[p2pu-dev] Notes from an AMAZING community call

Thu Nov 29 23:09:40 UTC 2012

What a great all-hands call.
A million thanks to all those who joined us - we built some great things.

Notes below, and as always, the full transcript, as well as the chat can be
found on the etherpad: http://pad.p2pu.org/p/community-20121129

*P2PU Community Call - All Hands*
*29 November 201**2*

*Attendees:*

   - Vanessa

   - Leah

   - Alan

   - Bekka

   - Philipp

   - Dirk

   - Jane

   - Chris

*Quick 4Ps and an I report back from staff (written)*

   - Progress

   - DML Quarterly Report

   - Assessment Manifesto

   - All hands delight

   - we have draft courses on beta! (this makes me insanely happy) [BK]

   - Finance stuff getting sorted [BK]

   - List of draft courses: http://beta.p2pu.org/en/groups/list/drafts/

   - Cat helmets

   - Priorities

   - UX features for assessment

   - MOOC grouping [CE]

   - Connecting with VMG - we never talk anymore! [BK]

   - Google OER conference in SFO!!

   - Eating Pork Loin in NY!! That's RIGHT

   - Problems

   - Process

   - Vanessa is 1000% happier in NYC

   - What can we do to make communication more visual / fun?

   - We are making a few good changes to open up dev processes / increasing
   transparency. Working on documenting our dev process:
   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ECoA4Ah-AvVGiFoik62bwvb1ow5xO2AdcgKtBbcuRwQ/edit

   - Engagement around community call & activities

   - Feel like our outreach & communication is falling a bit flat?

   - Solutions: HTML invitations, photos in our signatures, limmerick
   summaries

   - Perhaps we actually need to communicate less? No

   - P felt more open on the listserv a year ago, feels he needs to be more
   polished now. Is that a problem?

   - Jane: sounding polished is not the issue - P2PU is seen as an
   experimental space generally -

   - We could do with more notice on stuff, planning in advance is a better
   way to get more people

   - Vanessa: an HTML invite via Mailchimp to the community call would be
   great - more personality

   - We need sketches from Ali

   - Alan: Video updates? more G+ Hangouts on Air?  More explicit project
   discusions?

   - The size of the group might be what makes it harder to communicate -
   if we create subgroups it might make things feel more intimate

   - VMG: I think its about humanizing the listserv--show that there are
   *people* there (and on community call)

   - Video updates +1

   - Vanessa asked me to share: http://imgur.com/3QtYO - from a course she
   made a while ago

   - YES YES YES

   - Leah: We all have a lot of things competing for our time, and P2PU
   needs to be there in front of all the other offerings, and differentiate
   itself as another community

   - Looking at how things are done in other communities can be useful -
   staying in front of their face in as many ways possible is critical -

   - Evernote used to do a podcast as well as having other communication
   methods

   - POsition courses so that they can be things that people can really use
   them to help profesisonal growth would be very helpful - testimonials etc.

*School of Open Badges stuff...*

   -
   http://leahmacvie.com/2012/11/the-school-of-open-badges-aka-the-evolution-of-open-badges-101/

   - Moving forward with School of Open Badges on P2PU. See post above for
   full curriculum. (Leah)

   - Next week: Will update Open Badges 101 (
   https://p2pu.org/en/groups/the-world-of-open-badges/ ) and work on
   'lesson plans' for Open Badges 102 and 201. (Leah)

   - Call for feedback b/c it gives us great info like.... terminology
   differences: "learner/earner" (Leah)

*Agenda for all hands: *

   - We work, for an hour, together, on something. This week, we're
   building courses.

*COURSE CREATION 101*
Welcome! We're here to accomplish the following goals:

   1. Answer any questions about creating courses on P2PU

   1. Test the new UX which is in beta: http://beta.p2pu.org/en/

Let's start with this bit on Slideshare to get started:
http://www.slideshare.net/VanessaGennarelli/p2pu-course-creation-101

*Howdy! My Name is:*

   - Vanessa

   - Alan

   - Philipp

   - Jane

   - Dirk

   - Bekka

   - Leah

   - Chris

*My Dream P2PU Course is Called: *

   - How to Make a Stellar Playlist

   - I Love (Making?) Fonts - +1
   http://beta.p2pu.org/en/courses/18/i-love-making-fonts/

   - Business Models for Rural Entrepreneurs (
   http://beta.p2pu.org/en/courses/21/business-models-for-rural-entrepreneurs/)

   - Badge Design?

