Discussion: Naming content types on Learn WordPress

There are currently four types of content on Learn WordPress:

  • Workshops (5-15 minute instructional videos)
  • Courses (long-form content with multiple lessons in multiple media formats)
  • Social Learning Spaces (live and collaborative learning sessions)
  • Lesson Plans (structured plans that trainers can use to teach others)

There have been several discussions over the past few months about the names of some of these things – specifically, workshops and SLSs. It is clear that the current names for these elements are not universally understood and not always simple to translate, so it would be a good idea to look closely at these names and come up with alternatives that are both easy to understand and easy to translate. Indeed, based on the definition of a “workshop” it is clear that what we currently refer to as SLSs would be better labelled as workshops.

From many informal discussion around this, the names for ‘courses’ and ‘lesson plans’ haven’t come up and seem to be clear enough as they are right now, so let’s look at what workshops and SLSs are and see how that can inform what we name them:

Workshops

Learn WordPress workshops are short (5-15 minute) videos that show WordPress users how to do a specific thing. They are generally focused on one feature at a time and have specific learning outcomes. They are not interactive, although they do sometimes have an optional follow-up quiz to assist learners in knowledge consolidation.

With that in mind, here are some potential names we could use here (please feel free to suggest more):

  • Videos
  • Tutorials
  • Video Tutorials
  • How-tos
  • Explainers

I’m leaning towards “tutorials” here as I think that is the most universally understood term for this kind of thing. It also gives us the flexibility to expand the use of the content type to include text-based tutorials alongside (or instead of) the videos at some point in the future if we ever decide to do that.

Social Learning Spaces

Social Learning Spaces (SLSs) are live learning sessions, usually facilitated over Zoom. They are ideally highly interactive and are generally 1-2 hours long. They are regularly recorded and made available for learners to view on their own time, although watching the recording obviously removes the interactivity from the experience. This recent post has much more detail about what they are and how they work.

With that in mind, here are some potential names we could use here (please feel free to suggest more):

  • Webinars
  • Classes
  • Workshops
  • Live workshops
  • Meetups
  • Live learning sessions

I’m personally leaning towards “live workshops” here, but I’m also open to other suggestions. The immediate potential issue with that option is the fact that we currently use ‘workshops’ for a different content type, so that may present a problem with this.

Feedback

So what do you think? Please comment with your thoughts on these names for workshops and SLSs and what you feel would be a good way forward.