Hello Wikimedia colleagues,
Some of you may remember the LearnWiki project [0]. Regrettably, the
project goals were not completed within the planned timeline and budget. If
you would like to read that grant's final report, you may find it here [1].
I continue to believe that there would be value in offering more online
training to Wikimedians through videos, and possibly interactive tutorials
and other resources, that could help Wikimedians with novice to
intermediate skill levels to improve their proficiency with navigating
Wikimedia online cultures, principles, referencing, VisualEditor, the 2017
New WikiText Editor (which I like to call "NEWT") [2], and other topics.
Currently, there is a variety of training throughout the Wikimedia
ecosystem. Training varies across projects (e.g. Wikipedia, Wikidata,
Commons), languages (e.g. English, Arabic, Japanese), settings (e.g. GLAM
workshops, university classes, online individual study), formats (e.g. in
person, remote, video, interactive tutorial, lecture), and themes (e.g.
Wiki Loves Monuments, Women in Red, WikiProject Military History).
I plan to create and distribute a survey during the next few months to ask
individual Wikimedians and Wikimedia affiliate organizations about the
training practices that you have used to train yourself or others, how
effective you think that those training practices are, and what types of
training you would like to have available in the future. This survey would
inform the development of training materials and methods.
Improving the quality and diversity of training is a long term goal of
mine. This campaign is currently not funded by the Wikimedia Foundation or
any Wikimedia affiliate, although I believe that the survey data will
provide valuable input for possible projects, and people may request
funding for some of those projects (whether or not they are collaborating
with me). I do not plan to request WMF funds for myself in the foreseeable
future, but I may request funding for other contractors or grantees for
some projects that are related to this campaign and who collaborate with
me. While I work on this initiative, I anticipate that numerous Wikimedia
affiliates and program leaders will continue to develop and refine a
variety of training materials, some of which will be funded by WMF,
affiliates, and/or other organizations. I hope to collaborate with others,
incrementally and over the course of years, to improve the quality and
diversity of training throughout the Wikimedia ecosystem.
I believe that WMF is planning to launch the 2018 Community Engagement
Insights survey in March, and to publish results in May. [3] The CEI survey
results from 2017 and 2018 are likely to influence plans for development of
training materials, although the survey that is focused on training will be
separate from the 2018 CEI survey. I plan to collaborate with WMF Community
Resources and WMF Learning and Evaluation *if* they have availability and
willingness to participate in the design and analysis of the training
survey. :)
Further updates about the training survey will be provided during the next
few months. In the meantime, you are welcome to contact me with questions
or comments through email, IRC, or on my Meta talk page, especially if you
would like to help with the design of the survey.
Regards,
Pine <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine>
[0]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Learnwiki
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Motivational_and_educational_vid…
[2]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/2017_wikitext_editor
]3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Engagement_Insights