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_vide... [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/2017_wikitext_editor ]3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Engagement_Insights