Meeting Agenda for 28 September 2021

Please join us Team Meeting Tuesdays 1600 UTC OR Team Meeting Wednesday 0300 UTC (APAC friendly) OR Office Hour Friday 1000 UTC OR Coffee Hour Friday 1300 UTC in the #training Slack channel for our weekly meetings!


This Week’s Agenda

  1. Intro/Welcome
  2. News
    1. Welcome and Support Flow Wranglers
    2. Comments and sharing on:
      1. Learner achievements for courses
      2. Translation Days Sept 29 at 10:00 UTC
      3. Learn WordPress Needs Assement Results
      4. Should Learn WordPress contributors be GPL compliant?
      5. PROPOSAL: Ensuring high-quality video contributions to Learn WordPress
    3. Team Badges
    4. WCUS Training Team presentation
      1. No Friday meetings
  3. Sprint
    1. Progress
      1. Preparing Learn for WordPress Updates
      2. Mini-sprint
    2. Check-in
      1. What did you commit to last week?
      2. What did you do?
      3. Any blockers?
      4. What will you do next week?
  4. Open Discussions

Upcoming Meetings

You are welcome to join the team at any time! If you are new to the Training Team, please introduce yourself in the #training channel before the meeting (or anytime!) and feel free to join us in the meeting and participate as you are able.


Training Team Mission

The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as downloadable lesson plans for instructors to use in live environments, via learn.wordpress.org.

Getting Involved

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join in, comment on posts, and participate in meetings and on projects.

Team Links

  1. Getting Involved:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/
  2. About The Team:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/about/ 
  3. Our Team Blog:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/ 
  4. Our Content Roadmap:- https://trello.com/b/BsfzszRM/wordpress-training-team-lesson-plan-development 
  5. What We Are Currently Working On This Month:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/category/sprint/
  6. Learn WordPress Roadmap:- https://trello.com/b/rK1tztAA/learn-wordpress 
  7. Learn WordPress Issues Log:- https://github.com/WordPress/learn
  8. Our Lesson Plans:- https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans/
  9. Our YouTube Channel:- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnxqNA0WORZXWurEP6cNV6w 
  10. Learn Website:- https://learn.wordpress.org/

#agenda

PROPOSAL: Ensuring high-quality video contributions to Learn WordPress

The Training Team is incredibly grateful to everyone who helped to launch Learn WordPress and has contributed valuable and solid content. Not least because Learn WordPress is going to be the first place that many people encounter in the WordPress project. Indeed, it may be the only part of the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ network that they ever engage with. This is due to the fact that many users will come looking for training on how to do something with WordPress and won’t have any interest in the community beyond that. If people come to Learn WordPress without any knowledge of how the WordPress community works as an open-source project, they will be expecting to find videos that match the quality they could find elsewhere.

A proposal

Learn WordPress content needs to be of high quality, but most people don’t have access to expensive recording equipment and it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to match the video quality of those who do. Production quality must not be a blocker for people contributing their skills and knowledge to the platform, so what can be done about it?

After thinking about this for a while, I have a proposal for how we can proceed that involves two areas of focus:

Distinguish between video types

The idea would be to distinguish between the highly produced videos and the community contributed ones in a similar way to how TED and TEDx talks are different from each other. This would mean there would be a separate taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. that clearly identifies which videos are produced with high-quality equipment and which ones are not. The visual distinction here would need to be discussed before we move forward with anything. My initial thinking is that there would be a section titled “Community Content” or similar that would feature the videos contributed by the community that are not of the production quality standards that are set. These production standards would need to be discussed and finalised before we implement anything here.

Collaborate on planning, but limit who can produce

The other area of focus to complement the separate video types would be to allow anyone to get involved in planning and scripting videos, but only allow approved people to actually record/produce the ones that are not included in the “Community Content” section. In practice, this could look something like this:

  1. Certain people are selected (through a public application process that anyone can submit themselves) to be approved as presenters & producers – this would have a few requirements along the lines of having access to high-quality recording equipment, being able to present well, etc. – this would need to be clearly defined and formalised with a vetting process for new applications. There would be a strong focus on building up a diverse set of voices for this group.
  2. Multiple people collaborate on outlining a video and writing a script for it – this would include anyone who would like to be involved.
  3. The finished outline and script is given to one of the approved presenters to record – this could be one of the people who wrote the script or it could be someone else.
  4. If the video is a screencast with a voiceover, we could even have a subject matter expert record the screencast and one of the approved presenters record the voiceover in order to ensure content can be written to cater to all skillsets.

