The WordPress training team creates downloadable lesson plans and related materials for instructors to use in live environments. If you enjoy teaching people how to use and build stuff for WordPress, immediately stop what you’re doing and join our team!
Regardless of your skill set, you can help! We need people to write, copyedit, test, audit, connect, and review our lesson plans. Find out how to get started.
For some time now, the Training Team has been concerned with writing and publishing lesson plans. We currently have approximately 90 of them in GitHub repos (see https://github.com/wptrainingteam). However, the topics are rather random and in various states of completion and accuracy, and we’re not doing a good job of prioritizing our efforts.
What if we shifted our focus from creating individual lesson plans to committing to providing resources and focus for a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. set of workshops. We have always had the idea of combining lesson plans into “recipes” for workshops. This shift in focus would have us identifying 6-10 “core” workshops (maybe we need a different word than “core”?) and the lesson plans that make them up. We could then work on sprints to create and update one workshop at a time. These workshops/lesson plans would also be reviewed regularly to maintaining their accuracy as time goes on.
The goal of this shift is to help us manage our lesson plans better, complete the ones needed most, and then keep them up-to-date.
To be clear, we would continue to welcome all ideas for lesson plans. Some of those ideas might come and go over time (e.g., post formats, GutenbergGutenberg The 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/, etc.). But those would be in addition to the “core” workshops and perhaps be more perishable.
We are in the process of identifying the “core” workshops that we would support. Initial suggestions were:
We would very much like to hear your ideas on these “core” workshops. You can help us by answering any or all the following questions:
We’d love to hear your ideas!
The makeup of the majority of team contributors has shifted to the Eastern Hemisphere and our current meeting time does not accommodate those timezones very well. Therefore it is proposed to change the weekly meeting time to 13:00 UTC.
We will discuss this at the meeting on 25 April which will still be at 19:30 UTC and if there are no objections, it will take effect on 2 May.
The Training Team proposes the following criteria for their profile badges:
Awarding of profile badges: There will be a monthly review of contributions, and badges will be awarded at that time. A list of the new profile badges awarded will then be posted on the https://make.wordpress.org/training/ site. If you feel that you have earned the badge but were not listed, please leave a comment on that month’s blog post and include your GitHub username and your WordPress.org username.
There has been a recent flurry of pull requests from people new to the Training Team. Most of these pull requests are fixing small issues with the lesson plans – and we have many of those! However, these contributors have not introduced themselves to the team in 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/. or participated in the team’s meetings. Their efforts are seemingly to procure the Training Team badge on their 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/ profile. That raises the issue of what the requirements are to secure those badges.
The Training Team would like to be more transparent and consistent and define the criteria for giving profile badges to people who contribute to our team.
Looking at how a few other non-code-focused teams handle their badges…
“On your profile, badges are added based on your contributions to the WordPress project. There are two kinds of badges: contributor and team. The contributor badges are generally assigned to anyone who has contributed to a particular team. Meanwhile, the team badges are given to those who are active on their team. Each team can set its own criteria for who should get each badge. When possible, the meta team will automate badge assignment.”
(https://make.wordpress.org/meta/handbook/documentation/profile-badges/)
The Polyglots Team requires ten string translations to earn their Contributor badge. The also have an “Editor” badge which is given when a person has Editor status on a [locale].wordpress.org site.
“We have official badges for Support Contributors and Support team members. For the moment being, these badges are awarded manually to active contributors. In the future, we hope to be able to automate that process, and then use the following criteria:
The documentation team is probably the team that is the closest to the Training Team in their responsibilities. They do not yet have criteria for their badges but are also working on this.
One-time contributions are very welcome, but perhaps not the purpose of the badges. As a starting point for discussion, let’s consider the following:
Too easy? Too difficult? Does it deter people or encourage them? Is the “over 30 days” part a good idea? Thoughts? These criteria are up for discussion!
Work is well under way on the handbook overhaul. Unfortunately, I will not be as fully present in today’s meeting as I had hoped due to impending weather.
My personal organization for the handbook work is found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gA807bKaaFBOBcgBm2gqQGFkEj1JDCBaBdETILmMvnk/edit?usp=sharing.
The About page will be revised after other child-pages are completed to determine what is unique to this page and what can be linked to for more thorough details.
On the Who We Are page, the team leadership area needs a description. Please review https://make.wordpress.org/updates/team-reps/ regarding team organization. What “roles” do we want to share here beyond the 2 team reps?
Action item: who can write a paragraph or so about our team organization?
For the Contribute/Get Involved area, what is our preferred top-level page named? I like that the Docs team uses “Get Involved” https://make.wordpress.org/docs/handbook/get-involved/.
Also, some of the information here likely will duplicate About > What We Do https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/about/what-we-do/. How much text should duplicate vs linking to the other page?
