#135 – Jonathan Bossenger on Enhancing WordPress Learning Experiences  ## Metadata - Author: [[WP Tavern]] - Full Title: #135 – Jonathan Bossenger on Enhancing WordPress Learning Experiences - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/ffd05c34-5811-4f65-8a10-76915d04242f ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Episode AI notes 1. Jonathan Bossenger highlights the need for enhancing learning pathways on the WordPress platform to provide a more structured approach to content creation. 2. Feedback from learner surveys indicates a demand for organized content, as the current distribution is perceived as scattershot, hindering effective learning. 3. Bossenger emphasizes the transformative nature of free WordPress learning resources, allowing anyone with internet access to develop web skills without financial barriers. 4. The availability of no-cost educational materials enables new developers to integrate into teams more quickly, reducing the need for companies to create internal training resources. 5. The shift to using open-source educational content allows businesses to focus on growth and customer engagement, streamlining their onboarding processes and increasing overall productivity. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/a9b65a5d-a129-4962-8c7f-b7d1b4efc7ec)) - Enhancing Learning Pathways on the WordPress Platform Feedback from an individual learner survey conducted by the WordPress training team highlights a strong demand for more structured learning pathways. The current content distribution has been described as scattershot, leading to the need for a more organized approach to content creation. The absence of a structured plan hampers effective learning for developers, particularly in essential areas like WordPress hooks. Thus, the focus on developing a coherent content strategy is imperative for meeting learners' needs and enhancing the overall educational value available on the Learn WordPress platform. Transcript: Speaker 2 So it occurs to me that we've got this far into the episode and we haven't actually mentioned the URL, which is a bit remiss. So head to learn.wordpress and from there you can go in all sorts of directions and you'll be able to see that. The UI may change. It has undergone some changes recently as well. But in an ideal world we'd go to that website and we would have any question about WordPress and we would find the answer. That would be a utopia, some sort of crazy universe that we don't live in where everything that we could possibly want there's a piece of content which will address that question. Of course that's not the reality. You have to pick and choose your subjects. At this moment in history, where in July 2024, how are those decisions made? How do you make the decision? Okay, this is the next tranche of content that we're going to make. Ignore what you've already got. How are you making decisions about what comes next? Speaker 1 Themselves. And you mentioned about ignore the content you've got, but the content that we've got is actually very important to think about because it informed where we are currently. So, at the end of, I think it was the end of 2021 or 2022, I can't remember exactly what year, but the training team, so the WordPress training team, these are the folks that are similar To the core team or the meta team. We all know those teams in Slack and all the different teams on the Meg blogs. The training team is the team that focuses on everything on Learn WordPress. They did an individual learner feedback survey. They tried to reach all folks who have accessed learn content since its inception in 2020. And they said, give us your feedback. What is working? What is not working? And the biggest piece of feedback we got out of that loaner survey was more structured learning pathways. At that stage, the content was very scattershot. We were creating the content that we thought was good. So when I joined automatic as a full-time sponsored contributor, and I looked at the developer-focused content there, I went, well, there's nothing about WordPress hooks. That's probably one of the first things that you need to learn about if you're going to develop with WordPress. So I created a series of lessons on WordPress hooks. And then I went, well, what is the next thing I want to create? There was no structure, there was no plan. And so learning pathways became the thing that folks wanted the most. So that's what we're focusing on right now. ([Time 0:13:21](https://share.snipd.com/snip/57779447-98da-4fca-82f6-5527de6e34db)) - Note: learnwp - Tags: learnwp - The Privilege of Free WordPress Learning Resources Access to free WordPress learning resources presents a significant opportunity for anyone with internet connectivity to acquire web development skills without any financial barrier. This privilege is seen as transformative, enabling people to engage in web development either as a professional pursuit or a hobby. The abundance of credible, no-cost educational materials allows new developers to quickly become productive members of teams in various agencies, eliminating the need for companies to invest resources in creating internal training content. This shift not only streamlines the onboarding process for junior developers but also allows existing staff to redirect their efforts towards other essential tasks, enhancing overall productivity. Moreover, the open-source nature of WordPress, which extends to the educational content provided, offers vast opportunities for hosting companies and other organizations to leverage existing resources, thus reducing redundancy in support and training materials. By utilizing these shared resources, businesses can focus on growth and customer engagement rather than recreating foundational educational content repeatedly. Transcript: Speaker 2 I think lucky is the wrong word, but when I was going through on another podcast that I do, when I was just explaining that some of these courses were coming around, you know, the introduction To WordPress course and the developer course and what have you that have dropped in the last few months, I just felt an enormous sense of, oh, I don't know, privilege or luck that that's All there, that anybody on the planet who has the capacity to connect to the internet does have the capacity to learn WordPress completely for free. And as you said, you may go off in different directions and learn is bound to the WordPress project itself. You know, it's not going to explore this page builder or that page builder because that's out of the bounds. But what a privilege to just roll into web development as a project. You know, maybe it's a hobby at the moment and find a bunch of really credible resources online and then think to yourself, OK, where's the checkout? There's no checkout. It's just completely for free. And that is, that's miraculous, frankly. And it could not have been that way. But it is. It is. Absolutely. Speaker 1 And the way I always look at this is, you talk about other page builders and let's talk about other plugins and other themes and whatever the case may be. We talk about perfect utopias. What I would love to see is a world where agency X, you know, human made, all these web agencies, I'm just mentioning names, XWP, 10-Up, all of those, they've got new developers coming In, junior developers coming in, and instead of them having to build, hire somebody or pay somebody to make content for internal training, they can just link them off to learn WordPress. And then those folks can go through the training and then be productive members of that team. And then that person who's creating the content can do something else for the company, can create other content that the company needs as opposed to having to recreate this educational Content all the time. We've had conversations with hosting companies. You know, hosting companies, they have video editors who have to both create educational videos for customers, but also promotional videos and all that to grow the company. Wouldn't it be great if they could just focus on their promotional videos and grow the company and send customers links to their own WordPress? They don't even have to send them links to their WordPress. It's as open source as the software, so everything we release is Creative Commons essentially, because that's the text video version of open source software. So if they want to include it in their customer support portals, all of our videos are on YouTube, so folks can link to it from YouTube if they want to. Imagine how much opportunity it creates for them to use those folks for other things, for growing the business for customer interactions, whatever the case may be, as opposed to having To recreate the wheel every time because every hosting company needs to create support videos. Every hosting company needs to create a, this is pages, this is posts, blah, blah, blah. ([Time 0:25:06](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f035a65a-865d-4999-9d0d-30b8ed42af73)) - Note: learnwp - Tags: learnwp