Meet the new Learn WordPress

Over a year ago, members of the Training team had a vision to overhaul the entire Learn WordPress site in order to better serve learners. Now, that dream is finally a reality. A cross-team effort in tandem with other groups, including 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. and Design, the project involved dozens of people in roles including visual design, development, instructional design, project management, and more. A small army of volunteers even created hundreds of thumbnail graphics to adorn lessons and courses! Huge thanks are due to everyone who contributed to this project.

Details

Learn WordPress offers a selection of high-quality educational resources. After conducting research and consulting the WordPress community, the site’s structure was simplified, streamlining both the information architecture and content types. The new focus is on lessons, courses (a collection of lessons), and Online Workshops. The result? A new user experience and navigation that makes it easier to find the learning materials you’re looking for.

The updated homepage versus the previous design.

Among new approaches the site takes is the introduction of Learning Pathways, intended to guide learners from beginner through intermediate to advanced levels in the area of WordPress that’s most relevant to them. To start, two courses in each of the User and Developer Learning Pathways have launched: 

A new Learning Pathways landing page. More courses will come in the future.
The updated course layout versus the previous design.
The updated Online Workshops calendar versus the previous design.

A new design brings the site’s look and feel in line with other refreshes—such as the ones for Developer Resources and the Showcase. Just considering the homepage, it’s clear that the design is now more in tune with the rest of the site.

On the development front, a new block child theme was created. This builds on the parent theme used for all the previously redesigned sites and integrates blocks from the Sensei LMS (Learning Management System) 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, which powers the courses and lessons on Learn WordPress, much like it did prior to this redesign. 

What’s next

The launch of the revamped Learn WordPress site is just the beginning. 

Two more Learning paths are on the horizon, geared toward designers working with WordPress and those who would like to contribute to the WordPress project. More courses for users and developers are currently in the works—keep your eyes peeled for Intermediate Plugin Developer and Advanced WordPress User.

With the new focus on lessons and courses rather than content for educators, two content types highlighted on the old site are being repurposed. Tutorials—short, bite-sized videos on a narrow topic—will become lessons, while lesson plans will become facilitator notes attached to the more relevant lesson. In the meantime, tutorials and lesson plans are still available through direct links.

Making courses available in multiple languages is one of the priorities for the next phase. Until now, adding multilingual content has been a cumbersome process, but the team is looking into using a plugin to facilitate this, and testing is already underway.

The team will also be exploring new ways to reach new learners by tracking engagement and optimizing marketing efforts over time.

Finally, the development team will continue to fix bugs and make enhancements. Follow this GitHub milestone to see what’s already under consideration.

Learn more or get involved

Have suggestions or found a bug? Please submit an issue in the Learn GitHub repository. If you’d like to get involved, join the #training 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. And please share Learn WordPress with anyone who you think might find it useful.

Interested in understanding more about the history of Learn WordPress and how the remake was envisioned? Check out Ben Evans’ talk from this year’s WordCamp EU or Josepha Haden Chomphosy’s interview with Wes Theron in episode 83 of The WordPress Briefing, both of which provide excellent context.

As mentioned up top, this project was a huge group effort. Check out the list of contributors in the News announcement post. Big thanks as well to everyone who reviewed Learning Pathways lessons—your keen eyes and thoughtful suggestions made a huge difference.

Thanks to @adamwood, @ndiego, and @piyopiyofox for their help reviewing this post and to Nick for the graphics.