Learning patterns/Create a portal for your education program

Learning Pattern Library

Create a portal for your education program

problemYou don't know how best to organize and share localized or translated training and outreach materials with students and other educators.

solutionCreate an education portal through a template.

creator• KHarold (WMF)

created on18:42, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

status:in progress

What problem does this solve?

Some education programs have adapted or created training materials to fit their local languages and context, or to train students in different age groups. In other cases, program leaders working on education projects in the same language want to share outreach and training materials and discuss program issues with others who work on their Wikipedia.

What is the solution?

Using a portal is one way to organize materials in a way that is easy for students, teachers and volunteers to find. Much like a project page, an education portal is a space to share materials and coordinate work between students and volunteers who are working on education projects in the same language, both locally and globally.

Other benefits include:

• Keep training materials for students in one place rather than including them on course pages.
• Make it easier for educators outside of your program to find teaching materials in their language of instruction that have been adapted or created, and tested by other program leaders.
• Local portals may make your program more visible to educators, government officials and media.

Things to consider

• A portal might already exist.
• It is not necessary to create a portal, you can also share materials on the country pages in the global education outreach portal. The Tec de Monterrey Program in Mexico uses the 'global' outreach portal to organize work across several programs.
• Save time by using templates from existing portals.
• Be sure to share links to local portals on the global education outreach portal.

When to use

• The French portal houses training material and lists courses used in several French speaking countries. There is a tab with profiles of local Ambassadors, or online volunteers, and Talk pages are used to ask questions.
• The Catalan portals hosts a localized version of the Wikipedia Adventure.
• The Czech education portal includes a section with help for students and links to the education extension to display current classrooms that are contributing content to Wikimedia projects.
• Wikimedia Serbia has two education portals. One portal is for outreach and contains information about the program for educators. The other is a training portal and has training materials for both secondary and university students. This portal features a community agreement for working with students as well as interactive training modules.
• The Swedish portal provides basic information in Swedish for teachers and volunteers interested in using Wikipedia in the classroom.

See also

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