Category Archives: Highlight

Hauwa Abashiya 11:36 am on October 15, 2021
Tags: time change,   

Training Team Meeting Time Change Survey

The Training team currently runs 2 team meetings to cover the EMEA, Americas and APAC regions. We’re approaching that time of the year when clocks change for some regions. To accommodate this we propose changing the time we meet. Please indicate your preference.

EMEA and Americas

Tuesday 4:00PM UTC or 5:00PM UTC

Vote EMEAs and Americas

APAC

Wednesday 2:00AM UTC or 3:00AM UTC

Vote APAC

#time-change, #training-team

Hauwa Abashiya 3:24 pm on October 4, 2021
Tags: , , , ,   

October 2021 Team Sprint

The Training team is using the Sprint method to determine what we are working on and to determine our timeframe for delivery.

What is a Sprint?

Sprints are fixed length events of one month or less to create consistency. A new Sprint starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous Sprint.

https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-sprint-in-scrum

As a team, we follow the Sprint approach loosely. While some of us are agency-sponsored contributors, others are self-sponsored. We recognize that volunteers may choose to work on what interests them, while agency-sponsored individuals may work through the priorities assigned to them. We allow room for both approaches in our Sprint planning. What is most important is that we work in the open and share what we are working on here.

This post may be updated throughout the month to reflect work that has been completed. Append any explanations as comments below.

Sprint Goals

Learn Maintenance

Learn Content

We are currently using 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. to manage and keep track of the status of each piece of content on Learn (lesson plans, video workshops and courses). Every piece of content has its own Trello card. The Trello lists represent our Development Workflow, each list contains a card that explains how to use that list.

Lesson Plan, Workshop Video Workshop and Course Ideas

The cards in this list are in need of a contributor to:

  • Finalize description
  • Set objectives (goals)
  • Research and add links to support and developer docs
  • Identify marketing communications
  • Carry out an SEO review.
  • Review related material on Learn

If that’s you, add yourself as a Member on the card and as the Current Owner. If you need any help, please ask 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/. #training channel.

  1. Lesson Plans
    1. Using Global Styles & Settings
    2. How to use the Query Loop
    3. Intro to the Block Editor
    4. Frequently Used Blocks
    5. Form Email Deliverability (SMTP Issues) @magicroundabout
  2. Courses
    1. Advanced PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Development @webtechpooja
    2. 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. Organizers @peteringersoll
    3. An intro to WP-CLI @magicroundabout

Next Up – You Can Help!

The cards in this list are in need of a contributor to draft them up. If that’s you, add yourself as a Member on the card and as the Current Owner. Then move the card to the Drafts in Progress list. If you need any help, please ask in the Slack #training channel.

  1. Lesson Plans
    1. Site Backup
    2. Migrate, Copy, or Clone a Site @arasae The lesson plan already exists so a video workshop will be created insntead.
    3. Introduction to Gutenberg @peteringersoll

Drafts in Progress

A team member has taken ownership of the cards in this list and is currently working on it. If you have started working on a card and are unable to take it to completion, please let the team know in the Slack #training channel.

  1. Lesson Plans
    1. How to create a blog post in WordPress 5.x @geheren
    2. How to Configure WordPress Installation for Contributor and Developer Testing @woodnet @caseymilne @paaljaochim This will need to be organised to follow our normal lesson plan and workshop formats. It is also in need of Windoes user to help with the testing enviroment.
    3. Testing a Trac ticket or GitHub PR @woodnet @caseymilne @paaljaochim
  2. Courses
    1. How to Contribute to the Training Team @courane01 begin creating
    2. Theme Course Development @courane01 will continue scoping into October
    3. Full Site Editing @daisyo

Instructional Review

The cards in this list have been drafted but are in need of a team member to quality check them before going to copyediting:

  • Does the description fairly describe what is covered?
  • Have the objectives been written using Bloom’s Taxonomy?
  • Have the objectives been met?
  • Does the assessment (quiz) match the objectives?
  • Are the pre-requisite skills really necessary?
  • Will “students” be able to perform the exercises with what has been covered?
  • Does the content build from or duplicate material in other lesson plans, video workshops or courses?

If that’s you, add yourself as a Member on the card and as the Current Owner. When you finished, move the card to the Ready for Copyediting list. If you have started working on a card and are unable to take it to completion, please let the team know in the Slack #training channel.

