Grants:Project/Rapid/Digital Day of Service: Salem Storms Wiki at Salem College/Report

Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2018-19 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.


Goals edit

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

We are extremely happy with our event. It was a day long event held in our college library. This was a full partnership between Gramley Library, Information Technology and seven faculty from the sciences, humanities and social sciences. We had 120 people involved with the event including 100 undergraduates. Six faculty brought their classes to the library and had corresponding Wikipedia classroom assignments. An additional five faculty and staff with 11 students volunteered during the event. We were extremely lucky to have had three Wikipedia experts who helped students learn important skills and lead us in discussions on the use of Wikipedia. Please go to this link to see our event page. Overall a fantastic day!!


Outcome edit

Please report on your original project targets.


Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
Recruit new editors 74 editors, almost all new women editors We had 120 people attend the event, however 74 remembered to sign into the event page! This is more than we expected!
Add or improve content 2 new articles, 60 articles edited, 9 pictures uploaded, with 691 new edits totaling 15.4K words added! We are extremely proud of our students!
Increase skills for existing editors This is hard to measure but we have survey data from our students:24/30 students who filled out the survey said that they learned something new, while only one student said that they did not. Here are just a few examples of many anonymous comments

1. Not only did I learn the logistics of how to better use wiki editing but also what goes on behind the scenes about the credibility/discussion about adding new info or what should an should not be included. 2. I learned a lot about wiki code 3. I feel like I learned a lot overall about Wikipedia, how the website functions, how edits work, and I had no idea that there were talk pages we could access! It was also just a great opportunity to practice scientific writing.


Learning edit

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

  • What worked well?
    • The energy was very positive all day. The students were very engaged and overall really enjoyed the event.
    • The library was the perfect space to have the event. We need to expand to more rooms to decrease crowding although it gives really good energy to have many people working together.
    • Really good idea to have faculty from diverse backgrounds bring their students to the event. This gave us a guaranteed audience.
    • Really great idea to work with the Wiki Education folks to set up classes and have tutorials provided.
    • We went over budget on food but had just the right amount.
    • We really needed the Wikipedia Experts, they were great and it gave the whole event prominence.
    • Having volunteers greet people and help set up accounts was key.
    • Having a person with the ability to set up multiple accounts in one day is also key.
    • We invited a historian to give a talk on women who were put into slavery, which lead to a good discussion on notability. This was a great way to engage people who would ordinarily not come to an Editathon.
  • What did not work so well?
    • Timing was our main trouble. We did not plan enough in advance for many things including: the grant timeline, advertisements to outside members of the community, getting our PR people involved, getting the wiki-classrooms set up. Too much was done too quickly.
  • What would you do differently next time?
    • We will have the evaluation form at the event with a prize for filling it out. We got between 25% to 41% response rate depending on whether you count the total number of people who were there vs. the number of editors.
    • We will ask our volunteers to come earlier for the first shift.
    • We will increase the number of faculty participants.
    • We will set up other areas in the library and perhaps satellite locations for alumnae.
    • We are thinking of a larger conference.
    • We will begin planning earlier.

Finances edit

Grant funds spent edit

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Wikipedia Experts- Travel, lodging, food $900.00

Food- Lunch and Snacks $876.49

Supplies- Stickers and buttons $123.51

Remaining funds edit

Do you have any remaining grant funds? No


Anything else edit

Anything else you want to share about your project?

We are extremely grateful to the North Carolina Wikipedians! Three members of this organization came to Salem, some at very short notice. They were also able to help us with the grant and give us pointers before the event. Thank you!