Grants:Project/Rapid/OFWA/Ashesi Education Program

statusfunded

Rapid Grants

Open Foundation West AFrica (OFWA)/Ashesi Education Program

Open Foundation West Africa as part of its activities to promote Open Education started the first ever Wikipedia Education Project in the West African sub-region at the Ashesi University. Over 190 students who​ were taking the social theory course participated in the program. This also culminated in the formation of the first ever campus based club in the Sub Sahara Africa which we intend to grow and replicate similar models in other schools. We however intend to sustain the momentum through series of activities and resources needed to ensure sustainability.

targetWikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, WikiData.

start date1 August

end date30 September

budget (local currency)GHC 7748

budget (USD)USD 1827.36

grant typeOrganization

non-profit statusNon-profit

grantee• Rberchie• Flixtey

contact(s)• rberchieopenfoundationwestafrica.org• fnarteyopenfoundationwestafrica.org• adminopenfoundationwestafrica.org

organization (if applicable)• Open Foundation West AFrica (OFWA)

website (if applicable)• https://openfoundationwestafrica.org/

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Project Goal

Briefly explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".

This grant will help create awareness about the Education project on the campus as well as give visibility to the Campus based club. This will encourage other Lecturers to subscribe their students and course on the Wikipedia Education program. The campus based club will also leverage on this to attract more students who will be trained to contribute to different Wikimedia based sister projects.

Project Plan

The plan is to procure paraphernalia and souvenirs for members of the Ashesi Wiki Club and to enhance the cause of the Ashesi Wikipedia Education Program in order to increase the visibility of Wikipedia, the club and other related projects on campus. Beyond the paraphernalia, there will be other things such as training manuals, internet bundle, etc. that will be also procured to facilitate the Wikimedia activities on the Ashesi University campus.

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?

We intend to intensify the activities for the Education Program and increase the vibrancy of the Ashesi WikiClub. These will be achieved through submission of class assignment and term papers to Wikipedia under the Education Program and several activities such as photohunt events, writing contests, edit-a-thons, hackathons, etc will also be hosted through the club for the benefit of all students. All these events will seek to recruit Ambassadors of Wikipedia who will be ready to give other students briefing about Wikipedia when they ask.

How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?

1. We will use the social media channels of Open Foundation West Africa to promote this.
2. The Ashesi Wiki Club Facebook page
3. The Wikipedia Education Program Facebook page
4. The Wikimedia Foundation Social media hub
5. We will also Education Newsletter.

What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

The Club will continually operate on the campus. After every semester we will do a survey to assess how the Education project went. This will help better plan subsequent ones. The Club will hold periodic trainings on Wikipedia and its sister projects, periodic Edit-a-thons as well as partaking in thematic projects such as Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth etc. In addition to this, the Club can also execute other activities or projects intended to promote the cause of the WMF.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:

1. Number of total participants: Awareness of Wikipedia and sister projects will be created for over 300 students and over 10 Academic lecturers at Ashesi University.
2. Get the Education Program extended beyond the Social Theory course with an inclusion of one other academic course at Ashesi University.
3. Create a partnership with the Computer Science Department and get to train at least 10 programmers to learn to Develop on the MediaWiki platform.
4. Recruit at least 10 Ambassadors for the continuous training and support on campus
5. Improve and increase content about the University and its academic staff on Wikipedia and its sister projects.
6. Secure a partnership for the Wikipedia Library.

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

1. User:Rberchie is a long term Wikipedian and helped start the Education Program and helped set up the Club.
2. User:Flixtey is also a long term Wikipedian and helped start the Education Program and helped set up the Club.
3. User:Edith Violet Naisubi is the President of the Ashesi Wiki Club and a founding member of the club. She has shown a great deal of passion after recruiting her out of one of our programs and championed the movement goals on campus.
4. Dr Kajsa Hallberg Adu, a senior lecturer at Ashesi University has been very instrumental with the Education program and the formation of the Ashesi Wiki Club. She showed further interest by scheduling to meet Tighe while in Washington DC for discussions about the education program, after our introduction to both.
5. Open Foundation West AFrica (OFWA) will take oversight responsibility of this project. The Organization has organized several projects in the past that were succesful and will use the skill-sets available, experience and other resources to ensure that this is also sustainable and successful.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:

	QUANTITY	UNIT PRICE GHC	TOTAL BUDGET GHC	TOTAL BUDGET USD	COMMENTS
T-shirts	200	22	4400	1037.74	For marketing and PR of our activities on campus
Roll up banners	3	350	1050	247.64	We intend to print 3 roll up banners, one for the Ashesi WikiClub, One for the Ashesi Education Program and one for WIkipedia Education Program in general that we could use at trainings, conferences, etc.
Stickers	500	1.5	750	176.89	For traction and can give as many as possible
Cheat Sheets	300	1.50	450	106.13	Useful in teaching people how to edit using the basic wiki markup text.
Intro Materials	200	1.50	300	70.75	This will entail introduction materials and case studies from the Wikipediaa Education Program for further understanding and application of what we can achieve through their Education Program.
Internet	2	399	798	188.21	Necessary for our trainings for the entire semester.
			7748	1827.36

Endorsements

•  Support This project will go a long way to impact humanity. Getting Wikipedia into schools is a strategy to make the world better in a shorter period of time. I support this project and if Wikipedia can be adopted in University Institutions for example, this will impact humanity in an educational point of view. Alangi Derick (talk) 19:45, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
• I endorse the Ashesi education Program. Ashesi University is a trailblazer in Africa and I believe that they buying into the Wikipedia philosophy is a win-win for just for Wikimedia but also for the open movement in Africa. I also trust Raphael, Felix and their team to do a fabulous job om this project. Kayusyussuf (talk) 20:03, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
• I believe this program is the best driving force to promote Wikimedia Projects. The WikiClub of Ashesi has proved its success on Wikipedia so far and I'm with no doubt that a larger number of these students as well as lecturers will help make a significant sustainable impact within the Open society. Joy Agyepong (talk) 07:45, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
• I'm excited to see this proposal to further the activities that have started at Ashesi University. I appreciate the updates and documentation that the community members have shared on their efforts so far, and I hope that these resources can help them to keep up the momentum. Tighe Flanagan (WMF) (talk) 19:57, 10 July 2017 (UTC)