Learning and Evaluation/Evaluation reports/2015/Workshops/Key findings

Editing Workshops

Summary

Limitations

Inputs

Outputs

Outcomes

Key findings

Appendix

On this page, you will find answers to: What are the key findings to take away from the report? What are the next steps in understanding the impact of workshops?

How does the program deliver against stated goals? Here we examine together all workshops which reported, but recognize that they do not all share the same program goals. Workshops represent a diverse set of programs and reflect diverse goals across contexts--we encourage organizers of each event to consider the data in terms of what matters most to their priority goals.	Building and engaging community In terms of participation, workshops tend to engage more existing users than new users, and most of those existing users are already active editors. This may be because some workshops are conducted in series, and a user that was new at the first workshop may be counted as an existing editor in subsequent workshops. Further measures would be needed to understand in what other ways, beyond working together to produce content, workshops build and engage communities and increase awareness of the Wikimedia project. The total number of participants engaged in the 141 workshops included in this report was 5,660; 182 were existing editors (3.2%) were existing users. Active editors were a large proportion of existing users: 161 active editors made up 88% of existing editors or 2.8% of the total number of all editors. Increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects The 141 workshops reported here were held in 17 different countries in a variety of styles, such as workshops embedded in Wikimedia Education Programs to workshops focusing on translation in smaller Wikipedia language projects. If increasing awareness of the Wikimedia project continues to be a central goal, it will be important for workshops to develop and capture measures of awareness. Increasing diversity of participants Editing workshops can be a friendly way to introduce new users to Wikimedia projects, and therefore can be a great way to increase the diversity of participants. One workshop in this report targeted the general population of a smaller language Wikipedia while another focused on attracting certain demographics, such as women interested in contributing information on films. Eighteen workshops reported on one measure of participant diversity: the percentage of participants that identified as female. In these workshops, 58% of participants were female. Further measures of participant diversity will need to be tracked if we are going to accurately capture it in Wikimedia programs.
How this information can apply to program planning	Planning for program inputs & outputs Use the information to help plan for program inputs and outputs. It is important to keep in mind who the target audience of a workshop will be and design the event for that audience. For example, workshops that aim to engage new editors may need a different model for recruiting participants than workshops that aim to build the skills of experienced editors. The data from different edit-a-thons can help find the right combination of participants for your contribution goals. This table represents the middle 50% of workshops for each metric: Lower Higher Event length 2 hours 6 hours Total Participants 10 25 For each participant, Text pages added 2.2 4.2 Articles created or improved 0 3 Examine the resources that have gone into implementing different workshops. This report includes budgets from 28 workshops, ranging from $0.00 USD to $8,321.18 USD. A variety of budgets are used to achieve different workshop goals in different contexts. There are approaches to resourcing beyond monetary funds--all the workshops examined leveraged donated resources in some way. From the 44 workshops reporting donated resources, all 44 reported having received a donated meeting space, and 17 workshops (39%) reported receiving donated materials or equipment. Reach out and connect to other workshops leaders. Among all the benefits of connecting with fellow program leaders, you can find program leaders who ran similar workshops in similar contexts, and ask about the resources needed and outcomes expected. When using budgets presented here for planning purposes, try to find an event in a location with similar costs to your area and consider reaching out to a successful program leader to discuss potential resource needs (including possible budget or donated resources). Alternatively, you can find an event based on the same model in a different location and talk to the program leader about the costs before translating those expenses into local prices. Use the distribution statistics as guardrails against costly plans that may not produce scaled results. Information on cost per participant or cost per new user can also be helpful references for comparing the cost of your event with how much many editors you reach. As with overall budget information, these should be taken in the context of each event. If planning a new program, you might expect the costs to fall within middle 50% of costs per output reported. Programs nearer the bottom of the middle 50% create better outcomes with fewer inputs. We hope, as we continue to evaluate programs and feed the results back into program design, that we can learn more from the programs achieving the most impact using the fewest resources.
How easily can the program be replicated?	Workshops differ in goals, length, subject area and scope, yet they are organized successfully within and across many Wikimedian communities. They are replicable and adaptable to many different contexts to meet many different goals. Workshops can be scaleable, and iterated with the same participants. Building community and learning is the main theme of a workshop, the goals and design are up to each program leader. Program leaders use many different methods to encourage and track contributions, such as event pages, bots and wiki-based tools. Use the data tables in the report to find program leaders who are successfully running workshops you would like to replicate or build off of.
Next steps	Join the conversation! Visit the report talk page to share and discuss: Sharing learning and practices If you ran a program that delivered excellently against goals, please speak up! Consider writing a blog post, how-to guide, or contribute to the talk page sharing your ideas on why your program was so successful. If your program surmounted a particularly tricky problem in program design, consider writing a learning pattern! If you ran a program and want to report key metrics to the Learning and Evaluation team, our collector is always open. Visit our reporting page to learn about the reporting forms contents and find the link to voluntary reporting. Connecting with other program leaders, evaluators, and designers If you are considering running a new program or updating an existing one, consider reaching out to experienced program leaders who have organized a similar program. You can find leaders by program in the appendix, on our facebook or during virtual hangouts. Join the mailing list for regular updates about program evaluation, tools, etc. Questions about Evaluation and Impact What, if any, ideas do you have about other ways we should evaluate workshops or programs in general? What questions around program impact or evaluation do you have after reading the reports? What further data investigations would you like to see (or do!) for this set of workshops? Questions about Measures What, if any, measures have you used that are missing from this report? What, if any, tools/bots/programs/strategies do you use to measure the outcomes of your workshops?