Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021/Request for Comments/Online training: Challenges and possible solutions
Request for Comments is a discussion place where we are starting a few discussions and inviting you to share comments/views.
Why RFC?: These are a few questions, where we do not know the exact answer, and we believe your comments/inputs will help in planning Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021 or any other similar event. Let's learn from each other.
Every RFC will have these components–
- Question: Narrates the RfC topic in brief, in 1–2 sentences.
- Opening Remarks: Explains the question in detail, narrates the things we already know, provides links to resources, and helps to prepare for the discussion.
- Discussion: Main part of the RFC, where you will participate and share their comment/opinion/view. Although English might be the common language, feel free to write in any language.
- Conclusion/Closing remark: (optional) draws conclusion, if applicable, at the end of the discussion.
Guidelines
Here are the basic guidelines to follow.
- Everyone is welcome: Everyone is welcome to comment, from all communities, and all Wikimedia projects.
- Topic: All the topics will be directly related to WMWM or conducting the online events and remote participation in general.
- In search of an answer: An RFC will ask those questions where there is no clear/perfect answer yet, and a collective or group discussion may help in finding a solution/answer.
- Duration: An RFC will be open for at least 14 days (or more than that) unless a perfect answer is unanimously found and concluded before that.
- Detailed comment: Please write in details, and avoid brief comments without explanations.
- Friendly discussion: Keep the discussion friendly, avoid personal remarks and personal attacks.
Question edit
What are the challenges/difficulties you have faced during an online training session and how do you think those can be solved? Is there any workaround? Please share your experience and opinion.
Opening remarks edit
Online events or online training is relatively a new medium that we are exploring together. Many things are different, you do not have in-person interactions, one may feel lonely, there might be difficulties for a trainer or the participants to interact. One person speaking, and others listening — might be a good model for an in-person event, but does it work well for remote training?
Let's discuss the challenges you faced or you think you/anyone may face, or more importantly what are the possible solutions/workarounds?
Resources
Please see WikiProject remote event participation (Best practices and other sections)
See also
Platform for online event (RfC, if you want to discuss online platforms)
Discussion edit
internet connection edit
- The challenge in India may be an Internet connection. The power failure now-a-days causing slow internet in my case and I've experienced this at a number of places. Apart from this, lack of technical knowledge may create another problem. In offline meetups, anyone from the participants directly solves the issues if we face anything, but in this case, maybe it would take time or may irritate people. - Sangram Keshari Senapati (talk) 12:51, 21 November 2020 (UTC)
- A suggestion : Like e-mail clients, we have to create new techs. For example, to wikisource, if there is a option to download a book/ or few pages to do proofread offline, it will save time and data. becoz loading a image page to do proofread in online takes time where as if it is in offline it will be so easy. Usually, i wake up in early morning to get speedy internet connectivity! but you know i am lazy!! and also missing my morning walk. --Info-farmer (talk) 01:15, 28 November 2020 (UTC)
- I agree with Sangram, that internet connectivity is big issue for many of us. But familiarity with the portal/software we use to communicate also becomes huge problem as not all of us are familiar with most of the softwares(google hangout/teamviewer/etc). QueerEcofeminist [they/them/their] 18:07, 21 November 2020 (UTC)
interwiki best practices edit
- I suggest for the second objective (//Provide an online platform for wiki-learning and skill-share advanced editing, etc.//) : For example, among Indic Wikiscource community, the interface, tools are different. We have to interact with each other and try to understand the best practices(E.g.floating wiki markup) from each other and then we have to evolve new techs for the speedy good edits.See the paragraphs are looking good in hi.WS without the 'gap' template (Don,t forget to preview ---> {{gap}}). Where as in ta.WS, we are usingthat template. So, plan to save the editors time. Explore our hurdles.--Info-farmer (talk) 00:54, 28 November 2020 (UTC)
Program flow edit
A good program flow should be designed and strictly be followed, it also should be informed/share with the participants in advance. If any session goes beyond 1Hrs (which usually happens), there should be some time for 'break' (5-10 min). -- Suyash Dwivedi (talk) 17:48, 4 December 2020 (UTC)
- The development of the programme should begin with noting the differences between an in-person and online conference. At online events, people usually can't keep concentrated to attend a session with a duration of 90 minutes, so it's highly recommended to halve the length of the sessions to 45 minutes (at most 1 hour). Session formats at online conferences oftentimes overlap and it's better to keep it simple and offer only a few of them (e.g. lightning talk, lecture, workshop and discussion). Breaks should be no longer than 30 minutes and there should be an intermediate break lasting 90 minutes. Since people should be given the freedom to attend only the sessions they're particularly interested in, it's of crucial importance to net let major shifts in the time slots. For that reason, the role of the moderators should be highlighted and each session should not be allowed to go past its deadline.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 14:40, 9 December 2020 (UTC)