   - Copyright 4 Educators (channeling Delia)

   - Blend with me - http://beta.p2pu.org/en/courses/2/blend-with-me/

   - Read Philosophy Without Falling Asleep (
   http://beta.p2pu.org/en/courses/10/an-old-school-philosophy-reading-group/)

   - Music Theory - http://beta.p2pu.org/en/courses/19/music-theory/

*I Have Questions About *Course Design:*

   - How do I create interesting activities?

   - Alan: I'm playing around with two theories I have right now... 1)
   starting a course with no content and just a good topic and the right group
   of people and inviting them to create, old-school MOOC style, This would
   be an 'organic' style course that is driven by the participants, correct? 2)
   to help attract and gel groups easier, considering trying out some themes
   that target very specific groups of people (e.g. maybe instead of "business
   models for social entrepreneurs" I get as specific as "business models for
   student social entrepreneurs in small southern appalachian college towns"?)

   - P: My question is similar (but different). I think you have to do some
   groundwork. Otherwise it's too easy to get stuck in meta-land.

   - VMG: Create spaces to build out / fill

   - What I've done with the Badges course is ask for feedback and credit
   the updates/feedback? Perhaps that's an idea. Can P2PU build in a space for
   feedback? I guess that's a discussion forum, right?

   - Piet: I'm trying this by adding buttons for people to create their own
   challenges -- the workflow is screwy though:
   https://p2pu.org/en/groups/dscribe-peer-produced-open-educational-resources/content/learn-the-basics/

   - +1 also, people like to have a bit of guidance - even if it's just a
   very loose framework within which to orient themselves - like a reading
   list which is open-ended

   - P: I don't know much about fonts or making fonts, so creating the
   course is really me learning about it (and I'd rather do that with other
   people). Once I've learned it, I am less interested in facilitating a
   course. Thoughts?

   - Jane: Is there a list of tools suggested for use for holding
   facilitated courses? eg. as a new course organizer i create something on
   beta.p2pu.org. when i start running that course - what tools do you
   recommend i use to organize logistics, weekly meetings, hold weekly
   meetings, etc.? eg. where is the toolkit for course creators?

   - You can possible embed a google calendar(or other) in the about page.

   - P: Slide 3 is the killer slide:

   - What is an *interesting* project for learners to work on?

   - What are ways to make learners *work together*?

   - How do I get them to *give feedback to each other*? (yes need concrete
   examples please! for all the above)

   - The description summary disappears once I add it in beta. Where did it
   go? eg. http://beta.p2pu.org/en/courses/20/copyright-4-educators/ Do I
   have to re-add it in the about tab? If so, probably a glitch that needs to
   be fixed..

   - The description summary is what shows up when you go to the course
   index page http://beta.p2pu.org/en/groups/list/drafts/ - gotcha. just
   found the desc edit box in settings. looks like this is limited to like 140
   characters -- so most desc's don't show up in full

   - I'll have to check that the limit for the listing and the limit for
   the creation matches up, nice catch!

   - The about page is an oportunity for you to put info up on your course
   landing page.

   - Leah: Self-paced ~vs~ groups with weekly schedule?

   - Depends on the group (e.g. undergrads versus adults with jobs)

   - Alan: perhaps under "People" we could introduce "Groups" that can
   create schedules for themselves?  Know we're just rolling this out, but
   just an idea...

   - Leah: Embed Google Calendar?+1+1 (we had static calndars on the
   old-old site, they weren't amazing but something that synchs would be great)

   - Course model suggestions doc:
   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cq2o2fLCymrAaE0_3zNH-w4WQiOWjC8NQBRqn3OvqQM/edit

   - I like to think about it as Skills-->Projects-->Feedback--I think
   that's a really good way to ground/organize a course

   - Is there a way to change the title? eg. I need to change "Copyright 4
   Educators" to "Copyright 4 Educators (US)"

   - You can update the title under the "Settings" tab. awesome, thanks

   - How are tags different from hashtags? why both and not one?

   - This is indeed confusing. Hashtags are used in the email notification
   headers.

