Grants:Project/AfLIA/Wikipedia in African Libraries/Timeline
This project is funded by a Project Grant
| proposal | people | timeline & progress | finances | midpoint report | final report |
Timeline for AfLIA[edit]
| Timeline | Date |
| Awareness Campaign | Begins July, 2020 |
| Wikipedian-in-Residence at AfLIA | Begins August, 2020 |
| Curriculum Development Consultant in AfLIA | Begins August, 2020 |
| Pre-training research | Begins September, 2020 |
| Pre-test of adopted curriculum | November – December |
| Translation of course materials into French and Portuguese | Begins November, 2020 |
| Registration for Cohort one (1), Continent-wide online training for Librarians | Begins January 2021 |
| Training Sessions for Cohort one (1) | Begins February 2021 |
| First evaluation of the project | Begins February, 2021 |
| Registration for Cohort Two (2), continent-wide online training for African Librarians | Begins in April 2021 |
| Training Sessions for Cohort Two (2) | Begins May 2021 |
| Second Evaluation of the project | July, 2021 |
| Wikimedia Foundation Project Grant ends | July, 2021 |
Monthly updates[edit]
Please prepare a brief project update each month, in a format of your choice, to share progress and learnings with the community along the way. Submit the link below as you complete each update.
June 2020[edit]
Project kick -off[edit]
- Planning for project administration, discussions on capacities needed to make the project a success, creation of timelines
- Need for curriculum development expert suggested by project advisors and integrated into the project plans
- Wrote the job specifications for the Wikipedian in Residence and Curriculum Development expert with advice and inputs from project advisers
July 2020[edit]
Wikipedian-in-Residence recruitment[edit]
- Made formal announcement of the grant aflia-receives-grant-from-wikimedia-foundation/
- Posted the WiR opening job-opening-wikipedian-in-residence/
- Posted the job opening for the Curriculum Development consultant job-opening-curriculum-development-consultant/
- Promotion of the WiR and CDC through AfLIA networks and African Wikimedia communities
Awareness Campaign[edit]
- Drawn up a project communications plan
- Building up a mailing list for the project's newsletter
August 2020[edit]
Wikipedian-in-Residence Recruitment[edit]
- Thirty one applications were received for AfLIA's Wikipedian-in-Residence; such a rich pool of qualified and passionate Wikimedians to select from! Alice Kibombo was eventually chosen to be AfLIA's Wikipedian in Residence. Alice is a librarian and comes a rich background of working in Uganda Wikimedia community https://web.aflia.net/aflia-gets-a-wikipedian-in-residence/
Awareness Campaign[edit]
- Call for more subscribers to the project's newsletter distributed to African Wikimedia communities and shared on different platforms online [1]103 people have already indicated interest in receiving updates about the project.
Curriculum Development Consultant[edit]
- The call for a Curriculum Development Consultant (CDC) attracted six(6) applications. After interviews on Skype and Zoom, Prof. Rosemary Shafack was chosen as the CDC. Shafack has years of experience as a librarian, an educator and a curriculum expert. She has been working in the African Library sector as Chairman Africa Section, IFLA and a representative of Central Africa in the Governing Council of AfLIA. https://web.aflia.net/aflia-signs-on-a-curriculum-development-consultant-wikipedia-in-african-libraries-project/ She will resume work on September 1, 2020.
September 2020[edit]
A pre-training survey was sent out to African librarians to determine their level of digital skills, prejudices and ability to learn online https://web.aflia.net/invitation-to-complete-pre-research-survey-wikiaflibs-survey/ Librarians were reached through different avenues to ensure that a great number were reached.
October[edit]
AfLIA's Wikipedian in Residence led African Librarians to celebrate Open Access Week on Wikipedia with translations into local African languages https://web.aflia.net/2020-open-access-week-aflia-unique-celebration/
November[edit]
The call for Pilot Cohort for the Wikipedia in African Libraries course was sent out on 3rd November https://web.aflia.net/wikipedia-in-african-libraries-course-call-for-participants-for-pilot-testing/ Forty two librarians were admitted for the pilot test out of the one hundred and eighty that applied. The rest later chose to join the course in Cohort 1 or 2.
December[edit]
Pilot Cohort[edit]
Participants on the pilot cohort was on-boarded to the Moodle platform to test the adapted OCLC curriculum. Participants tested the curriculum in English language only in the following areas;
- Wikipedia for you, your library, and your community
- Evaluating Wikipedia with a critical eye
- Contribute to the Wikipedia body of knowledge
- Wikipedia empowers your community
Meet & Greet[edit]
There was also a Meet & Greet for Swahili Speaking participants with the Wikimedia User Group, Tanzania.
January, 2021[edit]
Call for participants Cohort 1[edit]
The call for participants for Cohort 1 of the Wikipedia in African Libraries course went out https://web.aflia.net/wikipedia-in-african-libraries-course-cohort-1-registration-opens/
Pilot Cohort ends with evaluation[edit]
The Pilot Cohort came to an end during the month immediately after an evaluation was held to know what worked and what did not work with the adapted curriculum, learning platform and mode of delivery.
