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


Report accepted
This midpoint report for a Project Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.



Welcome to this project's midpoint report! This report shares progress and learning from the grantee's first 3 months.

Summary

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  1. Engagement of the User Group member's
  2. Partnerships with schools
  3. Selection of Fellows
  4. Starting classes

Methods and activities

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Engagement of the User Group member's

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  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Starting Courses

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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.

Midpoint outcomes

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  • We registered a total of about 300 applicants from the 3 schools after the call of fellows.
  • 271 applications out of 314 registered (86.30%) were serious applications. 64 of them were selected in the end. They are from the following universities: 30 from UVCI, 18 from LABTIC-LARIT and 16 from ISTC-P.
  • On May 18th, INP-HB started with a class of 8 students. Activities were focused on account and user page creation, discussion, visual editor, wikicode, message editing, etc. 85 contributions were recorded at the end of this 1st session. 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. In May 26, we launched the Wikipedia Classes at ISTC-Polytechnique. Fifteen participants took part in the event with 5 members of the User Group. The meeting aimed to introduce the encyclopedia and the Wikimedia movement to students.
  • 7 volunteers, engaged in the project as assistant (1) and trainers (6).
  • 4 Wikimedians of the UG were taught to deliver training and familiarized themselves to the Syllabus of Les Classes Wikipedia. It is worth mentioning that this Syllabus is our own version, derived from the original WikiEducation Syllabus. It was translated and adapted based on the findings and lessons from the pilot phase last year.
  • 3 universities have been formally seized to host the Wikipedia Classrooms : Université Virtuelle de Côte d'Ivoire, ISTC-Polytechniques and Atlantique International Business School. Of the 3 colleges contacted in February via e-mail, we received a feed-back from UVCI and ISTC-P. Only AIBS did not responded. However, the Ecole Doctorale de l’Institut National Polytechnique Houphouet-Boigny (LABTIC) showed an obvious interest for this project on March 8, following a #1Lib1Ref training session in their premises. We were therefore able to achieve our goal of 3 universities.

Finances

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Actual Fund Spend Activity X OF USD (560,486) Notes
Communication - Marketing
Communication - Marketing Designing & printing (contractor) 150 000                                     268   Designing and printing roll up banner
9 000                                       16   Printing training kit
-                                         -     Printed documents set
18 000 32 Printing completion certificates
Total Communication/ Marketing 177 000 316                                    
Snacks
Snacks Trainers' training workshop 50 400 90 Snacks and beverage for 6 participants
Total Snacks 50 400 90
Travel / Equipment / Human ressources coordination
Travel / Equipment / Human ressources coordination Trainers' training workshop 15 000                                       27   Transport allowance for workshop attendees
40 000                                       71   Workshop trainers' compensation
Launching ceremony 35 000                                       62   Launching ceremony's staff compensation
Weekly training sessions 65 000                                     116   Compensation for the trainers of Wikipedia Classroom
Graduation ceremony                                         -     Graduation ceremony's staff compensation
Coordination 400 000                                     714   Project coordinator's compensation
459 900                                     821   EPSON video projector
Surge protector multi-socket
240 000                                     428   Wireless routeur
Internet connection fees for the training rooms (monthly subscription)
75 000                                     134   Telephone credit
Equipment transportation
Total Travel / Equipment / Human ressources coordination 1 329 900                                  2373  
TOTAL 1 557 300   2 778  
Funds received 1 692 049 3 019
Balance 134 749 240

Learning

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The best thing about trying something new is that you learn from it. We want to follow in your footsteps and learn along with you, and we want to know that you are taking enough risks to learn something really interesting! Please use the below sections to describe what is working and what you plan to change for the second half of your project.

What are the challenges

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  • Internet connection is slow and not enough
  • Lack or insufficient number of computers for participants
  • Unavailability of classrooms
  • Inconsistent participation of students
  • Insufficient references on selected topics

What is working well

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

Next steps and opportunities

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  • Finalizing courses
  • Organizing an Edit-athon to edit articles, improve stubs, etc.
  • Editing the project report
  • Requesting a 6 month extension for the 2018 - 2019 session

Grantee reflection

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Globally, we have a good opinion of the grant process. The process of attribution is certainly long, but once selected, things seem to accelerate, which is a good thing. Only downside to note is that if is not clearly mentioned that the mid-report is due 3 months after the start of the project. Running a project of one year, we thought that it would logically be be due after 6 months of activities.