Abha Thakor 1:27 pm on November 14, 2023
Tags: ,   

X-post: Call for volunteers to help with 6.4 end-user documentation

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/docs: Comment on Call for volunteers to help with 6.4 end-user documentation

Jonathan Bossenger 7:49 am on November 13, 2023  

Recap: The first Learn WordPress course cohort

Summary 

During September and October 2023, the Training team experimented with facilitating its first course cohort. Course cohorts have been a goal of the Training team since 2022.

The first iteration of the Learn WordPress course cohort guidelines was published, and this cohort would be used to test and iterate on these guidelines.

The cohort was announced on 2 August 2023, and ran from 4 September 2023 to the 13th of October 2023.

Here are some numbers regarding the course cohort:

  • The cohort was conducted over 7 weeks, with new content provided over 6 weeks
  • 14 participants were chosen from 64 applicants
  • 6 participants completed the content by the 13th of October
    • This slightly missed the predetermined Learning success metric “A 50% course completion rate”, by 1.
  • 4 participants requested an extension till the 15th of November
  • 2 participants did not start on the content
  • An average of 7 participants attended the weekly synchronous calls
    • This met the predetermined Results success metric of “A 50% attendance rate for the weekly calls”. 

Feedback Survey results summary

Participants were asked to complete a feedback survey once they had completed the course. 

  • 75% of respondents indicated that the course achieved all of their expected learning outcomes
  • None of the respondents highlighted any missing topics or information that they expected to learn in this course.
  • The only information they felt was not necessary was 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. styling (applying styles to blocks via CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. files)
  • All of the respondents indicated that the course instructions were very clear and easy to follow
  • 75% of the participants felt that there was enough time to complete the course.

Overall the feedback was very positive, with little to no negative feedback. One respondent indicated that an introduction to the different programming languages might be a beneficial addition, for anyone brand new to programming.

Click here if you would like to read more about the preparation, planning, and execution of this cohort.

Preparation and goal-setting

To prepare for this first cohort, we published the first iteration of the Learn WordPress course cohort guidelines, and set the following success measurements. 

  • Results: at least 50% of participants complete the activities, attend the in-person sessions, and/or complete the feedback survey.
  • Learning: at least 50% of participants complete the course, and pass the final task, or both.

These goals were based on the first two levels of Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation. 

Additionally, we hoped to use this cohort to:

  • Determine if the existing steps laid out in the guidelines were complete, or if gaps existed that needed to be addressed. 
  • Experiment with the course cohort format and use the lessons learned to help improve the guidelines and help future cohort facilitators plan and execute their cohorts. 

Planning vs. Execution

Course signup

Expectation

Application for the course cohort required interested folks to complete a sign-up form. The sign-up form included a question related to their ability to attend the weekly synchronous calls, as it was important to ensure that applicants could make this call. 

Results

A total of 64 applications were received, about half of which were possibly not going to make the synchronous call, due to being in distant time zones. 

Participant selection

Expectation

Participants would be randomly selected from the list of available applicants.

Results

As the number of applications were larger than what we had anticipated, and from a wide range of time zones, we had to think of a way to fairly select a diverse group of participants while making sure those selected would indeed be able to attend the synchronous sessions. 

Ultimately what we ended up doing was splitting the group into AMER, EU and APAC friendly time zones. We then confirmed with all the AMER folks whether they would prefer an AMER friendly cohort, which they all agreed to. Finally, we selected 7 participants randomly from the EU and APAC groups. 

Course communication

Expectation

The cohort would use a group 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/. DM in the Make WordPress Slack. 

Results

Slack group DMs are limited to only 8 participants, so an alternative solution had to be found at the last minute. A new Slack channel for the cohort was created.

Course duration, content delivery, and synchronous call schedule

Expectation

The course was to be held over 6 weeks, from 4 September 2023 to 9 October 2023. 

New course content for each week was to be released on the Monday of each week, and the weekly group call would be held on the Wednesday of the same week, with 6 group calls expected. 

Each participant was expected to attend every call unless unforeseen circumstances prevented it. Participants were expected to complete the coursework for each week by the date of the next Wednesday’s call. 

Results

Based on the above-mentioned content delivery schedule, the first group call served more as an introduction, and one additional asynchronous call was required on the 11th of October 2023. 

