do various researches.

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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Notes

↑ The following amount in US dollars was calculated by Wikimedia Foundation staff using the fixed currency rates. This amount is approximate and may not reflect the actual currency exchange rates on the day of submission or distribution. If the application is funded, the funding will be sent in the recipient’s local currency.

[fixedrate-1] The following amount in US dollars was calculated by Wikimedia Foundation staff using the fixed currency rates. This amount is approximate and may not reflect the actual currency exchange rates on the day of submission or distribution. If the application is funded, the funding will be sent in the recipient’s local currency.

[1]