Grants:Project/UG CI/Les Classes Wikipedia (Wikipedia Classroom)/Final


Report under review
This Project Grant report has been submitted by the grantee, and is currently being reviewed by WMF staff. You may add comments, responses, or questions to this report's discussion page.



Welcome to this project's final report! This report shares the outcomes, impact and learnings from the grantee's project.

Part 1: The Project

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Summary

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Through Wikipedia Classroom, we provide 4-5 weeks of training to young people, under 35 years old, from three universities of Ivory Coast. During each training session, learners focus on creating and improving the Wikipedia articles of the 100 most notable Ivorian writers. The course is inspired by the WikiEducation Syllabus and was tested for more than 6 months in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). This 2nd edition ended with the creation of 2 Wikipedia Club.

Project Goals

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Recruit new Wikipedia editors or members of the Ivory Coast. The majority of participants had never contributed to Wikimedia projects. The Wikipedia Classes were an initiation for them. At the end of the program, we opened 2 Wikipedia Clubs with about 30 students and appointed a University Referent.

Increase skills for existing editors who have less than 50 contributions. Some of the trainers, although contributors on Wikipedia, had fewer than 50 contributions. The Wikipedia Classes, through the training of trainers, helped to raise their level. They passed the bar of 50 contributions.

Add or improve content on Wikimedia Website (Wikipedia, Commons). The Wikipedia Classes focused this year on Ivorian writers. It was about improving or creating new Wikipedia articles on the theme. Similarly, photos of Commons have been reused to enrich Wikipedia.

 

Involve advanced wikipedians in mentorship of newbies. The opportunity of the training of trainers allowed to mobilize 8 Wikipedians. Their role was to animate training sessions and organized writing workshops. A role that has continued with the support and assistance of students after face-to-face sessions.

Project Impact

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Important: The Wikimedia Foundation is no longer collecting Global Metrics for Project Grants. We are currently updating our pages to remove legacy references, but please ignore any that you encounter until we finish.

Targets

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Planned measure of success

(include numeric target, if applicable)        

Actual result                 Explanation
   100 articles about Ivorian writers have been created or/and improved by the end of the project

 

78 We have encountered difficulties in finding sources on Ivorian authors. Articles concerning authors or literature are rare in the media because they are more interested in political topics.
30 participants have been trained

 

48 The program has received a welcome beyond our expectations. We received more than 300 applications. We were forced to make a selection.
20 newly registered users


47 Almost all participants were beginners.
6 existing Wikipedians have received a trainers' training


6
5 participants join the UG and get involved in our projects


11 We have opened 2 Academic Clubs of about ten members affiliated to the user group and appointed a university referent.
5 participants become regulars contributors (at least 5 edits/month)


10 We have identified a dozen contributors with an average of 5 contributions per month since the creation of their accounts during the training.
   By the end of the project, at least 2 trainers who were previously trained when the project began, will then be able to train new trainers


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Story

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Beyond the training and editorial contributions recorded, we particularly appreciate the creation of 2 Wikipedia clubs. Wanted by the participants, and authorized by the administrations, these clubs are for us the proof of the adoption of the project by the partners of the education. These clubs are today the spearhead of the spin-off of the Wikimedia movement beyond the user group.

Methods and activities

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Please provide a list of the main methods and activities through which you completed your project.

Engagement of the User Group member's

  • The project was officially presented on January 15, 2018 in front of twenty members of the User Group.
  • The meta pages of the project have been edited, including biographies of project members. The pilot project team was appointed again.
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    6 trainers (2 of them published their biographies) were recruited from 10 applications. The teacher training took place on March 10th. 4 Wikimedians of the UG were taught to deliver training and familiarized themselves to the Syllabus of Les Classes Wikipedia.

Partnership with Schools

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  • Contacting universities formally
  • Working session and preparation meetings with heads of Université Virtuelle de Côte d’Ivoire were held to discuss practical arrangements.
  • At Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Communication – Polytechnique, after obtaining authorization from the administration staff, we had a meeting on March 28th with the new Student Office to introduce them to the project.

Selection of fellows

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  • A call for applications was launched on March 21st, via a Google form.
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    On April 18, the 64 selected candidates were notified by email of their selection. Their evaluation was conducted in two phases. The first phase took place from April 11th to 13th. It consisted in sorting the candidatures, in order to exclude duplicates and less serious applications. The latter phase considered either the unavailability of candidates or their inability to secure or borrow a computer equipment. From April 14 to 17, the 6 trainers evaluated each application based on some criteria. Trainers assessed candidates motivation to participate and their Wikipedia and literary culture. Each candidate received 2 ratings given distinctly by 2 trainers. Out of these ratings an average score and ranking was established.

