The recent discussion around reimagining online events has raised some challenges in bringing WordCamps online and has suggested some really interesting alternatives for WordPress community organisers to try out. This kind of discussion is not unique to the WordPress community — groups all over the world have been struggling to adapt their in-person events to an online platform.
The WordPress community must keep iterating on effective ways to share valuable content that will help people learn to use and contribute to WordPress.
Moving beyond synchronous events
Since the day this team was formed, events have been our primary tool to grow the WordPress community, helping people learn to use and contribute to WordPress. Events can be an effective way to work toward that goal, because learning in a shared space, with like-minded people, can foster a feeling of belonging which helps people stick with WordPress even when things get rough.
However, building community through events brings limitations. If someone can’t attend our events, due to geography, schedules, or other barriers, then they are left out. We approach this challenge by trying to foster community in as many places and events in as many times and locations as possible (Whew!). Thousands of people contribute to this amazing effort.
Online events greatly reduce how geography limits the reach of our events (yay!), but the limitation of synchronous events remains. If someone can’t attend the hangout or Zoom at 6pm, then they’re mostly out of luck. Also, our organising work is less efficient than it could be, with multiple speakers/organisers sharing content about the same subjects in different locations all over the globe.
Currently, if someone wants to learn more about WordPress from WordPress, they have a few options:
- Read some documentation.
- Find a local meetup or WordCamp, and hope the topic that they want to learn shows up in the schedule.
- Watch WordPress.tv or YouTube and hope that they understand the presentation on the topic (if there is one).
What if there was another way?
Proposal: Recorded workshops + synchronous discussion groups
The most efficient way to reach the largest number of people and help them learn how to use and contribute to WordPress, is with recorded workshops that can be viewed whenever someone has the time and interest. Recorded talks or workshops make learning available to everyone in the world, no matter what timezone they’re in, what schedule they follow, or when they discover an interest.
But as we all know, synchronous discussions are incredibly powerful. They facilitate connection, mutual learning, exchange of ideas, and personal development.
What if we blended those two elements into a program that provides the flexibility of online content, with the value and sense of community that comes with learning together?
We could publish workshops in a central location (on wordpress.org, for better visibility and reach) and then invite learners to join live discussion groups that cater to different timezones. This “flipped classroom” model allows people to learn at their convenience, and then come together for additional development.
The workshops could be put together by people who would otherwise be speaking at WordCamps, and we could even use existing content from WordPress.TV or talks that are being given at online meetups. There is also potential for longer courses, composed of multiple workshops, and a group that meets repeatedly over time.
Once the discussion group or workshop is complete, the discussion group leader could recommend that the learners check out their local community groups for more WordPress learning and camaraderie.
This approach has the potential to grow WordPress as a platform, and support our mission of helping people learn to use and contribute to WordPress, in an exciting new way.
Feedback
If you agree that this idea is exciting, or if you have a question or suggestion, please leave a comment on this post! Here are some specific questions to get you started:
- Have you seen a workshop in the past year that you’d recommend to be included in a first iteration of this program?
- What topics would be important to include in an initial offering of workshops?
- Are you interested in helping to develop content for a program like this, or reviewing proposed content for accuracy?
- Would you be interested in leading a discussion group for a workshop, or training discussion group leaders?
I think there area a couple that I would love to see included out of the gate… WP101 and WPContribute101. These are the 2 largest barriers to entry for most people and having a Workshop and “Forum” would allow for those walls to be easily scaled. Just my opinion though.
I do think having some kind of online forum or platform for async discussion would be way more valuable than synchronous as well. Coursera does this really well with their actual classes. The videos and modules are self-paced and the forums are right there with the videos if you need help and the “teachers” moderate them kind of but you have a way to reach out if needed. Maybe that is a similar structure that can be modeled for this.
I would also love to the ability to have a youth area as well.
+1 for 101/Beginner workshops!