There appeared to be about a 50% drop off in attendance for the weekly call. After performing check-ins with those folks who were not able to attend, a number of them indicated that they had some unexpected changes but would be back. 

By the end of the course: 

  • 6 participants had marked their course content as complete
    • 2 had actively notified the group that they had finished the project (either with screenshots or 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/ reposrepos The Training Team uses GitHub for working copies of lesson plans. You can find them at https://github.com/wptrainingteam. of the code)
  • 8 were still progressing through the course
    • 4 had asked for time extensions until 15 November 2023 due to unforeseen circumstances
    • 2 had not started.

Course content

Expectation

Results

Trying to create course content based on existing related content was not effective. This was because changes to tooling and block development since those original pieces of content were created meant that it was either slightly out of date, or couldn’t be reused in its entirety. This meant creating new content specifically for the learning outcomes of this cohort. 

Content Delivery

Expectations

The course content would be managed using the Sensei LMS 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. This would also provide an opportunity to experiment with the Sensei Groups and Cohorts feature for managing the cohort.

Results

The use of Sensei and the Sensei Groups and Cohorts feature worked well, with one small caveat. All the course content needs to be created upfront, and then either published or set to release on specific dates to be made available to cohort members. 

What did we learn?

Below are the lessons we learned from this cohort, that will be used to improve the cohort guidelines:

  1. Make use of the shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. in any course cohort launch posts, to ensure readers are aware of the time of any synchronous meetings or calls.
  2. Make the application more detailed for the vetting process. Ask more detailed questions about the cohort time commitments, and their availability to take part.
  3. Decide on a better vetting process to filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. and select participants for future cohorts.
  4. If choosing to continue to use Slack, set up a Slack channel well ahead of time.
  5. Consider alternative means of communication, possibly email. Some folks did not receive notifications of Slack messages, and so missed either check-ins or the invitation to the course.
  6. Investigate using comments on Lessons in Sensei.
  7. Allow for one more call than the number of weeks in a cohort, (ie a 6-week cohort requires 7 calls) 
  8. Consider adding a follow-up call after a month from the course completion date.
  9. Consider allowing additional time for folks to complete the course, who might have unforeseen circumstances affect their ability to complete it in time.
  10. In the future, we recommend extending the time to complete the course content, allowing for unforeseen circumstances. 
  11. Use an existing course as-is for the cohort content. 
  12. If one does not exist that covers the specified learning outcomes, create it first, before announcing a course cohort on the topic. 

Additional questions

During the process of drafting this recap post, the following questions arose. 

  1. What additional questions could we ask cohort applicants, to improve the vetting process?
  2. What can we do to improve the selection process? 
  3. How can we safely request applicants to submit their email addresses, to improve cohort communication?
  4. How much additional time should we allow for folks to complete the course content, after the cohort is completed?
  5. Is there a reason comments are not enabled for lesson post types, and can we fix this?

Answering these questions will help the Training team improve the course cohort guidelines.

Therefore, we are calling on all Training team members and faculty to assist with brainstorming ideas to find solutions to these questions.

Next steps

This is just the first of hopefully many more Learn WordPress course cohorts, but we need your help to improve the guidelines and make it easier for future facilitators. 

This recap post is calling on the Training Team to help improve these guidelines, starting with the following:

  • Comment on this post with any ideas or answers you can think of for the questions in the Additional Questions section.
  • We are looking for volunteers to help update the Course Cohort guidelines in the handbook based on the lessons learned from this cohort.
  • If you participated in the cohort, please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments on this post. 
Sancastiza 4:34 am on November 11, 2023  

Training Team Meeting Recap – 7th November 2023

This meeting followed https://github.com/WordPress/Learn/issues/1965. You can see conversations from the meeting in this Slack Log. (If you don’t have a 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/. account, you can set one up.)

For those newly joining us, 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.

We have a few ways for you to get involved: https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/.

Introductions and Welcome

There were 16 attendees:  @webtechpooja, @sumitsingh(async), @sierratr (async),@yuli-yang(async) ,@psykro, @digitalchild, @piyopiyofox, @west7(async),, @sancastiza, @huzaifaalmesbah, @vanpariyar, @lada7042(async), @properlypurple, @eboxnet, @quitevisible, @bsanevans.

