Kathryn Presner 6:24 pm on August 28, 2024
Tags: learn-wordpress ( 128 ), marketing ( 34 )

Drawing new learners to the new Learn.WordPress.org

Now that the new Learn WordPress is out in the world, we want to have a steady flow of new learners discovering the site and taking advantage of the valuable resources it offers.

This post is intended to gather ideas on which recurring activities the team should prioritize first, with the goal of bringing more learners to the site. Please provide your feedback by ~~September 10, 2024~~ Sept. 24, 2024.

Potential types of activities include:

Marketing initiatives
Increasing the Training Team’s presence at WordCamps
Providing learners and contributors with resources to easily promote Learn WordPress in their networks

Here are some initial ideas to get the ball rolling. Please add your thoughts on which activity you think would be good to try first, and a few words on why. If you have an idea that’s not already listed here, feel free to add it in a comment.

Workshops & events

Conduct course cohorts regularly using Learning Pathway content.
Host workshop-style events at WordCamps using Learning Pathway content.
Host Online Workshops in different locales.
- Work with Community/Polyglots to enroll community members to host these.
- Use https://wpspeakers.com/ and other directories to find speakers.
Hold a Learn WordPress Day
- 24 hours of Online Workshops, course cohorts, and other programming.
Create a system for interacting with and supporting Learn WordPress learners. For example, create a forum or 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 where learners can ask course-related questions.

Other outreach/promotion

Have an active presence at flagship WordCamps, open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. events, etc. Could include:
- Presentations, workshops, booths, have organizers add Learn in flyers, etc.
- Highlight the benefits of companies/organizations using Learn WordPress content in their business/activities.

Print up cards/small flyers with Learn WordPress URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org/blurb/QR code. Offer them to MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers and hand them out at WordCamps, including flagships.
Paper “tents” with a QR code directing 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/ for use at flagship 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. Contributor Days on the Training Team table.
Connect with companies and freelancers offering WordPress services and have them promote Learn WordPress as a training resource for their clients and employees.
Connect with community colleges and schools that could benefit from incorporating Learn WordPress into their programs. See if there’s a database that tracks which colleges or schools include WordPress in their curriculum or extension programs.
Engage local Meetup organizers more to help advocate for and promote Learn WordPress within their communities.
Use Meetup’s email system to inform or update learners or members of new courses and learning pathways.
Explore how we can leverage YouTube as a funnel for promoting Learn WordPress.
Get Learn WordPress resources added to the WordPress dasard so that all WordPress users would see the available resources in a prominent place.
Reach out to WordPress thought leaders for endorsements of our Learning Pathways to enhance credibility and adoption within the broader community.

Looking forward to hearing folks’ feedback over the next couple of weeks.

Thanks to Ben Evans, Wes Theron, and Jonathan Bossenger for their input.

