This Fellowship is related to the Campus Program that the Wikimedia Foundation is planning to roll-out in India. Specifically, it is related to the large-scale, high-impact pilot that is planned for Pune. This Fellowship seeks to drive the Movement's priorities of
Context of Campus Program[edit]
This section has been adapted from the Global University Program well as the India Programs.
| Rationale
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- Arguably, students represent the most promising group from which to recruit new editors. They are immersed in a mindspace of learning and documenting learning. There is therefore a reasonably high identification with the community's values and endeavors.
- Incorporating Wikipedia in the teaching plans (even if not in formal syllabi) represents a major opportunity to create a sustainable and long-term channel to recruit new editors.
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| Elements of the India Campus Program
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- Comprehensive campus outreach program - with complimentary outreach to teachers and students
- Campus ambassadors to drive and support the program
- Fellowships to catalyze and co-ordinate the program
- Pilot in one town at large scale
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| Key Message(s)
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- Here's how! ...& it's Fun!
- Wikipedia works in education
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| Implementation Outline
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- It is essential to learn from the similar initiatives. A prime case study is the Public Policy Initiative in the US. Learnings from this provide important pointers.
- Teachers require significant efforts to convince them about the relevance, utility and practicality of Wikipedia in education.
- Teachers require peer validation for using Wikipedia in education, as well as support in designing teaching plans to incorporate Wikipedia.
- Campus Ambassadors play a central role to evangelise the program with teachers, support teaching plan re-design, outreach to students and hand-holding students on editing.
- It is important to ensure that selected subject areas must be as inclusive as possible - to broadbase participation.
- The gender gap can be reduced by the campus program.
- Leaderboards serve to provide information as well as excitement around the program.
- Given the Indian context, a low-cost, high-scale model needs to be evolved. This should include minimising costs and time in travel.
- While it is envisaged that the campus program has substantial potential for a national roll-out, it is prudent to establish proof-of-principle and to iron out the program in a geographical manageable area - but at high scale. It is therefore proposed to pilot this in Pune. Pune has been chosen because it has >200,000 students from across the country in >100 colleges and universities. It is reported to be have the largest number of colleges and universities of any city in the world. Please refer to this additional content on the state of education in Pune Also, there is a relatively large and active community in Pune.
- Given the scale of the program, there will be requirements of a large number of part and full time team members. This will include Campus Ambassadors and Fellowships, apart from staff members.
- Campus Ambassadors need to be recruited and trained well in advance of the formal launch of the program, given the central link they represent to the program. It is proposed to use geonotices to attract, recruit and motivate Campus Ambassadors. Campus Ambassadors require intensive training given the complex nature of their roles. India Programs will extensively lean on the Foundation staff who have deep expertise in this aspect for all elements of Campus Ambassadors - from recruitment guidelines to training. Campus Ambassadors require training in outreach, teacher evangelising, editing, tutoring, teaching plan design. In addition to the training, they should be given recognition - in the form of acknowledgement, certification and cool gear.
- It is essential to identify phase-wise shortlists of colleges and universities, especially given the sheer numbers involved. Eventually (i.e., within 3 months), efforts must be made to reach out to every major college and university in the Pune area.
- Briefings ought to commence early (May 2011) with school/college authorities to inform them about Wikipedia as well as the Campus Program. This must be rapidly followed by engagements with teachers to understand their motivations and concerns regarding Wikipedia in their classrooms. An important consideration is to share experiences of professors from American universities who have adopted Wikipedia in their classrooms. This could be done in the form of written or video testimonials as well as potential video-conferencing during teacher meet-ups that would be conducted in Pune for interested teachers.
- Student groups / bodies need to be identified and engaged with to inform them about Wikipedia as well as the Campus Program.
- The dialogue with teachers and students should serve to identify particular areas of academic interest that might be contributed to by (potentially new) campus editors. The objective ought to have a wide range of subject areas to foster participation. Given that students will also be outreached directly, these subject areas should include, but should not be limited to, purely academic subjects.
- Given the scale of the pilot, and the ambitious timeframes, it is proposed to have have 4 Fellowships for 3 months each (full time) to co-ordinate and build the pilot. Invitations and references are requested from the Community for such Fellowships
- Considerable expertise has been built in the Public Policy Initiative. India Programs will lean extensively on the Foundation staff to leverage this learning. To this end, 2-3 staff members will visit Pune in the 2nd half of May 2011 to help in onboarding/training of Campus Ambassadors/Fellows, outreach with teachers and influencers, PR and kicking off the program.
- An important distinction for the proposed campus program pilot in Pune is that it will simultaneously outreach teachers, as well as directly to students. Given that some teachers might take longer than others to adopt Wikipedia, it is important that the opportunity of the pilot is fully realized by attempting new editor recruitment directly with students.
- Deliberate efforts must be made to reach out to female students and colleges.
- Given the language of education is increasingly English, it is recommended that the campus program is based on English. Having said this, opportunities in Marathi, Hindi or any other Indic language (which might have a willing student body) should not be ignored. Also, specific opportunities for Indic language editing, such as at language courses / colleges should also be considered.
- In terms of timelines, it's proposed to kick of the recruitment of Campus Ambassadors and Fellows ASAP- starting with geonotices commencing April 12, 2011. It is planned to commence the recruitments before May 15th, 2011 such that training can commence in the second half of May. While different courses / colleges / universities have different start dates for their semesters (between June and August), the early onboarding of the team is important because there will be a huge amount of time and effort required for logistics and preparatory work with teachers. It is proposed that classroom editing of Wikipedia commences with the new education year.
- In all of this, it is essential that the "fun" element of contributing to Wikimedia projects is celebrated. This is proposed through a series of initiatives.
