[p2pu-dev] Notes from this week's community call

Rebecca Kahn bekka at p2pu.org
Thu Aug 9 16:23:25 UTC 2012


This week's call was great - thank you to everyone who joined in.

We had some great conversations:

Luka came in to talk to us about the research into OERs, class and cultural
capital that she's been doing using P2PU as one of her sample sites, and
it's fascinating - if you haven't been following what Luka has been up to,
you should check out the notes below.

Mad props also go to Vanessa, who has been representing P2PU all over the
internets - have a look and see what she's been working on in terms of user
testing and her ninja-level webinar skills.

As always, all the notes and chat transcript can be found on the etherpad:
http://pad.p2pu.org/p/community-20120809
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*Community Call 9 August 2012*


*Standups **What have you been up to? Short **written** notes (we'll
discuss only if there are questions)*


   - Bekka


   - Last bits of Berlin recon


   - Beginning to think about rounds


   - Getting the feel fo the admin side of the site (trying not to break
   anything)


   - Email, talking to organisers


   - Vanessa


   - User testing of course creation


   - User interviews


   - Q: Do you have any interviews with course organizers that abandoned
   their courses? (I haven't abandoned totally.. but sort of. I'm
   perpetually working on one.. in my head)


   - I can maybe help with users.


   - Usertesting.com Screencasts <- love these!


   - User 1: https://www.usertesting.com/videos/42K77HnmZFA%3d


   - User 2: https://www.usertesting.com/videos/hS5QE8b0WtA%3d


   - User 3: https://www.usertesting.com/videos/H%2b1aF%2bmmBtc%3d


   - Usertestng research on the course signup/ creation flow is being done
   because there are questions about collapsing courses and challenges
   together - that's the short-term goal. Longterm goal is to create a process
   that makes it feel like you're already in the course (based on feedback
   from users)


   - VMG created a protocol which allows newcomers to create a course, so
   we can see where people get stuck, what they like/don't like.


   - Will follow this up with interviews with many different kinds of
   organisers


   - These will all be put into a big and lovely report (see below)


   - Report and design plan will be along Monday afternoon


   - Dirk -> one thing that would be really interesting would be to see why
   people come to the platform, create a course and then disappear. Do they
   just run out of steam? Maybe with a survey or interview we can find out why
   they didn't carry through (see discussion on the mailing list)


   - VMG: It would be good to track that now, especially since we have the
   "DRAFT" status, and it would be good to see how many of these are people
   who created test courses


   - Webinar for Connected Educator Month


   - Luka was there!


   - Luka -> I was lurking more than following along... But it seemed like
   a bit of a hater-fest: people just wanted to talk about what was wrong with
   badges, and it was very hard for people who wanted to talk about what the
   context and the reasoning behind badges.


   - VMG-> The design that we're working on for the assessment programme
   answers a lot of the motivation problems - P2PU has the solution! It's
   coming!


   - I had wanted to talk more about other issues - see VMG blog post:
   http://info.p2pu.org/2012/08/09/reflections-on-badges-peril-or-possibility/


   - Criticism is good (there shoul be a badge for that!)


   - Also working closely with Mozilla people on this -> it was interesting
   in the call, becuase Mozilla have invested in badge issuers, as well as
   producing bdges of their own, so they are taking a neutral position.


   - Jane -> wondering for when we create our own badges for school of open
   if we should go ahead with creating our own?


   - VMG: I would luuuurve to work on these with School of Open, awesome,
   current badge brainstorm at http://pad.p2pu.org/p/school-of-open-badges


   - Event planning for SoundCloud + P2PU event @MIT


   - Mechanical MOOC copy things: http://mechanicalmooc.org/


   - When is this launching, when should groups be made?


   - Beginning to think about research agenda & DML


   - Assessment plan testing with community members


   - VMG <3 Dirk +1


   - Philipp (away)


   - Dirk


   - Release (IT IS SPECTACULAR!)
   http://info.p2pu.org/2012/08/08/lernanta-release-2012-08-08/


   - API (interested ot see if people use it and see what they request)


   - Draft course indicator


   - Notification format (waiting to see if people complain about this
   breaking their email filtering)


   - etc


   - Conversion tracking


   - "Draft status" got appreciation in the Twitterverse -saw- thanks
   https://twitter.com/mozzadrella/status/233242127952384000


   - Jane -> Process question: if we have a feature request, how do we get
   the request to Dirk?


   - Dirk -> There are several options - if it's a small thing, send an
   email to Dirk or the Help desk. If it requires discussion, sending it to
   the community list is the best way, especially if it is going to have an
   impact on other people.


   - Depending on the size of the job, I might do it quickly, but better to
   get it into the project pipeline to be discussed in the dev call.


   - Chris


   - Jane


   -  (mad props from VMG to Jane -> the school of open blog posts have
   generated a shitload of traffic!) - thanks Jane!


   - School of Open follow-up:
   http://info.p2pu.org/2012/08/07/berlin-is-over-school-of-open-is-not/


   - Open Policy Institute and School of Open Meeting planning + logistics,
   draft agenda: http://pad.p2pu.org/p/school_of_open_workshop


   - Progress report to Brinn-Wocjicki Foundation (they are funding School
   of Open!)


   - Hacking a Schools logo for landing page, thanks to CC's Elliott (new
   CM), here's 2 versions - which one do you like better? Can you help us
   improve?


   - http://info.p2pu.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/schoolofopen-eh.png


   - http://info.p2pu.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/schoolofopen-eh2.png


   - Green is part of the CC colour scheme, green is for go, Jane to put
   the 2 options up for a vote.