#learn-wordpress, #marketing

Dan Soschin 7:53 pm on August 28, 2024
I would challenge this group to think about how to bring in those needing to learn about WordPress who are not currently in the active WP community. 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. attendees are already in the WP community and likely know about Learn resources. Certainly, having a presence at events so that attendees can explore everything that is available so they can go back to their agencies/companies/employers/employees and share the resources would be great. However, many WordCamp attendees are individual contributors/developers/extenders. So, what are no-cost ways to introduce Learn resources to the casual WP user who would benefit from them?
- Kathryn Presner 10:12 pm on August 28, 2024
  “So, what are no-cost ways to introduce Learn resources to the casual WP user who would benefit from them?”
  I think there are a bunch of ideas mentioned above that meet this qualification. I’d love to hear which one(s) you – and others – think should be the team’s first priority, along with any additional ideas folks have, of course!
BobWP 8:36 am on August 29, 2024
I have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head on this and, of course, would also like to be part of helping you get the word out. Pulling ideas together 😉
- Kathryn Presner 8:23 pm on August 29, 2024
  Awesome – can’t wait to hear your thoughts when you’re ready, Bob!
Rico F. Lüthi 8:45 am on August 29, 2024
The article already presents many fascinating proposals that we should implement as soon as possible.
One of the biggest challenges with online learning offerings is the high dropout rate, which can be attributed to factors such as lack of motivation, insufficient social interaction, and challenges in self-discipline. I believe these aspects deserve our special attention.
One suggestion would be to make badges more prominent, as they can easily be overlooked in the activity list. It would also be great if these badges could be shared on LinkedIn and similar platforms. This kind of gamification could boost participant motivation and simultaneously create a positive marketing effect for the learning paths through sharing.
Forming study groups is another approach to addressing the problem. These groups are often organized and supported by meetups, companies internal, or schools. We could further support the organizers by providing them with implementation concepts as well as helpful tips and tricks. Additionally, we could highlight and promote group work or the schools, companies, and meetups that organize such initiatives.
I am convinced that these two measures would be relatively easy to implement and could bring significant benefits to both the participants and the promotion of the learning paths.
- Kathryn Presner 8:44 pm on August 29, 2024
  Thanks so much for your thoughtful reflections, @rfluethi.
  I really like the idea of study groups – I agree that it could help a lot with the social interaction and accountability/self-discipline aspects that can be tough when going through a course solo.
  re: badges, I totally agree with you. I’m still hoping to see this existing Meta Trac ticket moved along, so please feel free to drop your thoughts there. Hopefully if more voices show interest in the idea, that might help see some progress on it. Thank you!
Kharis Sulistiyono 4:20 am on September 4, 2024
> Explore how we can leverage YouTube as a funnel for promoting Learn WordPress.
Funneling over YouTube and (probably) other social media channels is good idea.
The local meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. group I am co-organizing has been utilizing an Instagram account and already has 500+ followers. Some latest videos posted there gained 200+ to 1100+ views.
I am thinking about using it as funneling tool too. If it is allowed, we could create short reels as a ‘click-bait’ to complete learning materials in Learn WordPress.
Thank you!
Ronny Shani 11:32 am on September 4, 2024
Really great ideas! 👏
Building on these, as well as @dansoschin and @rfluethi‘s ideas, here are a few more thoughts:
Support and interaction
Create a system for interacting with and supporting Learn WordPress learners. For example, create a forum or 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 where learners can ask course-related questions.
This would be awesome, but who’s going to coordinate it? Probably worth collecting feedback from @bph and the #Outreach Slack channel maintainers.
Go to the users
Get Learn WordPress resources added to the WordPress dasard so that all WordPress users would see the available resources in a prominent place.
Maybe we can take a cue from wordpress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/. The dasard surfaces similar content on the Home tab: https://wordpress.com/home/TYPE_YOUR_SITE_NAME.wordpress.com?courseSlug=site-editor-quick-start
Expand the reach
Connect with companies and freelancers + leverage YouTube as a funnel for promoting Learn WordPress + Reach out to “influencers”
Do all this also outside the immediate WP community:
• Get involved in non-WP tech events
• Create content for web dev publications (CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. Tricks and Smashing Magazine, for example)
• Collaborate with web-focused developer advocates (including YouTubers and podcasters)
Gamification and engagement
1. Expand Learn WordPress from theory to outcome/project-based learning
◦ Leverage Playground for interactive tutorials by preparing different Blueprints with scenarios that people can jump into immediately. For example:
