Vetting Topic Ideas

The first step to getting new quality content on Learn WordPress is to vet the various content topic ideas shared by the WordPress community. These ideas can stem from personal interest to crowdsourced consensus, but no matter how it comes to the Training Team, it will require vetting before it is greenlit for content creation and publication on the Learn WordPress website. 

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are Faculty Members who utilize their expertise to vet submitted content topic ideas. In general, SMEs look to assess these ideas for relevance and priority.

Outlined below are the guiding processes for vetting content topic ideas for Learn WordPress.

How topic ideas are submitted

All new Topic Ideas are created as a 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 on the Learn GitHub repository using the Topic Ideas GitHub issue Template. Once submitted, issues are automatically added to the LearnWP Topic Vetting project board. Issues are first triaged for spam/duplicates etc. by Administrators (Admins) before landing in the “Awaiting Vetting” column for SMEs.

Topic submitters are asked to fill out as much of the information in the GitHub issue as possible. However, as ideas are submitted from a wide audience, details may not be fully filled out on every issue. SMEs are tasked with:

  • Assessing if the topic is something the team should prioritize and add to Learn.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/.
  • And if so, then making sure details of the topic are filled out in preparation for the Content Creator who will create the content.

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Topic idea details

Below is the list of details on a Topic Idea submission:

  • Topic title: Listed in the GitHub issue title
  • Description: Details of the suggested topic
  • Learning objectives: 2 or 3 learning outcomes to be expected as a result of this material
  • Content type: Either Course, Lesson Plan, Online Workshop, or Tutorial
  • WordPress version (optional): The WordPress version the feature was first introduced in
  • Related Resources: Links to related content on Learn, support/developer docs, etc.

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Topic idea triaging (performed by Admins)

Once submitted, Admins will first triage issues by closing out spam and duplicate ideas. When closing an issue, leave a brief comment as to why.

Duplicate ideas should be searched for in the team’s GitHub repo. Make sure to include both open and closed issues when searching from https://github.com/WordPress/Learn/issues.

The Tutorials section, Lesson Plans section, and Courses section in Learn’s dashboard can also be searched for content that may have been published before the team started tracking content development on GitHub.

Admins will also:

  1. Remove the Awaiting Triage label.
  2. Assign at least one [Topic] label.
  3. Change the issue status to Awaiting Vetting.

Issues will then show under the corresponding view on the LearnWP Topic Vetting project board and are ready for SMEs to vet.

Screenshot of GitHub project board "LearnWP Topic Vetting" with the list of views at the top highlighted.

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Vetting topic ideas

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Requirements to vet topic ideas

The following access is required to vet content topic ideas for Learn WordPress:

  • Learn Content Triage membership on GitHub
  • Subject Matter Expert (Either Faculty or a vetted Training Team member)

Please contact a Training Team Representative or Faculty Member in the #training Slack channel if you lack the appropriate access to perform this work.

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Steps to vet topic ideas

Please follow the steps below to vet a topic idea.

  1. Open one of the topic views linked below to vet ideas related to that topic.
  2. Open an issue showed in that view.
  3. Assess the relevance of the issue and assign a priority.
    • If an idea is not relevant, add a brief comment describing your reasoning and press Close issue.
    • If an idea is relevant, add either the [Priority] High, [Priority] Medium, or [Priority] Low label.

A relevant topic is timely with the latest releases, up to date with latest practices, and follows the team’s Promotional Guidelines and GPL best practices.

Priority is assessed by whether or not the topic is critical to something in the latest release, hits on a needs analysis trend, or fixes a gap in previously published foundational content.

  1. Assess the submitted details of the topic, and provide feedback.
    • Leave a comment with your feedback, filling in any details the topic submitter may have left empty.
  2. Change the status of the issue to Vetted Topics.

It can sometimes be difficult to assess topic ideas on an individual level, so don’t hesitate to reach out to other SMEs or the Training Team reps for a second opinion.

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Moving vetted topic ideas to the content development project board

Once vetted, relevant labels should be added to the issue before then being moved to the LearnWP Content - Development project board. Either an Admin or an SME can perform these steps.

  1. Ensure all details have been filled in, either in the issue itself by the topic submitter, or in the comments by the SME.
  2. Add at least one each of the the following labels:
    • [Content Type] – Course, Lesson Plan, Online Workshop, or Tutorial
    • [Audience] – Contributors, Designers, Developers, Speakers, or Users
    • [Experience Level] – Any, Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced
    • Version – 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, etc.
  3. Remove the Needs Subject Matter Expert label.
  4. Move the issue from LearnWP Topic Vetting (Status: Vetted Topics) to LearnWP Content - Development (Status: Ready to create).
    • You can do this by clicking the cogwheel next to Projects in the right sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. of the issue, deselecting the current project board, and selecting the new project board.

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Additional points to keep in mind

(A) If the topic submitter has indicated that they would like to create the Tutorial or Online Workshop:

  1. Check to see if they have been vetted on this spreadsheet.
  2. If they have been vetted, then:
    1. Change the status of the issue to Drafts in progress (within the LearnWP Content - Development project board).
    2. Assign the issue to the topic submitter.
    3. Let them know the topic is ready for them to create.
  3. If they have not been vetted, then send them the link to either the Tutorial presenter application or Online Workshop facilitator application and ask them to apply.

(B) If the topic submitted requires multiple content types to be created, then a GitHub issue should be created for each content type and a link back to the related content issues should be provided in the body of the issue to allow for cross-collaboration or reference.

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