We’ve had several new people join the channel recently. Let’s get introduced to 6 new people here:

@shoto100 @Ben Usher Smith @Vimal Roy @Zisis Folias @Erika Orlando @Anish

Welcome to Training. What is your interest in Learn/Training, and what do you enjoy outside of WordPress?

News

The best way to contribute to the training team is by writing meeting notes. Here’s the guide that you can take help from.

Meeting Note Takers

Meeting recap notes are one of the best ways to get started contributing to a team, and you can find details on how to write notes on this handbook page.

  • November 7th – @Sancastiza
  • November 14th – @devmuhib
  • November 21st – need volunteer
  • November 28th – need volunteer

Thank you for volunteering to take today’s notes, Sancastiza 👏.

  • We’re looking for volunteers to take notes each week through the rest of November. Would anyone like to volunteer for the team?
  • Also, once you’ve written 3 meeting recap notes, you’re eligible to apply for the Training Contributor Badge that will be displayed on your WordPress.org profile! If you haven’t received the badge yet, then this is a great way to show your contributions to the world.

Looking for feedback

Nomination is open until November 14th – one more week. We have three people nominated so far. If there’s anyone else you think would be a great fit for the team rep role next year, please add your nominations. (Self nominations are also welcome :+1::tono-de-piel-3: )

  • Creating/editing content in preparation for the WordPress 6.4 release

We’re looking for content creators to help us work through making this list of content related to the upcoming 6.4 version release of WordPress. Our handbook will direct you on how to get started – Creating a Tutorial and Lesson Plans.

Looking for volunteers

  • Would you like to co-host the weekly dev-squad 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/ triage sessions? :sonriente:

@psykro is currently doing an excellent job hosting weekly GitHub triage sessions. However, since he is the sole organizer of these 30-minute sessions at the moment, they don’t take place when @psykro is absent. We are seeking volunteers to co-host these sessions alongside @psykro Please leave a comment if you’re interested.

He also said: ¨ One thing that also needs to be done is documenting the process, so if there are any volunteers who are prepared to help with that as well¨ and thank you @properlypurple for your contribution. @psykro will connect with you this week. 

Updates from last week’s dev-squad triage session

There was no dev-squad triage this week.

Other News

N/ A 

Open requests for review

We have just one English Tutorial open for review right now:

For Translated content, we’re looking for Indonesian, Khmer, and German translation reviewers. (Link to content needing a Translation Reviewer.)

Project Updates

The handbook has been updated to reflect the new contributor ladder discussed in the post above. Check out the updated handbook page here – Our Contributor Ladder.

Time estimations have been calculated to see how long this project will take to complete. The project is in need of content creators to build our the learning paths. Please comment in this thread if you’re interested in getting involved, and a @faculty-content-creators will help you figure out where to get started. 

Open Discussions

@webtechpooja will be AFK for next week Nov 10 to Nov 14. She is celebrating Diwali – Festival of light. 

Muhibul Haque 7:23 am on November 5, 2023
Tags: ,   

Training Team Meeting Recap – 31th October 2023

This meeting followed this meeting agenda in GitHub. You can see conversations from the meeting in this Slack Log. (If you don’t have a 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/. account, you can set one up.)

For those newly joining us, 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.

We have a few ways for you to get involved: https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/.

Introductions and Welcome

There were 11 attendees: @nayanchamp7, @benjirahmed, @webtechpooja, @huzaifaalmesbah, @devmuhib, @vanpariyar, @Lada7042(async), @sierratr(async), @onealtr(async), @west7(async), @quitevisible(async)

We’ve had several new people join the channel recently. Let’s get introduced to 7 new people here: @shoto100, @thepauly, @masperber, @larassattidn, @hellosatya, @benushersmith, @vimalroy08

If you’re not sure how to get started with us yet, I recommend checking out our onboarding link above or our newly introduced Guide Program.

The Guide Program will connect newcomers such as yourselves with seasoned contributors who provide guidance, answer questions, and help you navigate the contribution process with confidence.

News

Meeting Note Takers

Meeting recap notes are one of the best ways to get started contributing to a team, and you can find details on how to write notes in this handbook page.

Looking for feedback

Looking for volunteers

With just a few more weeks until WordPress 6.4 is released, we have a few tasks we need your help with:

  • Looking for a Contributor Hour host to help assign and answer questions about these issues – @courane01, @courtneypk
  • Please note that the most helpful way to validate these issues is to note what specifically needs to change in the current content

If you are interested in helping creating/updating 6.4 related issues, please reach out to us.

