[development] Proposal: Drupal University

[James Benstead]

After a brief discussion on the docs list this has now moved to g.d.o at
http://groups.drupal.org/node/42236. One way the project could work is for
hardcore Drupal developers to do a little consulting on the course
syllabuses for their area(s) of expertise. If this is something that might
be of interest to you, please join the g.d.o discussion. Thanks!

2009/12/28 James Benstead <james.benstead at gmail.com>

> I want there to be a set of free courses that people can work through to
> learn about Drupal. Initially, at least, these "courses" would be a
> reorganisation of existing material, kind of like the Drupal Cookbook.
>
> I suppose the skill/experience element here is going to be working out what
> the syllabus needs to be for each course. The courses can then point at
> existing documentation, whether that's text or videos or whatever. If there
> are gaps, we can write new documentation - so organising things in this way
> also helps us work out what documentation we need.
>
> I've posted to the Documentation list at
> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/documentation - I guess that's
> the best place to continue this discussion. Would be great if you could
> help.
>
> 2009/12/28 marcia wilbur <marcia.k.wilbur at gmail.com>
>
> I'm not sure which direction you are heading with this.
>>
>> Are you possibly considering video elements with the course design or text
>> based courses?
>>
>> If you are talking about simply reorganizing, then it is just a matter of
>> management of information, correct?
>> If you are considering creating courseware or WBTs based on existing
>> documentation that could take a little more time and talent.
>> Either way, sounds like a good idea. I could help.
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 8:39 AM, James Benstead <james.benstead at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for the comments.
>>>
>>> Drupal Dojo is great, when it's running - but it does seem to me that it
>>> lacks a little organisation. What I am suggesting doesn't necessarily need
>>> to be new documentation, per se, but instead *the organisation of
>>> existing documentation under a useful structure*.
>>>
>>> Perhaps calling it Drupal University is a bit misleading as I don't
>>> forsee there being any formal assessment or accreditation, but there would
>>> be structured courses to work through. For example, "Drupal 101: Beginning
>>> Drupal" which could teach complete newbies how to set up a core installation
>>> on a local or remote server; or "Drupal 201: Basic Theming" which could
>>> explain how .tpl.php files worked and how CSS works in Drupal.
>>>
>>> The Packt books are great, but they are short and sweet and they don't
>>> offer an overall structure. Pro Drupal Development is superb and offers a
>>> great structure, but it has its limitations: in short, *it's a book*.
>>> First off, you have to buy it, for real money. I have no problem with people
>>> making money out of open source software (especially when their work is as
>>> brilliant as in the case of PDD), but I do think there should be a free,
>>> "open source" alternative. If for no other reason, the cover price of PDD is
>>> huge for developers in 2nd or 3rd world countries (i.e., the majority of the
>>> population of the planet) and they should have an alternative. Secondly, you
>>> can't interact with a book: having a structured set of web resources would
>>> mean people could comment on and discuss the resources, kind of like
>>> students do on a real university campus.
>>>
>>> I suppose the resource that gets closest to what I'm thinking is the
>>> Drupal Cookbook - this could be Drupal 101. It fits my proposal because it
>>> doesn't provide new documentation, but just organises what's already out
>>> there. But more importantly, it answers the question, "I am at stage X in
>>> learning Drupal, what should I do next?". Granted, it answers the simplest
>>> version of this question, and for more advanced developers the answer well
>>> may be multi-faceted - "if you want to specialise in X, go and learn Y" -
>>> but it does crystallise what I'm proposing.
>>>
>>> Again, anyone got any more thoughts on this?
>>>  --
>>> Google Talk/Windows Live Messenger/AIM: james.benstead at gmail.com
>>> Yahoo! Messenger/Twitter/IRC (Freenode): jim0203
>>> Jabber: jim0203 at jabber.org // ICQ: 7088050
>>> Skype: jimbenstead
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2009/12/28 Yani <akayani at aapt.net.au>
>>>
>>> http://www.drupalbook.com/
>>>>
>>>> That looks like a good one. I'll make that my first D7 book.
>>>>
>>>> Yani
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: development-bounces at drupal.org [mailto:
>>>> development-bounces at drupal.org]
>>>>  On Behalf Of Andrew Schulman
>>>> Sent: Monday, 28 December 2009 7:37 PM
>>>> To: development at drupal.org
>>>>  Subject: Re: [development] Proposal: Drupal University
>>>>
>>>> > Shell out some cash on books by Matt Butcher / Packit Publishing.
>>>>
>>>> The Packit books are fine as far as they go, but are usually short and
>>>> basic.
>>>> For a detailed look at Drupal's big picture, I highly recommend Pro
>>>> Drupal
>>>> Development, 2nd ed. by John VanDyk.  2nd ed. is for D6, but I see that
>>>> a
>>>> 3rd
>>>> edition for D7 is due out in April.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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