2014 Activity Plan/University and Education Outreach

Lead members of staff

Daria Cybulska with delegated support from Toni Sant

Indicative budget amount

£18,000 to allow for a major education event in the range of £10,000

Description and overall rationale

Wikimedia UK is working with some of the country's most respected and innovative institutions to explore how Wikimedia projects can benefit UK education. In partnership with universities and support bodies, we are gradually establishing Wikimedia as part of the landscape of UK education (as on the UK wiki).

WMUK engages with the Education sector to provide the following opportunities (please see below for the mapping to our strategy goals):

1. Better awareness, especially among senior managers in the education sector about the appropriate use of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in education.
2. Stronger engagement in higher education institutions towards more university tutors assigning the editing of Wikipedia articles and/or contributing to other Wikimedia projects for assessment (course credit).
3. Broader reach across the education sector (lifelong learning as well as school children, along with higher education) towards better understanding of Wikimedia’s projects and direct engagement with content sharing.
4. Enabling UK-based academic researchers to develop a UK-based network with others working on Wikimedia-related academic research, as well as ensuring more participation in the existing WikiSym community.

This will be facilitated through local and national events, led by the Education Organiser and also resulting from volunteers' initiatives. We will therefore be working with our community to find opportunities to train new editors, improve content, and secure material for open use, whenever possible. This is done through outreach activities, partnerships with particular education institutions, and workshop/conference-style events, especially EduWiki.

The Activitiy Plan for University and Education Outreach will also be informed by the ongoing discussion on 2014-15 educational priorities through the Education Committee.

• For 2014 Education outreach programme, please see below.
• For 2014 EduWiki specific plan, please see here.

Timelines

Q1 (Feb - Apri)	Q2 (May - July)	Q3 (Aug - Oct)	Q4 (Nov - Jan)
University Outreach	Focus on Scotland	Wikimania 2014	EduWiki 2014
Support requests for activities (inc. workshops, symposium, etc.)	Follow-up on activities from Q1. Continue capacity building for EduWiki 2014 with special attention to activities in Scotland	Support Future of Education track Follow-up post-event towards EduWiki 2014	EduWiki 2014
Planned landmarks: TaPRA Workshop in London (1 February) UEA PhD workshop (5 February) Wikipedia Takes UCL (17-21 February) University of Hull at Scarborough 2014 Goldsmiths Women's Art Library (8 March) What I Know Is - University of Stirling (19 March) TaPRA Workshop at University of Glasgow (20 March) University of St Mark & St John in Plymouth (3 April)	Planned landmarks: Announce EduWiki 2014 (by end of April) Prepare for Wikimania 2014 Wikimania 2014 Fringe: Future of Education Workshop (21-22 June)	Wikimania (August) Pre-conference Education Pre-Conference Future of Education track New Education booklet: Instructor basics Campus Ambassadors programme	EduWiki 2014 Potential for new Students' Societies at University of Stirling and/or Cardiff University WOW! at Swansea University Education outreach follow-ups - from the events delivered throughout the year

Success criteria and Metrics

The general goal of WMUK's University and Education activities is to build relationships with Education institutions, increasing their awareness of Wikimedia projects, open knowledge movement, and how they can work with Wikimedia UK. We are aiming to encourage students to contribute content to Wikimedia projects, and to influence academics to accept Wikipedia as a valuable resource.

The quantity of Open Knowledge continues to increase:

• Wikipedia content increase via university classroom assignments - contributes to top level metrics of content quantity (measured via?)
  • Operationally, we will achieve this by working with with 2-3 universities

The quality of Open Knowledge continues to improve:

• Wikipedia content improvement via university classroom assignments - contributes to top level metrics of content quantity (new articles) (measured via?)

There is increased awareness of the benefits of Open Knowledge:

• Educational materials related to the education programme are produced & shared (merch spreadsheet)
• Presence at external conferences and events in the Education sector - 3 (civi)

We are perceived as the go-to organisation by UK GLAM, educational, and other organisations who need support or advice for the development of Open Knowledge:

• Running projects in cooperation with educational institutions. Contributing to the total repetitional score - Target 50 (corresponding to about 5 institutions) (civi)
• Running projects in cooperation with sector bodies such as Jisc. Contributing to the total repetitional score - Target 20 (civi)
• University societies support - Contributing to the total repetitional score - Target 40 (civi)

We have a thriving community of WMUK volunteers:

• Contributing to global targets of volunteer activity via education events - as a guide, we could deliver 8 editathons/training sessions for 10 people each on average, with focus on attracting new editors.

Operationally, we want to make sure that the following things take place:

• provide continuity from previous activities into future events
• circulate 300 copies of education programme related materials (this could be an education brochure, explaining the benefits of working with the Wikimedia projects)
• aim to make the Student societies active, e.g. they have presence at 4 Fresher’s Fairs and delivering 2 events/year each.

For EduWiki goals see here.

Risks

• Size of sector leads to lack of focus and impact.
• Becomes too disparate to deliver lasting benefits.
• Not enough continuity between university year groups to keep the groups going on Students' Societies.
• Not enough interest from students to start new Students' Societies.
• Wikimania may deflect national efforts away from WMUK since it is not a chapter event.