Research:Train the Trainer Programme: An Evaluation Study
This is a short evaluation study on the Train the Trainer programme with a focus on experiences, learnings shared by participants, challenges and areas of improvement. The study was commissioned by the Open Knowledge Initiatives,International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, was undertaken by Amrit Sufi, with review and editorial oversight by the team.
Introduction
[edit]Train The Trainer (TTT) is a flagship training programme conducted by the Access to Knowledge (A2K) team, (formerly with the Centre for Internet and Society), now the Open Knowledge Initiatives team at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad to support capacity-building for emerging Wikimedians from Indic language communities. This includes introducing relevant skills sets, advanced concepts on leadership, outreach, awareness, for better engagement with Wikimedia communities and larger open knowledge movement. The objective of this research was to understand the long-term impact of the TTT programme, in its implementation over a decade.
Methods
[edit]The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data collection. An online survey was sent out to past TTT participants and a smaller subset of these respondents were interviewed (apart from organisers and community collaborators) with a focus on their experience of the TTT programme, skills that they found useful, partnerships, outreach, fundraising efforts initiated as a result of the training, challenges and areas of improvement.
Timeline
[edit]The study was conducted from mid-July to December 2025.
Study Ethics
[edit]Participation in the study was voluntary and research details were shared with all participants before data collection. Informed consent was recorded before proceeding with qualitative data collection. Consent forms included information about the study, data collection, management, retention, outlined terms for privacy and attribution. The data collected as part of this research project will only be used for academic, research uses but not for for-profit or commercial purposes and will not be shared with any third parties.
Observations
[edit]The following are key observations from the study:
- Capacity building, especially with respect to community leadership, outreach has helped participants within and outside Wikimedia Projects.
- TTT is an introduction to the wider Wikimedia world for many new Wikimedians, often resulting in formal and informal, long-term collaborations.
- Some interviewees made a direct correlation between attending TTT, their emergence as leaders in their community and increased confidence in leading projects.
- Participants have fostered collaborations with educational institutions, GLAM, content, author partnerships, CIS-A2K, open knowledge and external outreach.
- A number of participants have also engaged proactively in applying for funds after learning about Wikimedia or related grants at the programme.
- The programme design has also been replicated by various participants in their own community activities and training efforts.
- The programme has proactively worked on engaging women participants since 2018, in an effort to bridge the gender gap.
Learnings and Recommendations
[edit]The study also identified several improvement areas, namely the need for more hands-on training, technical skills, tools introduction, better follow-up and mentorship mechanisms. Relevant areas of further work include better needs skills assessment, training requirements, learnings documentation, connecting them to larger movement discussions on governance and strategy, so Indic language communities may become active stakeholders in decision-making at regional and global levels.
Based on the above, the study also collated a number of recommendations for the next phase of this training programme, such as industry/sector-specific experts involvement, creating formal mechanisms for feedback and mentorship, more hands-on training, healthy community-building, training in advanced Wikimedia skills, outreach efforts, fostering gender and linguistic diversity in events.