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.
GitHub issues – Learn.WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ site functionality
In 2022, the Training Team will empower users to achieve their goals with WordPress through actionable and practical learning experiences that bring the community together.
Values
The Training team values clear, open-source, quality content that fosters diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging among its contributors.
For WordPress users who want to grow, Learn.WordPress.org is a platform that offers high-quality learning opportunities. Learn WordPress is the official source of information and learning about both the software and its community, and is free to use. It is produced for the community by the community.
Stakeholders
Whose input shapes what we do? Who are we doing this for? (users, providers, influencers, governance)
WordPress Open SourceOpen SourceOpen 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. Software Project
Project executive leadership
Make teams
Contributors
MeetupMeetupAll 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. & WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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
Extenders with livelihoods related to WordPress
Informal community gatherings (social media groups, owned forums/events/SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/./socials)
Representation of Stakeholders
We aspire to have representation from diverse organizations and individuals within and beyond the WordPress ecosystem, including:
Scale/sizes of organizations
Locales
Freelancer marketplace
Enterprise/agency
Product and service providers (pluginPluginA 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/theme devs, SaaS, Integrations)
WP Communicators (bloggers, podcasters, hosts)
Hiring organizations (contract or employer)
External trainers/instructors
AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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, and Diversity
Open Source Software
Methods and Priorities for team goals
Needs Analysis
Define learning experiences
Onboard subject matter experts
Site functionality
Team organization
Contributor onboarding, tracking, outreach
Cross-team collaboration
Official WordPress certification
Obstacles
What could potentially make these goals difficult to achieve and what specific actions can be done to overcome any obstacles? Dependencies, risks, etc.
Awareness about LearnWP and value proposition
Quality/accuracy control of materials
Keeping pace with WP releases
Limitations of the Learning Management System (LMS)
Site functionality and design
Gathering issues and ideas at the right phase of planning and implementation
Time
Availability for existing and new: content creators, site developers, volunteer/self-sponsored contributors, sponsored contributors
Familiarity with tools and procedures
Ongoing impact of COVID
Distinguishing the audience (learner, facilitator/teacher)
Competing stakeholder priorities
Team agreement on types of learning experiences, alignment of content types to the vision
How will we know we have achieved success or successfully completed our tasks from the chosen methods.
Feedback forms for those who have used a lesson plan, completed a workshop, completed a course
Anticipated content creation:
6 courses per year
4 social learning spaces per week
1 workshop per week
Data collection methods needed in conjunction with determining goals for each:
Results from 2022 Annual WP Survey
Support team indication of common questions in forums. Informal cross-team collaboration inquiring about common trends and ways Learn WordPress can be a resource for Support.
Increased visitors to LearnWP
Download stats
Mentions of LearnWP in media
Average course completions
Google Analytics
VideoPress metrics
Popularity metrics
Social learning spaces attendees – new and repeat
Number of WP contributors
Quantity of training team contributors and content created
Milestones
March 1, 2022
Use GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ Projects in LearnWP repository for managing team activity
Implement a Faculty program (like Community Deputies, name to be determined)
Brainstorm and discovery for the creation of a Needs Analysis
Plan promotions with the Marketing Team
Create Instructor/Facilitator resources portion on LearnWP
June 1, 2022
Conduct Needs Analysis
Create content useful for WordCamp Europe
Release roadmap of new content (that isn’t tied to WP releases/features)
Assess content that has the largest impact
Overhaul the “Submit an Idea” form. Build in conditional logic for workshop, lesson plan, and course.
Ongoing promotions collaborations with other Make teams such as Marketing, Polyglots, Docs, Accessibility, Community
September 1, 2022
Curriculum Advisory Board (working title) planning and outreach
Site functionality roadmap
Redesign of site based upon UXUXUX 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 and Needs Analysis
SEO for site structure
Content filters based upon interest or profession
Defined learning pathways
Merge lesson plans and workshops
Content for onboarding contributors (Make teams, Meetup organizers, WordCamp volunteers)
Ongoing promotions collaborations with the Marketing Team
Create content for WordCamp US
December 1, 2022
Plan the discovery phase for official WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ certification
Comparing other Open Source Software methods
Compare other Open Source Software training models
Compare any proprietary certifications and training prep
Collect the issues, what works, what didn’t work well
Define Cohorts – strategy and handbooks
Define courses toward certification with pathways and outcomes
LearnWP Admin Dashboard to track stats and contribution
Option of portfolio-worthy projects for users to run alongside courses
Ongoing promotions collaborations with the Marketing Team
In Learn WordPress, there is a taxonomyTaxonomyA 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. based upon WordPress versions used internally for auditing content.
Originally, this was used as a means of comparing or auditing content to ensure it includes any information about the latest versions. It is a checkpoint to indicate we have recently reviewed this content.
We now have several goals with this taxonomy:
This content has been confirmed with the corresponding release version. At this time, this is an internal use-case, but we could envision using this publicly in a changelog at the bottom of lesson plans, workshops, courses to view content from previous versions.
