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Welcome to the Monthly Education Buzz Report, your go-to source for highlights and updates on the WordPress Campus Connect, WordPress Credits, and WordPress Student Club education initiatives within the WordPress community. This report aims to celebrate, promote, and inform individuals across the WordPress community and beyond about the diverse educational endeavors underway.
WordPress Campus Connect
September was the busiest month WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) has had so far. WordCamp Central lists 13 Campus Connect events held during the month across India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Costa Rica, and Spain, plus the multi-week Surat and Ajmer series. Campus Connect now makes up 64 of the 138 community events on the 2026 calendar, more than any other format, according to the Community Events dashboard.
77
Completed Events
140
Participating Institutions
7800+
Students Reached
From campus to the WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. stage
WordPress Campus Connect Beenova opened on September 12 in Cartago, Costa Rica, with 52 students aged 17 to 24 from the Empléate program run by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security for young people in vulnerable conditions. Students heard talks from Sammy Arburola and Gianko, painted their own Wapuu, and created their WordPress accounts before the day ended. Sponsor HHC Academies covered the day and, with it, WordCamp tickets and transport for the whole cohort. Organizers were Sebastián Zúñiga, Sammy Arburola, and Gianko, supported by volunteer mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. Johazz, Gerardo Venegas, Juan Prendas, and Francisco Leiton.
A week later, WordCamp Costa Rica (September 18–19) sold out at 368 attendees, and at least 100 of them were Campus Connect students from Beenova and UCR Esparza. Stefanía Venegas, who placed second in the UCR Esparza project showcase in August, was one of the main speakers with “Your WordPress site is already generating data: learn how to read it.” @lornamurillo published the full recap of WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza, an event organized entirely by five female students from the University of Costa Rica.
Three events in one month in Gujarat
@chean200891 organized his first WPCC at OM Education Campus, Junagadh (September 7–8), the first WordPress event ever held in that city, where more than 90 students built their first websites. He followed it with Adani University, Ahmedabad (September 19), with 80+ students and seven faculty members, and Gyanmanjari Innovative University, Bhavnagar (September 28), which drew 150+ students and 15+ faculty and made the local newspaper.
Surat finished its first series, and the college asked for more
Organized across three colleges as three chapters, Aarambh at SSASIT (August 29), Udaan at VNSGU (September 12), and Pragati at TDEC (September 26), WPCC Surat 2026 closed with 470+ registrations and 300+ students attending, together with 20 to 25 faculty members who received certificates. The college has since asked for a dedicated faculty training session. Lead organizer Sajid Ansari worked with co-leads Alkesh Miyani, Priyanka Sida, Hardik Kukadiya, and Amitkumar Dudhat, with @webtechpooja as Event SupporterEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues..
A Coruña: one program leading into the next
At the Universidad de A Coruña (September 30), teachers Carlos Longarela and Ana Cirujano guided students through building their first site, and a former attendee of the Liceo La Paz Campus Connect returned to share her journey from WPCC into WordPress Credits. Liceo La Paz hosts a repeat Campus Connect on November 30.
Campus Connects held in September
Kolhapur, India: @makarand hosted 103 students at D.Y. Patil Agricultural and Technical University, Talasande, across two labs, with new facilitators Snehal Kashid and Ghansham Sutar teaching for the first time.
Ajmer, India:WordPress Campus Connect Ajmer 2026 kicked off on September 12th, bringing WordPress education to 241 students across three colleges in September. The workshops were held at RK Patni College, Government Mahila Engineering College (GWECA), and Star Infotech College.
WordPress Campus Connect – D.Y. Patil Agricultural and Technical University, TalasandeWordPress campus Connect – Star infotech collegeWordPress Campus Connect Banyumas 2026 (Vocational School)WordPress Campus Connect – Sukkur IBA UniversityWordPress campus Connect – Star infotech collegeWordPress Campus Connect – Adani University, AhmedabadWordPress Campus Connect – Gyanmanjari Innovative University, BhavnagarWordPress Campus Connect-St. Philomena College, PutturWordPress Connect at Government Mahila Engineering College (GWECA)WordPress Campus Connect – OM Education Campus, JunagadhWordPress Campus Connect BeenovaWordPress Campus Connect – VNSGU SuratWordCamp Costa Rica was buzzing with at least 100 students from Campus Connect Beenova and UCR EsparzaWordPress Campus Connect – RK Patni
Program updates
@piyopiyofox published Keeping WordPress Campus Connect true to its purpose, asking organizers to build events around what students do: create a WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ account, build a first site, make a first contribution. The handbook was updated to match.