Updates from last week’s dev-squad triage session

There was no dev-squad triage last week.

Other News

Nomination for 2024 Training Team Reps

Anyone can nominate a Training team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.! Self-nominations are welcome, too. To nominate someone or yourself, please comment on this post. If you would like to nominate someone in private, please reach out to @webtechpooja, @bsanevans, @piyopiyofox

Team rep – Destiny AFK Oct 30 week, If any question you have, please feel free to reach out to Pooja or Benjamin.

Open requests for review

See our Guidelines for reviewing content to review the following content.

Tutorials

Translated Content

If you know any language that is mentioned above, please help us in publishing those content.

Project Updates

No project update this week.

Open Discussions

That is all we had on our agenda today. Looks like there are not many things to discuss today. Thanks for joining.

You can see all meetings scheduled on this meeting calendar. If you are new to the Training Team, then come walk through our onboarding program to get to know the team and how we work. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the #training Slack channel at any time.

#meeting-recap, #training

Pooja Derashri 12:41 pm on October 31, 2023
Tags: ,   

X-post: What’s new on Learn WordPress in October 2023

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/updates: Comment on What’s new on Learn WordPress in October 2023

Nazrul Islam Nayan 6:46 am on October 30, 2023
Tags: , , ,   

Training Team Meeting Recap – 24th October 2023

The agenda we will be working on can be found on our 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/ project board:

https://github.com/WordPress/Learn/issues/1949

For those newly joining us, 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.

We have a few ways for you to get involved: https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/.

Introductions and Welcome

There were 13 attendees: @devmuhib, @webtechpooja, @huzaifaalmesbah, @ethicaladitya, @lada7042, @sumitsingh, @nayanchamp7, @yuli-yang (async), @bsanevans (async), @benjirahmed (async), @gwallace87, (async) @sierratr (async)

We’ve had several new people join the channel recently. Let’s get introduced to 8 new people here:

@Dylan Howell, @Ed Duncan, @t-p, @Sakib, @Hend Chen, @huei

Welcome to Training. What is your interest in Learn/Training, and what do you enjoy outside of WordPress?

News

The best way to contribute to the training team is by writing meeting notes. Here’s the guide that you can take help from.

Meeting Note Takers

Meeting recap notes are one of the best ways to get started contributing to a team, and you can find details on how to write notes in this handbook page.

Looking for feedback

Looking for feedback: Updates to GitHub issue templates and labels

We need feedback on what labels and templates in GitHub bring the most value and are still relevant to our needs.

  • Help Audit content for Learning Pathways

We need volunteers to help us identify the content we can utilize or enhance and incorporate it into our lessons.

Looking for volunteers

  • We have priority issues that need updating open in GitHub that are labeled 6.4

With just a few more weeks until WordPress 6.4 is released, we have a few tasks we need your help with:

  • :mag: Looking for a Contributor Hour host to help assign and answer questions about these issues cc/ @Courtney P.K @Courtney

If you are interested in helping creating/updating 6.4 related issues, please reach out to us.

Updates from last week’s dev-squad triage session

There was no dev-squad triage this week.

Other News

Anyone can nominate a Training team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.! Self-nominations are welcome, too. To nominate someone or yourself, please comment on this post. If you would like to nominate someone in private, please reach out to @Pooja Derashri, @Ben Evans or @Destiny

We also clarified with the Training Team Faculty members that with this 2 year guideline, Benjamin Evans and Destiny Kanno will automatically stay on as Team Reps for 2024.

Since they will be staying on to complete their second year and they are onboard the newest Training Team Representative, only one Team Rep spot will be open for 2024.

Team rep AFK Update

  • Ben + Destiny are away from Oct 21 – Oct 28 on a business trip
  • Destiny AFK Oct 30 week
  • Pooja is away from Oct 28 – Oct 29 to attend WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Mumbai

During this time please leave any message/query in this channel and so the other faculty members can help you around. Thanks

  • Hacktoberfest is happening!

Come read this new post detailing how to get involved in this program with your contributions to the Training Team

Open requests for review

See our Guidelines for reviewing content to review the following content.