Action item: What do we name this page?
On the Contributor Day page, a review for what information is still applicable/current would be appreciated.
In particular, the page states “Choose a card from the “Lesson Plan Backlog” list on the 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. board”. It looks like that has been reworked in Trello. Can that be updated and linked to specifically?
Action item: one person to revise the page with any more recent details. Change term of Backlog to appropriate linked Trello column.
The Guidelines page/section is awaiting @juliekuehl to revisit & revise.
Action item: Julie will revise or offer the task for another team member to complete.
Areas not yet worked on:
It’s that time of year when we need to evaluate how we did against our goals for this year and make new goals for the upcoming year.
In 2018 our goals were to:
1. Create handbook
2. Move lesson plans to 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/
3. Restructure make.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//training
4. Fix broken images
5. Update lesson plans for 4.8-4.9/GutenbergGutenberg The 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/
6. Make workshop recommendations
7. 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) workshop
In fact, 2018 was a year where the team underwent a major restructuring of its tool and processes and we accomplished goals we hadn’t imagined when the year started. So our accomplishments for the year can be summed up as:
1. Create handbook (expected by the end of the year)
2. Move lesson plans to GitHub
3. Restructure make.wordpress.org/training
4. Fix broken images (perhaps not all are fixed, but moving to GitHub addressed the problem)
5. Make workshop recommendations
plus
6. Onboarding improvements including a PDF and videos
7. Team management on 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. and in Waffle.io
8. Creation of the https://wptrainingteam.github.io/ page
9. Work towards the relaunch of the learn.wordpress.org site including collaboration with the #design, #marketing, and #meta teams.
Goals that we didn’t quite accomplish include:
1. Update lesson plans for Gutenberg
2. Accessibility workshop
So, for 2019 what should our new goals be? I’d propose a couple to begin with:
1. Launch learn.wordpress.org
2. Create several lesson plans to combine into an accessibility workshop (the ARIA session from WordCampWordCamp A WordCamp is a conference where the WordPress community come together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. https://central.wordcamp.org/about/. US has caught my eye…)
3. Use resources from WordPress.tv more often as a basis for lesson plans
4. Collaborate with other efforts such as the diversity speaker training and Kids Camp to get their material available from the learn.wordpress.org site
5. Increase the number of regular contributors to the team
These all seem very do-able. What else should the team be working towards? What should we have for stretch goals? All comments and ideas welcome!
We’ll also be discussing this during our meeting this week. Everyone is invited to join in the discussion!!!
WordCampWordCamp A WordCamp is a conference where the WordPress community come together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. https://central.wordcamp.org/about/. US is approaching and will be in Philadelphia in early December, with a contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. on the 4th. Since this will be an opportunity for many contributors of the training team to meet in person we want to make sure we’re gathering a list of all of the items we’d like to address as a team beforehand to make the most efficient use of our time together.
We’ll chat about this subject over the next few weeks in team meetings and will use this post as a place to store our thoughts and asynchronously share our ideas.
Please add your ideas in the comments!
The topic of what process should be used for copyediting lesson plans and what tools could be used came up during the October 11 Make WordPress Training Meeting. During 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/. discussion, questions arose about how team members should handle copyediting concerns.
The Make WordPress Training Getting Started page indicates the various roles of contributors on the Training Team:
The workflow for Training Lesson Plans is tracked on a Google Apps Sheet: WP Community Training Lesson Plan Progress as in the Getting Started section. The general workflow for lessons is tracked in a Status field:
In addition there is tracking of lesson assignments with the following fields:
There is a Key tab in the Progress Sheet, but that appears to be out of date:
Make WordPress Training includes two guides for writing and editing lesson plans:
There is a set of guides and tracking documents already in place; it seems they could be reviewed for updates and documentation to clarify the copyediting process.
Plugin features would be helpful for copyediting tasks and workflow for published lesson plans. However, with editorial tracking already in place with the Progress sheet, the plugin does not need to recreate nor constrain that part of the process.
Some potential solutions:
Are there other copyediting concerns or potential solutions?
Folks in the training team have collectively provided bits of feedback about the current structure of the Make site for the team for a little while. This conversation turned into more of an in-depth evaluation of the site and it’s purpose at WordCampWordCamp A WordCamp is a conference where the WordPress community come together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. https://central.wordcamp.org/about/. NYC’s contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. this past month. In this post, I’m summarizing some of the key pieces of that conversation (myself, @melindahelt and @Becks979 attended) and applying pieces of that conversation to the current structure of the website. Please add your thoughts as to what pieces of the website need to shift in the comments of this post.
Please add your reactions to any of these ideas, suggestions of changes we can make to improve the user experience of the website, and any other thoughts about the website in the comments!