This exists. We recorded WordPress 101 at WordCamp San Antonio. It will eventually be on WordPress TV, but for now, you can view it here (I have to admit, I have not watched it, but it got a good response from attendees): http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20201029183213/https://2020.sanantonio.wordcamp.org/wordpress-101/
From polyglots perspective too, async & text discussion is easier than a synchronized version because of timezone/language. However, I can see synchronous discussion can build a better interpersonal connection (thus helping people to stick around!). Maybe a combination of a general place to discuss contents plus a number of small study groups could work (they probably need to be facilitated by someone or given clear instructions though).
+make.wordpress.org/polyglots/
http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20201029183213/https://wptrainingteam.github.io/ has lots of good materials with exercise and quizzes. @juliekuehl @jessecowens do you think the material there will be suitable to be used for this initiative?
I think those lesson plans could be a great first step toward getting recorded workshops online quickly, and if we set it up right, we could port suggested changes based on feedback to the people writing/maintaining the lesson plans!
Hey @nao! I do think the materials would be super useful. The training team is regrouping a bit at the moment. We have PRs in the waiting on lesson plans, slides, etc. but could definitely use additional help on accepting the PRs for work currently available.
Then, Polyglots to rationalize it.
We also have a new Learn site (replacing http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20201029183213/http://learn.wordpress.org) that was quite close to completion.
I’ve just renewed my interest/commitment to the training team, while teaching high school students a beginner workshop. I’m quickly getting up to speed on the Training team needs as I’ve been largely away for 4 years. I am VERY eager to help with this, and believe most of the training members still active would be as well.
*regionalize not rationalize
since any years i make Workshops on Meetup and Wordcamp (german language) in Austria, the most interessted ist “First Step with WordPress”, i make also Task about many Plugins, and “develop the First Plugin wp-hallowelt”, since any week my interesset ist in training Team, but the communication is difficult, maybe have this Idea more for future.
in the last days i made a wordpress template to generate Slider (like training team) with WordPress Post, in the next days i complete this with many features and i hope also in english
I believe we could use one of the many Learning Management System plugins that are already available to make workshop content available in this format. I think it’ll be important to break the content down into smaller, more consumable, lessons than the typical multiple-hour workshop we have today. While there are fewer WordCamps these days compared to a year ago, there are likely still people out there wanting to share what they know with others.
To proceed with this idea, I think we have several things to identify:
These are all excellent questions – thanks @rmarks!
I’m not sure if a full LMS solution is really needed here as we don’t require all the features of it and the content is going to be open to everyone all the time. I’m open to having my mind changed on that though since there will definitely be elements to this that we haven’t considered yet.
I have some thoughts on some of your questions, but please push back and provide additional feedback if you have it!
Some workshops that I think would be great for the launch are:
There will definitely be plenty of others to add over time, and probably others that would be valuable for launch, so please suggest more as you think of them.
I think we can use a combination of an open call for speakers (much like a WordCamp’s call for speakers) as well as nominating people we think would have valuable content to offer. A new post with that call for speakers would be great to see here.
This is a great question! I like the idea of having people in the community apply to be on a ‘review board’ of sorts, but you’re right that we would also need to consider the removal of no longer relevant content at some point. I’d love to hear any ideas you have about how that could work.
I think guidelines would definitely be good without being too prescriptive.
For the number of lessons per session, I think it would depend on the length of the workshop and what the content involves. My expectation would be that people would watch one workshop asynchronously and then meet to discuss it. For moderation/answers, I was thinking that we could ask the workshop presenter to provide some comprehension questions that viewers can use to test themselves, and then those can be used to guide the discussion – that way the moderators could be anyone who has at least a working knowledge of the topic.
The synchronous discussions would likely be on video calls (Zoom, Google Meet, or whatever platform people prefer to use), but we could also do some on Slack if needed.
It is my hope that, eventually, meetup organisers will start using this as content for their local meetup groups – so they encourage their members to watch a particular workshop and then discuss is together for their online meetup event.
