How about displaying links to rudimentary Learn WordPress tutorials and videos on the dashboard?

[olein]

Recently, a lot of Learn WordPress content has also been gathered from Training Teams and other sources.

However, I feel that the information is not yet well known enough to reach the users who could make use of it (as I feel when I organize local WordPress Meetups).

As an idea, the nearest event information is currently posted on the admin page, but why not provide the same information and links to help new WordPress users understand how to use the site editor and block themes?

Also, if you can provide tutorial videos of Learn WordPress for beginners available in the same language as the language setting, or information about online Learn WordPress Meetup events, etc. by language, it would be more supportive for new users of WordPress. I thought it would be a good way to support users who are new to WordPress.

[costdev]

Thanks for opening this ticket @olein! I think this is a great idea!

57785.diff is an early example of how a dashboard widget could be added for this, with the screenshot showing how this would look.

This initial patch would need iteration:

• It uses the News and Events footer class.
• It doesn't cover the user's language.
• It likely needs discussion on what's included in the list, etc.

I'd invite other contributors to join in with the iteration with thoughts/ideas/patches.

Additional props to @afragen and @pbiron who rubber-ducked with me on implementation options for the early example.

[olein]

@costdev Thank you your building early example with @afragen and @pbiron !

That example looks so nice!

In addition, it might be nice to have a link to a beginner-specific tutorial. (e.g., ​https://learn.wordpress.org/courses/ ).

This is because existing users know how to find out for themselves, but new users often do not.

So, in order to reassure them and take them on a journey of WordPress, it would be good to have a traffic line to the beginner's tutorial.

Anyway, thanks for all your activities.

[costdev]

@olein ​This tutorial could be put at the top, between Learn WordPress and Latest courses from Learn WordPress, for example, so that it's always available for beginners. What do you think?

[olein]

@costdev That idea is perfect!

This idea will definitely help many novice users to understand how to operate, etc.

I am very impressed with the speed at which you are turning your ideas into reality.

I have one question. Is it technically possible to link to the tutorial page in the language in which the tutorial was translated?

[courane01]

@andreamiddleton and I discussed integration with the WP Dashboard some years ago. ​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1599166005324100

At this time, all language content is hosted within LearnWP (no Rosetta sites like HelpHub uses).

Noting we might want to link to content much shorter than courses. ​https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorials would be my preference here for short form get started type things.

It'd be great to envision all 4 content types (Tutorial videos, Lesson Plans, Courses, and Online Workshops) for use in a dashboard widget. I have the unique RSS types for each.

[costdev]

Agreed @courane01 on having the different types available - maybe in a tabbed interface.

[courane01]

Replying to costdev:

Agreed @courane01 on having the different types available - maybe in a tabbed interface.

That would be a great approach. Possibly merge Online Workshops with the Events near me widget though? They are all on Meetup, but the LearnWP meetup group is located in San Francisco technically, but only ever meets on Zoom & Meetup. ​https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/

Then keep the remaining 3 as tabs in their own LearnWP widget in dashboard possibly.

[olein]

@courane01 @costdev Tabbed interface is would be nice.

The advice from the Learn Team on what Learn tutorials to link to will be very important.

Also, the number of Learn Tutorials currently offered by different languages still varies.

If there is no tutorial available in the language you have set up in WordPress, you may need to display an English tutorial.

Anyway, I would like to reduce the number of people who give up using WordPress after installing WordPress and logging in for the first time, because they get lost in the operation methods (administration screen, block editor, site editor).

[costdev]

@courane01 It seems that the Learn WordPress meetups are already included when searching for Online, US.

The API returned these events:

How to Confidently Migrate from a Classic Theme to a Block Theme, February 22 2023 08:00
Online: WordPress Help Desk, February 22 2023 09:00
Hand-Coding Custom Themes using ACF Blocks and Twig Templates, February 22 2023 10:00
A Deep Dive into WordPress Loops, February 22 2023 12:00
How to Confidently Migrate from a Classic Theme to a Block Theme, February 22 2023 02:00
Entrepreneur Fireside Chat and Networking Event with Vagish Vela, February 22 2023 05:30
100x the Power of Your Website With Integration And Automation, February 22 2023 05:30
Greenfield WordPress Meetup - The Gutenberg Editor & More, February 22 2023 06:00
Let's Learn About WordPress!, February 22 2023 06:00
All Levels - WordPress Security, February 22 2023 07:00

​See the unprettified API result.

However, the widget only shows future events. I took a look at ​the Learn WordPress Online Workshops page and saw that there are future workshops. I'm not 100% sure why those don't show in the API result, but I'm assuming the Events API isn't picking up some of the meetings post type? You might need to check with the Meta team about this.

Regarding having three tabs:

• Tutorials, Courses and Lesson Plans tabs, with the footer links remaining as sort-of "View All"-like links, sounds good to me.
• While this could employ JS for switching tabs, I'm inclined to pursue a CSS-only solution so that it works just fine for users with JS disabled too. Pending design for this, see ​a not-so-beautiful example of how CSS-only tabs could work.

[courane01]

Looks like the events area may get sorted on its own thanks to ​https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/02/27/proposal-modify-the-events-and-news-widget-to-show-topic-based-meetups-worldwide/.

I'll draft a post in Training team this week to help the team weigh in on what would be important to show in a dashboard widget. RSS is one option, but a sequential order of content that helps users get a jump start could be more valuable.

[olein]

@courane01 @costdev Thank you for your great initiative.

I have been organizing small WordPress Meetups every month in rural areas of Japan, and I often hear from users who have started using WordPress, especially after WordPress 5.9 was released and the standard theme became a block theme, that they are having trouble.

I believe that there are probably many people in the world who have this kind of trouble. We created this ticket to follow up such people.

I'll be happy if we can help them to enjoy WordPress more.

Thank you again for your activities.

[oglekler]

@courane01 and @costdev do we have clear understanding about this ticket? I believe that courses and online events are a bit different, and it is possible that Learn deserve a separate widget. But I'm also proposing to add close button to most widgets (Site Health excluded): #58638

Screen options need to be reworked because right now they sort of blend into the edge and are not visible, but this is also a different ticket for a longer time to solve.

I wonder if we can raise this question on the Dev chat to get more attention.

[costdev]

@oglekler I think we're still waiting on feedback from the Training team about what could appear in a standalone Learn WordPress dashboard widget.

@courane01 Have you had time to discuss this with the team?

[Joen]

One of the challenges we have with WordPress is that there is a lot of overhead to the UI, especially the dashboard. By adding another dashboard widget, we are effectively increasing the visual overhead to getting started, so even the presence there means there are more features, links, and text to parse. Have other options than a dashboard widget been considered? For example, adding links to the Help dropdown, or as https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/58820 suggests, to the About dropdown?

[alh0319]

I have proposed a change to the Events and News widget that will help increase visibility for Learn's online meetups. That may help people become more aware of Learn. You can see it at #61585.