She also proposed a WordCamp Education Sponsor Fund for Flagships, one fund to bring WPCC and WP Credits students to flagship WordCamps, piloting at WordCamp Asia 2027 with eight students.
@desrosj proposed identifying WPCC and WP Credits participants on WordPress.org profiles, including each participant’s mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues., so experienced contributors can spot and support newcomers.
September was the biggest intake month yet for WordPress Credits. As of the October 1 monthly snapshot, the program counts 45 partner institutions, 363 graduates (up 13 since mid-September), 522 WordPress sites created (up 28), and 459 first contributions made. The live dashboard shows 924 students joined to date across 17 countries, contributing to 15 WordPress teams, with an 88% graduation rate and 87% of graduates recommending the program.
New cohorts and partners
The #wpcredits channel filled with introductions all month, led by a large new cohort at Universidad Fidélitas in Costa Rica and joined by students from Italy, Bolivia, Spain, Bangladesh, and CUNY City Tech. Two firsts stand out: Colegio Universitario de Cartago started its first cohort with about 20 Big Data students, and high school students from Liceo Experimental Bilingüe José Figueres Ferrer are translating WordPress.org MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. into Costa Rican Spanish. Rowan University in the United States moved to the agreement stage, mapping Credits hours onto academic credit, with a first cohort planned for spring 2027, and UIN Banten became the second Indonesian institution to sign a Credits agreement.
From student to mentor
Atikur Rahman, who graduated from WP Credits earlier this year and leads the student club at Ahmad’s Education in Dhaka, is now a WP Credits mentor, supporting the 17-student cohort that started on September 21. New mentors also joined from Serbia, Romania, Spain, and Costa Rica. Program admin Rita Robles Loaiza won first place at the 18th Latin American Women in Computing Conference with a paper on WP Credits.
WordPress Credits Foundations, built by @celigaroe, replaces the original 150-hour course and is the first with autograding, so students earn their certificate the moment they finish instead of waiting for a manual review.
@piyopiyofox published The WordPress Facilitator Training Program, Five Months In, tracing the first complete outcome chain: @devmuhib’s online faculty workshop in Bangladesh led to a full WP Credits program at Ahmad’s Education, five graduates, and one graduate now leading the school’s student club and mentoring the next cohort. @webtechpooja conducted an in-person faculty workshop at Texas International College in Nepal, where 11 faculty members took part in a hands-on session with help from @regankhadgi. @webtechpooja is now program lead, and two courses are open to anyone who wants to teach WordPress: Leading WordPress Education Programs and AI Literacy through WordPress.
WordPress Student Clubs
@devmuhib published Proposal: Rethinking how Student Clubs actually run, the first full definition of a club’s lifecycle from application to offboarding, with a readiness checklist for institutions, a mentor for the first 60 days, an eight-indicator health score, and three paths for graduating club leaders. A baseline audit of all recognized clubs starts in October.
Other Happenings
The AI-Powered WordPress course is live on Learn WordPress: four modules, about nine hours, including a developer module.
WordPress Education offers three practical ways for learners to develop skills, gain practical experience, and build confidence as open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. contributors.
WordPress Credits is a program of the WordPress FoundationWordPress FoundationThe WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and it connects students at partner institutions with real contribution work on the WordPress project. We began with eight partner institutions, and in our first year we have worked across 17 countries and reached over 900 students. If you want to watch it happen, the WP Credits dashboard refreshes weekly from our program records and WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profiles.
That growth is the reason for this post. The program has reached the point where curriculum, translation, tooling, and the work of bringing new institutions on board all need steady funding behind them, and our current sponsorship setup was never designed for that. So we’re piloting new ways to support the program and the students, from in-kind mentorship through to funding an entire program. This is a test for 2027: we’ll run it, publish what we learn, and adjust or retire what doesn’t work.
Thank you to the sponsors who got us here
Weglot and Automattic have supported this program since it was an idea on a page, sponsoring the people who have designed, built, and worked to ensure the program improves and adapts to the needs of students and the community. Along with WPBakery, Hostinger, DreamHost, Hosting.com, Raiola Networks, Cloud86, Smarthost, Villa Sostaga, Elementor, miniOrange, and Novamira, they have also sponsored mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. who guide students, and contributed products that students use throughout the program. Mentors sponsored through Five for the Future have done the daily work of guiding students, cohort after cohort. None of the numbers above would exist without them, and the tiers below are built on what they made possible.