A good and likely location for this would be learn.wordpress.org as it plays along quite nicely with the work the Training team is doing to revive that platform and all of that work could coexist quite peacefully there.
I agree – this definitely shouldn’t be called “WordCamp”. I don’t know if it needs a name as such, but if we were to use one, we could call it “WP Learn” perhaps? I’m not tied to any particular name there so happy to go with anything that sounds good and makes sense.
Excellent questions as you think through this Ryan! If you have any further input on any of this then please share – I have high hopes for this platform and we can only get there if we think through it all together!
@hlashbrooke, I think it’ll be difficult to present workshop content without breaking it up into lessons. When I think of a workshop I’ve attended at an in-person WordCamp, it was offered over the course of 2+ hours. Especially thinking about workshops where the attendees are encouraged to follow allow on your own computer, I recall frequent questions from the attendees.
Even looking at a recent workshop from wordcamp.tv shows what I’m recalling. Look at Colleen Harris’ workshop from WordCamp Denver this year. She paused for the first round of questions at the 11:44 mark of part one of her three videos.
While the learning platform doesn’t need to be a full-blown Learning Management System, I am hoping we could find a way to mimic some of that structure. Since a workshop would be prerecorded, I believe the speakers should have planned breaks or create the video so it can be broken up into small lessons. This will allow the synchronous participants to check-in and make sure no one is stuck on a previously talked about topic.
I’d like to hear your and others thoughts on how typical workshop content would be presented on the learning platform.
I 100% agree – not all workshops will fit into a single video. My hope is that we will see speakers who want to extend their content submit more than one workshop so they can follow on from each other (part 1, part 2, etc.).
I don’t think it will serve us well to be prescriptive about workshop length, but we can definitely encourage presenters to break their workshops up into multiple videos if they are going to be 2 hours or more. So in that sense, while I don’t think we’ll go with a full-blown LMS, we will definitely have some structure to the lessons so that we can indicate ones that flow together in some way. If it makes sense in the future to use a real LMS for this, then we can definitely do so (and that could very well be a likely outcome!), but we shouldn’t commit to that upfront until we know it will be the way we will go with it.
Thanks for your thoughts here – they’re really helping to shape the way we’re thinking about all this!
@hlashbrooke I have just read this again. Would the watching of the workshop be part of the scheduled meetup time? Each time I’ve read “Recorded workshops + synchronous discussion groups”, I’ve understood the two to occur back-to-back. Was that your intent?
My intent with that is that meetup group organisers would, for example, say to their meetup group that the content for this month’s meetup event will be a discussion around the content of X workshop. The group would then watch that workshop sometime between that announcement and the event date, then the meetup event would be the discussion around it. That isn’t a prescriptive formula, but it’s something that I feel could work really well by providing valuable content for meetup groups, and helping meetup organisers with content that they might otherwise be struggling to organise.
@hlashbrooke after reading the comments you added above, I now understand what you’ve proposed. I think it’ll be important to include, when we’re sharing the format with workshop content creators and meetup organizers, the watching of the recorded content should be done asynchronously. That misunderstanding was the root of my concern.
In addition to providing comprehension questions to moderators/facilitarors, something you mentioned in an earlier reply, I think workshop presenters should plan to answer to FAQs as part of the recorded content.
Oh I’m glad you asked to clarify that then yeah – the idea is that the workshops will asynchronous.
I think adding some additinnal FAQs from the presenters would be really valuable too – that’s a great idea!
I posted about the dev requirements for learn.wordpress.org over here: http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20201029183213/https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2020/07/30/dev-requirements-for-learn-wordpress-org/
Some of the things we have been working on post WCEU and in the Marketing Team which would be useful here:
we have been working with @_dorsvenabili about marketing support to online Meetups too, and some interesting findings coming in from both our survey and the informal conversations with organizers. Thanks for your support Hugh for including this in a future newsletter and community channels
It is really sad, though understandable that WCUS has been cancelled today and a message of empathy goes out from the Marketing Team to all the organizers who have worked so hard the last few months.