Curriculum[edit]
The curriculum was reworked to reflect findings and observations from the pilot testing. It was divided into;
- Section 1 - 1 unit
- Section 2 - 1 unit
- Section 3 -2 units
- Section 4 - 1 unit
- Section 5 - 3 units
Translation[edit]
Teaching materials were translated into French and Portuguese
February, 2021[edit]
Cohort 1[edit]
Five hundred and fourteen participants were admitted to Cohort one as follows;
| S/N | Country | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Algeria | 4 |
| 2 | Benin Republic | 18 |
| 3 | Botswana | 26 |
| 4 | Burkina Faso | 1 |
| 5 | Burundi | 3 |
| 6 | Cameroon | 5 |
| 7 | Central African Republic | 1 |
| 8 | Democratic Republic of Congo | 3 |
| 9 | Cote D'Ivoire | 19 |
| 10 | Eswatini | 1 |
| 11 | Egypt | 20 |
| 12 | Ethiopia | 1 |
| 13 | Gabon | 3 |
| 14 | Gambia | 2 |
| 15 | Ghana | 65 |
| 16 | Kenya | 71 |
| 17 | Lesotho | 2 |
| 18 | Morocco | 2 |
| 19 | Namibia | 27 |
| 20 | Nigeria | 100 |
| 21 | Rwanda | 1 |
| 22 | Somali | 2 |
| 23 | South Africa | 15 |
| 24 | Sudan | 5 |
| 25 | Tanzania | 26 |
| 26 | Togo | 1 |
| 27 | Tunisia | 5 |
| 28 | Uganda | 56 |
| 29 | Zambia | 8 |
| 30 | Zimbabwe | 16 |
The opening session for the cohort was held on 4th February, 2021.
March, 2021[edit]
Interactions took place with participants on Moodle platform where the resources including assignments while WhatsApp groups were formed for more engagements with the participants. Live sessions and office hours were held weekly in the different languages. Events during the month are outlined here[[2]]
April, 2021[edit]
The course continued and participants who missed out on assignments and live sessions were followed up. Remedial trainings for held for those who had dropped off.
May, 2021[edit]
Training for Cohort 1 was rounded within up this month and progress tracked and collated for award of certificates to all who finished the coursework including assignments.
June, 2021[edit]
The call for Cohort 2 went out - https://web.aflia.net/wikipedia-in-african-libraries-course-wikiaflibs-call-for-cohort-2/ The course took on 28th June, 2021
July,2021[edit]
Considering the fact that the 2nd Cohort is the last window for a facilitated-learning/teaching of the course, the registration link was kept open so that a mop-up of intending participants can be done.
Is your final report due but you need more time?
Extension request[edit]
New end date[edit]
The new end date for the project is 30th September, 2021. The report will be submitted on or before 30th September, 2021.
Rationale[edit]
Background[edit]
From the pre-training research done at the beginning of the project, the need to test-run the adapted curriculum form OCLC Wikipedia and Libraries: Better Together curriculum became obvious. Thus, the adapted curriculum was tested within five (5) weeks (16th November – 20th December, 2020). This was not originally configured into the project at the proposal stage. This is the link for the call for participants to test-run the adapted curriculum: https://web.aflia.net/wikipedia-in-african-libraries-course-call-for-participants-for-pilot-testing/ This is the link to the dashboard of the pilot test cohort - https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/AfLIA/Wikipedia_in_African_Libraries_-_Pilot_Cohort_(November_-_December_2020)/home
This ate into the project time. Also, the WiR has worked non-stop from mid-August 2020 until present and may experience burnout which may affect the project outcomes if she does not take at least 15days off in June to rest, rejuvenate and get ready for Cohort 2 of the course.
Purpose[edit]
The extra two months being requested will be used to;
- Round off Cohort 2 of the course which is slated to take off on Monday, 28th June, 2021 and run through to the first week of September, 2021.
- Leave enough time for the WiR and the Evaluator to write up reports on the project for Wikimedia Foundation.
Finances for the extension[edit]
The extension will not require additional funds for payment of the WiR’s salary for the extra two months. It should be noted that;
- The WiR is paid $1,350 monthly. Thus, two months salary is $2700
- In the project, the budget allocation for the WiR’s travel to attend AfLIA’s 2021 conference is $2000. However, the conference was virtual and only the registration fee was taken from it.
- The WiR was on unpaid leave for 15days in June thus she received only half-month pay for June, 2021.
- The WiR resumed work on 15th August, 2020 thus only half-month salary was paid to her.
Thus, AfLIA has sufficient funds to pay the WiR for the additional months of August and September, 2021.
Request[edit]
All of the above have been discussed with the project advisers and working committee who all agree on the need for extending the lifespan of the project.
I therefore request that you kindly grant us an extension of the project period from the originally scheduled date of July 31st 2021 to September 30th, 2021 without additional funding from the Wikimedia Foundation.
Approval[edit]
Noting here that the Program Officer approval is posted at Grants talk:Project/AfLIA/Wikipedia in African Libraries/Timeline. -- JTud (WMF), Grants Administrator (talk) 18:39, 16 August 2021 (UTC)