CIS-A2K/Reports/Findings&Learnings

This page is created to share the learnings out of the Pune Pilot Program and analyse how we can better strategies and implement the program in other cities.

Aspect	Problems faced in Pune Pilot	Findings	Learnings	ABC
Campus Ambassador Selection	A lot of Campus Ambassadors were not students from the same campus - they were either students from a different university or working. Hence, they were not easily accessible or available on campus. This posed a lot of problems: CAs from other universities/working CAs had their own classes/office during school hours and hence could not be made available on campus for in-class presentations, coordinating with professors, clarifying students problems etc. Students preferred to reach out to CAs during school hours, have more face time with them - but their CAs were unavailable during these hours.	Having CAs from the campus is more appropriate because: It's more convenient for CAs - They are already on campus and its easy for them to coordinate with professors, students, give in-class presentations etc. It's more convenient for students - They can reach out to CAs within schools hours to clear their doubts, have more one-on-one interaction with them. It's more convenient for the professors - They can coordinate with CAs easily since they're available on campus.	Recruit more CAs from within the campus. It's essential to have at least 80% of CAs allocated to a school from within the campus. For example if there are 10 CAs allocated to a school, at least 8 should be students from that school itself.	ABC
Campus Ambassador Allocation	In most of the classes, CAs were allocated to a class as a whole. For example A, B,C were CAs for Class Z with 90 students. This was not the best way to allocate CAs to a class because of several reasons like: In this scenario, A, B, C were unclear on which student's talk page they should post the welcome note, check for student's progress etc. Each student did not have an assigned CA just for him/her. Students had 3 points of contact which was more confusing for them.	Allocating CAs per class per student would be a better idea. For example, A would mentor roll numbers 1-30, B would mentor roll numbers 30-60 and C would mentor 60-90 roll numbers. This way: CAs would have a clear picture which students they are mentoring. CAs would have clearer direction which 30 students talk pages are they required to write a welcome note on, check student's articles etc. Students would have one point of contact.	It is better to allocate CAs per class per student. CA to student allocation should be done as soon as a class is enrolled in the program.	ABC
Campus Ambassador to student ratio	We had recruited and trained about 20 CAs. However, when we approached universities, we had over 1000 students enrolled in the Program. Problems faced were: CA to student ratio was extremely low, 1:50 Our CAs were completely outstretched and overburdened with all the work.	Recruiting CAs and enrolling classes/students should go hand in hand. It is important that we have enough active CAs so that they can comfortably manage the students.	It is essential to decide CA to student ratio before CAs are recruited. If each CA has a large number of students allocated, he might be overburdened with work. 1 CA to 25 students should be an ideal ratio.	ABC
Student's Selection Criterion	We'd enrolled couple of final year graduate classes. Final year students are usually preparing for entrance examinations or are busy looking for jobs. They are overburdened with other things and do not pay too much weight to internal exams and assessments and hence many of them decided not to write the wiki-assignment and forgo all grades associated with this assignment.	Graduate level 2nd year students have more dedication to score high on internal assignments and can devote more time. So is the case with 1st year Master students.	1st/2nd year graduate students or 1st year master students would be the best lot to enroll in the program.	ABC
Student's Selection Criterion	Some of the students we had enrolled in the program were not comfortable with the English language.	If students are editing in English, it is essential that they are reasonably comfortable with English reading and writing.	Students with fair command over English language should be enrolled in the program.	ABC
Class Selection Criterion	Some of the classes enrolled for the program were very small, with only 18 students.	Smaller classes demand equal number of in-class presentations/editing sessions/refresher sessions as any bigger class would do. To get maximum impact, it makes logical sense to enroll classes with larger number of students.	We should try and get reasonably sized classes to enroll for the program.	ABC
School Selection Criterion	Out of the 2 schools enrolled in the pilot - one was a government school and the other was a private school. We found working with private school easier as compared to working with public school.	Private schools usually have more computer labs and better technological infrastructure. Private schools have more innovative ways of teaching and learning. Private schools are open to new ideas of teaching and learning. Generally speaking, private school professors are more involved with students’ course work and are self-motivated.	Working with private school is a lot easier than working with public schools.	ABC
Professor Selection Criterion	Some of the professors enrolled in the pilot were: not comfortable with computers. had little inclination to understand the wiki project and wiki editing.	Since professors will be guiding and grading the students through the program, its essential that the professors: are comfortable working with the computers or at least have the inclination and the ability to learn basic wiki editing.	Professors enrolling in the program should be comfortable working with computers and should have the inclination and ability to learn basic wiki editing.	ABC
In-class sessions	We conducted one editing session where we taught the students how to create usernames, user pages and basics of editing. Within a session we had given a lot of information to students which they found a little overwhelming.	Editing session should be broken down into two different sessions: Session 1: Teaching how to create usernames and user pages; and selecting articles. Session 2: Teaching basic editing (referencing, headers etc) The basic editing session should be conducted only after we’ve made sure that students have created usernames and selected articles. This will also help us make sure that students have initiated and completed the first step and now ready to move on to the next step and start editing.	Schedule 2 short editing sessions instead of 1 long editing session.	ABC
Mailing Lists	We have a common mailing list for all Pune CAs. Due to this even if we want to discuss problems/issues about either college; we (CAs/staff) have to post the mail to the larger group. A lot of CAs complained that their inboxes were unnecessarily being spammed with issues they were not concerned.	It would be convenient if we could create separate mailing lists for CAs of each university. For example mailing list for CAs of University 1 would be different from mailing list for CAs for University 2.	Create separate mailing lists for CAs of each university.	ABC