Wikipedia Regional Ambassadors/Assessment

Overview

An individual "assessment" happens near the end of every academic term, between Regional Ambassadors (RAs) and Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) staff members.

Purpose of the "Assessment"

"Assessment" is perhaps too formal of a word - basically Wikimedia Foundation staff will do a Skype/phone check-in with each Regional Ambassador, going over all that the RA did over the past half year and reflecting on what the RAs did well and what could be improved (everyone did some things really well and has some room for improvement). The goal of the assessment is much less so about punishing or interviewing people than about collectively reflecting on our work over the past months and thinking about what we should continue doing and what we should change, so that the entire program improves. The "assessment" is meant to be dialogical and two-way: not only will and staff and RAs collectively discuss what each RA did well on and could improve on, both parties will also discuss what Wikimedia staff did well and could improve on (the Global Education Program staff also did some things well but have a lot of room for improvement!). The assessment is a periodic debriefing session that is important for both RAs and staff to come to a greater understanding of what has taken place and how to enhance the Global Education Program and Ambassador Program further. It also serves to improve both RAs' and staff's leadership, communication, and management skills.

Format

• The next round of assessments will take place in November/December, 2011.
• The assessments will take place over Skype, ideally with video enabled. In cases where Skype is absolutely unfeasible, phone calls wil suffice.
• Each assessment will take approximately 30 minutes.
• All RAs - whether or not they want to continue serving as a RA - are required to participate in the assessment.
• If two RAs are working together as co-RAs for the same region, they will do the assessment separately because we'd like to have discussions with everyone individually.
• The Wikimedia Foundation staff members present will be the U.S. Education Program Associate and/or the Global Education Program Manager.
• The assessment is one of the factors considered in Wikimedia Foundation staff's decision on whether or not to keep a RA on board for the next term. It is not guaranteed that everyone will "pass" the assessment, but as mentioned above, the goal of the assessment is much less so about punishing or interviewing people than about collectively reflecting on our work over the past months. (NOTE: of course, if a RA does not want to continue next term, that's fine too - we'd be very sad to lose you but we'd understand.)

Questions

RA focused

• Describe what you did this term as a Regional Ambassador.
• Is this what you expected you'd be doing when you applied to be a Regional Ambassador?
  • What was the same & what was different?
  • Did you like or dislike the differences?
• Do you think the RA role / set of responsibilities make sense?
• What's your preference for the RA term duration?
  • Is it too much to handle? Too weird? Just fine?
• What do you enjoy about being a Regional Ambassador?
• What do you dislike about being a Regional Ambassador?
• How do you think you can do better as a Regional Ambassador?
• In general, what other kinds of support would have been helpful to you as a RA?
• Discuss the idea of splitting off recruitment into a separate role

• Does anything jump out as a big success from your term as an RA? A big failure?
• How satisfied are you with your performance in the following areas:
  • Quality, quantity, & timeliness of communication with professors and CAs
  • Quality, quantity, & timeliness of communication with WMF staff
  • Support provided to professors
  • Support provided to CAs
  • Recruiting & selecting CAs
  • Organizing training for CAs
  • On-boarding & mentoring CAs

Staff focused

• What did WMF staff do well this term, in relation to the Regional Ambassador program?
• What could WMF staff do better on, in relation to the Regional Ambassador program?
  • Get specific!
• How satisfied are you with WMF staff's performance in the following areas:
  • Training RAs - did the RA training in Boston adequately prepare you for the RA role?
    • What was good about the training?
    • How could it be improved?
  • Quality & timeliness of communication with RAs
  • Level of support provided to RAs
    • What could WMF staff do better on in terms of supporting the RAs?
  • Selecting RAs
  • On-boarding & mentoring RAs