Tutorials

Translated Content

Project Updates

Learning Pathways

The first three Learning Pathway outlines have been published, and the content the team already has that can be used for these pathways have been audited :raised_hands::skin-tone-3: Keep an eye out in future team meetings for what steps will happen next.

:eyes: In case you missed latest update on this project

Project Thread: Learning Pathways on Learn WordPress

Open Discussion

That is all we had on our agenda today. Looks like there are not many things to discuss today. Thanks for joining.

#meeting-recap, #training, #training-notifications, #training-team

Pooja Derashri 9:51 am on October 23, 2023
Tags: ,   

Nomination for 2024 Training Team Reps

In the WordPress open-source project, each team has team representatives, abbreviated as reps. It’s time again to nominate the next round of Training Team Reps. (For a quick refresher of Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. roles across the WordPress project, see the Team Reps post on Team Updates.)

The Role

Historically, with the Training team, the team rep duration was around two years, and we had three reps at the time. They represent the team, collaborate with other teams, raise, manage, and address any issues. The time commitment in the role has averaged two to five hours per week.

The Training team has recently updated its documentation, clarifying the team rep role’s responsibilities. Please take a moment to read the handbook page “Team Rep (Representative).”

Clarifications to the Training Team’s Reps Structure

The mechanics of Team Reps vary from team to team. Each team will choose a selection process, the number of years of service, etc., that best serves the team’s needs.

In the handbook updates, this year’s Team Reps ( Benjamin Evans, Destiny Kanno, and Pooja Derashri ) clarified the following points regarding the team rep role. These were things the team had been doing for a while but weren’t well documented:

  1. The team strives to have 3 team reps representing diversity, as evaluated through the Team Values.
  2. Team Reps generally serve for 2 consecutive years, using the first year to get familiar and the second to train the incoming rep(s).

We also clarified with the Training Team Faculty members that with this 2 year guideline, Benjamin Evans and Destiny Kanno will automatically stay on as Team Reps for 2024.

Timeline for Training Team Rep Selection

We will follow the process documented in the team handbook.

Step 1: Call for Nominations

Anyone can nominate a Training team rep! Self-nominations are welcome, too. To nominate someone or yourself, please comment on this post. If you would like to nominate someone in private, please reach out to @webtechpooja, @bsanevans, or @piyopiyofox.

Note that this is Pooja’s second year in the role, and is not eligible for reelection next year. Since Benjamin Evans and Destiny Kanno will be staying on to complete their second year and onboard the newest Training Team Representative, only one Team Rep spot will be filled for 2024.

  • Nomination Opens: 23 October 2023
  • Nomination Closes: 14 November 2023

Team reps will confirm each person nominated meets the vetting criteria at our weekly meeting on November 16th. They’ll then reach out to those nominated to confirm if they would like to accept the nomination. Only those who accept their nomination will be added to the poll, so feel free to decline a nomination if you don’t feel like this is the right fit for any reason.

Step 2: Vote for Team Reps

If there is more than 1 nomination, we will organize a poll to select the Team Reps.

Training team members can vote to select new Team Reps. 

  • Voting Opens: 17 November 2023
  • Voting Closes: 6 December 2023

Step 3: Announce Team Reps

New Team reps will be announced on December 8, 2023. 

Time to Nominate!

Are you ready? It’s time to nominate folks to serve as our Test Team Reps for the new term! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.

Thank you, @bsanevans and @piyopiyofox, for reviewing this post.

Note: Comments are closed now.

#nominations, #training-team

Huzaifa Al Mesbah 9:33 am on October 23, 2023
Tags: ,   

Training Team Meeting Recap – 17th October 2023

This meeting followed this meeting agenda in GitHub. You can see conversations from the meeting in this Slack Log. (If you don’t have a 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/. account, you can set one up.)

For those who are new here, 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.

We have a few ways for you to get involved through our onboarding handbook page: https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/getting-started/

Introductions and Welcome

There were 20 attendees: @nayanchamp7, @bsanevans, @huzaifaalmesbah, @sumitsingh, @kafleg, @pekkakortelainen, @devmuhib, @webtechpooja, @psykro, @sancastiza, @amitpatelmd (async), @mebo (async), @onealtr (async), @quitevisible (async), @sierratr (async), @west7 (async), @courtneypk (async), @benjirahmed (async), @yuli-yang (async), @lada7042 (async)

We’ve had several new people join the channel recently. Let’s get introduced to 10 new people here: @miromiet, @t-p, @sakibsnaz, @hend7706, @gas1123, @dylanmhowell, @eduncanblg, @amanocs, @ahmedamir, @azharderaiya

News

Meeting Note Takers

Meeting recap notes are one of the best ways to get started contributing to a team, and you can find details on how to write notes in this handbook page.

