2014 Activity Plan/University and Education Outreach

Lead members of staff

Daria Cybulska and 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 Education Fringe/Hack event with WMF + WEF (21-22 June)	Wikimania (Future of Education track at Wikimania 2014 (August) ) Potential for new Students' Societies at University of Dundee and/or Cardiff University WOW! at Swansea University Others tba	EduWiki 2014 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.

One clear and specific aim in this regard is to encourage students to contribute, and to influence academics to accept Wikipedia as a valuable resource.

The success of the University and Education Outreach activities will be determined through two main factors: (a) the ability to provide continuity from previous activities into future events, and (b) the number of institutions and individuals engaging with the activities on various levels.

• Success criteria for Education Outreach Programme

- Run activities (workshops, editathons, etc.) with 5 institutions in 2014

- Run activities (joint event, joint publication) with 2 sector bodies such as Jisc (building on our 2013-14 project)

- Provide presence at external conferences and events in the Education sector - up to 3 in 2014

- Distribution/production of the education brochure, explaining the benefits of working with the Wikimedia projects - 300 copies circulated to educators in 2014

Furthermore, we will engage with the Wikimedia community to gain new and retain existing volunteers. The success of this will be measured through:

- Opportunities for volunteers (including inactive ones) to contribute to the Education projects - 2 editathons bringing in on average 10 volunteers.

- Education workshops - hold up to 8 Education-related training sessions/editathons with focus on new contributors. They will attract an average of 10 people each, 8 of whom will be new to editing.

- Student societies - working with 4-6 universities; presence at 4 Fresher’s Fairs; societies delivering 2 events/year each.

- University classroom assignments - working with 2-3 universities on improving content created/edited by students for assessment.

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.