  1. Lesson Plans
    1. Using a browser inspector@woodnet (revising screenshots)

Ready for Copyediting

The cards in this list are ready to be reviewed for typos, grammar, understandability, completeness, and general style. If that’s you, add yourself as a Member on the card and as the Current Owner. Then move the card to the Copyediting in Progress list. If you need any help, please ask in the Slack #training channel.

Copyediting in Progress

The cards in this list are undergoing active work on copyediting. A team member has taken ownership and is currently working on it. Check:

  • Spelling errors (if applicable)
  • Grammar errors (if applicable)
  • Readability (use a tool such as https://www.perrymarshall.com/grade/, we should stay under 9th grade, but technical stuff may differ) (if applicable)

If that’s you, add yourself as a Member on the card and as the Current Owner. When you finished, move the card to the Style Guide Review list. If you have started working on a card and are unable to take it to completion, please let the team know in the Slack #training channel.

Style Guide Review

These are cards that need to be checked to make sure they adhere to the team’s style guide. If that’s you, add yourself as a Member on the card and as the Current Owner. When you finished, move the card to the Ready for Final Review list. If you have started working on a card and are unable to take it to completion, please let the team know in the Slack #training channel.

Ready for Final Review

The cards in this list have been through copyediting, instructional review, and testing and are nearly ready for official publication.

The Training Team admins will review the cards for:

  1. Adherence to the current template
  2. Adherence to the current style guide
  3. Quality and completeness of information
  4. Any technical formatting details needing to be changed in order for the content to be published
  5. Slide review or creation
  6. Anything else needing attention before publication

Cards move out of this list (and to the Lesson Plans Ready for Publication list) when they have been approved by the team admins.

  1. Lesson Plans
  2. Courses
    1. Unleasing the Power of WordPress
    2. Publishing with WordPress
    3. Getting Started with WordPress

Audit and Expand Content on Learn

  1. Turning existing lesson plans on Learn into workshops:
    1. Customizer Taglines @west7
    2. Best Practices When Capturing Images @rkohilakis
    3. Migrate, Copy, or Clone a Site @arasae
    4. Managing Widgets @west7
    5. Admin Settings @rkohilakis
  2. Review unpublished brand specific content against newly published brand guidelines
  3. Preparing Learn content for future WordPress updates @tantienhime

Published

The following video workshops have been created from their corresponding lesson plan.

  1. Managing Spam on Your Website @west7
  2. Best Practices for Capturing Images @rkohilakis
  3. Customer Taglines @rkohilakis
  4. How to Create a Post or Page with the WordPress Block Editor @west7

Learn Functionality

These are our high priority items. If you are interested in helping out, please let us know in the #meta-learn Slack channel.

  1. Style a print-friendly style sheet (transcripts and lesson plans)
  2. Use 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. layout in a page to create much of the lesson plan page organization https://github.com/WordPress/learn/issues/153 (pending UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. audit review)
  3. New ‘Other Contributors’ field for workshops
  4. Add Review Notes panel to workshop post type
  5. Customer user roles for Learn WordPress
  6. Fix quiz button styling to match other buttons
  7. Automatically recognize contributions on Profiles
  8. Make clear that quizzes that come up in search results are quizzes
  9. Add details about discussion groups in workshop pages
  10. Google Slides block for Lesson Plans The team is carrying out an audit of the Slides Plugin to ascertain the level of maintenance required and amount of work needed to fix the bug @binarygary @alexstine @danilong
  11. Add license information for the contents
  12. Disable the News XML sitemap
  13. Integrate Meetings calendar plugin
  14. Integrate speaker feedback tool
  15. Learner recognition on WordPress.org profile @iandunn
  16. Custom user roles for Learn WordPress @coreymckrill

Visit GitHub for a complete list of open issues.

Training Team

  1. Audit Learn Functionalitly Trello board
  2. Deputy program
  3. Update Learn Handbook
  4. Conduct a retrospective on the previous sprint.

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. Here’s what you need to know to get started.

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, #learnwp, #meta-learn, #training, #training-team

Hugh Lashbrooke 2:49 am on October 4, 2021  

A Dedicated Volunteer Program for the Training Team

For some years now, the Community Team has been running the highly successful Community Deputy Program:

Community Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review 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. and 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. applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each.. We make sure that new and returning organizers are not overworking themselves, still are following the code of conduct, and generally are making positive contributions to the open-source project. 