The advantage of this is that anyone can get involved in creating content, even if they aren’t able (or don’t want to!) actually present/produce it, with the end result being that we have high-quality content produced to a high standard. All contributors would still be credited on the workshop video page regardless of their role in creating the video.

Feedback

Please provide feedback along the following lines:

  • Do you feel this proposal is a good way to ensure that Learn WordPress videos remain high-quality while also encouraging contributors to get involved?
  • Is there anything you would change about this proposal?
  • Do you have a different proposal to suggest?

This discussion on this post will be open until the end of the day on Wedensday, 6 October and then the comments will be summarised with a decision being made based on what is discussed.

#learn-wordpress, #proposal, #videos

Preparing Learn for WordPress Updates

When WordPress releases an update, the documentation and training materials about features that have been changed need to be revisited.

To help organize content based upon features, we now have custom taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. only visible when logged in to Learn. We need help organizing that taxonomy.

Here’s a demonstration:

As a recap:

  • Log in to Learn
  • Go to Lesson Plans and later Workshops
  • View all posts
  • Look at the columns visible
  • If a post does not have “Included Content Done”, edit that post.
  • Review the post
  • Assign the version of WordPress displayed
  • Assign the Included Content taxonomy
  • In Edit Flow’s custom metadata (bottom or right sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.), check the box to indicate “Included Content Done”
  • Publish

Leave comments below with the progress or any questions.

#5ftf, #content-audit

Lesson Plans to Workshops: A Mini-Sprint

The training team has created some incredible work over the years, but none so prominent and detailed as the glorious archive of Lesson Plans.

They have actionable objectives.
They have clear steps.
They’re already detailed, vetted, and ready to roll for public use.

Ultimately, they are an excellent resource for potential video workshops!

This is a little late in the month to add to the sprint, but this is something that I’d love to see happen sooner rather than later, so I wanted to bring this idea into the public space!

While I’m wrapping up my first text-based course, there are a few lesson plans I’ve been spying that might make excellent supplementary video workshop material (such as @courane01‘s suggestion of using Demo Content) .

If this works well, we might consider how we will communicate who is working on turning a lesson plan into a workshop going forward (perhaps with a new column in the TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. board?)

I’d like to see if we can more quickly produce a few workshops from existing lesson plans in a sort of mini-sprint in this in-between time as some of our new training team members are onboarding. Going forward, these will be included in our monthly sprints.

If interested this next week, please pick a lesson plan that you want to “claim” or are interested in creating a video workshop for in the comments.

We can also clarify this process once we’ve seen how it goes!

Agenda for 21 September 2021

Please join us Team Meeting Tuesdays 1600 UTC OR Team Meeting Wednesday 0300 UTC (APAC friendly) OR Office Hour Friday 1000 UTC OR Coffee Hour Friday 1300 UTC in the #training Slack channel for our weekly meetings!


This Week’s Agenda

  1. Intro/Welcome
  2. News
    1. Welcome and Support Flow Wranglers
    1. Badges & learner achievements for courses
    2. WCUS Training Team presentation
    3. Translation Days Sept 29 at 10:00 UTC
    4. Learn WordPress Needs Assement Results
    5. Should Learn WordPress contributors be GPL compliant?
  3. Sprint
    1. Progress
    2. Check-in
      1. What did you commit to last week?
      2. What did you do?
      3. Any blockers?
      4. What will you do next week?
  4. Open Discussions

Upcoming Meetings

You are welcome to join the team at any time! If you are new to the Training Team, please introduce yourself in the #training channel before the meeting (or anytime!) and feel free to join us in the meeting and participate as you are able.


Training Team Mission

The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as downloadable lesson plans for instructors to use in live environments, via learn.wordpress.org.

Getting Involved

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join in, comment on posts, and participate in meetings and on projects.

