Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Overcoming Challenges of Introducing Wikipedia in Nigeria Classroom
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Applicant details[edit]
Wikimedia username(s):
Organization:
- Igbo Language and Culture Institute Ltd/Gte
G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Applied previously and did not receive a grant
H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- No
H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- N/A
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Additional information[edit]
R. Where will this proposal be implemented?
- Nigeria
S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:
- Local
S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
- www.igboinstitute.org
facebook: @igboinstitute
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Proposal[edit]
1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?
- Our Institute has two main objectives. Firstly, to advance the appreciation, understanding and usage of Igbo language and culture. Secondly, to improve education and free knowledge in Nigeria. The Institute engages in many activities to improve education in Nigeria. All member of the Governing Council of the Institute are educators who are either present teachers or lecturers or have thaught before and still involved in educational development. Each of them has been in the educational sector for more than 20 years and has been involved in different research and promotion activities. This proposed research will obviously enhance resources available to teachers for teaching and resources available to students for learning. The output wil generally improve education standard in Nigeria which aligns with the objectives of the Institute.
2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?
- Educational institutions in Nigeria do not use Wikipedia even when most of them do not have access to other subscription-based online resources. In many instances, students are specifically instructed not to use Wikipedia content in their research. The situation is made worse by the fact that, in many instaces, budget constrains do not allow many institutions to equipt their libraries and student are forced to rely on very old editions of books. In some cases, schools do not have the required books for some subject area. To address this, we propose research on why educational institutions do not use Wikipedia and how the situation can be remedied. The research will identify challenges and concerns inhibiting the use of Wikipedia for teaching in Nigeria and whether there are government policies in this area. We will also seek to know whether students and teachers are sufficiently informed of the potentials of Wikipedia as a learning resource and whether the availability of Nigerian local languages content in Wikipedia will improve the acceptance of Wikipedia in Nigerian education systems. More importantly, the research will recomend the measures that will be taken to overcome the identified challenges of using Wikipedia as an OER. The research will also recomend the best procedure to be adopted in introducing wikipedia in Nigerian classroom. The outcome of the research, the steps taken in the research, data collected and analysed, the existing and perceived challenges to using Wikipedia in the classroom etc will be detailed in a Report. The research will also produce a Manual which will propose steps to be taken by different stakeholders to overcome the challenges identifies and to introduce Wikipedia in Nigerian classroom. Both documents, when properly disseminated, will deepen the usage of wikipedia in Nigerian educational system, expand the appreciation of wikipedia amongst Nigerian students who are mostly youths and improve the usage and contribution to wikipedia from different parts of Nigeria. Additionally, with youths constituting a large percentage of Nigerian’s over 200 million polulation, adopting wikipedia as the OER in the educational institutions will widen free knowledge, improve the educational standard in Nigeria, which has been going down in the past decade, and fulfil a major goals of both the Institute and WMF.
3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.
- The research will be carried out by a Project Team. Staff and members of the Institute will provide administrative and protocol support. We will adopt a hybrid approach: focused group discussion and survey. The Focused Group will hold meetings with major educational institutions, bodies and stakeholders to obtain information and documents on what inhibits the use of Wikipedia as an OER. They will find out whether there are government or university policies, circulars, pronouncements etc that directs or discourages the use of Wikipedia in educational institutions and what need to be done to remove any of those challenges. These meetings will also be used to urge the leadership of these bodies to understand Wikipedia and accept it as an OER. They will interview officials of Federal Ministry of Education; National University Commission that issues operating licences and make policies for universities in Nigeria; National Board for Technical Education which set standards, accredit programmes and supervise technical and vocational education in Nigeria; National Commission for Colleges of Education which set standards and supervise colleges of educations in Nigeria, education ministry; board of some state governments education agencies etc. The group will also interview the headship of the 4 universities that the survey will be carried out. A survey will be conducted in 4 Nigerian universities located at the three dominant tribes/languages in Nigeria namely Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja; University of Lagos, Lagos and University of Nigeria, Nsukka. There will be a project sub team in each of these universities for this survey. The questionnaires in the survey will extract the relevant information including how well students and teachers know about Wikipedia, whether the Nigerian languages in Wikipedia will enhance its acceptance, why Wikipedia is not being used as an OER, where there are other OER being used, how they fell this situation will be reversed etc. The data collected by the group discussions and the survey will be analysed by a committee. The Committee will develop a Report which will identify the challenges and a Manual which will guide how to overcome the challenges and propose ways to introduce using Wikipedia in Nigerian Classroom. This manual and report will be unveiled in a stakeholder’s conference where the major stakeholders will participate. Most importantly, we will urge educational regulatory bodies to make public statements in the conference that will direct the use of Wikipedia as an OER in our classrooms. We will sustain the project and statements made in the conference in the media for some time and send The Report and The Manual to all universities, polytechnics, educational regulatory bodies etc. Throughout this research, we will liaise with the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and Nigerian Wikimedia User Groups and most of the field officers in the survey will be members of these groups.