Looking for feedback

We need feedback on what labels and templates in 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/ bring the most value and are still relevant to our needs.

Looking for volunteers

  • We have priority issues that need updating open in GitHub that are labeled 6.4
  • With just a few more weeks until WordPress 6.4 is released, we have a few tasks we need your help with:
    • Looking for a Contributor Hour host to help assign and answer questions about these issues.
    • Please note that the most helpful way to validate these issues is to note what specifically needs to change in the current content.
    • Some discussion on Thread

Updates from last week’s dev-squad triage session

Thanks for facilitating these each week, @psykro. Here’s an update from last week’s session.

A quiet triage session this week, with 4 PRs and 1 new bug triaged.

PRs

Bugs

Other News

Badges Rewarded  – Congrats Rashi Gupta! Thank you for your contributions to the team, Rashi 

  • Updates have been made to the following handbook pages

Thank you to those who contributed to updating these handbook pages:

That first page above about the team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. role and the nomination process is super handy, as the team will soon be selecting new team reps for 2024. There will be a nomination period and a voting period, after which next year’s team reps will be announced in the first week of December.

This year’s team reps will be publishing a blog post with details about this soon on https://make.wordpress.org/training/. If you aren’t following that team blog yet, then I highly recommend you do so you don’t miss out on what the team is up to. You’ll find a subscribe box 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 blog.

The Faculty program is an important part that helps the Training Team achieve its goals. We’re looking for input from both Faculty and non-Faculty team members to help define what an Engaged Faculty member would look like.

Let’s move on.

Thank you to both guides and participants of this first cohort! 

  • Hacktoberfest is happening!

Come read this new post detailing how to get involved in this program with your contributions to the Training Team.

  • Team Rep absences

The three Training Team Reps will all be traveling around the end of October and may be slow to respond to pings. Feel free to 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.” any of the team’s Faculty Members if you need immediate assistance while we’re away.

  • @piyopiyofox away Oct 21 – Nov 5 (business trip)
  • @bsanevans away Oct 21 – Nov 1 (WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Tokyo, business trip)
  • @webtechpooja away Oct 28 – Oct 29 (WordCamp Mumbai)

Open requests for review

See our Guidelines for reviewing content to review the following content.

Tutorials

Project Updates

The first three Learning Pathway outlines have been published, and the content the team already has that can be used for these pathways has been audited. Keep an eye out in future team meetings for what steps will happen next.

In case you’ve missed it, this is what this project is aiming to achieve by July 2024:

  • Develop a website redesign for Learn WordPress that delivers a clear, user-friendly pathway for learners of different levels, roles, and use cases.
  • Enhance the discoverability and searchability of relevant Learn WordPress content through the integration of new search filters and content organization strategies.
  • Establish a skill-level classification framework for Learn WordPress content that enables clear content filtering and search results based on learner needs.

Open Discussions

In this open discussion thread, @bsanevans initiates a brainstorming session to find ways to engage the 2,400+ members in a Slack channel more actively. Several suggestions are put forward:

@digitalchild proposes randomly tagging members to get their attention.
@psykro suggests the idea of “vetting sprints,” similar to dev squad triage sessions, to clear backlogs by inviting active members to participate.
@quitevisible emphasizes the effectiveness of specific requests, like polls, surveys, and task assignments. Public recognition for those who complete tasks is also encouraged.
@courtneypk supports the concept of working sprints for specific tasks and mentions that Contributor Hours could be beneficial.
@digitalchild adds to the idea of working sprints and suggests translation sessions once a month to work on translations.
@amitpatelmd recommends conducting surveys to provide an anonymous platform for members to express themselves and measure engagement. He suggests quarterly surveys.
@bsanevans appreciates the ideas and encourages further contributions to the discussion.

You can see all meetings scheduled on this meeting calendar. If you are new to the Training Team, then come walk through our onboarding program to get to know the team and how we work. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the #training Slack channel at any time.

