[p2pu-dev] [p2pu-community] Embed Test Course

Sat Mar 12 22:41:48 UTC 2011

Hi Zuzel + Dan

It seems that if we can garner some of the existing energy we may be able to
make some modifications to drupal as they come. Forming a volunteer task
force would be awesome. I would be happy to be the person to transfers bug
complaints/feature requests into lighthouse/tracker if others are willing to
volunteer their time to work on them (i.e. people in addition to Charles and
Zuzel).

ALISON
p2pu.org/users/alison

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 3:49 PM, zuzel.vp <zuzel.vp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Most of the comments at
> http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/14275/forums/27277 are not directly
> related to the technology used to support the course. However, in the
> case of the comments about being difficult to follow all the course's
> blogs, I would recommend the use of a planet
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_%28software%29) or any other web
> feed aggregator.
>
> Even if we are moving to a new platform, a considerable number of
> courses will be running of the drupal site for the next round. That's
> why improvements to p2pu-drupal (https://github.com/p2pu/p2pu-drupal)
> are very welcome, but in order to accomplish this we need people that
> can make the necessary changes to the drupal site, and develop these
> changes to a state that can be used in production. Note that even a 5
> minute change has the potential to require follow-up modifications (as
> it happened with allowing iframes).
>
> Unfortunately, I don't know all the history of P2PU to be able to
> answer Dan's concern (which he also expressed during this week
> community call) about the decision of developing a new platform for
> P2PU vs. making further customizations to the drupal site. The only
> point I can make is that we can/will develop the new platform based on
> past experiences accumulated by the community (which I'm eager to
> hear) and any new feedback you provide from now on
> (http://p2pu.lighthouseapp.com/projects/71002-lernanta).
>
> --
> Thanks,
>    Zuzel
>
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 3:38 PM, Alison Jean Cole
> <alisonjean.cole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Dan,
> >
> > The quotes from http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/14275/forums/27277 are a
> > direct reflection on how the organizer chose to design and execute the
> > course. A system of distributed blogs is not the only prescription from
> > course design advice. Organizers are free to experiment with design
> however
> > they like.
> >
> > Also, agree that the drupal platform is lacking the qualities of an LMS,
> but
> > we tried very hard not to design the drupal platform like common LMS' for
> > widely discussed reasons. Perhaps you can organize a group of volunteers
> > with a deep comprehension of drupal and we can work together to increase
> the
> > usability of the platform for April.
> >
> > ALISON
> > p2pu.org/users/alison
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 10:46 PM, Dan Diebolt <dandiebolt at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> I created a new course entitled "Embed Test Course" to demonstrate some
> >> embedding techniques that are now available.
> >> This is a sample of the things you can now do with the <iframe> allowed
> in
> >> page content:
> >> http://p2pu.org/webcraft/embed-test-course
> >> The page may appear a little slow to  load because of the number of
> >> components I put on it and the formatting and sizing not quite right
>  but it
> >> should give you an idea of what now can be done.
> >> This has been a very painful process for me getting to this point but I
> >> think it should greatly help add some bling and sizzle to the course
> pages
> >> and help aggregate content to the P2PU platform even though that content
> >> resides outside P2PU.
> >> I also have to be honest with you. I find some of the decisions P2PU has
> >> made to date be utterly bizarre. There is a lot of pain points in
> >> administering courses which appear to just be ignored on the belief that
> the
> >> new platform will just magically solve them. Personally I think the new
> >> platform is just as likely to create its own set of new problems when
> >> deployed if there is not better testing and requirements analysis.
> >> If you read the forum post Parag Shah has created:
> >> http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/14275/forums/27277
> >> it is abundantly clear that users complain about the same things I have
> >> been trying to raise, namely (1) that there is extremely poor support in
> the
> >> P2PU platform to run a course; (2) the use of external resources makes
> it
> >> very difficult to find content and course communications in a central
> point
> >> (3) there has to be a mechanism for reporting and aggregation of course
> >> member work product (assignments, blogs postings, videos, code samples,
> >> narratives):
> >>
> >> badge process needs to be somehow integrated within the course.
> >> too many blogs to try to keep track of (one for each student, one for
> >> Javascript 101, one for p2pu, etc.)
> >> I found it very hard to figure out what postings were in which blog.
> >> I know that in online college classes there is exactly one place to post
> >> things, and I've had far less trouble communicating in online college
> >> classes than I've had during this course.
> >> I would consider having the entire syllabus posted at the beginning of
> the
> >> course so that if folks get done with one week early they can start on
> the
> >> next week's assignments without having to wait.
> >> It's very confusing to me to even figure out where someone is posting
> >> something, let alone go searching for people's posts in order to look at
> >> them
> >> Posting a question and having it go unanswered leaves me stuck and
> >> demotivates me.
> >> My point is, if we're all busy writing our own blogs, we're not spending
> >> much/any time reading/discussing eachother's answers.
> >> I'd do away with the two track system
> >> I would have to agree with some of the other comments that it was a bit
> >> confusing with the large number of blogs (as dysert says "one for each
> >> student, one for Javascript 101, one for p2pu, etc.").
> >> I gradually became discouraged because once you didn't get a concept, it
> >> seemed impossible to move on.
> >> I would have a central resource that explains all the terminology and
> >> programming lingo
> >> Too many blogs/forums/discussion areas.
> >> I would've preferred receiving some kind of dashboard that, at a glance,
> >> helped orient me as to where I was in the discussion. e.g. # of messages
> by
> >> day, most active threads/topics, most active posters (excepting the
> mods)
> >> more centralized place for posting comments and exercise solutions.
> >>
> >> Despite this consistent sentiment the surviving users still remain
> upbeat
> >> as learning something is better than nothing and a fraction of course
> roster
> >> will endure the pain points. But the result is that we loose a lot of
> >> participants during a course as they  have a lower pain threshold.
> >> I don't accept the idea that work on the Drupal platform should be
> limited
> >> to bug fixes as I five minute change now now allows for external content
> can
> >> be aggregated into a course page. However, because of the same origin
> policy
> >> embedded content still can't be associated with a specific user as there
> is
> >> no way to read a P2PU cookie or pass a user identity to the embedded
> >> content.
> >>
> >> --
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> >> Community" group. Please stick to the ground rules:
> >> http://groups.google.com/group/p2pu-community/web/ground-rules
> >>
> >> Specific topics such as research, web development and course design are
> >> discussed in separate working groups:
> >> http://wiki.p2pu.org/mailing-lists
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "P2PU
> Community"
> > group. Please stick to the ground rules:
> > http://groups.google.com/group/p2pu-community/web/ground-rules
> >
> > Specific topics such as research, web development and course design are
> > discussed in separate working groups:
> > http://wiki.p2pu.org/mailing-lists
> >
>
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