The tiers
Our community is vibrant and evolving, and we love stepping into new territory: trying, adjusting, and learning from what works and what doesn’t. That’s what has allowed a community more than 20 years old to evolve, overcome a global pandemic, and thrive. Starting in 2027, we’ll pilot the following tiers and refine them as we learn. These tiers cover WordPress Credits, and WordPress Campus Connect events stay separate from them.
Friend
Supporter
Backer
Champion
Partner
Annual
In-kind (5ftF)
$5,000
$10,000
$15,000
$30,000+
Name on the partner page
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Mention in the mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. feature
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Acknowledged in the sponsor thank you post
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Logo and description on the partner page
✓
✓
✓
✓
Badge for your own site
✓
✓
✓
✓
Annual program report
✓
✓
✓
✓
Named for what you fund in program communications
✓
✓
✓
Report covering that cost line
✓
✓
✓
A self-written educational post about the sponsored product*
✓
✓
✓
An additional self-written sponsor post with factual, value-neutral information about additional products*
✓
✓
Invitation to the annual education partners session
✓
✓
Co-hosted webinar or event
✓
✓
Named as program partner on the program you fund
✓
Named in launch communications
✓
Program-specific report
✓
*Sponsor posts are drafted by the company and published on wordpresseducation.org once the education team has reviewed them, so that everything we publish stays useful to students first.
Expand this section to read the list of the tiers instead of a table
Friend, in-kind through Five for the Future. For companies sponsoring mentors through Five for the Future. Company name on the partner page at wordpresseducation.org, a mention in the mentor feature, and acknowledgement in the sponsor thank you post.
Supporter, $5,000 a year. Everything above, plus logo and description on the partner page, a badge for your own site, and the annual program report.
Backer, $10,000 a year. Everything above, plus being named for the specific part of the program you fund, a report covering that cost line, and a self-written educational post about the sponsored product on wordpresseducation.org.
Champion, $15,000 a year. Everything above, plus an additional self-written post with factual, value-neutral information about additional products, an invitation to our annual education partners session, and a webinar or event co-hosted with the education program.
Partner, from $30,000 a year. Everything above, plus funding a named program end to end, with the exclusive program partner role, a mention in launch communications, and a report specific to that program.
Products donated for student use
Separately from the tiers, sponsors at any level may offer free access to their products for students to use in the program, and the Foundation decides how those are shared. Donated products are offered at no cost to students, require no card details to use, and come with a way for students to export or move their work so nobody is locked in.
Donations may be tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, less the value of any benefits received, and we will note that value in your acknowledgment letter. Donated products and services are not tax deductible. Please check with your own tax advisor.
What the Partner tier makes possible
This is the tier we most want people to look at. A Partner sponsorship funds a complete, named program, the kind we haven’t been able to build yet because we’ve always had to work within what we could afford, which means we can build programs around real needs rather than available budgets. That could be students translating WordPress into languages with thin coverage, students working on accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), or students building sites for nonprofit organizations that could not otherwise commission them, and those are only the first ideas we came up with, so there is plenty of room for others. If you see a need in the ecosystem that students could help meet, we would rather shape the program with you than hand you a list to choose from.
A Partner sponsor is named as program partner on the program they fund, holds the exclusive role within that program, is named in launch communications, and receives a report specific to that program.
Choosing a tier
A program managerProgram ManagerProgram Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. is reaching out to every current sponsor over the coming days to talk through which tier fits, and to make sure nobody ends up in a tier that asks more of them than they intended. If you sponsor the program today, you will hear from us directly, so there is nothing you need to do.
We are glad to talk it through first if that is easier. You can find us in the #wpcredits channel in the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/, or send us an email at education@wordpressfoundation.org, and we’re always happy to answer questions before you commit.
Most WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) events in Indonesia are organized by universities and schools that are new to WordPress and to the Community Program. To keep payments simple for them, we’ve set up a local payment arrangement is being shared here for transparency.
Why a local approach
Events in Indonesia can’t use CampTix, and international wire transfers are a poor fit for small local vendor payments.
Until now, events have relied on the Lead Organizer’s bank account or local sponsorships
New organizers shouldn’t have to front costs from their own pockets or take on that financial overhead for a first event.