This content is contains new or important features about the latest release. This is public-facing and can help curate a page of relevant content per release on Learn.
The taxonomy created is now publicly accessible: https://github.com/WordPress/learn/pull/292. However, this may be quite cluttered with content comparison checks and not exclusive to features related to the current release.
Learn WordPress lesson plan landing page
Thoughts to consider:
Should these live in 1 taxonomy area or should these live in 2 separate taxonomies?
How do we envision using that in the admin area?
How do we need data to publicly display now, and in the future?
What additional considerations should we have?
We’ll leave this post open until January 14 before progressing to GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ Issues.
Social Learning Spaces are seeing considerable traction with attendees. You can find the calendar of events at https://learn.wordpress.org/social-learning/. This also appears by default in the WordPress Events and News widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. inside ever WP Admin Dashboard.
Questions arose around expanding the use of the platform. Training was asked to consider including these events onto the calendar:
We approved GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ Developer Hour Series, as Birgit is already vetted by community deputies and this is an initiative begun in CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. It would be hosted using the existing methods with MeetupMeetupAll 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. + Zoom.
For content that may be broadcast in a new manner, such as using a Twitch stream, we’d like additional guidelines to be included in the team handbook.
Questions to be considered:
How much branding is appropriate? Custom Zoom branding, backgrounds, etc.
Is it permitted during the broadcast to mention “follow/subscribe to this channel on Twitch/Facebook/Twitter whatever to know when I go live again”?
What if users need to enter an email to view the broadcast?
What if the additional streaming platform requires an RSVP as well?
Share additional questions in the comments below
This post will remain open until January 14. From there, a summary will be presented to the team and additional guidelines added to the team handbook.
It’s that time of year – looking back at our progress over the past year and looking ahead to next year. It’s been a few years since the Training Team set goals for the year ahead.
We are planning to have a meeting around team goals on December 6 (or 7th in APAC) at 7PM UTC. Time is hard. Here’s a quick way to check in your locale: Time.is.
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.orgThe 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 taxonomyTaxonomyA 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:
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.
Multiple people collaborate on outlining a video and writing a script for it – this would include anyone who would like to be involved.
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.
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.
To further develop Learn for everyone, there are a few problems I’d like to see the training team solve through structured Microcourses. These microcourses will be “choose your own adventure” style. Before enrolling in a microcourse, learners will be prompted to assess their own existing knowledge and use their own interest to guide their course choices.
Microcourses will be:
Largely text-and-image based (with a few short videos thrown in for variety) for accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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)
Bite-sized; every lesson (currently known as a “workshop”) should be able to be completed quickly, within 5-10 minutes
Self-paced; unlike with longer videos, Learners can set down this learning and pick it back up as their schedule allows.
Leveled based on pre-existing knowledge (101/102? We would need to name each level and provide guidance on what someone would be expected to know at each level.)
Interactive; each course will prompt users to do something with their knowledge.
This benefits all learners because it creates…
A shorter period of ramp-up time for the basics (from 4.5 hours to 1 hour or less for the basic WordPress 101 course, preferably)
Personalized learning experiences based on need & interest
Self-Paced learning with deliberate scaffolds in place for neurodiverse learners
Eventually, I would love for each course to be recommended based on how people answer certain questions. For now, however, each microcourse page will include “suggested prerequisites” — in other words, skills and knowledge people will need to have in order to best work through a new microcourse.
Here is a potential structure for a Basic WordPress 101 Microcourse:
Setting Up WordPress
Prerequisites: None!
Take this course if…
You are getting started for the first time with WordPress;
You haven’t decided on a host yet;
You haven’t picked a domain name yet;
You haven’t set up WordPress in any way yet.
By the end of this unit, you will be able to… (Quiz questions will be based on these statements–you’ll notice these are very action-based)
Describe difference between a host and a domain name
Determine which kind of hosting may be best for your website development needs
Set up WordPress on a host or on a server of your own
Navigate WordPress’ unique dashboard
Do you know this information already? Take the quiz and earn a badge!
Modules within a Microcourse: Modules/lessons would explore those objectives bit by bit in a fraction of the existing course time. Structured, carefully crafted formative assessments would exist throughout the course (partially to give us feedback on our own instruction). This would ultimately culminate in a summative assessment (quiz for now, complete with action tasks) at the end of the course.
Course Complete!
When someone completes a microcourse, it would be useful to provide suggestions for the next most useful microcourses they might take depending on their goals.
For example, on a “Course Complete!” page, learners might see something like this:
Congratulations! You’ve finished the course, “Setting Up WordPress”. To decide what you’d like to learn next, let’s find out: Which of these is closest to your goal?
Design a WordPress website with pages that does not have a blog.
Design a WordPress website with pages that also has a blog.
Set up a WordPress blog–no need for additional pages.
Something more advanced (eCommerce website, etc.)
Potential Personalization: Depending on functionality, ideally, each of these options might take learners to a slightly different grouping of microcourses .
For example, a single lesson for setting up a blog page wouldn’t be toggled on for a course if someone didn’t want a blog on their website.