4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?
- there will be a Project Team made up of Mrs Obiageli Ezeilo (Project Coordinator), Professor Nkechinyere Nwokoye, Associate Professor Chigozie Nnabuihe, Mr Betrand Ezeilo and Dr. Chiemezie Atama. Institute staff will provide administrative, protocol and secretariat support. The Project Team will hold 3 physical meetings in Abuja and online meetings. Their 1st physical meeting will review the working brief; timelines; work schedule for each member, the draft questionnaires, appoint members of the Project Sub Teams, direct the production and distribution of the questionnaires; review the target agencies for the focused group meetings etc. The 2nd meeting will hold after the 4 Project Sub Teams have concluded the survey in the universities and after the focused group has finished their different meetings. It will review the reports of the survey and focued group meetings and direct further actios; sent the data to Report and Manual Writing Committee; set up the Stakeholders Conference Planning Committee etc. The 3rd meeting will be held after the Report and Manual Writing Committee have finished. The meeting will review and approve the report of the Committee; the proposal for dissemination of the report and manual; approve the proposal of the Stakeholders Conference Planning Committee etcThe Project Team will hold a minimum of 2 online meetings. One will be held with the Project Sub Teams and field assistants within the first 3 days of commencement of the survey to ensure a successful survey. Another will be held with the Report and Manual Writing Committee when they are analysing the data. This is to allow for exchange of ideas as situation demands. There will be other online meetings as the circumstance demands. There will be a Project Sub Team in each of the 4 universities where the survey will take place. Each Sub Team will be made up of 3 persons. The Sub Team for Nile University of Nigeria Abuja will be headed by Mrs Obiageli Ezeilo; the sub team for University of Lagos will be headed by Mr. Chigozie Nnabuihe, the sub team for Nnamdi Azikiwe University will be headed by Professor Nkechinyere Nwokoye while the sub team in University of Nigeria will be headed by Dr. Chiemezie Atama. Other members of this team will include a staff of the university where the survey is taking place and a member of a Wikipedia user group. There will be 9 field assistants in each university. They will each work for 6 consecutive days and each assistant is expected to handle 15 questionnaires a day. Each university will generate 810 questionnaires and the 4 universities will generate a total of 3240 questionnaires. However, a total of 3500 questionnaires will be produced to give margin for error. There will be 3 different questionnaires each targeting students, lecturers and trade union officials. Out of the 810 questionnaires to be administered in every university, 30 will be administered to lecturers and 25 will be administered to relevant trade unions while the rest will be administered to students. The Project Sub teams will recruit and train filed assistants. ensure that most of the field officers are wikimedians; supervise the survey and forward data collected and a report to the Project Team. The 1st meeting of the Project Sub Team will hold to appoint field assistants, determine how the survey will be carried out subject to the general direction of the Project Team, map out the area to be covered, share the work etc. Their 2nd meeting will be a training of the field assistants. The 3rd meeting will take place after the survey and will collate the data and review the entire exercise and if need be direct further survey. They could hold additional meeting as the situation demands. After the Project Team have received and reviewed the data and reports of the focused group and the survey, it will be sent to the Report and Manual Writing Committee. This committee headed by Professor Nkechinyere Nwokoye will start work after the second meeting of the Project Team. Other members of the Committee are Mrs Obiageli Ezeilo and Dr. Chiemezie Atama. This Committee will be supported by members of the Institute led by Mr. Collins Nweke. This committee will hold a 7 days retreat to write The Report and The Manual. The Report will show the outcome of the research, the steps taken in the research, data collected and analysed etc. It will detail the existing and perceived challenges to using Wikipedia in the classroom as indicated by the research. The Manual will propose steps to be taken by different stakeholders to overcome the challenges as found in the research and introduce Wikipedia in Nigerian classroom. 1000 copies of each of these documents will be produced. These documents will be released in a well-attended stakeholders conference. There will also be a media briefing during the conference. After the conference these documents will be disseminated to all universities, other institutions, regulatory agencies, stakeholders etc
5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?
