Faculty Member Getting Started Guide

Congratulations on your acceptance into the Training Team’s Faculty Program! We’re happy to have you here, and appreciate you volunteering to help and support the Training Team’s endeavors! You now work alongside a global team of Faculty Members–each one assisting each other and the Training Team Representatives in executing the goals and strategy of the team. Outlined below are some areas that will help you get up and running in your role.

Our Faculty Member list displays all current Faculty Members, and Team Representatives Pooja Derashri, Benjamin Evans and Destiny Kanno can help you with any questions in this process. Likewise you can use the @faculty-admins pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” 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/. to get folk’s attention.

Access

Depending on the role, you require access to various tools that the Training Team uses to be successful in our work. The Faculty Member who ran your orientation will grant you the access required. Please do reach out to your orientation lead if you lack the access required to fulfill your role.

All

Content Creators, Editors, Administrators 

Administrators

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Getting Started

Each Faculty Member has a different path for contributing that they can follow based on their role–below are the various ways that folks can get started in contributing in the capacity of their role. Kindly note that this is not strictly prescriptive, and we seek to adjust responsibilities and expectations as Faculty Members relay feedback and help grow the paths further.

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Content Creators

Content Creators contribute new content to Learn WordPress in the form of lesson plans, video tutorials, courses, or online workshops. There are many vetted topics ready for you to start creating in Ready to Create view on our Content Development board. Read the How to use the Ready to Create – You Can Help issue for information on how to use the column.

Content Creator Faculty Members can also assist new contributors by co-hosting their Online Workshops and providing guidance.

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Editors

Editors assist with editing content created by content creators. This can mean testing content or editing for accuracy, grammar, instructional effectiveness, 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), localizability, SEO, or anything else that helps to improve the content that is created.

Content ready for review can be found in the  Review in Progress column of our Content Development board. Read the How to use the Review in Progress issue for information on how to use the column. We recommend sharing which issues you are going to review in the #training channel and then adding yourself to the card for visibility.

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Subject matter experts (SMEs)

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) work with Content Creators and Editors to provide expertise in their relevant subject area. They act as guides to ensure that the educational content being created is accurate, complete, and up to date.

The Training Team also leans on SMEs to help evaluate suitable educational content added to the Topic Ideas view of the Content Development project by following the steps outlined in our Vetting Topic Ideas handbook page.

Therefore, a typical workflow for an SME can look something like:

  1. Vet the  “Topic Ideas” view of our Content Development project
  2. Work with a Content Creator by answering their questions and providing guidance around content output 
  3. Work with Editors by validating changes coming from their reviews

When vetting Topic Ideas, it’s best practice to share which issues you are going to review in the #training channel, and it’s also recommended to perform a weekly sweep of the Topic Ideas column to ensure content stays fresh and ensure priorities still match.

Working with Content Creators

When a vetted topic idea moves into the Ready to Create column the Content Creator who picks it up may have questions or require guidance while writing the educational content. SMEs can help by providing guidance when requested by the Content Creator; these requests may come as a comment on the GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that 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/ issue, a direct message in Slack, or a general request for assistance in the #training channel

Please keep an eye out for @faculty-smes pings and respond as you are able.

SMEs are not expected to create any of the content alongside the Content Creator, but they are leaned on for their topic area expertise when called upon.

Working with Editors

There may be times when Editors are reviewing the drafted content but stumble upon questions about the subject matter. While the Content Creator should be the first point of contact for questions, the SME who vetted the topic may come in during this phase as well to assist the Editor with any clarifying questions and to ensure the review meets the overall requirements and objectives of the content.

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Administrators

Administrators perform the management and operations work involved in the Training Team and Learn WordPress. A great way to get started here is to volunteer to: 

  • Take notes for any of the Training Team meetings
  • Ensure current projects and items listed in the Team Goals have accompanying posts on the Training Team blog, complete with a list of tasks and assigned owners whenever called for  

Other helpful tasks for an Administrator to work on are:

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Working with the Training Team

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.

Another way that all Faculty Members can uplift the Training Team is by assisting other members in accomplishing their goals. This may be through mentorship or providing guidance to other teammates who ask questions in the training channel. The expectation is that all Faculty Members are someone that other training members can look to for leadership and guidance.

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Monthly Meeting

Faculty Members meet every month on the 15th (or closest business day) via a blog post on the Training Team site.

You can follow previous or current meetings by checking this #faculty-meeting tag.

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Meeting Facilitation

Meeting posts should be published on the 15th or closest business day using the MONTH Faculty Meeting reusable blockBlock Block 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.. The meeting host can be either the poster or a volunteer. By the end of the meeting the host will post a recap comment depending on the discussion.

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Individual Check-ins

Faculty Program administrators will check in with Faculty Members approximately one month from joining, and then every half year, to ensure folks feel supported and fulfilled in their role. All are welcome to check in with an administrator earlier than the designated time for assistance as needed.

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FAQ

  1. Where can I ask questions?

Feel free to ping the Faculty Admins by pinging @faculty-admins if you have any questions.

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