Team Links

  1. Getting Involved:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/
  2. About The Team:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/about/ 
  3. Our Team Blog:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/ 
  4. Our Content Roadmap:- https://trello.com/b/BsfzszRM/wordpress-training-team-lesson-plan-development 
  5. What We Are Currently Working On This Month:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/category/sprint/
  6. Learn WordPress Roadmap:- https://trello.com/b/rK1tztAA/learn-wordpress 
  7. Learn WordPress Issues Log:- https://github.com/WordPress/learn
  8. Our Lesson Plans:- https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans/
  9. Our YouTube Channel:- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnxqNA0WORZXWurEP6cNV6w 
  10. Learn Website:- https://learn.wordpress.org/

Should Learn WordPress contributors be GPL compliant?

In some cases – notably for anyone involved in a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. in any official capacity – WordPress contributors are required to be GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. compliant. This means that any WordPress derivatives (i.e. themes, plugins, forks or distributions) that they distribute must be licensed under the GPL or a compatible licence. This isn’t the case for most areas of contribution, so let’s have a look at whether this should apply to contributors to learn WordPress.

The result of this conversation may seem obvious to some, but it’s good to discuss these things out in the open so that we have a documented record of where, why, and how these types of decisions have been made.

First, some precedents

In terms of contributions, Learn WordPress is an interesting blend of speaking and documenting depending on the area of contribution on the platform, so here are some precedents in both of those areas that we should be aware of:

Event speakers

Anyone who speaks at an official WordPress event (WordCamp, meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area., etc.) is only allowed to speak if any WordPress derivatives they distribute are licensed with a GPL compatible licence. This has always been the case, and for good reason. Speakers (and organisers) are seen to represent WordPress to their local community, so they need to embody the same freedoms that the GPL affords WordPress users.

Documentation contributors

Anyone can contribute documentation to WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/the Docs team handbook doesn’t have any specific requirements listed and allows anyone to get involved. Since documentation writers aren’t specifically representing WordPress in the same way that event speakers, this is not an issue. Also, documentation contributors aren’t directly recognised for their specific contributions in the context of where it took place.

Core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. https://core.trac.wordpress.org.

Since CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. is the oldest area of contribution in the project it’s also worth taking a look at how contributors can get involved and are recognised here. Anyone can contribute to WordPress core, regardless of their GPL compliance. All contributors receive props for their contribution directly on TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/., as well as being thanked in the announcement post on WordPress.org/news. Their name in the announcement post is linked to their WordPress.org profile.

OK, so what does that mean for Learn WordPress?

Lesson plans

Lesson plan contributors do not have any GPL requirements – this is much the same as for documentation in that anyone can contribute and specific contributors are not recognised directly on the lesson plans themselves. This seems right to me and is the best way to encourage as many people as possible to contribute.

Workshops

Currently, all workshop presenters are credited on the workshop page with their name, avatarAvatar An avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It’s usually a square box that appears next to the user’s name. and full bio pulled from their WordPress.org profile (example). Since workshop presenters are a public face of the project in much the same way that WordCamp speakers are, we have also been operating under the same requirements as WordCamp speakers when it comes to being GPL compatible. This also seems right to me and I am of the opinions that we should continue with this requirement.

It is possible, however, for people to contribute content to a video workshop without being the presenter on the screen. This raises some questions:

  1. Do we credit non-presenting content contributors in the same way as presenters?
  2. Should non-presenting contributors have the same GPL compatibility requirements as presenters?

Since one of the primary motivations behind the GPL requirement is to ensure that anyone publicly representing WordPress does so in a way that is faithful to the licence, it makes sense for presenters to have that same requirement, but I don’t think we can say the same for non-presenting contributors.

A proposal

After considering a few ways we could move forward here, my proposal is the following:

  • Anyone contributing text-based content to Learn WordPress does not have to fulfil any GPL compliance requirements, this would apply to lesson plans and any other area that is text/image based.
  • Workshop presenters (i.e. people who appear in videos whether on video or audio) must continue to be GPL compliant just like WordCamp speakers need to be – presenters will be vetted at the time of their workshop application just like WordCamp speakers are vetted.
  • Anyone contributing to workshops who is not appearing in the video itself (i.e. helped to create the outline, script, slides, editing, or any other area) does not need to be GPL compliant.
  • Workshop presenters will still be listed on the workshop page with their name, avatar and bio as they are now, while anyone contributing to the workshop in any other capacity would be listed in a blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. titled “Other contributors” with their name that is linked to their WordPress.org profile, just like in the core release announcements.

tl;dr: Anyone featuring in videos must be GPL compliant, but all other contributors need not be.