In short, Community Deputies are volunteers who contribute time to the Community Team to help keep things running smoothly. These responsibilities relate to meetups, WordCamps, WordPress Foundation events, conflict mediations, and anything else that falls under the purview of the Community Team. It is successful for a number of reasons – primarily because it ensures the workload of the team is spread across more people, and that it serves to decentralise the management of the Community Team programs.

With that in mind, I’d like to propose we introduce a similar program for the Training Team.

Introducing…The Faculty Program

In education, the term “faculty” refers to the teaching and research staff related to a particular field of study at an institution. This makes it an appropriate name for a program of this kind within the WordPress Training Team.

I envision the Faculty Program as a group of people from all over the world who volunteer their time to pursue the objectives of the Training Team. It would function in much the same way as the Community Deputy program, so it would:

  • Be open to anyone to volunteer
  • Have relevant, but not overly stringent, requirements for acceptance
  • Have a defined list of available tasks
  • Include training on how to perform the required tasks

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the types of tasks that Faculty members would be able to perform – many of these aren’t new and are already performed by many wonderful volunteers:

  • Mentoring and guiding contributors
  • Creating lesson plans
  • Reviewing submitted lesson plans
  • Vetting workshop presenter applications
  • Generating video captions and transcripts
  • Collaborating on workshop scripts
  • Recording workshop videos
  • Auditing existing site content
  • Publishing submitted workshop videos
  • Vetting new Faculty member applications

The program would be managed by the Training Team in an open and transparent manner – Faculty members would be listed publicly, tasks would be as open as possible, training would be publicly available, and reporting would be done on the Training Team blog.

It’s important to note that anyone would still be able to contribute to the team even if they don’t join the Faculty program. Part of the benefit of having a formalised team is that it becomes easier to know who is doing the work and to set targets for getting things done.

What needs to be done to make this a reality?

In order to make this an effective program, it would need to be set up for success from the start. Here are some things that would need to happen before the team can begin reaching out to potential volunteers:

  • Define exactly what tasks are available for Faculty members (see the above list to start)
  • Write complete documentation on how to do all of the available tasks
  • Create training materials (hosted on Learn WordPress) for new volunteers joining the program
    • Training materials would be a combination of “how-to” guides (like the documentation) as well as covering the principles behind the work

Feedback

What do you think about this? Please provide feedback about this along the following lines:

  • Does the idea of a trained and dedicated volunteer team for Training Team tasks sound like a good idea to you?
  • Can you think of anything else that needs to be done in order to make this a reality?
  • Do you have nay other thoughts about how this program could work?
Hugh Lashbrooke 10:41 pm on September 27, 2021
Tags: , proposal,   

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

Courtney Engle Robertson 5:57 pm on August 8, 2021  

Who can Learn help?

Defining who the Learn WordPress website is for is rather vast. Then again, so is 42% of the internet using WordPress.

Below is an evolving list of types of users for WordPress. This list will continue to evolve.

Interests

See Care and influence: a theory about the WordPress community

WordPress user types

  • Website Visitors
  • Subscriber
  • Content Contributor
  • Content Author
  • Content Editor
  • Website Administrator
  • MultisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. Super Administrator

Extenders

  • Freelancer, Solorpreneur, Botique Agency
  • Hobbyist, Side Hustlers
  • Support
  • Quality Assurance
  • Designer
  • Developer
  • Engineer
  • Project Manager
  • Product Owner/Product Manager
  • Marketing
  • Dev Ops
  • Podcasters with a WordPress-related topic
  • Vloggers with a WordPress-related topic
  • Newsletters with a WordPress-related topic
  • Bloggers with a WordPress-related topic
  • WordPress-adjacent events
  • Trainers/tutorials with a WordPress-related topic

Contributors

  • Make teams and related WordPress project contirbutors
  • 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. Organizers
  • 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. Organizers
  • Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. Contributors

Leaders

  • Release squads
  • Make team roles
  • Executive Director
  • Project Lead

Experience

Skills progression

  • Entry level
  • Mid level
  • Specializing between front/back end
  • Senior level
  • Career advancement
  • Ongoing professional development

Learning Styles

See The 8 Learning Styles

  • Visual (spatial) Learners.
  • Aural (audio) Learners.
  • Physical (tactile) Learners.
  • Verbal Learners (aka Linguistic Learners)
  • Logical (analytical) Learners.
  • Social Learners (aka Linguistic Learners)
  • Solo Learners.
  • Natural/ Nature Learners.

