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

This project is funded by a Project Grant

proposal

people

timeline & progress

finances

midpoint report

final report

Report accepted

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

• To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/UG CI/Les Classes Wikipedia (Wikipedia Classroom).
• You may still review or add to the discussion about this report on its talk page.
• You are welcome to email projectgrantswikimedia.org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

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

Summary

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

Methods and activities

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.
• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

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

• 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

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

Next steps and opportunities

• 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

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.