   - Current badge brainstorm (led by Chloe at Berlin workshop, yay!):
   http://pad.p2pu.org/p/school-of-open-badges


   - Add your name (optional)


*News of the week **Written** notes on what's going on in our world (bring
up special announcements on the call)*


   - Blog posts you wrote


   -
   http://info.p2pu.org/2012/08/09/reflections-on-badges-peril-or-possibility/
(takeaways
   from a badge-rich week)


   - http://info.p2pu.org/2012/08/08/lernanta-release-2012-08-08/


   - http://disfunksioneel.blogspot.com/2012/08/pi-in-box.html <- non p2pu
   related :)


   - Articles you read


   - Anya Kamenetz's Coursera article for Fast Company:
   http://www.fastcompany.com/3000042/how-coursera-free-online-education-service-will-school-us-all


   - Ongoing: I've been working my way through The Art of Community Online (
   http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/) by Jono Bacon


   - Initiatives you heard about


   - http://www.wikipediaredefined.com/


   - http://yearofopensource.net/



*Key updates*  *Super short updates about P2PU*


   - New courses to check out / help out  (Bekka)


   -
   https://p2pu.org/en/groups/the-role-of-the-arts-in-cultivating-citizenry/
(this
   is from usertesting :( )


   - https://p2pu.org/en/groups/the-stack/


   - Development priorities (Dirk)


   - Platform direction


   - CSS framework


   - Been a while since we've heard from Chris (Chris, where are you?) but
   this will be the next big thing


   - Mechanical MOOC


   - VMG and Dirk to talk about mechanical MOOC details (when to send
   emails etc)


   - Unified course


   - Dirk to communicate some of the discussions we had in Berlin - pull
   the essentials out of the discussions and see how to talk about them, and
   then strat working on them


   - Metrics


   - State of the mustard (Philipp)



*Agenda **Core of the call. Focused on four types of conversations (invited
guests, challenges you need help with, proposals you want feedback on,
ideas you need collaborators for). *


   - Luka - question for the group: Do you think open education is open to
   everyone?


   - Background on the question -> Luka is a Sociologist, researching
   online education, interviewing people from P2PU, Skillshare, Code Academy,
   etc


   - Asking about networks, experiences, what they're learning and why


   - Questions about access are the focus


   - Dirk: I think there is a technology/infrastructure barier to entry


   - Vanessa: language barrier, cultural barrier--but I think we strive to
   be for everyone. I've heard that who usually does it are overachievers who
   know the material anyway :(


   - Bekka: I agree with Dirk - we're not providing anything for people who
   cannot get online. BUT this is not just a developing/developed world issue:
   many people are "digital natives (ugh, hate that phrase) but don't trust
   online education becuase it's free.


   - Jane: I think there is a communication problem -- people don't know
   about it! or what it is. (CC issued this competition to attempt to resolve
   this, fyi: http://whyopenedmatters.org/)


   - It's also jargony. Wtf is OER? Who cares? Why call it OER?+1


   - Luka -> spent a good 6 months "going native" learning the jargon,
   getting a sense of what things mean, and the learning curve is steep, but
   there is good stuff there


   - Luka -> people I am looking at thend to be 18-34 in the US


   - Have been looking a lot at the idea of Cultural Capital and what this
   means


   - In the US, people who are 1st generation college students (lower
   cultural capital) tend to defer to professors, less likely to question
   authority etc.


   - With this in mind, how does the student who doesn't come from an
   educationally priveledged background interact with the online platform and
   content?


   - reflections, preliminary findings from research


   - Seems as though people who "do well" in the online space are those who
   are better at curating their content - they get the followers on Twitter,
   their blog posts get picked up, etc.


   - related: http://www.shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html


   - Bekka -> So are we just reinforcing elites?


   - Luka -> I think that this will happen no matter what, but it can't
   stop us from doing this stuff anyway (becuase there is so much good stuff
   coming out of the open education movement)


   - blog on 21st century skills sans 20th century inequality:
   http://blog.demolesson.com/how-you-teach-21st-century-skills-without-reproducing-20th-century-inequality/


   - People come to the higher education world and think of it as a
   "classless community" but this is not always the case.


   - OER can make a difference here


   - VMG -> Luka and I have discussed the idea that open education can
   cultivate/reinforce self-actualization, and nurture shy people, and make
   people feel comfortable in a  learning community


   - Luka -> One interviewee comes from a culture where people tend not to
   put themselves out there, but doing online courses has helped him/her feel
   more confident/


   - Move from consuming to producing----VERY IMPORTANT, how can we flip
   folks from consuming to producing? maybe think about it as two sides of
   the same coin that doesn't necessarily require a flip? eg. in School of
   Open brainstorming, we realized dthat using was in same bucket as remixing,
   oh sure but I would say remixing is producing :) see we thought it was
   that originally, but creating came in its own bucket. maybe just
   encouraging this type of thinking -- like when you share something on the
   web that you read, it's definitely part of reusing/remixing... see badges
   brainstorm! we can talk later


   - Cool--something that's important to project-based learning is that
   learners aren't just consumers of media (ie ipad, play games) but makers of
   media--writers, artists, make games


   - Online ed is about the feeling of having someing to "offer" and it's
   important to make people feel like they have something to offer - the
   expereince of evaluating people's work can be something that builds a
   connection - that's where the actualisation takes place.


   - Open ed has the potential to let anyone in on this experience.


   - VMG -> within project based learning this move from consuming to
   producing is really important, and it's key for us to help people feel like
   they are contributing, in many different ways.



   - Next cycle of rounds - 17 October



*General discussion and questions*


   - Anything else that just needs to be said out loud
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