   - When you click to add people in the people tab, members don't show up
   as suggested when you start typing. is this just b/c there aren't that many
   beta users? (eg. this happens on current platform, would be nice to have
   this functionality carried over)

   - This is still in the TODO list :)

   - The html formatting in the box for bullets and #'s is a little wonky..
   gotta select each bit of text individually to make a bullet and then when
   you press enter it doesn't automatically turn into a new bullet or #. Also
   can't add indents for letters, eg. (a) - I've also had problems with
   that.

   - Also the > blockquote thing didn't survive another round of editing,
   it was replaced by the html code &xyz or whatever it is

   - Line breaks aren't automatic in the html box. <br/> doesn't work
   either.. Although maybe this is only true if you use the #'s or bullet
   functionality. eg. see no spacing between #1 and par before:
   http://beta.p2pu.org/en/courses/20/content/62/

   - The new beta doesn't have task navigation at the bottom of the section
   -- eg. when I'm done with something there's nothing to click. Is the only
   task navigation in the left?

*I Have Questions About *Badges*:*

   - How do I get my badge implemented?

   - What if I need design help?: What kind of design help? VMG is always
   around to help with course design :) vanessa at p2pu.org designing badges
   help

   - Can you say a bit more about that? Do you envision designer-resources?
   Or a how-to design a decent-looking badge? How to design a
   decent-looking badge, which I imagine would require graphic designing... if
   I'm not a graphic designer, what do I do?

   - Ali, Chloe and Vanessa worked on a massive amount of guidance for
   creating decent looking badges in the courses on p2pu.org - can we
   repurpose that? Yes, that would be great to make available for amateurs
   in a distilled form.

   - Neither Ali nor VMG are graphic designers--I think it's part of the
   charm, myself. Sure - I think this is good for individual creators. But
   esp if an org wants to sponsor a course, they will need some guidance and
   want to make sure things are polished, vetted. I know P2pU is working with
   Mozilla to make sure open badges is all compatible. Maybe one of the
   resources can be MOzilla? eg. go there for help?

   - I think there's been some back and forth about badge design for
   orgs--check with P?

   - I know there is the badgemaker challenge, but is there a guide or
   HOWTO for how to map skills to your course?

   - Can you say what you mean by that? I would advise starting a course
   with the skills you plan for learners to acquire, as opposed to mapping,
   which is a bit counter/backwards - I see. so start with the Make a
   Course guidelines and you should already have the skills you want to make
   badges out of? Exactly :)

*I Have Questions About the P2PU *Platform*:*

   - How can I save my work to return to it later?

   - Will my new  user account on beta.p2pu.org be carried over to the live
   site, like  the course on beta.p2pu.org will? If not, how will my
   current p2pu  account become the organizer of the beta course once it is
   carried over?

   - If your beta account uses the same email address you will be made the
   organizer again, if not, then we'll do it manually.

   - If people build in current p2pu ux right now and plan to run that
   course in march 2013, will that content be transferred over to new UX?

*I Have Other Questions About Courses on P2PU:*

   - How do I promote my course?

   - Tweet or Google+. Facebook like coming soon.

   - And presumably we can still promote rounds in the old way? (a more
   manual approch)

   - Yes, we should keep on doing that

   - Can I get promoted to school admin on the beta site to play with SoSI
   interface?

   - will do  done

*I Have Other Questions About Profiles on P2PU:*

   - Please, please help me differentiate the courses I developed from the
   courses I'm enrolled in. Can we have different sections when I go to my
   profile? This is a feature I'm working on in the assessment plan, Leah :)

   - BUG - My profile shows 0 courses, even though I've marked the one I'm
   developing as "published" - if I toggle between published and draft, it
   still says 0 courses

   - Does the course show in the list? Yup, but not sure if that's visible
   just to me, or to everyone else as well. Everyone. The list on the front
   page, you mean?  ?? You should see all the courses I'm busy with at
   http://beta.p2pu.org/en/dirk/ including any drafts. Totally. Just making
   sure we're talking about the same lists. Which we are.  All good.

*Misc Questions/Bugs/Confusions*

   - Alan: nothing comes up with I click or hover on the help question
marks--there
   will be content there, promise :)

   - P: I've added a course image, but doesn't show up in Course List page
   (after refresh)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.p2pu.org/pipermail/p2pu-dev/attachments/20121129/21c928c6/attachment-0001.html>