Hello all, First, I want to say that I hope you all are doing ok. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in one way or another. Some of us are sick, some are taking care of loved ones, some of us are taking care of our children who are out of school. In light of this crisis, and our organization’s radically people-centered response, the Education Team has shifted our focus to supporting those affected by school closures to make use of the Wikimedia projects to continue their learning. TLDR: How the Education Team at the Wikimedia Foundation will respond to the COVID-19 Crisis - The Wikimedia & Education Project Management online course <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Greenhouse> will award certificates to those who completed all 3 units by 31st March. - We will extend the deadline for earning badges until 10 May 2020. - The GOES project implementation <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Greenhouse/GOES_project> will be postponed until schools are reopened in Ghana. - Our Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/About/Education_Team/Reading_Wikipedia_in_the_Classroom> will focus on shifting to what can be done virtually while schools are closed. The pilot phase is stalled. - We will shift our attention to supporting those affected by school closures <https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavirus-school-closures> to make use of the Wikimedia projects to continue their learning. - We have drafted a 4 point action plan that we will operationalize asap. The outline of the plan is explained below. In times of emergency, the importance of continuing the education of children and youth is often overlooked <https://www.educationcannotwait.org/the-situation/>. Providing educational opportunities during these times not only prevents children affected from falling behind academically, but it also helps foster a sense of stability in uncertain times and builds up the resilience of communities impacted by the crisis. We must remember that education is a basic human right of all people, including those affected by crises and instability. Right now, that includes all of us. Last week, we asked our Wikimedia community how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting their planned education activities, what they think we should do to help, and what they are already doing. In parallel, the Education Team drafted a comprehensive action plan to shift our focus toward helping teachers, parents, and students make use of the Wikimedia projects to bolster the learning of those out of school. Let’s talk about the ways that COVID-19 has impacted education worldwide, and how our Wikimedia community is making a difference. The situation According to UNESCO and the Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies, as of today, 156 countries have announced or implemented school and university closures <https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavirus-school-closures>, impacting *1.42 billion* children and youth. Roughly 82% of students are out of school due to this crisis. First, what’s happening with the projects we have been working on? Understandably, as schools close around the world, some of the work we have been doing will need to be paused. For that reason, we are holding the implementation of the GOES project in Ghana until schools are reopened. We will, however, continue to mentor and support the GOES team. We have decided to keep the deadline for earning certificates for the Greenhouse Online Course as 31 March 2020, but we will extend the deadline for earning individual badges until 10 May 2020. We hope this will give more people the chance to engage with the content, and use it to support activities that mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on education in their communities. The activities that needed to happen in schools and classrooms for the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project will need to be postponed, but we will continue with the activities that can be done virtually. How is this crisis impacting our Wikimedia & Education Community, and what are they currently doing to support learners? So far, we’ve received 15 responses from the community about how they are impacted by this crisis, and how they are supporting learners during this time. We received responses from volunteers from 11 different countries located in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. All the respondents indicated that schools were closed in their communities, and their planned Wikimedia outreach activities had to be canceled. Most indicated that universities had moved to provide online courses, though some had simply canceled courses. The respondents indicated that they have started working completely online to support teachers and students impacted by school closures. They are sharing the resources they’ve developed, hosting edit-a-thons, virtual training, working alongside governments and other collaborators, and hosting virtual meet-up sessions for teachers. What an amazing community we have! We’re so proud to be a part of it. Now, what’s our action plan moving forward? The Education Team at the Wikimedia Foundation drafted a four-point action plan for our response to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on education. This plan was designed to be agile. As the situation evolves day by day and the capacity of the team fluctuates, we need a plan that can expand and retract as necessary. The four points we will focus on are: 1. We will create and share learning resources related to Wikimedia in Education 1. We will curate and share widely the resources produced by our Wikimedia & Education community. To do this we will be asking the community to share their resources with us, likely through a submission form. 2. We will develop templates & examples for teachers to share lesson plans that make use of Wikimedia projects. We will provide guidelines for teachers to understand how to add open licenses to the educational materials they produce and add them to Wikimedia Commons. 3. We will expedite a resource for using Wikipedia to teach information literacy at home. We will use plans and materials we had drafted for the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Project to quickly create a 1 to 2-page resource that will help educators use Wikipedia to teach information literacy. 2. Will will initiate #EduWiki challenge 1. We will use social media to share daily mini-lessons that use Wikimedia projects, and we will provide guidelines for the community and others to create and share their own mini-lessons. We will be sharing information about this challenge and how you can participate on Monday. 3. Foster knowledge sharing about the impact of COVID-19 on Education *a. *We will encourage our network of Wikimedians and education partners to keep information on Wiki up to date and accurate about the impact of COVID-19 on education <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_on_education> and to share the impact of COVID-19 on their communities and what they are doing to respond. 4. Support the UNESCO COVID-19 Education Coalition 1. We will join a coalition led by UNESCO that will work to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on education. Through this, we intend to help governments to curate content from Wikipedia that aligns with the national curricula to include in distance learning and to make it available through free content bundle packages provided by internet service providers and offline through Kiwix. 2. We will encourage governments to share free licenses in their texts so teachers can remix and share them more freely. What can you do? How can you get involved? - You can share or participate in the #EduWiki challenge on your social media channels. We’ll be providing more information about this on Monday. - You can create and share lesson plans using the template that we’ll be sharing soon. - You can help improve Wikipedia articles that align with school curricula. - You can fill out the google form <https://docs.google.com/document/d/14xX4Y8Ud6abw_PDjdzxS8--iEzlBVQ78akcCdsFAMFU/edit?usp=sharing> to share information about how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting your community, what you are already doing to support students and teachers, and other ideas you have of how our community can be helpful. This survey will be conducted via a third-party service, which may subject it to additional terms. For more information on privacy and data-handling, see the survey privacy statement <https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_Response_to_COVID-19_Survey_Privacy_Statemen> . with clean hands and open hearts, The Education Team -- *Nichole Saad* Wikimedia Foundation | Senior Program Manager, Education nsaad(a)wikimedia.org user: NSaad (WMF)