Enhancing Communication and Reporting Consistency in Open edX through Centralized Newsletter Sharing

Topic

Indicate which topic your proposal falls under:

Overview

This proposal aims to improve the communication and reporting processes across the Open edX community by distributing the Contributors’ Newsletter (which is currently shared on Discuss) to all Working Group Slack channels. Each working group will designate a responsible person to ensure that the newsletter is shared without fail and that relevant updates are extracted and highlighted for that specific working group.

Solution

To address the challenge of fragmented communication and lack of consistent reporting within the Open edX community, the Contributors’ Newsletter will be used as a centralized source of information. The following steps are proposed:

1. Assign a Responsible Person in Each Working Group:
   Each working group will designate someone responsible for sharing the newsletter in the group’s Slack channel after every release. This ensures timely and consistent distribution across the community.

2. Tailored Updates for Each Group:
   The designated person will extract important information relevant to their specific working group from the general newsletter and highlight key topics or updates in their Slack channel to keep members informed.

3. Consistency Across All Groups:
   To maintain consistency across all Working Groups (WGs), the responsible individuals from each working group will follow a standard process for sharing the newsletter and its highlights, allowing for seamless information flow. For example a rule would be established that any comments or discussions about the newsletter must be made directly on the newsletter post in the Discuss platform. This will prevent fragmented conversations and ensure that everyone in the community has access to a centralized discussion.

Impact

The effectiveness of this initiative will be measured by:

• Reactions in Slack: The reactions to the messages containing the newsletter in the various Slack channels will serve as a measure of reach and member engagement.

• Increase in Comments on Discuss: The number of comments on the newsletter post in Discuss will be tracked. An increase in community participation through comments on the newsletter post will indicate higher engagement and use of the centralized discussion platform.

Timeline

• Week 1: Announcement of the new process and appointment of a responsible person in each working group.

• Week 2: First distribution of the newsletter to all working groups via Slack.

• Weeks 3-4: Gather feedback and monitor engagement within the working groups to assess the initial impact.

• Month 2-3: Adjust the process based on feedback and scale it fully.