The payment process
WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program. (WPCSWordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program.) funds are graciously being held locally by @devinmaeztri, a Indonesian WPCC event mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues., who pays vendors in IDR on behalf of each event.
The organizer sends the mentor the vendor’s invoice and payment details.
The mentor pays the vendor.
The organizer submits a Vendor Payment request which is verified and marked as Payment Sent with a note that it was paid locally
The mentor records each payment in spreadsheet with the date, event, item, payee, and status. WPCS has access to the ledger for tracking purposes.
Use filtered views instead of search: MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. is working to get the search fast and effective. Until then, use the filtered views we’ve created, or you can also try searching within a tag.
Documentation is updated: We’ve updated text and screenshots that referred to Help Scout, but if you see anything we’ve missed, please update or flag it.
You can use old Help Scout links to find conversations in FreeScout.
Finding & Using the Conversation ID:
Grab the conversation ID from the old link. It’s at the end of the URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, or just before ?viewId if one exists.
Paste it at the end of this URL: https://freescout.wordpress.net/search?q=%23
For example:
Old link:https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/3483220102/1139127?viewId=abc ID: 1139127 New link:https://freescout.wordpress.net/search?q=%231139127
That loads the conversation in FreeScout with its new URL, so you can update the old reference.
Questions?
If you have questions about using FreeScout for Community team work, ask in the #community-team channel on SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
Hola, and hello. Welcome to your monthly roundup of practical ideas, community updates, and results from organizers around the WordPress community.
Worth celebrating
WordPress Youth Day Nicaragua, Managua
WordPress Youth Day Nicaragua. Kids and teenagers in Managua spent Saturday, October 10 building websites and online stores at the third WordPress Youth Day Nicaragua, in hands-on workshops split by age from 9 to 18.
The organizers’ recap counts 113 participants: 62 of them at their first official WordPress event, and 52 of them girls.
WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Guatemala. Organizers planned for 150 people on October 10 and welcomed 162, with 20 speakers across two tracks and about 30 organizers and volunteers.
WordCamp Costa Rica. The September 18 and 19 event sold out at 368 attendees, and at least 100 of them came from Campus Connect UCR Esparza and Campus Connect BeeNova. The second-place student from the UCR Esparza showcase featured in last month’s issue was one of the speakers, with a talk on reading the data your WordPress site already collects.
What happens when the workshop becomes a challenge
WordPress Campus Connect, Stamford University Bangladesh
Campus Connect organizers in Dhaka noticed that students already line up for hackathons and programming contests, so they tried one at Stamford University Bangladesh: two days of online hackathon, then a day of seminar and workshop. Around 180 people registered, about 100 of them for the hackathon, across three tracks for beginners, designers, and developers. The result was 40 websites and 82 new WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profiles.
The write-up is honest about what did not work. About half of the registered students never took part in the hackathon, and some beginners stopped when they got stuck with nobody online to help. The organizers are now weighing a sequence of a Learn WordPress course, then a workshop, then the hackathon, and they are asking for ideas in the comments.
It lines up with new guidance for Campus Connect: build each event around something students actually do, such as creating a WordPress.org account, building a first site, or making a first contribution, rather than a day of talks. The Event Formats & Standards handbook page has been updated to match, so check it as you plan.
And when students build something, give them a stage. Making space for the next generation of WordPress builders describes students presenting their sites at WordCamp Europe 2026, and a sponsorship tier that brought WordPress Credits graduates to the event as volunteers and contributors.
Three formats to borrow this month
A one-hour contribution session. WP LATAM ran its first online mini contribution session on September 30: 20 photos submitted to the Photo Directory, 10 strings translated, and one video subtitled, with 80% of attendees contributing in those areas for the first time. A draft guide for mini contributor sessions covers 30 and 60 minute versions, and its authors want organizers to try it and report back.
Bring a pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.. When storms cut transport links across Chiba Prefecture, the Chiba WordPress Meetup moved its September 27 meeting online and asked everyone to introduce one favorite plugin. Two people the organizer had met at other meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. gave lightning talks on plugins they are building, and several attendees showed plugins of their own. It works online or in a room, and it needs almost no preparation.
