MOOC CONTROLLER MEETING

01-05-2013

ATTENDEES:

AGENDA:

• Mooc controller issues
  • What we have right now
    • admin script/panel
    • wysiwyg editor for emails
    • grouping script
    • signup page?
  • What are the courses that we to build?
    • School of Data
    • Writing / Peer-review
  • High level overview - What are are our goals? How do we see this looking from a user / course creator perspective?
    • First step: We run more courses (with or without partners). We are involved in course creation. 
    • Long term: Generalize what we learn and make more user-friendly / general. If we think there is demand, turn this into a 1-click Course Creator
  • Minimum Viable Product - What's the bare-minimum feature set that we need to release it? What do put off for later? MIssing features?
    • Sign-up
      • Q: will the set of question for the user be set or customizable? (PS: I think we need some customization, each course is so different, but could do manually)
        • do we limit the type of custom questions?
    • E-mail creator
      • wysiwyg editor for emails
      • sending via mailgun
    • E-mail Scheduler
      • Assign a date for each email
      • Edit / delete dates etc.
    • (Grouping / Will do manually for now. Automation of grouping)
    • Analytics +1+1 (School of Data has been asking for this)
      • Link tracking (links that are embedded in emails)
      • Google analytics
      • Email within groups (currently it seems complicated and cumbersome to get the log data out of mailgun)
      • Use cases:
        • Proving these work
          • (Research: Testing hypotheses about online learning)-->yuppers
        • Pulling reports to prompt engagement/corrective measures
    • Publishing course content online (Archiving email content)
      • Currently: Steve copies emails that get sent out manually onto a Wordpress blog
      • logging? (logging what?)
      • Do this through post-by-email to Wordpress
    • Support for multiple rounds
    • Public schedule (could we combine this with course content? each week's email with dates)
    • Overlapping rounds of the same MOOC running at the same time
    • Documentation +1
      • Instructions for running your own MOOC
      • Instructions for doing analysis
  • Additional resources - What's missing? What or who can assist with this?
    • Wordpress blog recap?
    • Live stats?
    • Badges & integration
    • Naming groups, so they have a more cohesive identity
  • Timelines: How long will it usually take to...
    • Set up the script?
    • Put together the splash page?
• Naming: MOOC Maker (maybe better name, Chris originally used MOOC Maker)

Questions:

• Q: Will it be 1 MOOC Controller per MOOC, or 1 Mooc Controller running multiple MOOCS
  • CE: 1 MOOC Maker planned to run multiple MOOCs
  • PS: Preference to keep one instance per course for now / intermediate future (avoids problems of one code-base, smaller more nimble).
• Q: Who can create a MOOC?
  • PS: For now, I'd prefer if we are involved in all the MOOCs we host (each is an opportunity to experiment & learn)
• Q: MOOC Maker: what is it? a general platform for making MOOCs?
  • Long-term yes
  • Short-term build out platform / tools to support concrete courses *we* are working on / involved in
  • Build up experience / best practices as we go along
• Q: Would 1 MOOC Maker instance == 1 DNS?
• Q: What to do with mechanicalmooc.org?
  • mechanicalmooc as the name for the software

Deliverables:

• Web application to host individual courses (separate instance for each)
• Research / reports / blog posts about what works and what doesn't
• Guide on how to run / build / design a large online course
• (Longer-term) Platform

Next steps:

• Clean up notes / make a project plan (trello board)
• Plan for the overall software (MVP) - Content for user guide
• Plan for each MOOC (Content)
• Scheduler for Python course
• Scope School of Data mission (what's the next step?)
• Start scoping "Writing MOOC"
• Schedule technical dicussion