▪ An instance that opens a new post with the steps to add a pattern
▪ An instance that opens the Create 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. Theme settings page.
@zieladam actually references a similar use case in his Vision and Philosophy post, and used Playground for a tutorial he posted on his blog.
2. On the opposite side of the spectrum, how about offering offline formats? Not sure if it’s technically possible, but it could be interesting to repackage courses as e-books, PDFs, and PWAs (Progressive Web App).
Kathryn Presner 2:54 pm on September 10, 2024
Thanks for everyone’s excellent ideas so far.
I’d like to extend the deadline for feedback until after WCUS to give more folks a chance to chime in, so let’s give it until Sept. 24. Please feel free to share your thoughts on how to attract more learners to the new Learn WP!
Kathryn Presner 5:51 pm on September 21, 2024
On Sept. 17, @lada7042 @cnormandigital and I led a discussion on this topic with a group of folks at the Training Team table at 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. US 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/.. Our goal was to brainstorm which activities we should try first, to draw new learners to Learn WordPress. Here’s a summary of the discussion:
- It can be hard to find videos through YouTube and Learn WP search. Can we improve tagging on both? Can we add tags to YT playlists as well?
- Lack of budget is a challenge when you think about competing with other CMS’s.
- Adding resources in the WP dasard might be a “quick win” to make people aware of them. The events widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. in the dasard is very effective, we could do something similar for Learn WP.
- Can we add something in the support forums to correlate keywords in a question with links to recommended resources on Learn? What about when searching for plugins or themes?
- There are opportunities on many of WP’s social media accounts to add links to Learn WP, i.e. YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn. (There’s also an odd link on our Twitter account that should be fixed.) @newyorkerlaura and I will coordinate to follow up on this.
- Could we liaise with the Support team more, making sure they’re aware of Learn WP and have them mention relevant resources when they can be useful.
- Learn homepage – can we also add something to help people find local events? GatherPress is in testing to be a replacement for Meetup.com, might provide more opportunities for integration, will be in-house
- Discussed how Microsoft draws in people to their courses with certified instructors, could we have something similar? Nothing currently in place for that.
Thanks again to everyone who took part in a lively and fruitful discussion. Your input was appreciated and super valuable. If any participant notices something I’ve left anything out, or you’d like to make a clarification, please feel free to chime in here.
Reminder that feedback on this topic is open until Sept. 24, and everyone’s thoughts are still welcomed!
Kaito Hanamori (previously Ben Evans) 5:44 am on October 24, 2024
Update: October 24
I’ve started compiling these ideas into different buckets and initiating concrete discussions to implement them.
Ideas to implement in the WordPress dasard
Please leave your thoughts on the new post Brainstorm: Introducing Learning Pathways to users during onboarding. Based on discussions there, we’ll then reach out to designers/developers to start implementing ideas.
Ideas to implement at flagship WordCamps
I’m reaching out to mentors of each flagship 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. to understand who best I should take these ideas to.
- Kaito Hanamori 6:49 am on November 27, 2024
  Thanks for input, everyone. Here is a summary of all the ideas presented here. Now, it’s up to each of us to act on these!
  The Training Team should review this list when planning projects for 2025. However, there is more here than the team can do on its own. Please share these ideas with your teams and local communities. And if you’d like to try any of these ideas, feel free to reach out in the training Slack channel and let us know how we can support you.
  WordPress Events
  - Host workshops at WordCamps
  - Highlight using Learn in business/company training
  - Provide MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers with tokens they can promote Learn with
  - Use Meetup’s mailing list to inform members of new content
  Non-WordPress events
  - Present or host workshops at open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. events
  - Highlight using Learn WordPress in business/company training
  - Write articles for non-WordPress publications
  Programming additions
  - More frequent course cohorts
  - Online Workshops in different locales
  - Hold a 24 hour online Learn WordPress Day
  - Create study groups
  - Liaise with Support so that they can better share Learn content in forums
  Platform updates
  - Create forum/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/. for learners
  - Make badges more prominent on wp and shareable on socials
  - Show Learn content on the wp dasard
  - Show Learn content in forum searches
  - Update WordPress socials to include links to Learn
  Other outreach/promotions
  - Take Learn WordPress to education institutes
  - Provide resources for companies/schools/etc to form study groups around Learn
  - Better leverage YouTube/socials to promote Learn
  - Reach out to WordPress thought leaders for endorsements of Learn
  - Invite and highlight well-known instructors

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