Education/News/June 2018/Ashesi Wiki Club: Charting the cause for Wikipedia Education Program in West Africa

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Ashesi Wiki Club: Charting the cause for Wikipedia Education Program in West Africa[edit]

Author:Raphael Berchie




Summary:The WEP at Ashesi University was a novelty on the West African sub-region. This fully fledged WEP included a campus based Wiki Club. Beyond this, OFWA is poised at going beyond this WEP and Wiki Club to do more Open Education stuff in Ghana and beyond with Wikipedia and its sister projects at the core.


The Ashesi University Wikipedia Education Program was the first WEP in the West African sub region. It was started March 2017 by Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA) at Ashesi University one of Ghana’s finest private Universities. The program uses a multi-pronged approach. The program currently involves over 150 third year undergraduate students who are taking the Social Theory course which is an academic prerequisite at Ashesi University. The course uses lectures and discussions to expand students understanding of privilege and power, combining insights from African philosophy, global history, international politics and the history of ideas to broaden their 'sociological imagination'. The course is taught from the perspective of lived experiences in the Global South. This helps build academic and well researched contents around Africa and the Global South which are mostly lacking on Wikipedia and its sister projects.

The WEP at Ashesi University is also unique in a way that, aside the on going program, there is also a campus based Ashesi Wiki Club that complements the activities of the WEP since it runs every other semester (once a year). The “Wiki Club" continues Wikimedia work on campus and provides a going concern for those who were trained through the social theory course while recruiting all students on campus who may not have taken the social theory course yet interested in Wikimedia Projects.The Academic Coordinator is Dr Kajsa Hallberg-Adu who also doubles as the patron of the Ashesi Wiki Club. So far the joint activities of the program and the club has resulted in over 50 new articles created, 177 articles edited, about 70 images uploads and over 1000K views. It is also worth sharing that OFWA in August 2017 rolled out an unconventional type of WEP that trains students and open activists in a 2 day school/camp setting to build their capacity on open tools and projects and how to cross collaborate on these projects for future work in their universities and respective communities. These participants are trained as ambassadors at the annual Summer Open School, the mix of students, academics and open activists together ensure quality of contribution and discussions around promoting open education with Wikipedia at its centre. Additionally, OFWA is working on more partnerships with different institutions in and outside Ghana and once finalized will see more Wikipedia Education Programs in and outside Ghana.


Tags:

Wikipedia Education Program
Open Foundation West Africa
Ashesi Wiki Club