MENA Wikipedia Education Program – Questions
Research/Interview Questions for Professors
edit- Why would a Global Education Program be helpful for universities in the Middle East/North Africa?
- What are some organizations or student groups that would be key alliances for this program?
- Do you have any contacts who might be interested in this type of project (i.e. schools, professors, librarians, people involved with outreach events)? How can we connect with them?
- (Sensitive) What might be some internal conflicts at the university that might prohibit the Global Education Program?
- What percentage of the students at the school have access to computers (on and off campus)
- How much time do students spend online?
- In the university communities, who are the leaders and valued voices who might propel a Wikipedia/Global Education Program initiative?
- What ideas for outreach might be workable in MENA?
- Is there a community and/or mission-aligned partners interested in doing outreach?
- What is the number of people who speak/read Arabic and who have access to Internet (this will give us a better idea of how high we would want the "rank" of Arabic Wikipedia to be). (research ITU)
- Which classes are happening in Arabic? What percentage of students speak Arabic, write in Arabic, etc.?
- What is the understanding of copyright in the Arab world?:
- Does Arab culture encourage the copying/citation of texts written by authoritative sources in order to transfer that authority to your own text and/or acknowledge that authority?
- What is the skill level of the students when it comes to experience in researching for a paper?
- What does a student report look like? (soft copy example)
- How many references are needed in a paper?
- How many papers does a student write per term?
- What's a syllabus look like for the class (soft copy example)
- Do students ever do presentations on their work?
- What are the student activities / what are their priorities academically?
- How long is each academic term? How many academic terms are there per year?
- How much leverage do course instructors have over students' assignments, in terms of autonomy?
- Who controls the curriculum in higher education at the University?
- Are there particular subject matters in which certain topics are especially more taboo?
- What would be the incentive for teachers to let their students write Wikipedia articles in Arabic?
- Will the students be able to write in higher level FusHa (Arabic) that's being used in the Arabic Wikipedia?
- What year level would be ideal in order to work with students at the university? (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Graduate?)