Learning patterns/Choose promising program participants

A learning pattern forevent

Learning Pattern Library

Choose promising program participants

problemDemand for a program may exceed the resources you have available.

solutionMake your first event open to everyone who is interested and choose the most promising participants for your program.

creator• KHarold (WMF)

created on01:02, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

Sometimes program leaders find that they do not have enough volunteers, equipment or space to work with everyone who wants to participate in an education program. Although you may want to accommodate everyone who wants to learn to contribute to Wikimedia projects, it is better to focus limited resources on the most dedicated or promising participants.

What is the solution?

It is important to understand what your capacity is and limit how many people you work with accordingly. The number of students you can work with will depend on a number of variables.

• In Egypt, several hundred students were interested in participating in the education program, which works with translation students outside of class time. Program leaders determined that they did not have enough volunteer support to give guidance and feedback to this many students. The short term solution to this problem was to invite all interested students to complete a translation assignment. Students who submitted the best work were invited to take part in the Wikipedia Education program. In the long term, program leaders plan to recruit new ambassadors from the group of students who go through the education program.

• In Nepal, volunteers gave an overview presentation about editing Wikipedia to 150 students. Of that group, they selected 50 who were most interested for a 3-day training and then 25 students to participate in three-month course that was offered in addition to their regular coursework. Students who completed the three-month course were awarded a 'Wikipedia Drivers License' and were asked to help support students in future classes.

Endorsements

• This describes a way in which the most engaged learners are given support first, so that they can, in their turn, support the others in due course. Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 13:26, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

See also

Education Toolkit Learning Pattern This learning pattern is part of the Education Program Toolkit. Go to the toolkit.