WordPress Training for Loyola Marymount Staff – June 1, 2015

A couple of years ago I received an email from the Loyola Marymount University Enrollment Office. Tonya asked me if I can train her staff for a 2 day Full Day WordPress Bootcamp.
This is the email I received:

I am writing to see if and when you have any WordPress bootcamps, as I have a team interested in beginner to advanced training.

Thanks,
Tonya Weger
Communications Manager
Enrollment Management<http://admission.lmu.edu/>

So I send Tonya a breakdown of my WordPress training and her response..

Hi Elle,

Thank you for this information. That’s great you can come to LMU/onsite. I’m not sure if we would need a lab or if a conference room with laptops and an overhead would be better, but we can figure that out… and will make sure we are set up as appropriate for the training.

I see that you offer a 2-day class with a third follow up session 1 month later. Would it be possible to do 3 days in a row or do you recommend the wait?

We do already have WP sites … we would like to also work with those? Or at least show you these so you have an idea of what we’re working with here and will need to hit the ground running with. I should note that I am proficient in digital marketing, having run websites for several years. The team will be pretty quick to learn, although we will have a beginner to two… and we’re relatively new to WP, but working in our current sites on a maintenance level. We want to learn as much as possible.

Thanks,
Tonya Weger

And after two weeks of back and forth email, I finally set up a custom WordPress training for the staff of 6 people. Below is a breakdown of the 2-Day WordPress Bootcamp..

WordPress Basics – Day 1

  • Domains & hosting ( How websites are created ? )
  • Web Terminologies ( IP address, DNS, cloud, XML, SQL, PHP )
  • WordPress Terminology ( frontend/backend, permalinks, plugins, widgets, etc. )
  • Installing WordPress using C-Panel ( through your hosting account )
  • WordPress Anatomy ( Header, Loop ( Contents ),Sidebar, Footer )
  • Creating Pages & Posts – Formatting pages ( visual versus text method )
  • WordPress Navigation Basics – Creating Pages, Categories, & Posts
  • Using the menu system versus page system – Navigation tips & visual layout
  • Improve your site’s Google ranking by using post tags, and Google Keyword
  • Page layout on pages and posts – working with graphics and text
  • The Power of Widgets – Modifying the look of your site using these amazing tools.
  • Selecting templates to create the feel and look for your website brand.
  • Mastering the features of your custom theme.
  • WordPress Plugins – Make your site dynamic with the power of Plugins.
  • The top 12 plugins must have for your WordPress site.
    Akismet , Google Analytics, Contact Form, Revolution Slider,W3 Total Cache, Akismet,etc.

WordPress Advance Workshop – Day 2

  • Methods for creating a WordPress site ( free theme, premium theme, WP/Framework-Mother Child Theme ) Pros & cons of premium themes
  • WordPress Plugins – Make your site dynamic with the power of Plugins.
  • Revolution Slider – Create amazing web presentations. A better substitute Powerpoint
  • Gravity Form – generate more enrollment leads
  • SEO Basics for WordPress – Using dates, slugs, and settings menu
  • Using Google Analytics plugin to analyze web traffic for marketing and sales strategy. Great tool for marketing people
  • HTML/CSS Basics – Manipulating the look of free & premium templates
    with this powerful tool. Changing fonts, colors, logo sizes, widgets & sidebars sizes.
  • Do’s and don’ts of WordPress CMS. Updating plugins is a good example. Adding plugins to a WordPress theme is like cooking. Its all about chemistry.
  • Dissecting a site with Firebug Tool. How to make yourself more productive with this Firefox add-on.

Here is the bio of each of LMU staff members that attended my WordPress training.

Who is attending WP training ?