WordPress Campus Connect, OM Education Campus, Junagadh
The September WordPress Ahmedabad Meetup drew more than 80 people, and one of its organizers spent the same month taking WordPress to three campuses. Campus Connect at OM Education Campus, Junagadh on September 7 and 8 was the first WordPress community event in Junagadh, and more than 90 students built their first website on day two. Adani University, Ahmedabad followed on September 19 with more than 80 students, then Gyanmanjari Innovative University, Bhavnagar on September 28 with more than 150 students, more than 15 faculty members, and coverage in the local newspaper. For an established group, the pattern is worth copying: lend the people and habits you already have to a nearby city that has never had a WordPress event.
Also worth knowing
Meetup groups are moving to events.wordpress.org
An update on community groups explains the move off Meetup.com for roughly 700 groups. Members will join the new groups themselves with a WordPress.org account, so start asking your members to create one now. Groups willing to run real events on the new platform as a pilot can say so in the comments, especially groups outside Europe and North America and groups that don’t meet in English.
Who can organize a meetup event?
A Tokyo co-organizer asked a fair question after three handbook pages seemed to disagree. The answer they got: any community member can run an event without being a co-organizer, but should coordinate with the group’s co-organizers, who confirm the person is trustworthy and following the Five Good Faith Rules. The post proposes writing that down in one place. Add your view in the comments.
Instead of leaving a dead countdown and a ticket button, turn it into a closing page: photos with credits, talks with slides and WordPress.tv links, recaps, and a clear invitation to join your local group. WordCamp Costa Rica 2026 is doing it now, so you can watch theirs change.
Organizing in the US or Canada?
Events in the US and Canada: the plan through 2027 lays out three stages, starting with getting meetups back on track, and offers a menu of event types rather than a mandate. It is worth reading in full if you organize there.
A profile marker for Campus Connect participants?
A proposal suggests marking Campus Connect and WordPress Credits participants on their WordPress.org profiles, along with their mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. or facilitator, so experienced contributors know who to welcome and support. Comments are open.
By the numbers
368
attendees filled a sold-out WordCamp Costa Rica, at least 100 of them from Campus Connect.
Local meetups run in far more places than this. Everything, everywhere, is on events.wordpress.org.
Open calls for speakers:
Worth passing to your group. Someone who has never spoken before is usually one nudge away from it, and a first talk at a nearby WordCamp is how a lot of organizers started.
Have you tried a contribution activity at your meetup, even a small one? Tell us what people finished and what got in the way, so the next organizer can plan around it.
Send your recaps and photos and your group goes in Meetups of the Month. Every group that shares one is included, so ask your group’s permission and send it. Group of the Month is for a story another organizer can learn from, and you can put any group forward including your own.
Did we miss your event? Possibly, and we would rather know. Send your recap in #community-events or #campusconnect for the next issue, which publishes Friday, November 13.
Tell us what you want to read here too. If there is a section missing, a format you want explained, or a question you wish someone would answer, say so and we will build it into the next issue.
Each issue opens with a greeting from a language spoken where one of the featured groups is based. This month it is Spanish, for the organizers in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica featured above. If you would like your language to open an issue, tell us.
Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community.
Over the past few months, we have been visiting universities in Dhaka, Bangladesh and speaking with students about WordPress, technology, their interests, and activities.
We’ve noticed hackathons, programming challenges, robotics competitions, cybersecurity competitions, and similar activities are already popular in many universities. There was a clear excitement around the idea of competing, building something, and proving what you can do.
In most of the campus connect events, we generally try to conduct workshops. But there is one issue we experience with the traditional workshop model:
Students often learn because we are asking them to learn!
What Changes When Learning Becomes a Competition?
A competition creates a different environment. Students have a problem to solve. They have to search for information, read documentation, experiment with different approaches, and build something themselves.
That is why we wanted to test whether a hackathon-based approach could be a better way to introduce WordPress to university students. Recently, we tried this at Stamford University Bangladesh as part of our Campus Connect program.
The experience gave us both positive and negative findings. More importantly, it raised several questions that we think are worth discussing with the community.
What We Tried
Our Campus Connect program followed a three-day format:
2 days of online hackathon
1 day of WPCC Seminar and Workshop
Approximately 180 registered, among 100 student registered for hackathon
40 websites created (We are working to publish website lists on the event website soon)
82 WordPress profiles created
We designed three different hackathon tracks so that students with different skill levels could participate.
This track was specifically designed for students who had little or no previous WordPress experience. Participants were asked to research WordPress online, learn about its purpose and use cases, answer related questions, and build a basic website.
The goal wasn’t to make them WordPress experts. The goal was to answer a simpler question:
Can a student who doesn’t know WordPress learn enough independently to understand what WordPress is and what it can do?