Considerations

  • 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)
  • Internationalization
  • Bandwidth consumption
  • Content for WordCamp Youth programs
  • Lowering barriers to entry
Courtney Engle Robertson 7:44 am on May 28, 2021
Tags:   

PROPOSAL: An Audit Tool for Learn

As Learn grows, the need for maintaining content in step with WordPress releases also grows. We would like to implement a content audit tool. This will keep the tasks of auditing and then revising content much more manageable.

The Training Team has sought a content audit tool for a number of years. Many of the same requests are still wanted.

With the current workflow of Learn, we’ve revised the list of what would help keep content up to date.

The current workflow:

We are using Edit Flow, which may still be the solution with some enhancements or additional features. Our general content revision process has looked like this:

  • Many users with Editor user role permission to have login-access to content on Learn. 
  • When WordPress has an update, and when the team has the capacity, contributors will manually review each piece of content on the site.
  • Users check a series of Edit Flow Custom MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Fields to indicate what needs to be updated and another unchecks the box when it is done 
  • Users cannot view all posts that have the same checkmark ticked (like the functionality of viewing all posts with the same tag). 
  • Custom meta is related to the entire post, not noting specific elements such as several screenshots
  • Users with Editor access for auditing have created their own content, not following the lesson plan templates, and published. The team process is to use a template for the content and undergo several reviews before publishing. 
  • Due to the complexity of this process, the team has not made much progress in staying current with feature changes.

Proposed workflow:

  • More specific uses of user permissions, per https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/05/27/proposal-adding-custom-user-roles-to-learn-wordpress/.
  • Each screenshot, video, and article could have a 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. indicating 
    • The version of WordPress
    • Option of the user interface (show all posts that have the 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. selector, or some part of the admin dashboard)
    • A way to note if the outdated content is preserved for historical purposes (not to be updated)
    • Taxonomy would be viewable like tags, allowing an editor to see a listing of all content types of that notation
    • Apply this taxonomy to lessons, workshops, and courses
  • A checklist before publishing that indicates various stages of review and can be modified by admins in an ongoing way without coding
    • Pending Review
    • Spelling/grammar review
    • Technical review
    • SEO review
    • Require that posts are approved by users in a specific role (editors can review updates, admins can review new content to be published)
    • The ability to assign a lesson plan to a “Content Owner” who is different than the author. It can help identify who is currently responsible for that lesson plan.
  • An expiration date. Any content that should be reviewed on a regular basis can have an expiration date that will provide automatic reminders that eyeballs are needed on that content piece. In the Content Audit pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party this can also include email reminders being sent to the Content Owner. It also displays messages on the front end for logged-in users with the proper permissions.
  • Columns are added to the All Posts screen that indicates the Content Owner, Content Status, Notes, and Expiration date. This makes for a very quick overview that contributors could use to identify the highest priority (or low-hanging fruit) from the list of things to be done. Use the review status in the Learn admin dashboard to show stats of lessons needing review, flagged for updates, at various stages of completion. https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/02/26/would-stats-dashboards-help-your-team/
  • Nice to have
    • Require featured imageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. (and how to set a featured image on lesson plans)
    • Require ALT Text descriptions
    • Check for any broken and external links (outside 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/)
    • An SEO plugin that will assist with the tone of voice and complexity of reading

Those who have done considerable content auditing, what tools or features have you used? What would make a tool like this easier to implement across several WordPress teams?

A big thank you to @juliekuehl (original audit request), @azhiyadev, and @evarlese for helping to write this proposal.

Leave your ideas below!

#content-audit

Courtney Engle Robertson 7:05 pm on May 3, 2021  

High-Level Roadmap to Learning WordPress Development

Learning WordPress Development Roadmap

Things I’ve heard recently:

  • How do you learn WordPress? In what order should I learn things?
  • Learning WordPress is easy, there are so many resources.
  • Why can’t these senior ReactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. front-end devs understand WordPress?

WordPress is versatile and open, as in open-source, and also as in jump in where you want and go as far as you’d like.