Feedback

Does this proposal sound like a good way to move forward? Please share any thoughts you have and we can discuss it all here.

This post will remain open for comments until the end of the day on Wednesday, 29 September. After that, comments will be summarised and we can formalise the guidelines based on this discussion

WPTranslation Day: LearnWP

We’re holding a work session today for generating and upload subtitles for all of the videos on Learn WordPress. at Wednesday, 29 September 2021 at 10:00 UTC to Wednesday, 29 September 2021 at 12:00 UTC, and a few of us may be available after this time as well.

To help things run smoothly, please complete this form:

Here is how things will happen:

  • Meet in the #training channel in the Making WordPress Slack group at the times listed above.
  • Follow the WordPress.tv team guide for generating subtitles to additional languages.
  • If you find a video needing native language captions, please follow this comprehensive guide for generating, checking and uploading captions and transcripts – all of the videos have already been uploaded to the transcription services (Otter and Sonix), so you can skip the download/upload video steps and jump straight into the captioning and trscription work!
  • Use this sheet to check which videos need to be worked on
  • When you start working on a video, just say the name of the video in the SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel so everyone knows and when you’re done with the video, please update the sheet accordingly.
  • If you need any assistance just ask in the channel! In order to be given the correct permissions and password you can ask in the channel and they will be sent to you in a private message. Passwords will be changed after the work session are complete for security reasons.

You can join for any amount of time as you like during the work session – if you can just be there for 10 minutes then that’s great! If you can be there for an hour or more, then that’s also great! All work done here is valuable and appreciated.

Where are we doing it?

The work session will be coordinated in the #training channel in the Making WordPress Slack group. All you need to do is show up in the channel at the right time. We can open a Zoom session to help expedite onboarding participants who need access to various sites.

How are we doing it?

Translating into your language

Captions for original language

We’ll be using two different services to generate captions and transcripts – Otter.ai for English videos and Sonix.ai for all other languages. This comprehensive guide walks you through the entire process so you don’t need any prior knowledge about how video subtitles work. You will find a sheet with the caption/transcript status of all the published videos here.

Why are we doing it?

Captions and transcripts serve three main purposes for the workshop videos.

  1. AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) – captions and transcripts allow anyone to be able to read what is being presented thereby making the videos available to more people.
  2. Localisation – captions and transcripts, unlike the videos themselves, can be localised. Since all of the workshop videos are hosted on WordPress.tv, once captions have been added any Polyglots contributor can translate and upload them in any other language.
  3. SEO – the text in the captions and transcripts can be indexed by search engines, making the content significantly more findable across the web.

Additional opportunities:

  • Translate the content, text and screenshots of Lesson Plans. Save this as a draft Lesson Plan with the categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. of your language.
  • Record an existing Workshop in your own language. Please cover all and only the material presented for consistency. Also translate the text of the Workshop post. Save this as a draft Workshop with the category of your language.

If you would like to get involved in this work outside of the hours designated for this session, then you are welcome (and encouraged!) to do so. Please follow the guide for instructions and let the team know in the #training channel that you’re doing it.

If you’d like to learn more about working with #PolyGlots for translation, check out this course.

Once this work has concluded and all of the current videos have full captions and transcriptions, this will become a requirement for any new video published on Learn WordPress so we will never host a workshop without them again.

#learn-wordpress

#5ftf, #contributor-days, #translate

X-post: [Announcement] New workflow for reporting documentation issues

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/docs: Comment on [Announcement] New workflow for reporting documentation issues

Agenda for September 14, 2021

Please join us Team Meeting Tuesdays 1600 UTC OR Team Meeting Wednesday 0300 UTC (APAC friendly) OR Office Hour Friday 1000 UTC OR Coffee Hour Friday 1300 UTC in the #training Slack channel for our weekly meetings!


