Grants talk:IdeaLab/New normal: Strengthening remote learning through Wikimedia-based projects

Comments from WMF

Hello Brazal.dang, thanks for submitting this Rapid Grant request. We are happy to see that you are planning to organize a series of webinars to promote online learning through Wikimedia projects. I have reviewed you proposal and have two small requests:

• Could you please mention an exact end date in the probox?
• Could you fix detailed budget line #2; currently it adds up incorrectly. After fixing this discrepancy, please also update the total budget.

Thanks for your work and dedication! Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 11:35, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Hi DSaroyan!

Thank you for reviewing this proposal. These webinars will both promote the Wikipedia projects and help teachers in our community in transitioning to remote access learning. I have updated the end date of the program. The budget in line no. 2 is right, it's just the quantity. I lowered it to three. Again, thank you.

Best, Dang Brazal (Talk) 12:22, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Excessive budget?

US$450 seems excessive to host a Wikimedia webinar. Please advise. Cheers! Checkingfax (talk) 12:07, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Additional comments from WMF

Hello Dang, thanks for making the requested changes. I have an additional question that I would like to address.

• How are you planning to measure the project outcomes and track teachers after the webinars? Could you please try to capture their post-event activities and reflect them in your targets? This would allow us and you to better understand the impact of your project. If you need more time to measure their contribution and activities, feel free to extend your project end date.

Thank you! DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 08:36, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

Hi DSaroyan (WMF)!

Thank you for your comments.

The primary focus of these webinars is to introduce the Wikimedia projects to teachers as part of their learning tools for the remote learning education that the country will adapt due to the pandemic.

After each webinar, a survey on the impact of the talk will be sent to the teachers who participated. Also a post-webinar evaluation will be sent to the teacher after a month to see how did they used Wikipedia as a teaching-learning tool during their online class.

I like the idea of including the post-event activities of the teachers as part of the targets of this project. I will encourage the participants to register a username and invite them to join on the project page on the outreach dashboard to track their online involvement with the Wikimedia projects. And also will encourage them to post pictures on the FB support group that we will be creating.

However, to properly track the (quantifiable) project outcomes, there is really a need to extend the project duration, maybe another three months for tracking their involvement.

Best, Dang Brazal (Talk) 09:11, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

Request for Extension of the Rapid Grant Project

Hello!

I hope you are well. I am writing about some concerns on my current rapid grant program. There have been a lot of conflicts with the schedule of my grant and my current contract with the Wikimedia Education Team. I apologize if I failed to see it earlier.

My contract with the Education Team for the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom should end last June 30, 2020. However, they extended my contract until December 31, 2020 and went entirely online. I just received the notice on the 15th of July 2020. In the new contract, we will be conducting online training for the modules that are supposed to be done in person. Also, the team decided to create an FB Group exclusively for the training participants and assigned me as the group moderator. The group is composed of teachers from the School Division of Pasay, Philippines. The following are the conflicting matters that I am currently facing:

First. Module Training (Online) v. My Online Webinars. I intended to stall my scheduled webinars to avoid conflicts with the Wikimedia Education Team. They scheduled three live sessions in which I am the speaker. I think it's best that I avoid too much online exposure, instead reserving it for online training being scheduled by the Education Team. I intend to do my webinars in the second semester of the School Year. Aside from this, there is also a sudden change in the opening of classes causing a congestion of webinar schedules on the part of the teachers. This is not to undermine the contract I had with you. My project was supposed to be an aide for the module making of the teachers by promoting the use of Wikipedia. This is also the mission of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project. I think the Education Team is better than me in carrying out this objective. On my end, I intend to give further support through my Rapid Grant Project afterwards. The same activities will be done (Activities on the Meta Page) and the same objectives will be carried out, just this time, teachers will be more aware and more accepting of the idea. It will also be a good avenue for those teachers who are not included in the pilot project of the Education Team. (I hope these make sense. Lol)

Second. FB Group Moderation. Also, as part of my target, there is a creation of FB Group to moderate the use of Wikipedia among teachers. At the moment, I can't moderate two groups with the same mission without jeopardizing the other. From my point of view, multiple groups alike would result in less integrity of these groups. So I am planning to create the group after the Education Team dissolves the current group they task me to moderate. I am assured it will be deleted after the entire program is finished.

Third. Withdrawal of the Project or Extension. I am torn between considering withdrawing the project or extending its time duration. I already have volunteers who are committed to being involved and we already conducted an initial planning for this project. For them, they are suggesting to request an extension because the project is beneficial both for us (Wikipedians) and to our community. But I told them, I cannot guarantee the extension because the decision is not for me to make and it's out of my control.

With this, I am asking if it's possible to extend the project end date to April 30, 2021. We are planning to conduct all the webinars in the month of January (in time for semester break and start of second semester) and the moderation and evaluation of the project through FB Group from February to April 2021. Again, apologies for the late notice of this request. There have been a lot of unpredictable circumstances because of this pandemic.

Hoping for your thoughts on this. Thank you.

Best,

Dang Brazal (Talk) 04:24, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Hello Brazal.dang, thanks for posting your request. Per our communication over email, I am approving this request and extending the project end date to April 30, 2021. The new reporting due date for your grant is now May 30, 2021. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 07:19, 21 October 2020 (UTC)