When we say “learn WordPress”, that can mean many things:

  • Learn to write a post/page?
  • Learn to manage a site?
  • Learn to create a child themeChild theme A Child Theme is a customized theme based upon a Parent Theme. It’s considered best practice to create a child theme if you want to modify the CSS of your theme. https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/child-themes/.?
  • Learn to customize with pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party overrides or using plugins to achieve customization?
  • Learn to make a theme from scratch?
  • Learn to make a plugin?
  • Learn to make 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.?
  • Learn to use APIs for a decoupled approach?

When we think about building a website, there are skillsets around

  • Content
  • Design/UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it./UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing.
  • Development (with code)
  • Quality Assurance
  • Front end
  • Back end
  • Full stack
  • DevOps
  • Translation
  • 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)

At 41% of the internet and growing, there really is a lot to learn. Where you start, and what your own outcomes are can vary. We progress from being a website visitor to using the software and some of us even go on to write code that makes the software. There are so many skills to acquire in that journey.

My favorite myth to dispel is that teaching or learning is easy. Like a final release, things should be free of bugs and intuitively work well. Behind the scenes, a great deal of work happens to provide the user or student with a cohesive learning experience. Likewise, without a roadmap or guidance on what to learn next, you can get lost in a sea of resources.

I’ve had the honor of teaching WordPress in a development bootcamp environment this past year with a focus on front-end development. While getting a good look around at the bootcamp and non-WordPress (or even non-CMS) web developer ecosystem, I frequently encountered roadmaps to learning. Think of the map as a syllabus handed to students, sharing where we are starting and what our goals will include. Yet there are few maps that incorporate WordPress or PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. into the web developer’s learning.

Let’s help folks get started at any point on their journey, and discover any gaps in learning, and provide suggestions on what could be learned next.

This map will hopefully help shape the content on https://Learn.WordPress.org and could be implemented in a more visually organized way of navigating lesson plans, courses, and workshops.

Learning WordPress Development Roadmap

Roughly, here is what I have found. The image may be a bit small, so check https://whimsical.com/embed/EG8T9S7zddbSVhnm85MmDf.

High Level Roadmap to learning WordPress development

I am attempting to get these details and sequences out of my head and into something presentable for others. I welcome feedback, collaboration, and input on these.

Certainly far more can be included into this roadmap that encompasses more details. However, I wanted to pause here to avoid overwhelming folks with too many specifics.

I have incorporated @chanthaboune WordPress Contributor Team Structure and @mapk’s Care and influence: a theory about the WordPress community into the overview.

What’s Missing?

Leave your feedback below

  • Employers, what do you look for in new-hires?
  • Experienced developers, what do you wish you had more guidance around? What is new or emerging that should be included?
  • Aspiring developers, what have you discovered so far?

Courtney Engle Robertson 3:25 pm on January 29, 2021  

Request for Testing: Slides Plugin

The Training team is on the lookout for simplified way to create slides. We need:

  • An interface similar to writing a WordPress Post
  • A centralized location to access slides
  • Means to audit and revise slide content as WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. updates
  • Consideration for 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) and translation
  • Means to download or use the slides without internet connectivity

We have historically tried tools like Google Slides and Shower.js (similar to storing Reveal.js slides in GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/). We found some of these options worked, but still were a barrier for new contributors to use.

Use Case:

During State of the WordState of the Word This is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2019, Matt’s presentation used 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. editor pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party to create the slides, with quite a crew of folks that helped build the plugin and his presentation.

State of the Word: the story of the slides

Get Slides Plugin:

You can find the Slides and Presentations plugin on Plugins:

Slides & Presentations

Benefits

This Slides plugin looks especially interesting because it would offer us :

  • Using slides in the WordPress editor experience
  • A centralized location for auditing and empowering to update later as the revision tools become available on Learn
  • Options to download the slides
  • Templating for design, accessibility, and good UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing.
  • No pre-required skills with GitHub to create or present the slides

Testing and Feedback

  • Install the plugin
  • Create a simple slide presentation
    • Add additional slides
    • Add media
    • Use the speaker notes
  • Save the slides
  • Display in browser
    • Does your theme conflict with slides displaying? (having the plugin on Learn would use the Learn theme – possibly with custom styles for that post type, solving any theme conflicts)
  • Export the slides

Comment below with feedback