This Week’s Agenda

  1. Intro/Welcome
  2. News
    1. Welcome and Support Flow Wranglers
    1. Badges & learner achievements for courses
    2. WCUS speaker application has been submitted.
    3. Translation Days Sept 29 at 10:00 UTC
      1. Hindi translation progress
    4. Learn WordPress Needs Assement Results
  3. Sprint
    1. Progress
    2. Check-in
      1. What did you commit to last week?
      2. What did you do?
      3. Any blockers?
      4. What will you do next week?
  4. Open Discussions

Upcoming Meetings

You are welcome to join the team at any time! If you are new to the Training Team, please introduce yourself in the #training channel before the meeting (or anytime!) and feel free to join us in the meeting and participate as you are able.


Training Team Mission

The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as downloadable lesson plans for instructors to use in live environments, via learn.wordpress.org.

Getting Involved

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join in, comment on posts, and participate in meetings and on projects.

Team Links

  1. Getting Involved:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/
  2. About The Team:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/about/ 
  3. Our Team Blog:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/ 
  4. Our Content Roadmap:- https://trello.com/b/BsfzszRM/wordpress-training-team-lesson-plan-development 
  5. What We Are Currently Working On This Month:- https://make.wordpress.org/training/category/sprint/
  6. Learn WordPress Roadmap:- https://trello.com/b/rK1tztAA/learn-wordpress 
  7. Learn WordPress Issues Log:- https://github.com/WordPress/learn
  8. Our Lesson Plans:- https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans/
  9. Our YouTube Channel:- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnxqNA0WORZXWurEP6cNV6w 
  10. Learn Website:- https://learn.wordpress.org/

Learn WordPress Needs Assessment Results

In order to obtain an expert third-party view of what Learn WordPress needs in order to succeed, a leading digital learning consultant (AllenComm) was contracted to perform a full needs assessment of the platform. This needs assessment was funded by Automattic, and the research was entirely neutral and based on observations made by AllenComm themselves.

After a few months of this ongoing assessment, the final results have been delivered so here they are in their entirety.

First up, here’s a PDF of the full presentation of their findings:

Along with that, here are the results of the public user survey that was included in their research:

And, finally, they also created these interactive mockups of how Learn WordPress could be improved based on their findings.


Since there’s a lot to go through in all of that, here’s the executive summary of the findings from the assessment:

1. Make it minimal and meaningful

  • Offer assessments to determine level of expertise and user group.
  • Make the site easy to navigate with intuitive searching solutions with auto complete options for commonly searched terms.
  • Include filters that can be easily accessed with meaningful content.
  • Provide quick access to topics and solutions that apply to them. Because most use this for work obligations, they’ll need quick solutions and quick access.

2. Make it concise and customised

  • Provide a revolving carousel of new options for learning to ensure the new content gets cycled through and older content is flagged as possibly outdated.
  • Facilitate easy, simple options for them to take ownership to invest their own content based on the needs of the community.
  • Create badging or indicators that coincide with their level of expertise based on completion and contributions.

3. Make it iterative

  • Create flexible, current opportunities for the users to make the site their own based on their interests and level of expertise.
  • Apply dates to all materials so learners can determine if the content is applicable to current versions of their current processes.
  • Provide current, relevant supplementary materials for specific topics such as editors and plug-in functions. (PDF)

4. Make it interactive

  • Include training activities that encourage the users to apply or think through the application of new processes or solutions.
  • Don’t test them on knowledge, but instead outline various use cases for the lessons and materials.
  • Provide pre-recorded sessions and a way to ask questions of the presenter.

5. Make it interpersonal

  • Provide access to a collaboration of real people in real time so they can garner specific support when and where they need it.
  • Continue to provide instructional videos of real people who may share some struggles they’ve also had and how they’ve solved it.
  • Provide a feedback loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. where they can offer suggestions and receive responses.

There are some very exciting ideas in there and there’s a lot that I’m looking forward to exploring further! It is important to note, however, that none of this is prescriptive – just because the report suggests we do something, doesn’t mean we need to do it. Our task from here is to use this to figure out just what we need and what we can implement from all of this.

Please discuss in the comments of this post and leave any thoughts or feedback you might have!