Net Traveller: CPUG

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Greetings from the Canberra Python Users Group (CPUG) meeting in the famous Room N101 in the Australian National University's Computer Science and Information Technology Building, in Canberra. I gave a short talk on "MOOCS with Books". This was followed by Fei Zhangon on "Python at Geoscience Australia", who use Python for the Australian Tsunami Warning System (ATWS).

I will be giving a short talk on "MOOCS with Books" at the Canberra Python Users Group (CPUG), 7pm tonight, 4 April 2013 . The meeting is free and is in the famous Room N101 in the Australian National University's Computer Science and Information Technology Building, North Road, Canberra. As this is a short talk it will be more like my "MOOCs with Books at BarCamp Canberra", than the extended scholarly version I have planned as "MOOCs with Books in Colombo: Syncronisation of Large Scale Asynchronous e-Learning.

Massive: 100,000 students or more. Australia's large university has less than 50,000 students.
Open: No scholastic or financial barrier to enrollment. Materials may also be open educational resources.
On-line: Materials delivered and students interact via the Internet.
Course: Similar in size to an Australian university subject of about a 12 week semester one quarter full time student load (a US course). But does not provide a credential on completion.

Massive: Systems and software need to scale to deliver materials, provide automated student support and ways for students to interact.
Open: Wider range of students will need more help. Ways for students to find their group needed.
On-line: Ways to support students who have limited and intermittent Internet access are required.
Course: Will need to integrate with conventional university programs or create a whole new on-line university system. Ways to credential students on-line required.

Books: Course content provided in a down-loadable standalone structured module (textbook), using existing e-Book formats (web, Moodle Book Module, EPUB, IMS Content Package).
Formative Feedback: Short tests can be used to aid learning by student.
Groups: Students can be formed into groups for mutual support, on-line and off-line.

On-line courses tend to present material in small chunks which the designer decided
A book provides a carefully structured set of materials for the course, which can be used off-line.

Massive: Develop plug-ins and upgrades for free open source systems, such as Moodle and Mahara, to allow the to handle millions of students.
Open: Develop software which uses existing e-learning and e-book standards (web, Moodle Book Module, EPUB, IMS Content Package, SCORM Package).
On-line: Develop off-line support for e-learning, using mobile devices.
Course: Develop software which supports an integrated program, course module development process, not just delivery of isolated courses, so students get an education which meets community standards.

Thursday, April 04, 2013