Tonya Weger, Jorge Atilano, PJ Mallari, Briana Seyarto, Chad Wellinger

Tonya Weger – Communications Manager, Enrollment Management:

I am relatively new to WordPress, but do have ample CMS experience. I have worked for several years as a global digital communications director and am comfortable with software, including Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc. I am comfortable with basic HTML coding, but I am a creative director who leads teams that have designers/developers on them. My role with Enrollment Management is to supervise all communications for our divisions, including Admission. I drive content and manage our digital channels (web, social, email, print, video, etc.). It is important that I know how to advise my team in regard to our platforms, as well as to jump in and post new content and make updates as needed. I would like to know how to create a WordPress site, as well as maintain and further advance the sites that we have: Future Lions and Admission Blog. My desire through this training is to improve my personal know-how and better understand WordPress and the possibilities for the sites we have built/would like to build on this platform. I need to know what is possible and what it takes to create content so I can effectively lead my team, driving strategy for further growth. I would also like to know as much as I can about WordPress so I am knowledgeable of the platform when hiring and leading outside digital vedors on speciality projects for our division.

Jorge Atilano – Associate Director, Admission:

As a former director of Technology, I have been involved in all aspects of building and updating websites and light level programming in various languages. My exposure to WordPress has been limited and the idea is to get a better exposure as to the possibilities so that as we build, or have our WordPress presence built, we will be able to support any of the changes. My current role has me overseeing the technology that is employed by the Office of Admission and trying to leverage our web presence to better suit the needs of the office. I’m a firm believe that I should know what my employees know and therefore, with them being trained, I would like to be able to be the backup that we need when they take vacation time or for those emergencies when we need to update a site immediately and staff is out of the office.

PJ Mallari – System Analyst, Admission:

I have an inactive WordPress account back in the day when I tried to blog my feelings, but that was an utter failure… lol. I don’t have feelings… jk. The most recent thing I’ve developed on WordPress was for my aunt back in 2011. The url was called http://lilfrankiesgoodies.com/. It was nothing special, but it got the message across for her little on the side home business. In the other spectrum, I have basic html coding knowledge, SQL coding (Oracle and Microsoft), and very proficient in Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Publisher, etc.) and in developing basic functions and macros within them. I also created some sites using Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Again, nothing too fancy. My responsibilities in the office deals with heavy data quality management through various databases, marketing emails, and deal with various technical aspects in every day process/production.

Briana Seyarto, Admission Counselor:

When it comes to wordpress design, I’m a blank slate! I have had no formal training in HTML, WordPress, or any other digital content management tools outside of hands-on learning within this job. What I have learned as been from onsite experience primarily in this position; which primarily is maintenance within our framework. I have done some very minor work in HTML when formatting issues arise. Outside of this work, my other primary responsibilities include travel and recruitment of prospective students to LMU, relationship building and working with high school counselors, managing correspondence that we receive from interested students and families, admission file review, and meeting with families who visit our campus. So, my primary goals in web development would relate to assisting to build out any future content that we would like to create within our current sites, as well as possibly having some more exposure to the creative process of creating new pages within WordPress.

Chad Wellinger, Communications Assistant, Enrollment Management:

I am primarily responsible for the creation of web content and updating the Admissions and Student blog. WordPress is an entirely foreign application to me; likewise, I’ve had no formal training in HTML. For the most part, I write the copy and email it over to our Communications Director, Tonya, who then posts it to the web. It would be beneficial if I could learn how to post my own work, as well as manage the blogs. Additionally, I think it would be of great use to the EM team and to myself if I knew how to build and build-out web pages.

After the 2 day WordPress crash course, I got a lot of thank you notes from the staff thanking me for opening their eyes to the power of WordPress. Now Tonya and her staff will not have to wait several hours or a day to get a response from the developer. Now each one of the staff members can easily login to the WordPress site and be able to maintain the updates as well as add and remove new content. I was a big money saver and more importantly a time saver for the LMU enrollment staff.

Tonya sent me this email

Thank you, Elle! We look forward to working in the updated site and exploring our newfound WP knowledge.

Enjoy your weekend, as well!
Tonya Weger
Communications Manager