This was the most popular track, with around 20 participants.
The developer track had only two participants. They were asked to create basic WordPress plugins. Both had experience with other technology stacks but had never created WordPress plugins before.
AI tools were allowed. The requirement was simply to create something functional.
One participant created a related-posts pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party., while another created a counter plugin.
Although participation was low, this track demonstrated something interesting: developers familiar with other technologies can potentially use AI, documentation, and experimentation to quickly start exploring WordPress development.
What we’ve learned?
Our first experiment wasn’t perfect, but several things worked better than we expected.
Students Are Willing to Learn When There Is a Challenge
One of the strongest arguments for this format is self-directed learning. When a student is given a problem instead of a lecture, the learning process becomes more active.
They have to search.
They have to experiment.
They have to make decisions.
They have to solve problems.
This is very different from simply following a workshop instructor.
Anyone Can Participate
The Discover WordPress track gave us another positive signal. We often assume that students need to know something before they can participate in a technical competition. But a well-designed beginner track can give students an opportunity to learn while competing.
However, the challenge needs to be designed specifically for beginners. Giving a complete beginner an advanced WordPress development task will probably discourage rather than motivate them.
Competition Creates Motivation
Students already seem to have a strong interest in competitive activities. Instead of asking:
“Would you like to learn WordPress?”
We can potentially ask:
“Can you solve this challenge using WordPress?”
The second question creates a very different motivation. Students aren’t only learning technology. They are trying to accomplish something. That competitive element can make learning more engaging.
Drawbacks of the hackathon format
Although we received a large number of registrations, approximately 50% of registered students did not participate in the hackathon. This raises an important question, Why?
Based on what we observed, difficulty may be one factor. Some students started the challenge, answered several questions, and then stopped. For a student who doesn’t know WordPress, even a relatively simple task can become intimidating if they don’t know where to start. And in an online hackathon, there is another problem:
Support isn’t always immediately available.
If a student gets stuck and there is nobody available to explain the next step, quitting can become easier than continuing.
Should Beginners Be Put Directly Into a Hackathon?
This is probably the biggest question we are currently debating. Imagine a student who has never used WordPress. We tell them:
“Here is a hackathon. Build something.”
Is that really a fair starting point? Maybe!
But perhaps there is a better approach. Instead of:
Workshop → Go home
or
Hackathon → Figure everything out yourself
We could try:
Participate on Learn WordPress Courses → Workshop → Hackathon
For example, we could first run a short workshop introducing WordPress. Then give students a small challenge that they can complete within an hour. But again, this is something we need to test rather than assume.
Judging Is Another Major Challenge
A mixed-skill hackathon makes judging more challenging because beginners, designers, developers, and experienced WordPress users bring different strengths. Creating separate tracks can help address these differences, but it also makes the judging process more complex.
Multi-track vs one challenge for all?
Should we introduce multiple tracks, such as WordPress Security, eCommerce, Development, and Design, to allow participants to focus on their areas of interest? Or would it be better to create a single challenge that covers different aspects of WordPress?
Multiple tracks could encourage participants to explore their strengths and specialize in specific areas, while a single challenge could provide a more unified experience and make evaluation easier.
Which approach would work best for engaging university students with different skill levels and interests? I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on the advantages and challenges of both approaches.
What We Think So Far
Based on this first experiment, we’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on how hackathons and workshops can complement each other in WordPress Campus Connect. What role should each format play in engaging university students and helping them learn WordPress?
So perhaps the best approach isn’t Workshop vs Hackathon.
It may be:
Workshop + Challenge + Hackathon
The workshop provides the foundation. The small challenge builds confidence. The hackathon creates the opportunity to apply that knowledge independently. This is our current thinking, but we don’t consider it a proven model yet.
Where We Want to Go From Here
We are interested in taking this format to more universities in Bangladesh. But we don’t want to simply copy the same event and run it again. We want to improve the model first. What positive and negative do you see on this approach? Can you suggest some improvement or share new ideas that we can try?
We Want Your Opinion
This is where we would really like feedback from the WordPress community. We are not presenting this as a finished or proven model. This was our first attempt.
How can we design a hackathon where a student who knows nothing about WordPress can participate, learn something meaningful, and finish the event feeling more confident than when they started?
We would love to hear both positive and negative feedback.
If you’ve organized hackathons, workshops, university programs, WordPress events, or similar competitions, we’d especially like to hear what worked for you—and what you would do differently.