Team WordPress

A Group Learning Experience

In May through July of 2013 I will be facilitating a group learning experience to help people use WordPress to create working websites for their own projects. The process will allow the learners to set goals for the type of website they want to build. It will involve six to eight learners located in different places to complete a series of learning tasks individually, with peer support from the other members of their learning cohort. During the process I will be keeping a record of what worked and what didn’t as we prototype this learning model.

For more information on this project, you may contact me on Google+.

This cohort has already formed and is progress, but if you may contact me if you are interested in applying for the next group. The learning process is designed to meet the needs of learners like these:

  1. Adult learner who is not already good at WordPress.
  2. Able to participate using Google+ serivces, including Google Hangouts and use of Google Drive.
  3. Interested in collaborative learning models and willing to experiment with online learning methods.
  4. Willing to interact with other cohort members and give them feedback on their own projects. Each member will give peer feedback on all projects in the cohort.
  5. Practical goal of building a web site for a non-profit or socially-responsible project that has limited technical resources.
  6. Cohort members may wish to focus on healthcare issues as the subject for their website, but this is not essential. Some of the members of the cohort will be working on health policy matters.

Methods and process:

  1. The cohort of learners will be formed by May 1, 2013. Since I will be providing personal coaching, I reserve the right to select the cohort members. There will be no charge for participation.
  2. During the Prework phase, participants will clarify their goals, set up necessary collaboration tools on Google+, and discuss alternatives for hosting of their new websites. All Prework tasks should be completed by June 1, 2013.
  3. It is not essential that all the learners meet simultaneously, though this will take place at some points in the process. Learners will meet in subgroups based on their best times to learn.

The curriculum is structured as a set of learning tasks:

Prework

1. Get set up to use collaborative learning technology
2. Set goals for your site
3. Make your pitch
4. Think about site branding and domain names
5. Determine if WordPress is the right technology
6. Plan your budget

Get WordPress Running

7. Open a hosting account
8. Install WordPress
9. Update WordPress
10. Check basic site settings
11. Create your first content

Understand Themes and Theme Features

12. Begin to test Themes
13. Test mobile devices and responsive Themes
14. Theme Features: Fluid-width versus Fixed width
15. Theme Features: Accessibility
16. Theme Features: Front page layout
17. Theme features: Categories and Tags

Using Media

18. Media Library
19: Insert Images into Posts and Pages
20. Insert videos into Posts and Pages

Making Links

21. Make Links to Content

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