When the Training team got started in 2013, it was invited to help WordPress education grow at scale, by creating and distributing world-class lesson plans that anyone could use to teach WordPress and WordPress-related skills.
Since that beginning, lots of great work has been done. The result is an impressive repository of lesson plans and the site learn.wordpress.org itself. Those lesson plans provide an empowering framework for educating others in live settings — and even help new contributors develop their voice and expertise through workshops, Meetup events, and other opportunities for speaking. The team has a lot to be proud of, and a bright future ahead.
When the team started, the mission was defined this way:
The WordPress training team creates downloadable lesson plans and related materials for instructors to use in live environments.
Learn WordPress has grown considerably since launch, and is well-positioned to accelerate the growth of WordPress by helping people learn to use, extend, and contribute to our open source CMS. In that same time, the Training team has also grown and adapted.
To expand and improve the instructional content for all users of WordPress, learn.wordpress.org needs contributors with experience in (or passion for) instructional design, discussion group facilitation, learning assessment, and many other aspects of learning or training.
I propose expanding the mission of the Training Team to include more of that work, focused on the effort to make learn.wordpress.org a high quality, up-to-date WordPress learning platform — much of which the team has already been doing.
The new mission statement could be something like:
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.
Feedback?
I’d love to know your thoughts or concerns about this proposed expansion in scope; please share in the comments below!
Deep thanks to @courane01, @evarlese, and @hlashbrooke for their feedback on, and edits to, this proposal.