Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Morocco (2nd edition, 2022)/Midpoint

Report under review

This Project Grant midpoint report has been submitted by the grantee, and is currently being reviewed by WMF staff. If you would like to add comments, responses, or questions about this grant report, you can create a discussion page at this redlink.

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Summary

During the first phase of this project, we worked with our partners to contact teachers and introduce the program to encourage them to register. We used ads on social media and had an introduction session with a group of teachers that are also members of the reading network of Morocco. In addition to that, we sent press releases to many national newspapers to share information publicly about the program.

The project team managed to receive +764 applications from teachers all over Morocco, exceeding our expectations. We selected 200 participants based on specific criteria to achieve diversity and engage multiple regions in the program.

We launched surveys to evaluate the participant’s vision of Wikipedia and their expectation of the program. Then, we welcomed the teachers and started the training sessions each week. We provided continuous support to the participants regarding the internet, digital skills, questions about the training module, etc. We managed to keep most of them engaged so far in the program.

We were also working on the 4th module materials, which are almost done, along with the logistic set-up (hotels propositions, transport, etc.) for the onsite activity that we will organize by the end of the training.

Method and activities

Project management

To maintain a good advancement of the project, we adopted the Kanban methodology. By doing so, we could organize and manage work more efficiently. It also allowed us to keep track of every task with ease. Therefore we:

• Created a document with a list of tasks assigned to each member
• Visualized the tasks
• Kept track of deadlines
• Managed the flow and the order of tasks based on priorities

A specific team member was assigned to manage and keep track of the kanban document.

The project team also adopted an internal routine for its organization, including reporting in weekly meetings called by the user group board (also representing the project steering committee), where the status was discussed, including different risks and their mitigations, and general updates on progress and financials.

Communication and outreach

The team tried to capitalize on its network, partnerships, and press releases to reach a larger public and share information about the program to encourage teachers to participate. We performed the following actions:

• Invite members of ‘the reading network of morocco’ to an introductory session of the program
• Create a Facebook page, an Instagram page, a website, and a dedicated email address (eduwikimoroccogmail.com) to promote our program.
• Use ads on social media to target teachers.
• Send a press release where we explain the program and encourage teachers to be part of it and spread the word in Morocco. Here are some examples of what the national press wrote about the program: ar.industries.ma - yalkhbar.com- alittihad.info - alminassa24.ma

Selection of participants

After receiving 764 applications in one month, we launched surveys and tried to select the right participants to maintain diversity and integration. Actions that were done in this activity were  the following:

• Sending surveys to the teachers who registered to evaluate their motivation and their expectations from the program.
• Selecting participants from different regions of Morocco
• Maintaining gender equality for the 200 participants ( ages, levels, private and public sector).Please check this PDF file for more information.

• Surveys...
• 
  Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Morocco 2022-survey2
• 
  Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Morocco 2022-survey1

Launching the training sessions

Once the 200 participants were selected, we contacted them using emails and invited them to join the Facebook group created for the program. Each team member was responsible for supporting 50 participants and guiding them all along with the program. We organized the session’s agenda and started the program with an introductory and welcoming session. To guarantee the best experience for the participants, we followed the steps below:

• The session date and hour were fixed based on the participant’s preferences.
• Each participant had a contact person in the team responsible for supporting them and answering their questions.
• A document is updated after each session to keep track of the participant’s activity and interaction during the sessions.
• Internet support is offered for participants in need to ensure attendance at the session.
• For every session, there is a backup trainer and a technical support person responsible for the good proceedings of the live session.
• Trying to highlight participants with less activity and contacting them directly to provide the necessary support.
• Building from scratch the 4th module of the training and making the content aligned with the expectations and needs of the participants.
• Creating a WhatsApp group for all participants to keep them posted and provide another environment for discussion.

• Some examples of screenshots...
• 
  Teachers activity and interaction during the sessions
• 
  WhatsApp group for the teachers

Midpoints outreach

During the first phase of this project, we managed to exceed the expectation regarding the number of applications (764 registered their interest in attending the program). We selected 200 participants while respecting the diversity metric. The press release was shared . The training started successfully, and the participants received the necessary support during their participation. The 4th module’s content and questions are already prepared. The team is also working on securing the onsite activity by setting the logistics regarding the event.

We can summarize the outreach using the points below:

• Press release: +5 newspapers shared the article and conducted interviews with a representative of the team (exceeding the expectation)
• Registration: 764 teachers (exceeding the expectation)
• Participants: 200 (exact expectation)
• Regions: 11 regions (covering 92% of Morocco)
• Gender: 40% of the participants are women (a higher % compared to last year’s edition, which was 24%)
• Module 4: Partly done (slides and activities)
• Number of online sessions completed so far: 4 sessions (Two modules were finished, which is aligned with the timeline)
• High engagement rate(+350 constant comments during live sessions, +100 consistent attendees to the live sessions)- We define engagement rate as the percentage of teachers participating actively in sessions and assignments.
• Search and preparations regarding logistics of the onsite activity (In progress - Waiting for the second part of the fund)
• Initiate a discussion with community members from the region (Ghana, Nigeria) who have launched similar projects, and provide guidance and support.

• Some examples of screenshots...
• 
  Meeting with community members(Ghana, Nigeria).
• 
  Teachers engagement with the program's curriculum content

Finances

This phase of the project had specific costs and finances. The spreadsheet below details the actual expenses Vs forecasted expenses to show the progress done so far:

Link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OSqZEKJX1YCnGkEFJfVnzza-M0wr1daQ/edit#gid=867760549

Learnings

Some challenges

Ensuring a good Internet coverage/well-covered location for the facilitation - Although having a good Internet connection at home, the primary facilitator sometimes experienced challenges in terms of the Internet (where it was cutting - which can be expected). Having children, he also had to find a good and quiet location to facilitate the sessions outside of his home, which presented risks with transportation. The project is still studying this situation to find the best solution to address it. It is not a complete blocker, but improving it would be appreciated.

What is working well

So far, all our continuous effort has helped participants learn more about Wikipedia and how it can be considered a great educational tool. Many of them have already changed their mind regarding that. The engagement plan we set was helpful for both instructors and participants. Each team member is assigned to support 50 participants. We check their advancement every week while contacting those of them who seem to face difficulties and try to help them to finish their assessment. We use all communication channels to keep the participants motivated,; as an example:

• We post flyers every week to remind them to complete the tasks.
• We encourage them and address their questions using Facebook group
• We provided a general email address and phone number to contact if they needed any extra help.
• We set one-to-one calls for those of them who need guidance.

The flexibility of team members is also a key point to highlight as it helps the project's progress.

• 
  Example of social media post to remind teachers to complete the tasks

Next steps and opportunities

The following steps for the second part of the program would be:

• Completing all the training sessions according to the schedule
• Receiving and managing the second part of the fund to cover the expenses of the remaining phase of the program
• Providing the certificates to teachers who worked to fulfil the requirements.
• Celebration ceremony.
• Selecting the top twenty active  teachers to participate in the onsite activity.
• Securing the onsite activity logistics and materials (hotel, transports, notebooks, bags, gifts, food, etc.).
• Preparing the agenda and activities for the onsite event.

Grantee reflection

Reading Wikipedia in the classroom is a particular/special project that needs to be reviewed while considering the evaluation metric. It’s always recommended that the grant committee collaborates with the educational team of Wikimedia to evaluate and analyze the grant applications and reports.