#meeting-recap, #training

Courtney P.K. 8:53 pm on October 13, 2023
Tags:   

Project Update: The Guide Program’s First Month

The Guide Program was launched by the Training Team at the beginning of September 2023. This program empowers new contributors to the Training Team by providing them with comprehensive training resources and opportunities to strengthen their skills, through mentorship with experienced contributors. For more details about the program, please see the Guide Program handbook, and for further background, see the original proposal post.

In this post, we’ll go over the key aspects of this program, and recap its launch. We’ll also share some feedback and learnings from the first month of the program, including potential next steps.

Guide Program Goals

  • Provide a structured and effective onboarding process for new contributors to the program
  • Provide leadership opportunities for experienced Training Team members
  • Foster a supportive and inclusive learning environment within the Training Team
  • Help new contributors to the Training Team learn how to leverage their skills and identify their area(s) of contribution
  • Inspire and empower community members to contribute to the Training Team and share their expertise

Pilot Launch and Setup

At the beginning of September, we matched 9 new contributors with one of 5 Guides. If a Guide was supporting multiple contributors, some chose to run the program as a cohort, but many worked one-on-one with them.

For this pilot month, the program closely followed the structure in the Guide Program Handbook, but we also ended up integrating some additional processes that were inspired by the excellent Contributor Mentorship program:

  • A dedicated, public 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 was created for everyone participating in the program to connect with each other, including all new contributors and guides.
    • A weekly thread in this channel was made at the end of each week to call for individual learnings, wins, and challenges.
    • All contributors and Guides were encouraged to connect with each other in this channel outside of the weekly thread.
    • With a public channel, anyone in the community is also welcome to join the channel to observe and support the participants.
  • A private Slack channel was created for Guides to discuss the program, and support each other in their roles.

How did the Guide Program do?

At the end of September, a feedback form was shared with participants. As of October 16, we have received 6 responses to this form. The following information was gathered from this form, as well as from Slack conversations, so the below activity might not be comprehensive.

Contributions made by participants

  • 3 Translations made
  • 1 Meeting notes taken
  • 8 Tutorials reviewed
  • 1 Training Contributor badge earned
  • 1 Translation Contributor badge earned

Success Stories

Most of the respondents to the feedback form feel more confident and prepared to contribute to WordPress! Below is a selection of success stories we’ve heard from our newest contributors.

@benjirahmed

I was the meeting note taker at the 26th September and will try to do it once a month. Also, learnt how to translate and review content. I will stick to the training team and attend the meeting for future contributions. Thanks to my mentor @sumitsingh and all the mentors.

It is with great joy that I share with you all that last week I was able to make my third contribution to the training team. It was a great achievement and I am excited to be able to continue making positive contributions to the team. With hard work and dedication, I am confident that I will make many more important contributions going forward.

@marcio-zebedeu
@devmuhib

I participated on September guided cohort program and learned a lot about contribution. 

@courtneypk and @kafleg helped a lot in my journey. I translated 3 high priority content this month. Planning work as note taker on next available date.

Thanks for the excellent guided program.

After some time spent getting to understand the contributors roles, I began contributing as an editor a couple of weeks ago. While reviewing tutorials, I continue to attend virtual Meetups and consuming published tutorials in Learn.WordPress. I appreciate the support of the community in our cohort and look forward to being a more active contributor in the future.

@tinacollier

If you participated in the Guide Program in September, please feel free to share your own success stories in the comments!

Suggestions for Improvement

Overall, input from participants in the Guide Program has been largely positive, but we also heard some suggestions for improvement, which are dependent on the participant’s individual experience. Suggestions that have been shared so far include:

  • Strengthen Guides’ abilities to plan and manage time effectively
  • More synchronous check-ins
  • Hands-on sessions to demonstrate and walk participants through the contribution processes

Next Steps

The Guide Program is significant in expanding the Training Team’s reach and support system for contributors, and it will continue! That said, there are some changes to the program that we intend to integrate.

  • Since the idea for the program-specific Slack channels was integrated after launch, we should make it an official part of the program and include it in the handbook.
  • A “Best Practices” handbook page could help Guides be more effective.
  • A section in the handbook to help Guides facing common challenges (e.g., low engagement, time management, etc.) could be helpful.
  • For Check-in 3, it is currently suggested for “The Guide prepares an update to share at the next Training Team meeting to introduce and acknowledge the new contributor and their area(s) of contribution.” We could modify this to be flexible and make a few recommendations of when and where to do this, instead of just being limited to meetings threads.
  • It would be ideal to have this program run on an ongoing/rolling basis instead of tied to a calendar month. That way, new contributors can get the support they need soon after joining the team. This would make the program more focused on one-on-one mentorship, which can be more reasonable for Guides’ bandwidth, and give new contributors more focused support.