@hlashbrooke it would be good to explore more about whether we could do a 24-hour contributor event, and in addition how it could provide an opportunity to promote translation across the different time zones. At Devchat yesterday there was a conversation about encouraging more translators to get involved with release translations and some post discussion about how a 24-hour contributor event could help with this. We have recently had three mini-translation day events, all held online, and these were a great focus on particular areas like onboarding, latest release translations, and a catalyst for online Meetup events working together.
There are lots of learnings from the work we have been doing at WCEU during the past two years on the contributing experience and from the 24-hour connections many teams had with both new and experienced contributors at the 2020 online event. Could we continue the exploration of this with community, capturing the discussions and involvement we have been having with WCUS Contributor Day organizer Christina Workman? And bringing in further @Naoko and other colleagues from the WordPress Translation Day team, and others? @nullbyte, @amethystanswers and I really think this could work so well for the community.
This would be a great way to reimagine online events and reinforce our collective support for the work of the Make Teams and the necessity of increasing our sustainable contributions.
Just like to give a “thank you” to all involved in this initiative. This is a strong concept, and I look forward to helping bring this into reality. Great idea, thoughtful suggestions.
Coming in a little behind the times here, with my full support for this idea. I’ve struggled for years with the painful knowledge that our ability to reach outside our current ecosystem… trails the growth of WordPress, rather than driving that growth. This idea doesn’t guarantee broader outreach, but it could dramatically reduce barriers to learning and connecting with other WordPress learners. I think this is an excellent use of this team’s time, while the pandemic is preventing us from gathering physically and possibly beyond. There is so much potential here, I can’t even stand it.
WP101 of course, and probably everything on the Training Team’s list of lesson plans, plus how to make the block editor do your bidding. Developer content, especially focused on building blocks, security, and accessibility.
Happy to review for accuracy on leadership, community organizing, event organizing, and DEI workshops.
Both!
Yes.
Yes.
It looks like this initiative is moving forward quickly. I think it’s important that this program has the support it needs to be successful. While this has a sense of urgency now as a temporary replacement to in-person events, I expect this program will continue to be offered after in-person events can be resumed. To make it easier for people to work on this, I would propose we put in place a roadmap for Learn WordPress Workshops that includes what needs to be done, what’s assigned, and who to collaborate with.
It seems like there are at least 4 components to the program: the site where the workshops will live, a group of presenters, a group of reviewers, and a group of discussion leaders. We might also need help soliciting presenters to participate and to promote this program to Meetup organizers. In addition, there may be a need to collect and publish attendee feedback?
If a roadmap doesn’t exist, maybe we can create one by answering these questions:
That’s my expectation and hope as well – this kind of content delivery will be immensely valuable regardless of whether in-person events are happening or not.
Yes! I love the idea of a roadmap with planned dates, features and indicators of who is responsible. I’ve started a draft of this that I’ll share in Slack for feedback before it gets published.
100% correct and I agree. I like the idea of using the existing WordCamp speaker feedback tool and have suggested that in the Learn GitHub repo. We’re very open to other ideas for gathering and sharing feedback too, so please let us know any thoughts you have on it.
The questions you list there are all excellent – I’m making sure to include that in the roadmap draft that I’ll share in Slack and we can ensure that everything is included before we publish it.
I do agree that this format will continue with or without in-person events. The vision of the training team (before the pandemic) was to provide resources for others to present at Meetups, etc. I believe that can happen again, in conjunction with the addition of videos from Learn.
An instructor could get the lesson plan and resources from the Learn site, and optionally even a downloadable version of the video to use for the instruction portion ahead. Then the in-person presenter can facilitate the hands-on time, provide support, answer questions, or extend the discussion.
Tentatively, I’ll be present in #Training for an office-hours style meeting Monday, Aug 10, at 11am EDT/3PM UTC to assist in renewing our meetings and updating the team with this delightful push to get the Learn site launched.