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[Idea]: Help students personalize their WordPress.org profile in "Share your WordPress profile" #230
Description
Before you send
- I searched the open issues and nobody has reported this yet.
- I removed passwords, full email addresses and other people's personal details from this report.
Who are you in the program?
Mentor
Which part?
The program itself
What problem would this solve?
The lesson "Share your WordPress profile" only asks students for the minimum: a display name and a Gravatar. Students finish it with a profile that shows their name and photo but says nothing about who they are.
Their profile is often the first thing a mentor or another contributor sees when they click a student's name. Introducing themselves there could help students feel part of the community from the first week, not only while they're completing lessons.
Your idea
Add a short step before "Submit your work": Tell the community who you are.
- Students look at one or two real contributor profiles, each written in a different style.
- They write a 2–4 sentence bio and fill in the other fields they're comfortable sharing: location, work or school, website, and a linked GitHub account.
- One reflection question: "What did you learn about that person beyond their name and photo? What do you want people to learn from yours?"
We can also mention the Credits Graduate badge as something students can aim for: "One day this badge will appear on your profile."
Example profiles to choose from:
| Style | Profile | What students see |
|---|---|---|
| One line | Birgit Pauli-Haack | A single sentence can be enough |
| Personal story | Jos Velasco | How they got into WordPress. Has a Credits Mentor badge |
| Goals | Milana Cap | A bio can be about what you plan to do |
| Educator | Courtney Robertson | A detailed story from a Training Team faculty member |
| Recent graduate | To be chosen from Student Stories, with permission | Someone who was in their place a few months ago |
To decide:
- Should we add this step?
- Which one or two profiles should we use? Pairing a short style with a story style works well.
- Who can ask a recent graduate for permission to use their profile?
Who else would it help?
- Students: their WordPress.org profile is public and keeps a record of their contributions, so a complete profile works as a portfolio. It helps with their personal branding when they apply for jobs or internships, or go looking for clients.
- Mentors and the program team: it's much easier to identify students when they have a Gravatar and a real bio, in Slack, GitHub, the Report Cards and the dashboards. Right now many students show up as a default avatar and a username.
- The program team: profiles are also where we follow graduates' activity (Post-graduation activity: track whether graduates keep contributing to WordPress #137).
Screenshots or a screen recording
No response
Anything else
Related:
- WP Credits general course - adaptation to the new Education Platform #210 and WP Credits 50h course - modification + adaptation to the new Education Platform #211: the courses are being adapted to the new Education Platform. Adding this step to the new version would be a good fit.
- Show examples of real contributions in onboarding deck to help new contributors feel less overwhelmed #96: real contribution examples in the onboarding deck, which is the same idea applied to the deck.
- Graduate Retention Program: Build a post-graduation pathway for WordPress Credits students #195: the graduate retention program. Building a community identity early supports it.
Activity