Education/News/June 2020/Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse – Celebrating the final unit of the online course
Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse – Celebrating the final unit of the online course!
Author: MGuadalupe (WMF)
Summary: The Education Team at the Wikimedia Foundation is happy to announce (and celebrate!) the completion of the online course component of the Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse pilot! Cheers to all those who participated in the course and congratulations to our 13 full graduates!
Last July, we celebrated the launch of the Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse pilot. One of the elements of this pilot was an online course focused on global education goals and project management skills for Wikimedia education initiatives. Over 100 Wikimedians joined the online course and had access to a variety of resources, discussions, and activities that engaged them with topics from national education policies to logic model design and stakeholder analysis. To wrap-up this learning journey, Unit 3 covered topics related to monitoring, evaluation and advocacy.
An overview of Unit 3 contents:
Module 1:
Monitoring and course correction
Through examples of case studies, our participants analyzed the reasons and processes needed to establish monitoring processes in a Wikimedia education project. They created a sample monitoring plan for their own initiatives that focused on a continuous improvement loop: the defined their indicators, data collection methods, timelines, and owners. All of this connected to the objectives stated in the logic models they had previously developed on Unit 2.
Module 2: Impact evaluation
In this module, participants reflected on the purpose of incorporating an evaluation plan for their Wikimedia education projects. Through a “flash forward” exercise, participants imagined a future scenario for their project evaluation efforts and reflected on their purpose for creating an evaluation report of their projects, the potential audience of such a report, and the changes that happened as a result of it. At the end of the module, participants were able to create an initial draft for their project’s evaluation plan that included their main project objectives, evaluation questions, and indicators of success.
Module 3: Advocacy skills
What does powerful advocacy look like? What are some key advocacy skills to develop? Through the resources and activities of this module, participants reflected on their roles as advocates for Wikimedia and education in their communities, and how to strengthen their efforts through evidence-based messages (a few of them even created cool posters!).
Module 4: Sharing case studies: How can others learn from our project?
To wrap up the final unit of our online course, we analyzed examples of case studies and the different characteristics that can make them effective communication and learning tools for Wikimedia education projects. Participants reflected on the potential audience interested in a Wikimedia education case study, the contextual information and data needed to be included, and ways to present a case study beyond written reports.
Achievements and project highlights
As mentioned earlier in this article, we are happy to wrap up this component of the Wikimedia Education Greenhouse pilot after a learning journey full of insightful reflections, thoughtful feedback, and curiosity and growth for our participants. Here are some quick final numbers:
- Over 100 participants registered
- 30 - 40 participants logged in and consulted the course monthly
- 23 participants finished at least one unit of the course (and received the corresponding badge)
- 15 participants finished the entire course and 13 participants were awarded a certificate of completion
As part of our monitoring strategy throughout the course we also encouraged participants to share any feedback they had about the online course. This input helped us improve the course every unit and make timely adjustments needed to provide the best learning experience possible. It also allowed us to learn about the aspects of the course that participants found the most valuable. Check out the highlight articles from Unit 1 and Unit 2 to find some participant testimonials. We will also be publishing a full report of this pilot component in the next months. Stay tuned!
We want to take a momento to congratulate the 13 participants who successfully completed the requirements of the online course to be awarded a certificate of completion. Way to go! The completed project proposals include a variety of Wikimedia education initiatives that participants have been planning from scratch through the development of the course as well as past initiatives that they built upon with each unit assignment. Check them out!
| Participant | Project Proposal |
|---|---|
| Agustín Zanotti | Pequeñas poblaciones del interior de Argentina |
| Gina Benett | Wikimedia Educators Emeritus |
| Trudi Jacobson | Become a Wikipedia Editor |
| Pietro Valocchi | Sum of all paintings: my local artist |
| Florencia Claes | Innovación educativa URJC-UCM |
| Uzoma Ozurumba | Wikipedia course for Igbo language lecturers in Alvan Ikoku College of education |
| Oby Ezeilo | Wiki in the classroom for secondary schools in Abuja |
| Maxwell Beganim | Kiwix and Edit-a-thon |
| Andrews Lartey | Growing Open and Eco-Friendly Skills(GOES) for the Youth - Ghana |
| Amber Berson | Become a Wikipedia Editor |
| Onyinye Onuoha | Gain Wikipedia Editing Skills and Become a Wikipedia Editor |
| Joy Agyepong | GOES Ghana |
| Mohammad Hijjawi | An-Najah National University competition |
What’s next?!
Did you find the contents of this course helpful? Would you like to make them available for your Wikimedia education community? The Education team is currently working on making the content of this online course available through Wikiversity. We estimate that this transition will be fully completed by the beginning of July. You can find it here and as usual it’s open for you to translate, remix, and share! Contact us if you want to learn more about setting a contextualized or translated version of this course on Moodle or other learning platforms. If you would like to register your interest in a future edition of this online course, please complete this form.
Thank you!
We would like to express our gratitude to the awesome professionals who supported the development of this unit by providing insightful consultations to our team and leading virtual lessons for our participants. Thank you, Amanda Bittaker, Justice Okai-Allotey, Sandister Tei, Vasanthi Hargyono, and Sailesh Patnaik.
About the Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse:
The Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse is a pilot project being developed by the Education team at the Wikimedia Foundation during 2019/2020. It uses a startup incubator model alongside a rigorous online course in Wikimedia & Education project management to equip Wikimedians with the skills, knowledge and support they need to bring their ideas to life and scale them into high-impact education initiatives in their communities. It supports project leaders to structure their activities on the idea of knowledge equity, considering the challenges and opportunities of their Wikimedia community and their local education contexts.
Social Media channels or hashtags:
You can find the Wikimedia Foundation Education team on Facebook and Twitter.