- No
5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?
- N/A
6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.
7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
- Mrs Obiageli Ezeilo (Username: Oby Ezeilo) is the Registrar of the Institute. She will serve as the Project Coordinator and in the Report and Manual Writing Committee. She will also lead the Project Sub Team for the survey at the Nile University of Nigeria Abuja. She studied education and obtained a National Certificate of Education, Bachelors in Education, Masters in Education and presently doing a doctorate degree programme. She has been a teacher for more than 30 years, a founding member of Igbo Wikimedia User Group; a Test Wiki Administrator for Igbo Wiktionary and Igbo Wikipedia; a graduate of the Wikipedia Greenhouse Education Project and a certified trainer, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom. She set up a Wikipedia club at the Federal Government Girls College Buwari, Abuja and a Wiki Fan Club at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. She participated in several Wikipedia programmes including WikiIndaba Conference 2018, the Partnership Building 2021 Course and Wikimania 2022 in person event at Lagos Nigeria. Professor Nkechinyere Nwokoye (Username: Nkechinyere Nwokoye) is a professor at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka and a member of Council of the Igbo Institute. She will serve in the Project team, will head the Project Sub Team at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University,and the Report and Manual Writing Committee. Associate Professor Chigozie Nnabuihe is of the University of Lagos. He is a member of Council of the Institute. He will serve as a member of the Project Team and head the Project Sub Team at the University of Lagos, Lagos State. Dr. Chiemezie Atama (Username: Chiemezie Atama) holds a PhD in Sociology (Population studies). She will serve in the Project Team, the Report and Manual Writing Committee and head the Project Sub Team at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She is a Senior lecturer and a researcher at the Department of Sociology & Anthropology University of Nigeria, Nsukka where she has been teaching research methods at both undergraduate and post graduate levels for about 5 years now. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at Gender and Development Studies Research Group at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Betrand Ezeilo (Username: Obihoja) is a member of the Institute. He is a lawyer specializing in Copyright Law but with a lot of passion for free knowledge. He is a director at the Nigerian Copyright Commission. He will head the Focused Group Committee. His experience and network in the public service will be very helpful in reaching and securing meeting appointments with the leadership of the different agencies they are supposed to meet and in getting these agencies to understand Wikipedia. Mr Collin Nweke is a research analyst with a lot of experience. He is a member of the Institute and will head the secretariate of the Institute that will support the research. Members of the Project Team and field assistants, who will conduct the survey, will be paid an allowance for their service.
8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
- Not applicable
8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.
9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.
- Education
10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
- Not applicable
11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?
- Most of the participants are members of the Igbo Institute who have agreed to participate. Other are wikipedians. We will be working with the 4 wikimedia user groups in Nigeria and they will help in choosing field assistants who will carry out the research work. Furthermore, the head of 3 out of the 4 Project Sub Teams are lecturers in the respective universities that they will work in. This will make it easy for them to organise these teams and the field assistants. Mrs Ezeilo who is heading the Project Sub Team for Nile University Abuja is not a staff of the university but have good relationship with officials of the university and has been assured of their support.
12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?