- Existing school/college social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, influential bloggers) as well as local media should be used to publicise the program and catalyse participation of both teachers and students. Social networks could be used to celebrate participating colleges/universities, subjects, participating students & teachers, Campus Ambassadors, interesting contributions, etc.
- Start and publicize leaderboards (including potentially using local print/TV/radio for additional PR for the program)
- Conduct outreach sessions every month for 3 months on each campus and repeat these annually
- Conduct Wiki Loves... for Wikimedia Commons to generate excitement. This could be done either for the respective college/university or for Pune and surrounding areas.
- Given the importance of peer validation, information must be regularly shared with participating and interested teachers/authorities on the program. This could be in the form of written updates or through PR.
- It is worthwhile reiterating that Pune is proposed as the pilot for a more ambitious national roll-out. Based on the experiences and learnings of the pilot in Pune, this roll-out is initiated through at least 1 more major city before June 2012.
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| Resources
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- Dedicated resources will be required to plan & execute this activity. It is proposed to have 4 Fellowships for the Pune pilot given the scale of the program it's nascent stage. In addition, the program will be the single biggest initiative of India Programs and will therefore receive proportionate focus, effort and resources.
- Expenses on giveaways will be substantial. It is planned to give every participant of any outreach / participating class 3 stickers / 2 badges and 1 T-shirt as acknowledgement.
- Expenses to train Campus Ambassadors, as well as gear for them (e.g., hoodies, etc.) It is proposed to have at least 2 Campus Ambassadors per major sub-section in participating colleges and universities. Assuming a level of 25 participating colleges/universities (and assuming 2 teachers per college/university), it is estimated that 100 Campus Ambassadors will be needed. Needless to say, as the program rolls-out, these numbers will increase dramatically.
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| Other Factors
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- If teachers can be convinced to include Wikipedia articles as part of the teaching program, that would be a wonderful bonus
- Participation of teachers will be particularly useful, even if Wikipedia articles are not included in syllabi (as changes in syllabus tend to take considerable time.)
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Specific Fellowship Details[edit]
| Role of Fellowship
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- Desk research on colleges and universities, as well as the overall education sector in Pune - as part of a team of Fellows.
- Identification of colleges, education authorities, colleges/universities, teachers and student bodies. Collectively as a team of Fellos, dividing these into an equitable share for each Fellow.
- Dialogue with these colleges, education authorities, colleges/universities, teachers and student bodies to determine
- Feedback on syllabi/curriculum and teaching methods, including who makes decisions and what goes into such decision making
- Current class sizes and organisation
- Priorities, motivators and incentives for teachers and, separately, for students (as both Campus Ambassadors as well as class participants)
- Preliminary feedback on Wikimedia Foundation Campus Program - attractions, concerns and queries
- Design, implementation, monitoring & reporting of an outreach plan that comprehensively addresses colleges, education authorities, colleges/universities, teachers and student bodies
- Recruitment, training and management of Campus Ambassadors.
- Ongoing supervision of Campus Program, including hand-holding of teachers, Campus Ambassadors & students.
- Digital outreach (facebook, twitter, etc.) to promote/update Campus Program within the social networks of the relevant colleges/universities/student groups.
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| Measurement of Results
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- Number of outreach sessions/meetings and number of participants in outreach to colleges, education authorities, colleges/universities, teachers, student bodies & students
- Number of colleges/teachers/classes/students enrolled
- Number of articles & size of articles
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| Volunteer Involvement
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- Recruiting, training & managing Campus Ambassadors
- Co-ordination with existing Community for editorial support
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| Alignment to Strategic Goals
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- Increased participation through a new and continiung stream of new editors
- Increased reach through reinforcement of the relevance of Wikipedia
- Increased quality through better researched and written articles on Wikipedia
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Given the nature of the Campus Program, a Wikimedia Foundation Fellowship is proposed. Resources required will be basic training. This Fellowship is proposed for a period of 3 months starting May 15th 2011. The proposed location is Pune.
My name is PJ Tabit, User:Pjthepiano. In May 2010 I graduated from the University of Scranton with a B.S. in Political Science, a B.A. in Philosophy and a minor in economics. This past fall I started my graduate studies at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where I am pursuing a master's degree in Public Policy. In addition I work part-time as a research associate in the Government and Finance Division of the Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress.
Through a variety of experiences I have developed a strong background in community mobilization and education. From 2007 - 2010, as a college admissions test instructor for Kaplan Test Preparation and Admissions, I helped to prepare high school students for the SAT. During that time I also worked as a admissions representative at the University of Scranton. There I spoke to groups of prospective students and their parents, and gave tours of the university's campus. I was also responsible for training new employees. In 2010 I joined the staff of a campaign for the United States House of Representatives as the campaign's college outreach coordinator. On that team I lead a group of volunteers who made phone calls and house visits to over 4,000 voters in Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional District.
Since the summer of 2010 I have been heavily involved in the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative, first as a campus ambassador to the George Washington University and now as an ambassador to Georgetown University. In the fall of 2010 I was invited to serve on the Ambassador Steering Committee and was elected its first chairman. Together we have developed the framework of the ambassador program including selection processes for both campus and online ambassadors, regional ambassador roles, and steering committee elections. I was also selected as an ambassador trainer and in January 2011 joined other trainers and Wikimedia Foundation staff in San Francisco to develop the ambassador training curriculum and train the first group Western Region ambassadors.
I believe my experience with the U.S. Ambassador Program at both a strategic and tactical level will allow me to contribute a unique perspective to the India Program Team. I also work extremely well in groups and adapt well to new situations.
Thank you for your time. Please feel free to leave a message on my talk page or contact me at pjtabit@gmail.com with any questions you may have.
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