Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Using Wikipedia for Academic Research and Citation (ID: 23654064)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
Digital literacy, being a key resource in the success of a student's academic journey, plays an immeasurable role in the possibility of climbing greater heights. It is in this light that this project was deemed crucial for implementation.
The project sought to use Wikipedia as a pedagogical and research-support tool to help students strengthen their digital literacy, critical thinking and referencing skills. It also aimed to demystify the misconception that Wikipedia is not a reliable academic source, train participants to become responsible users of Wikipedia and promote their confidence and digital literacy skills and how to access and evaluate content on Wikipedia.
The project was participants-centered where the needs of participants were paramount. It was made lively by employing discussion coupled with practical methods of implementation. We set the base of the project with the assumption that participants were tabular rasa in relation to Wikipedia; with this, it was assumed that participants had little or no knowledge about digital literacy, Wikipedia and how to use the internet as a resource to search for vital information for consumption.
With the above, participants were introduced to Digital Literacy and how to search for information generally on the internet using google and other search engines. After grasping the concept, we then guided participants to understand the basis for the formation of Wikipedia and its relevance. They were taught how to search for information on Wikipedia, how to evaluate content using positive and negative indicators.
Participants all being newbies were guided to create their Wikipedia user accounts, majority went through the process successfully while others faced challenges including internet connectivity challenge.
They were introduced to Wikidata; how to search for items on Wikidata and how to create Wikidata items. Random items were created to demonstrate the process for participants consumption. They were made to practise the knowledge learnt by searching for already existing items on Wikidata and also creating those that do not exist on Wikidata.
Participants were also briefly introduced to the practical aspects of Wikipedia; how to access, evaluate, and contribute to the English Wikipedia. Demonstration was done on how to search for content on Wikipedia.
Emphasis was placed on how Wikipedia can serve as a secondary knowledge source that can lead a researcher to the original or primary source of information that could be relevant to the success of a research.
The organisers collaboratively guided participants one-on-one to rectify challenges that they encountered. Through this, they their issues attended to and remedied.
All the above approaches were very effective in achieving the objectives of the project.
Generally the workshop was effective, very impactful and exposed participants to the good that comes with using Wikipedia as a research resource.
Participants left with cleared misconceptions about Wikipedia, gained knowledge on Wikipedia, and generally became enthused open knowledge advocates.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
Here is a link the project's outreach dashboard: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/School_of_Engineering/Using_Wikipedia_for_Academic_Research_and_Citation_(2026-02-02)/home
Link to category of event photos : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Engineering_Students_Wiki_Workshop
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
Link to the Presentation slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1op3z5FwJU3s5yWNaXNgK_woz2xbXLlthSN4rdoKGfy8/edit?slide=id.g3d4fb40a994_0_72#slide=id.g3d4fb40a994_0_72
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Strongly agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Strongly agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: 1. Have you ever head of Wikipedia?
2. What misconceptions do you know about Wikipedia in relation to research?
3. Is it allowed to cite an article from Wikipedia as reference in Thesis writing?
1. Have you ever heard of Wikipedia? 2. What misconceptions do you know about Wikipedia in relation to research? 3. Is it allowed to cite an article from Wikipedia as reference in Thesis writing?
Below are the learnings made from the implementing the project:
1. Have you ever heard of Wikipedia?
Generally, feedback indicated that participants had fair knowledge about Wikipedia existence but had technical knowledge about it.
It is important to note that dwell on campaigns that do much of Wikipedia Advocacy.
2. What misconceptions do you know about Wikipedia in relation to research?
Participants had several misconceptions about Wikipedia in relation to research including Wikipedia not been trustworthy, not reliable, and lacking current content about events.
From this learning, I will dwell much on educating volunteers on the misconceptions about Wikipedia.
3. Is it allowed to cite an article from Wikipedia as reference in Thesis writing? I learnt that participants were brainwashed to even see Wikipedia as any serious content source to support research. They had their minds set on the misconception that Wikipedia is not reliable, hence any thing Wikipedia does not cross their minds in terms of Research. Unanimously, they all said Wikipedia article can not be cited as as a reference in thesis writing. It is obvious that they were correct but with wrong reason. Their response was based on the misconception that Wikipedia is not Reliable. Wikipedia guides a researcher to the primary information source by following references used to reference content on Wikipedia articles. From the learning, I would also I will direct more efforts on educating volunteers on how they can use references from Wikipedia articles to support their citations in Reesarch works.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
We encountered series of IP blocks when some of the newly created user accounts tried logging multiple logins. Participants were advised to desist from engaging in such actions.
We experienced internet connectivity challenge and it was resolved by introducing an alternative internet source.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
We shared the project learnings and results with members of the Wikimedia Community through community communication channels, including WhatsApp groups, where key outcomes, lessons learned, and participant feedback were discussed.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 100 | 55 | The budget was re-adjusted to align with the approved amount, target participants was updated to 50.
|
| Number of editors | 100 | 55 | The budget was re-adjusted to align with the approved amount, target editors was updated to 50.
We recruited 53 new editors. |
| Number of organizers | 3 | 3 | We had an experienced team who supported in the successful implementation of the project. |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 20 | 0 | 23 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 12 | ||
| Wikidata | 100 | 61 | 143 |
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
21161
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
2000
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Provide the link to the financial report Link to financial reporting document : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fxk7sHNb3-2WfSjsr58Szd6tdCM7UnUqS_Em9p1j5gs/edit?gid=928458698#gid=928458698
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)