Deployment of Classes

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  • The training sessions started on May 2018. On May 19th, INP-HB started with a class of 8 students. Activities were focused on account and user page creation, discussion, visual editor, wikicode, talk page discussion, etc.On May 26, we launched the Wikipedia Classes at ISTC-Polytechnique. That launching session aimed to introduce students to the encyclopedia and the Wikimedia movement. On May 18, we also hosted an information session on Wikipedia for Abidjan Catholic University (UCAO) students in License 1, as part of the Communication course led by a member of User Group. Les classes ont finalement démarré à l’UVCI le 4 juin 2018.
  • Closing sessions were held in June and July 2018. June 23, 2018, with INP students, July 7 with ISTC-P and July 16 at UVCI. The closing sessions consisted of feedback from the participants, followed by presentations of the most regular certificates. Regularity was finally accepted as the paramount criterion for obtaining certificates.
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    We held an average of four two-hour sessions per school, sometimes having to adapt the training plan because of the academic calendar.

Creation of 2 Academic Clubs & designation of a school referent

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  • We opened two university clubs in two schools, one at the request of the administration, the other at the request of the students themselves. We have designated a local referent at the doctoral school of INP-HP. The one with interface role in the school and the user group.

Project resources

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  1. Project page on the user group weebsite ;
  2. The category "Wikipedia Classes 2018" on Commons gathers all the photos, presentations and feedback of the project.
  3. Outreach Dashboard of Wikipedia Classroom at UVCI
  4. Outreach Dashboard of Wikipedia Classroom at INP-HB
  5. Outreach Dashboard of Wikipedia Classroom at ISTC-P

Learning

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What worked well

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  • The involvement of some administration staffs
  • The engagement of the members of the User Group
  • Communication about the project

What didn’t work

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  • Internet connection is slow and not enough
  • Lack or insufficient number of computers for participants
  • Unavailability of space sometimes where schools had others programs
  • Inconsistent participation of some students
  • Insufficient references on selected topics

Next steps and opportunities

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We are planning to link to Wikipedia Classroom the opening of Clubs. Our objective is to create a territorial or sectoral spin-off of the Wikimedia movement in Ivory Coast. It is also a way to make the impact of this project sustainable beyond the training sessions.

Part 2: The Grant

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Finances

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Actual spending

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Please copy and paste the completed table from your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed the actual expenditures compared with what was originally planned. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided to explain them.

Actual Fund Spend Activity X OF USD

(549.63)

Notes
Communication - Marketing
Communication - Marketing Designing & printing (contractor) 150 000 273 Designing and printing roll up banner
9 000 17 Printing training kit
18 000 33 Printing completion certificates
Total Communication/ Marketing 177 000 323
Snacks
Snacks Trainers' training workshop 50 400 92 Snacks and beverage for 6 participants
Total Snacks 50 400 92
Travel / Equipment / Human ressources coordination
Travel / Equipment / Human ressources coordination Human ressources 15 000 28 Trainers' training workshop (Transport allowance for workshop attendees)
40 000 73 Workshop trainers' compensation
35 000 64 Launching ceremony ( Launching ceremony's staff compensation)
709 000 1 280 Weekly training sessions (Compensation for the trainers of Wikipedia Classroom)
Equipment 459 900 837 EPSON video projector
Wireless routeur
Surge protector multi-socket
Coordination 750 000 1 365 Internet connection fee for training rooms spread across the three institutions.
900 000 1 638 Project coordinator's compensation
225 000 410 Telephone credit
Equipment transportation
Total Travel / Equipment / Human ressources coordination 3 133 900 5 702
TOTAL 3 351 300 6 098
Funds received 3 350 200 6 095,43
Balance

Remaining funds

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Do you have any unspent funds from the grant?

No

If you have unspent funds, they must be returned to WMF. Please see the instructions for returning unspent funds and indicate here if this is still in progress, or if this is already completed:

Documentation

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Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grantsadmin wikimedia.org, according to the guidelines here?

Yes

Confirmation of project status

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Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

yes

Is your project completed?

yes

Grantee reflection

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This first Project Grant experience has been rewarding for us in the process of this type of grant. However, we were disturbed by the reaction times from the Grant team, especially during the validation of the mid-term report, forcing us to adapt our deployment schedule.