[p2pu-dev] Tech call notes: 2013-01-17

Chris Ewald chris at p2pu.org
Sun Jan 20 22:14:57 UTC 2013


@José - There are other plans for it. Right now we're calling our current
tech the Mechanical MOOC and we are going to make, what we're tentatively
calling the MOOC Maker. The MOOC Maker is the long term goal, which is
going to have a email scheduler, sign up question configuration, etc. In
theory so that someone could learn about and set up a MOOC without touching
the code. Eventually, our current set of scripts will be phased out in
favor of this.

Flask looks really nice. The new app is going to have a medium sized db. (
storing emails which have_many scheduled_sends ). With this in mind, would
you still recommend it, or does it approach the size where django should be
used? Is there a good ORM that works nicely with Flask?

I would really like to make the frontend of this using backbone.js -
especially the email scheduler portion. Think a palette of emails that you
can drag onto a calendar. Page refreshes would be nasty for something like
this IMHO. So with that, having a restful backend definitely makes sense.

@Nadeem - I think it does make sense write this in a restful way. Although
the idea is to eventually make it self sufficient - where all configuration
is done through the MOOC Maker - we could still design it restfully. It's
going to be a while before the whole thing is done. And using a JS frontend
is at least one immediate example of where rest would be useful.





On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Nadeem Shabir <nadeem at p2pu.org> wrote:

> Hey guys
>
> Just chiming in. My understanding is that the MOOC Maker would provide an
> interface that allowed someone to enter the sort of configuration details
> the current MOOC scripts we have require; in so far as someone (a user)
> wanting to set up a mechanical mooc would not need to look at code to be
> able to do that?
>
> From that pov it certainly makes sense for the MOOC Maker to at least have
> a consistent rest based back end/api which could be implemented in
> anything; the rest based interface makes it easier for others to integrate
> the MOOC Maker processes into their own apps ( assuming we are hosting it )
> should they wish to. I think the key here ( given that it doesn't seem to
> be particularly complex ) might be to get something up and running quickly?
> perhaps sticking to python/django might be pragmatic for now? If we stick
> to a rest based interface we can always change the underlying
> implementation later if we think we would benefit from something different?
>
> cheers
> N
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 4:46 PM, Jos Flores <josmasflores at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hey guys,
>>
>> loads of goodies in the list, as usual. One question: moving the MOOC
>> maker to Django?
>> I understand that python/django is the main tech, and I understand why
>> you'd want to stay away from RoR, but I probably got this wrong, but I
>> thought that the mech mooc was more like a set of scripts than a full
>> blown site... is that correct? or are there other plans for it?
>>
>> Would it make sense to have a separate, restful back end, and a front
>> end written on top of that? Flask maybe on the back end and a
>> JavaScript MV* library in front?
>>
>> cheers,
>> José
>>
>>
>> On 18 January 2013 15:34, Dirk Uys <dirk at p2pu.org> wrote:
>> > Progress
>> >
>> > Check out http://learn.media.mit.edu - look familiar?
>> >
>> > Sysadmin
>> >
>> > removed spam from badges.p2pu.org!
>> >
>> > backed up etherpad lite database
>> >
>> > figured out where the code is for etherpad...
>> >
>> > Course UX
>> >
>> > show "fresh additions" on course listing page
>> >
>> > notifications for new users in courses
>> >
>> > MOOC
>> >
>> > MOOC blog and documentation
>> >
>> > MOOC Trello - https://trello.com/board/mooc/50f414bc44cd6ea45b006dd9
>> >
>> > CSS
>> >
>> > Setup seperate project scaffolding and variables
>> >
>> > Make the documentation page look p2pu nice
>> >
>> > lernanta CSS to be finished fo end of month
>> >
>> > Blog posts
>> >
>> > Good blog Chris
>> >
>> > Priorities
>> >
>> > Small tweaks to Mech MOOC software for Media Lab course
>> >
>> > Sysadmin
>> >
>> > moving pad.p2pu.org to same server running stats
>> >
>> > updating p2pu.org OS
>> >
>> > moving badges.p2pu.org to different server from production
>> >
>> > maybe doing it all using Chef
>> >
>> > Course UX
>> >
>> > feedback from community
>> >
>> > support for old courses to list and update on learn page (currently a 1
>> time
>> > export)
>> >
>> > CSS
>> >
>> > Course UX fixes
>> >
>> > Proposals:
>> >
>> > MOOC Maker RoR -> Django
>> >
>> > Mismatch between org tech stack and MOOC
>> >
>> > MOOC Maker will be implemeted in Django
>> >
>> > DU, CE to plan
>> >
>> > Problems
>> >
>> > DONE (removed) -- Still have this in our google groups footer:
>> >
>> > "Specific topics such as research, web development and course design are
>> > discussed in separate working groups:
>> >
>> > http://wiki.p2pu.org/mailing-lists"
>> >
>> > Process
>> >
>> > Trello still underused (is there a MOOC Maker board now?)
>> >
>> > https://trello.com/board/mooc/50f414bc44cd6ea45b006dd9 - sweet!
>> >
>> > Add a person (who takes the lead) to each Trello card
>> >
>> > this shouldn't substitute communication! (agree!)
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > p2pu-dev mailing list
>> > p2pu-dev at lists.p2pu.org
>> > http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-dev
>> >
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