To find the proposed course outline (tentative), please click here to be taken to the public GoogleDoc. You are welcome to comment upon that document as well. I would like to begin work on this by Monday, the 16th of August.
Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Is there a topic I am missing from the original course outline?
A planned feature for Learn is integration with WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ profiles. There’s already an open issue on GitHub for recognising contributors with badges, so I’d like to nail down what kind of thing we would like to see regarding recognising learner achievements on profiles.
Here’s my proposal:
An activity stream entry whenever a learner completes a full course.
A persistent line showing the learner’s average grade on Learn WordPress – I envision this in the top right info blockBlockBlock 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. above the social links, but happy to be shown otherwise.
A new tab under ‘Activity’ called ‘Learning’ (or similar) that shows all of the courses they have completed along with their average grade for the course and what date they completed it on. This could also show individual lessons completed along with the relevant grades, or any other learning data that we have, but I think that courses will be the primary thing here.
A ‘Learner’ badge for everyone who has completed at least one course. This badge could use the same icon as the Training Team badge, but in a different colour.
One caveat is that we don’t have a lot of courses on the site at this stage, but that is changing as we develop new content so my hope is that we will have these rewards in place now and as content is created the rewards will flow naturally.
The goal here is twofold:
To surface learning data as a way to make Learn WordPress more valuable to people, not to mention more prominent and visible
To provide motivation for people to take courses
Is there anything else we could do on profiles to recognise learner achievements? Once we have agreement on this proposal it can be moved over to GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ for implementation.
MultisiteMultisiteMultisite 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
MeetupMeetupAll 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
WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 SourceOpen 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
AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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)
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 MetaMetaMeta 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.
Each screenshot, video, and article could have a taxonomyTaxonomyA 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 blockBlockBlock 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 pluginPluginA 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 imageA 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.orgThe 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?
There are many ways to contribute to Learn WordPress. Folks can join via contributing lesson plans to the Training team, organizing workshop-based discussion groups through local meetups, or submitting their own video workshop or course idea.
Some of these efforts happen outside the Learn WordPress website itself – like organizing a discussion group or using a lesson plan with a local meetupMeetupAll 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.. For the most part, Learn WordPress contributors share a common home in learn.wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/
Adding a big asterisk that this is by far from a definitive list of ways to contribute, but just some common pathways!
The current set-up
Currently, when someone contributes to Learn WordPress, they’re added to the Learn WordPress site using one of the standard user roles:
Administrator
Editor
Author
Author is primarily used for workshop contributors (i.e., folks who’ve recorded a workshop) and new Training team contributors helping with a specific lesson plan. Administrators are reserved for Training team representatives and Community deputies who need to add new users to the site. Folks organizing contributors days have also been given temporary Administrator access to help with onboarding new contributors.
For everyone else – and for most folks with access to Learn WordPress – Editor permissions are the most common. This is particularly important for Training team contributors, where folks need access to multiple lesson plans to draft, review, and copy edit content
The Learn WordPress Dashboard is robust. There are many options available on the backend for setting up lesson plans, workshops, quizzes, courses, and so on. Many similarly-named things (Lessons and Lesson Plans being one!) can make starting more challenging. Likewise, the Editor role provides a lot of control over the site from the get-go, which can be problematic from a security perspective in the long term.
Proposed new user roles
With all that in mind, I would like to propose two new custom user roles to better fit Learn’s functionality and structure.
Workshop Reviewers:When reviewing Meetup and WordCamp applications, Community Deputies have a custom metaMetaMeta 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. box to share vetting notes. Sometimes this information is confidential, especially when a proposed application/applicant may not meet the program guidelines. The current workflow for evaluating workshop submissions is very similar to this process, and the Learn siteLearn siteThe Training Team publishes its completed lesson plans at https://learn.wordpress.org/ which is often referred to as the "Learn" site. would benefit from a role for workshop reviewers to have access to a confidential meta box for communicating review notes with one another.
Lesson Plan Editors: By default, lesson plans are developed with a series of checks and reviews to help ensure instructional design quality. This means that Training team contributors, including new contributors, need to access and edit multiple lesson plans. This includes folks like Subject Matter Experts, Copy Editors, and Testers. For folks volunteering to draft or review lesson plans, access to the other post types on Learn WordPress is not relevant or needed, but edit access to all lesson plans is.
Feedback needed
In the end, the proposed user roles would look like:
User role
Permissions
Author
Edit access to specific Workshops Edit access to specific Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan Editors
Edit access to all Lesson Plans
Editors
Edit access to all Lesson Plans Edit access to all Workshops Edit access to course functionality
Workshop Reviewers
Edit access to all content types, plus Deputy-level access to meta field for application vetting Ability to add new users to the site
Administrators
Full site access and permissions
It would be really helpful to get feedback on the following specifically:
How does this make contributing easier?
How does it make contributing more difficult?
Is there a simpler way to achieve the same goals?
Do we need to consider where learners/people using the Learn site might fit into these roles?
