Learning patterns/Mode of training
A learning pattern foreditathons
Mode of training
problemMost training and recruitment sessions, or Wikimedia clinics, have an acute way of training new recruits or even people who have a fair knowledge of WIkipedia and its sister projects.
solutionTo have a much more relaxed mode that ensures participants have enough\t time to understand each tool or resource that is the subject of training.
creator• Flixtey
created on14:55, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
status:proposed
What problem does this solve?
editSo most Wikimedians because of their fondness to the Wikiverse assume its easy to understand how to go around Wikimedia projects. They mostly due to this notion train recruits or new editors in a intense manner that makes the whole training cumbersome to participants and very difficult to comprehend. This info was gathered from our very first Edit Ghana training session and editathon when feedback were that, the entire training was clustered in their minds and was very difficult to assimilate.
What is the solution?
editCreate a series of training with a topic each day. Mostly five different sessions are helpful to a basic editor or one new to the Wikiverse.
- Five pillars of Wikipedia (includes policies, guidelines, best practices).
- Syntax hands-on (may require enough time to be understood, especially people new to wiki text or basic computer language) or visual editor
- Citation and referencing hands-on (a comparison may be drawn between a well developed article and bad article, for practical understanding of what is expected)
- Introduction to other sister projects (necessary to draw in their interests in which project might best suit their persona or in which project they can best align their abilities). For example, how to upload a photo to Commons and use it.
- Edit-a-thon (necessary for practising the skills and knowledge acquired throughout the training sessions; may also be an opportunity to gain some real edits)
Things to consider
edit- The five modes of teaching may not suit all contexts. Other maybe require more or even less depending on the audience (senior high-school students, university students, people with very low IT proficiency, etc.)
- Emphasis should be on areas or sessions that may be very technical and may require rapt attention.
When to use
edit- At an outreach event
- Any kind of training session that involves new users or fairly new editors.