This is just the beginning!

If you participated as a contributor in the Guide Program, please take a moment to complete the feedback form that was shared with you, or comment on this post. The insight that you share is important, as it will help us evaluate our newest program, and guide us in iterating on it to best serve new contributors in the future.

All contributors, whether new and experienced, are encouraged to participate in future Guide Program pairings! If you are interested in participating, please go to the Guide Program handbook page and submit the form that is relevant to you.

Thank you to @piyopiyofox for reviewing this post.

This post was last updated on October 17 to update the “Contributions made by participants” section.

#guide-program

Sumit Singh 7:08 am on October 13, 2023
Tags: , , ,   

Training Team Meeting Recap – 10th October 2023

This meeting followed this meeting agenda in GitHub. You can see conversations from the meeting in this Slack Log. (If you don’t have a 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/. account, you can set one up.)

Introductions and Welcome

There were 21 attendees:  @piyopiyofox,  @sumitsingh,  @webtechpooja,  @chetan200891,  @nahidsharifkomol,  @devmuhib,  @iqbalpb,  @jdy68,  @psykro,  @sancastiza,  @nayanchamp7,  @karthickmurugan,  @huzaifaalmesbah(async),  @lada7042(async),  @sierratr(async),  @west7(async),  @courtneypk(async),  @benjirahmed(async),  @quitevisible(async),  @mebo(async),  @vanpariyar(async)

We’ve had several new people join the channel recently. Let’s get introduced to 7 new people here: @Stuti Goyal @Vincent Martinat @Lisa Sabin-Wilson @zstepek @Nabin @Parag Wadhwani @Rashi Gupta  

News

Meeting recap notes are one of the best ways to get started contributing to a team, and you can find details on how to write notes in this handbook page.

Meeting Note Takers

Meeting recap notes are one of the best ways to get started contributing to a team, and you can find details on how to write notes on this handbook page.

Looking for feedback

Updates from last week’s dev-squad triage session

This week, the dev-squad triaged 2 new PRs and one new bug:

There was some discussion around #1880, which the dev squad would like to bring to the team.

Other News

Please see the Nomination for Training Team Reps 2023 post for details on how we handled nominating new team reps last year. We are hoping to make this process more clear for future reps and potential leaders.

  • Badges Rewarded  – Congrats @Muhibul Haque! Thank you for your contributions to the team.

Open requests for review

See our Guidelines for reviewing content to review the following content.

Tutorials

Translated Content

If you are able to pick any of these reviews up, please comment on the issue directly.

Project Updates

Open Discussions

The discussion topic at hand revolves around GitHub issue #1880, which involves adding IDs to headings for anchor links on the website. The dev squad is seeking clarity on whether to use sentence case or all lowercase for internal anchor link fragments. The HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. spec doesn’t specify a requirement, but lowercase is the common practice.

The dilemma is whether to formalize and document this practice across the site. @Jonathan suggests switching to all lowercase, but this would require a thorough review and update of existing lesson plans. The group is open to discussion on this matter.

@Destiny raises whether this issue will still be relevant if the content is consolidated according to the new information architecture for Learn. @Jonathan mentions that it depends on whether the “Tip” section in the Lesson Plan synced pattern is carried over to the new content types. Removing the tip section entirely is a possible solution.

The group agrees that the new architecture may change the current situation, so they consider merging the PR and addressing individual lesson plans on a case-by-case basis.

Asynchronous participants are encouraged to share their thoughts on the GitHub issue. @Jonathan notes that it’s essential to consider the impact of the new architecture.

The conversation ends with @Destiny mentioning a request for members of the dev-squad to review and test a PR for the Sensei Pro upgrade created by @Jonathan, asking for help from contributors with developer experience.

You can see all meetings scheduled on this meeting calendar. If you are new to the Training Team, then come walk through our onboarding program to get to know the team and how we work. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the #training Slack channel at any time.

#learn-wordpress, #meeting-recap, #training, #training-team