Grants:Project/Rapid/Mt. SAC’s ART + FEMINISM Wikipedia Spring Event Series/Report

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Goals

We met all of our goals, including: recruiting new editors; adding or improving content under the Art+Feminism global campaign; Increasing skills for existing editors; and starting the formation of a local community of editors.

We successfully planned and invited the Mt. SAC community to four spring events, including an artist talk with Ria Brodell, an alumni panel about Wikipedia editing and empowerment, and two virtual edit-a-thons. All events were recorded, allowing students, faculty, and staff to participate in live time and later after the events were captioned and posted securely online in our learning management system (LMS). In doing so, we expanded our events to span the Spring semester and welcomed the entire Mt. SAC community in addition to consciously targeting and involving student organizations such as our Pride Center and Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) student club to participate.

Between all four events, we had more than 300 registered attendees, most of whom attended events in real time during the live events (272) and many more who watched posted recordings on our LMS in the weeks after each event. With the grant money, we awarded over 100 Mt. SAC students with raffle prizes including 30 copies of Brodell’s book Butch Heroes and 74 e-gift cards.

Through these events, and with the help of the grant, students were encouraged to engage and participate in learning about editing Wikipedia. Because of the funding, we could reward our students for participating in the spring series. These events taught students the basic building blocks of information literacy, show them the value of research, and providing them with real-world opportunities to share their research and writing publicly.

We are extremely happy with how all the events turned out individually, and with the entire spring series.

Outcome

The most valuable result of our project was meeting our final goal in beginning to create and establish the formation of a local community of editors.

Before each of our events, we asked participants if they had ever edited Wikipedia when they registered for the Zoom event link. As we moved further and further into the spring semester, the number of participants who answered that they had in fact edited Wikipedia grew, as our spring series continued to expand.

As part of a two-year community college, we feel that it is extremely important to create continuity in and through events such as Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thons so that people can engage with something annually as they continue to build upon their research, writing, and editing skills. This year was a pivotal step for our team in terms of planning and growth, in that we moved from only including two art history courses (under one professor) to instead opening the event to include multiple classes and professors, individuals who want to participate, and local student groups and chapters such as our Pride Center.

Our 2021 Edit-a-thons saw the highest number of editors signed up (though not all participated in the virtual event). There were a number of other records as well. The 2021 Edit-a-thons saw more than double the number of articles edited, and similarly saw more than double the number of total edits. Additionally, our 2021 Edit-a-thons also saw the highest number of words added and a significant increase in the number of references, with almost three times the number of references as the first year and close to double the number of references as the second year.

Articles Edited: 82
Total Edits: 258
Editors: 201
Words Added: 32,000
References Added: 366
Article Views: 123,600 (in the first month after edit)

In response to one of our event exit-interview questions, “What does it mean to be a contributor to Wikipedia?” 20% of respondents specifically mentioned feeling either “empowered” or “excited.” This energy and momentum is something we hope to build upon in the coming years. By growing our events and inviting our entire community to participate and learn about editing Wikipedia through Art+Feminism’s global campaign, we sparked a fire that we plan to continue to fan in the upcoming years.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
Recruit new editors	Recruited new editors through event outreach and class participation through HUMA 1, LIBRA 1A, AHIS 3, AHIS 3H, AHIS 6, AHIS 13, ARTB 14, SAGA, and the Pride Center. 98% of our exit-interview respondents were new editors; 33% of them noted that they would like to keep editing in the future while an additional 56% said that they might want to keep editing.	We recruited hundreds of new editors, including 90 new editors who participated in the live Wikipedia Edit-a-thons. (Many more participated in editing during our Edit-a-thon windows on their own time as well.)
Add or improve content under the Art + Feminism global campaign	We added and improved content under the A+F global campaign by targeting and tailoring lesson plans for students participating in Wikipedia Edit-a-thons. 89% of our exit-interview respondents said that our Wikipedia learning modules aided in their understanding of the Art+Fem campaign.	We taught students about information literacy and improved research methods prior to editing, requiring students to complete virtual workshops tailored to editing Wikipedia. We also created a spreadsheet of artists with existing Wiki pages in need of improvement and added research.
Increase skills for existing editors	We increased skills for existing editors by adding resources to our existing Wikipedia guides and lesson plans. 93% of exit-interview respondents noted that they would either “highly recommend” or “recommend” our Wikipedia events and learning modules to other students.	We built out multiple Wikipedia resources for our community, including adding to our Info Guide, adding to our Canvas modules, and tailoring one for faculty wanting to introduce the Edit-a-thons to their classes and tailoring another for students and individuals wanting to get involved.
Start the formation of a local community of editors	We began forming a local community of editors through continued engagement and scaffolded spring events that provided reached out to new and interested editors. Additionally, this year, for our third annual Edit-a-thon, we saw the highest number of editors signed up.	Through our spring event series, we expanded our community of editors to include multiple classes and professors, individuals who want to participate, and local student groups and chapters such as our Pride Center.

Learning

*What worked well?

We had the highest attendance at events that were linked directly to classes. This did not just mean that a professor offered extra credit for the event, but rather that a professor tied the event to the topics of the course and included it pedagogically in the assignments, readings, and teaching. Moving forward, we will try to engage faculty who want to build these events into their teaching in tangible ways.

*What did not work so well?

On the flip side of what we mentioned above, we had the lowest attendance at events that were not tied directly to a course or assignment. All of the courses and faculty we worked with were taught or teaching asynchronously, meaning that there was not a set time nor day for class meetings. This flexibility often works best for our students, but for planning live, virtual events, this was a challenge we faced because faculty could not “require” attendance during a live event. As such, many of our students relied on watching the captioned videos that we posted after the live events. This is still a great way to engage students, but it does not create as much of the feeling of community during the live events.

*What would you do differently next time?

Next time, we would tie all events to at least two different faculty/classes in order to bring in a minimum number of participants. We will also start to advertise earlier and use similar strategies for engagement. Being able to conduct student raffles at each event was priceless and definitely made the events more engaging and exciting for students. For instance, upon receiving their copies of Butch Heroes in the mail, many students wrote us heartfelt notes of thanks, saying that they never would have been able to purchase the book for themselves.

Finances

Grant funds spent

We spent all of the grant money ($1996.40) on approved expenses (as originally planned and revised, with revision approved on 3/18/21). We spent the following on each event and raffle prize, with our institution kicking in an additional $23.78 to cover all of the raffle prize costs.

Please see Grant spending report below and this has also been emailed to the appropriate Wikimedia email addresses.

Final Grant Spending for Student Raffle Prizes
Event	Amount	Vendor/Item	Raffle Prize Cost
Ria Brodell books	30	Amazon ("Butch Heroes" books)	$350.43
Edit-a-thon #1	41	Target ($20 e-gift cards)	$820
Alumni Panel & Edit-a-thon #2	15 and 18 (33 winners total)	Target ($25 e-gift cards; plus $24.75 service fee)	$849.75
Total Student Winners	104	Total Spending	$2020.18

Remaining funds

Not applicable; we spent all funds.

Anything else

We want to thank you all for your support of and belief in these events. This has been an incredible opportunity and gift to our students. We really thank you, Art+Feminsim, and the Wikimedia Foundation for your generous support.