- Most of the participants are research fellows who will be free to collaborate with different experts in carrying this research. We are also carrying out this research in 4 different universities which are located in different goe-political locations of the country. Consequently, the research will cover the diversities in Nigerian society including language, tribe religion and gender. We are also working closely with the 4 wikimedian user groups in Nigeria who will make input in the entire process and help in providing personnel for the survey. There will also be public presentation and wide dissemination of the output of the research
13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
- Yes
13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
- we have discussed this project with many wikimedians in Nigeria from the different user groups. we have also announced the project in the 4 user groups in Nigeria
https://ig.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Nz%E1%BB%8Dr_ogbako https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_User_Group_Nigeria https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hausa_Wikimedians_User_Group#Hadin_Gwiwa_akan_dabbaga_Hausa_Wikitionary https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yoruba_Wikimedians_User_Group#Tyap_WMUG%3A_Latest_User_Group_in_Nigeria
14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
- No
14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.
- N/A
15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?
- The Focused group meetings will not only serve to extract information but will commence the campaign for the use of Wikipedia in the classroom. The Focused Group will visit many education regulating agencies. The Report and The Manual will be released in a stakeholders’ conference. Key policy makers, government agencies, members of National Assembly, opinion moulders, educational institutions, major stakeholders, the leadership and members of the four Wikimedia user groups in Nigeria, members of the Project Team, the media and all agencies/universities that participated in the research will attend the conference. Expected participants will be 150 persons. The conference will conclude with a major press briefing where key officials will be urged to make public statements. We will lobby to use the opportunity of this conference to get the Honourable Minister of Education to issue a clear directive to educational institutions to use Wikipedia as an OER. We will sustain the news about this research in the media for at least 2 months in different ways including get commentators to write future articles, retaining social media influencers etc. The Report and The Manual will be extensively disseminated. They will be uploaded in different Wikipedia projects, mailed in different mailing list, the hard copies sent to all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education; the Federal and different State Ministries of Education, relevant trade unions etc
16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.
- We do not expect any major risk in this programme. However, the risks that could occur include if Nigerian Universities or major trade unions in the Universities embark on strike during the period that we planned to carry out the survey. If this happens and if the nature of the strike action is such that activities in the universities are closed, then we will be forced to postpone the survey until schools resume. This could delay the project.
17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.
- Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge
18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.
- No
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]
19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?
- We hope to learn the challenges that prevent Wikipedia from being used in teaching and learning in Nigerian educational institution. We also want to find out how to overcome these challenges.
20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.
| Main Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Government policy that restricts the use of wikipedia in teaching | we will find out whether there are circulars, directives or regulations that was ever issued by any of the educational regulating agencies that denies the use of wikipedia as an OER and if so how if can be reversed | 0 |
| Understanding of wikipedia for the regulating bodies | we want to find out whether the different regulating bodies in education that control the universitites, polythectincs etc have a good understanding of Wikipedia and if not how this can be reveresed | 0 |
| Understanding of students of wikipedia | we want to know whether an average Nigerian student have a good understanding of Wikipedia and if not how it can be reversed | 0 |
| Possible effect of Nigerian language Wikipedia projects | we want to find out whether the presence of local languages in wikipedia do encourage better penetration of wikipedia in Nigerian educationa system | 0 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A |
21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | number of total questionniers administered during the survey | 3240 |
| Number of editors | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers | Number of physical meeting held by the Project Team | 3 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.
- this project is not to contribute content in wikimedia project. However, the Report and Manual will be uploeaded in wikimedia commons, wikiversity and wikibooks. Other metrics which we are interested in is (1) Number of agencies visited and interviwed by the Focued Group - not less that 8 (2) Number of physical trainigs held by each of the 4 Project Sub Team - 3 (3) Number of participants in the Stakeholders conference - 150. (4) we are keen to know how many regulatory agencies we convince to authorise the use of Wikipedia in their classroom - 6.
22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
- It is difficult to use the usual tool to measure these metric due to the nature of the research. we are therefore not sure and will need support in this are
Financial Proposal[edit]
23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.
- 20620000 NGN
23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- 49270.61 USD
23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.
- budget uploaded
23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.
- N/A
Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s):
Final Message[edit]
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
Feedback[edit]
- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.
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