Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Introduction to Wikipedia and Commons micro credential course (ID: 22362462)

Review feedback

Hi Jimmyjrg, thank you for submitting this Rapid Fund request. We are excited about your plan to create Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons learning resources on the WikiLearn platform, and we appreciate this detailed and thoughtful proposal.

The review team has some requests and comments after reviewing your grant application. We would like to hear your thoughts before moving forward with this grant request.

1. Creation of courses on WikiLearn and funding

We want to highlight that some features and policies of the WikiLearn platform are still under development. So far, only the Wikimedia Foundation and a few Wikimedia affiliates have created courses on the platform.

However, we would like to make an exception this time and allow you to co-create courses as an individual. This will be an experimental pilot, where we will explore and learn while also finalizing the features and policies of WikiLearn. We will be glad to make this exception provided that you are in constant contact with the Community Development and Community Resources teams at Wikimedia Foundation.

For other individuals interested in creating courses, this will mean that we may not fund any other WikiLearn related Rapid Fund requests until this pilot is finalized.

2. Courses and learning pathways

As we mentioned, Wikimedia Foundation and a few affiliates are actively working on creating some learning resources and pathways on the WikiLearn platform. Some of these resources may potentially overlap with your plan and structure of courses, for example, Africa Growth Project. In order to ensure holistic approach for the platform and learning process, we request that if this grant is funded, Wikimedia Foundation staff is engaged in the following steps of the project implementation:

• Finalizing the structure of courses
• Reviewing the content of scripts and detailed plan before the videos or other resources are created
• Approving final courses before they are made publicly available

This means that you will need to meet a few Wikimedia Foundation staff members during the project implementation, discuss our recommendations, and make changes based on the outcomes of the discussions. This engagement will be in a spirit of mutual learning and co-creation that will benefit a positive development of WikiLearn for more Wikimedians.

3. Certification and micro credential

Similarly, we want to be in touch with you to discuss how the certification will look like. We think that offering a course completion certificate will be appreciated. But anything else that goes beyond the course completion certificate, for example, a certification stating that an individual can now edit on Wikipedia, should be discussed and aligned with the WikiLearn platform and Wikimedia Foundation practices. We are curious to know who would be the certifying body and what criteria you would be using to assess qualification.

4. Engagement of other Wikimedia affiliates

We are curious to learn more about Wikimedia Australia's engagement in the process. We are happy to hear that they will support some of the project costs. However, we would also like to hear more about any other potential ways Wikimedia Australia may support this project.

We understand that some of the requests may significantly affect the initial project plan. But we believe that these changes will ensure that this and other courses complement each other and offer quality learning experience. Thanks for your time and we look forward to hearing from you on this page by 10 December 2023. Best regards, --DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 08:17, 4 December 2023 (UTC), on behalf of the review team

Hi @DSaroyan (WMF), thanks for your message. I'll try and reply to your request as best I can, but please let me know if you need more details.

1. Creation of courses on WikiLearn and funding

I'm happy to do this project as a pilot and stay in contact with the Community Development and Community Resources teams and anyone else you think could provide input throughout.

2. Courses and learning pathways

I'll make sure to engage with WMF staff in the steps mentioned. This will potentially mean my initial timeline will need to be adjusted, but I assumed you'd want some approval over content so it shouldn't change by much.

3. Certification and micro credential

For the certificate, I'm happy to partner with you on the design. Currently, when you finish a course on WikiLearn you get a micro credential (here's mine for Introduction to Partnership Building) which also allows people to print a certificate from the provider badgr. Here's a screenshot of mine that shows 'Wikimedia Foundation Education Team' as the issuer. There might be a way to change that design? I'm not sure but we could find a way.

The certificate (or at least the Earning Criteria/Evidence) would point to the person having learnt how to edit Wikipedia, but we can find the best way to word this so it's not misunderstood to be something more.

Ideally, the certificate would be awarded to anyone who had passed the course which would included several quizzes to show they had understood the lesson material. This would be awarded automatically.

4. Engagement of other Wikimedia affiliates

Wikimedia Australia (WMAU)'s support would also allow me to tap into their network when looking for beginner editors to trial the courses before being made publicly available. Working with local individuals would mean I can reply to their feedback in a timely manner.

WMAU also asked to preview any lessons scripts so they can provide feedback and have requested that I check in with them regularly to discuss the project so they can provide additional support where needed. I feel confident they would assist me where ever needed if anything came up. (I'll ask @BindiS to reply here too)

Hopefully that answers things. Overall, I'm happy to work with WMF and anyone else to get this project going as I feel a course on WikiLearn would be a great way to introduce new contributors to Wikimedia projects. Cheers. Jimmyjrg (talk) 04:27, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

Dear Jimmyjrg, thanks for your comprehensive response. We are glad to move forward with this grant request and fund it in the amount of 7,800 AUD. --DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 10:47, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you @DSaroyan (WMF) I'm looking forward to working on this project. Jimmyjrg (talk) 21:52, 7 December 2023 (UTC)