The Lessons We Most Need

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After quite a bit of number crunching (item 4) and testing plan outreach, I think it’s time for us to rethink how we plan which lessons to write. We started out Q1 with 45 lessons and too few hands to get them done before the end of March, so I’d like to suggest a new plan for us.

The Givens

First, re: Volume of lessons. Even if we were to average about 20 minutes per lesson, 45 lessons going at a speedy pace would take 15 hours to teach. This seems too long for a Getting Started workshop and maybe a little too much information for new users regardless.

Second, re: Testing the lessons. I got some generally held feelings from 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 that each lesson isn’t necessarily long enough to allow it be tested individually. Some suggested it would be possible to use it as an intro to a larger topic, but then there was the question of how to get viable feedback from people who already know the content (a reasonable question).

The Solutions

I’d like to focus on groups of lessons at a time. I propose starting with:

Feature Overview and Site Management units (14 lessons, 1/3 of the original total)…
…with the intention of adding on installation (2 of 3 are complete)…
…and intro to themes (1 of 3 are complete).
Intro to plugins is already complete and needs one more round of testing to be ready for a workshop.

This way, we can lump things into units for testing and offer to groups as they become available. Two birds with one stone.

Your Thoughts!

I would love to hear any thoughts or concerns you have about this plan, or just a vote in favor or not if you have no thoughts in particular!

PostScript – The Lessons

These lessons are the six we are focusing on at the moment. Let us know in the comments if you’re working on one or need to ask for it to be reassigned!

Categories vs Tags/@brilliantpamela
Content Editor Overview/@michelebutcher
Managing Media/ @mikemueller
Managing Menus/ @chanthaboune
Managing Widgets/ @kimwhite
Managing Updates/ @bethsoderberg

dcoleonline 4:32 pm on January 21, 2016
I agree with this plan. Twenty-one lessons at 20 minutes or so per lesson would make a nice full day workshop and leave time for breaks.

From what I see, a workshop with the proposed content will answer these questions for students:
- How do I install it?
- How do I use it once it’s installed?
- How do I make it look (mostly) the way I like without knowing anything about code?
- How do I add new features/functionality?
- How do I keep it up to date?
I think this is a great starting place to finish up for a one day workshop. There’s enough content to give students the knowledge/skills to set up a site from scratch, while also giving them information about how to extend the site.

If we wanted to take it one step further, we could put together a list of recommended next steps and resources for students to look into after the workshop ends. This might include a list of current top 10 plugins, places to learn basic htmlHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. and css, and links to helpful 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/ content like the codex and support forums.
Meagan Hanes 6:47 pm on January 21, 2016

21 lessons * 20 minutes each = 7 full hours of teaching.

My experience in teaching HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. and CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. at Ladies Learning Code shows that students generally need 1-2x the lesson length in guided hands on practice to really understand the lesson and absorb the knowledge enough for them to feel confident learning on their own.

Assuming a 1x learning multiplier (which averages to 1 minute per student at a class of 20), you’ll need 14 hours of teaching to effectively impart these 21 lessons. A two day workshop, totally reasonable.

Just wanted to ensure we include appropriate estimates for the workshops!
- dcoleonline 4:07 pm on January 22, 2016
  
  Totally valid concern here. Students will have questions, and teachers will need to help clarify things. Sometimes lessons will go faster than planned, while others will take more time.
  
  I’d hate to cut anything more from the outline, but I know it needs to be doable within the given one day workshop context.
  
  The nice thing about having the plans online is that if we need to speed through some content that isn’t mission critical, we can always point the students to the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org for that plan so they can revisit it on their own time.
  
  @chanthaboune: Thoughts on possibly having too much content for the available time?
  
  Also, let’s say a student visited a plan post-workshop and had questions about a lesson that might not have been clarified well in the lesson. It’s totally possible for that student to log in and leave a comment on the lesson with a question, right?
  - Josepha 4:32 pm on January 22, 2016
    
    Yea, timing is something that has been a concern as I look through our lessons.
    
    A couple of things that I want to note on this current set is that our students aren’t touching CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. or HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. (unless we hear otherwise fairly soon) so a 1x multiplier might be a little high. I am not going to feel super of the likely timing until we get this in front of students/in the hands of testing teachers.
    
    Great red flag, @meaganhanes and @dcoleonline. I think our solution at the moment needs to be getting really solid info on timing from our testers.