Learning patterns/Searching the Learning Patterns Library

Learning Pattern Library

Searching the Learning Patterns Library

problemHow can someone find patterns in the Learning Patterns Library that are relevant to his or her project?

solutionUse the category system to find relevant learning patterns

creator• Bgibbs (WMF)

created on00:48, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

If someone is planning a project, they may need to know which learning patterns are most relevant to that project.

What is the solution?

There are a few different ways to find relevant learning patterns, using the category system

1. Check for a learning pattern category name that seems most relevant to your work.

For example, if the University of Washington is considering hosting a hackathon and local organizers want to learn more about how to host the event, the organizers can now see which patterns are most relevant to them by using the category system. There are 17 patterns in the Hackathon category at the time of this blog post, including “Accommodations at meetups”, “Birds of a feather”, “Connectivity issues”, “Five tips for preparing a great conference”, and “Set up a GitHub profile for your hack-a-thons”.

2. Find a learning pattern that is relevant for your work, and then look at the categories that the learning pattern is in.

Suppose that a community member wants to use the learning pattern “Let the community know”. By looking at the bottom of the learning pattern page, they can see that this learning pattern belongs to many categories including Event patterns, Programs learning patterns, Project management learning patterns, Organizational design patterns, Communications learning patterns... and more! When our community member clicks on the category links, they can see related learning patterns that may give them additional ideas. With this new system, we are trying to make learning patterns navigable in every possible way. A great idea could lead to the next, and also, a challenge can open the door to a range of possible solutions.

3. If someone knows that multiple categories apply to a project, such as education and conferences, that person can use the category tree intersection tool to find patterns which are in both of those categories.

Here is how to use the category tree intersection tool:

1. Click on https://tools.wmflabs.org/quick-intersection/index.php
2. Set the language to Meta
3. Set the project to Wikipedia
4. Type the names of the categories that you want to use for the intersections, with one category per line. You can see a list of learning patterns categories by typing "Category:Learning patterns" (without quotes) in the search box on Meta.
5. Set the namespace to 200
6. Click "Do it!"

Things to consider

• It is possible that the information that you want doesn't yet exist in the Learning Patterns Library. You are encouraged to create new patterns and improve existing patterns!
• For guidance about existing and planned learning pattern categories, see Grants:Learning patterns/Project/Future categories.

See also

Related patterns

• Grants:Learning patterns/Learning from patterns