CommunityLearning

Ubuntu Open Week - UFBT - Ubuntu Community Learning Project - cprofitt - Mon, Apr 27th, 2009

UTC -4

(07:03:28 PM) cprofitt: alright... lets begin...
(07:03:34 PM) cprofitt: Welcome everyone. I am Charles Profitt and the current lead of the Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team Education Focus Group. I am here today to shed some light on a new project just in the seedling phase.
(07:03:41 PM) cprofitt: the LP page is at - https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-learning
(07:04:29 PM) cprofitt: We would like to eventually build a site comparable to - http://tinyurl.com/dm6y8p - with people being able to come to the site for free 'courses' that help them learn how to use Ubuntu and the applications that come with Ubuntu. That teach them how to contribute to the community - wiki, doc team, translations, etc. That help them become developers that contribute to Ubuntu. To do this we will work with existing material as well as c
(07:04:29 PM) cprofitt: reate new material. brainbench.com also has some examples of what I am talking about.
(07:04:52 PM) cprofitt: I would like to take some time to explain what we are going to do to 'augment' the existing material.
(07:05:01 PM) cprofitt: Moodle allows for courses to be built that have 'activities' including: quizzes, lessons, glossaries, surveys and other components that make it more similar to what you would have in an on-line course.
(07:05:13 PM) cprofitt: Moodle is considered a Learning Management System
(07:05:35 PM) cprofitt: and the team evaluated several options before choosing Moodle
(07:05:53 PM) cprofitt: If you would like to learn more about Moodle you can go to their site - http://moodle.org/
(07:06:06 PM) cprofitt: For an anology - existing material is like the text book. Moodle adds exercises that ask people to put the knowledge gained from the material in to practice. It also adds the ability for people to self-evaluate. Unlike school there are no grades planned. It also allows an 'instructor' to decide which material should be covered first through last; to make sure the student builds on material piece by piece.
(07:06:22 PM) ***cprofitt smiles
(07:06:33 PM) cprofitt: The plan is to provide self-paced courses that allow users to go through the material themselves and to provide instructor lead courses that will have scheduled meeting times (using #ubuntu-classroom) and an instructor that will host question and answer time.
(07:08:12 PM) cprofitt: There is a great deal of very valuable content that is 'out there' in the form of wiki how-tos, forum guides, help articles, etc...
(07:08:30 PM) cprofitt: and this project aims to make use of those in 'building' a course.
(07:09:13 PM) cprofitt: the team includes pleia2 from the classroom project
(07:09:22 PM) ***pleia2 waves
(07:09:43 PM) cprofitt: and we have also spoken to Canonical and gotten approval to use learn.ubuntu.com as the site URL
(07:09:49 PM) st33med: yay
(07:10:03 PM) cprofitt: bodhi_zazen, will be hosting a server that the URL will be pointed at
(07:10:49 PM) cprofitt: From our conversations with Billy Cina and dinda the sabdfl is aware of and excited about the project.
(07:11:14 PM) cprofitt: pwnguin> QUESTION: will this be self-hosted, or be using the moodlerooms service?
(07:11:29 PM) cprofitt: this will be hosted by bodhi_zazen who has purchased the server with his own funds
(07:12:17 PM) cprofitt: txwikinger, we are looking for people who want to contribute... we have not determined the process for that yet
(07:12:41 PM) cprofitt: We still have to work through licensing discussions though we are in the realm of CC - its just a matter of which one
(07:12:47 PM) bodhi_zazen: setting up server now :)
(07:13:15 PM) cprofitt: There are two sets of goals
(07:13:47 PM) cprofitt: 1)  Build a community based learning platform / set of courseware that will allow organizations to move forward with adoption Uubntu
(07:14:01 PM) cprofitt: 2)  Assist individual motivate users to become contributors to the community
(07:14:15 PM) cprofitt: zhurai> QUESTION: for:  " that will have scheduled meeting times (using #ubuntu-classroom) ", would those be logged too (just as this OpenWeek's #ubuntu-classroom logs are put into those pages)?
(07:14:40 PM) cprofitt: Yes, the instructor lead courses that use #ubuntu-classroom would be logged
(07:14:47 PM) cprofitt: and the logs added to the course record
(07:15:02 PM) cprofitt: <dinda> QUESTION:  have you had any success in working with the doc team?  they are looking at ways to improve new member training/mentoring.
(07:15:29 PM) cprofitt: from my understanding dinda we have... though I am not 100% on the level of involvement currently
(07:15:45 PM) cprofitt: the Doc team will be an integral part of the project... of that much I am sure
(07:15:59 PM) cprofitt: greg-g> cprofitt_monitor: if you have any questions regarding CC licensing, I can answer them for you.  I currently work for CC.
(07:16:01 PM) dinda:  I see DougieRichardson is on your membership list - that is a good start
(07:16:15 PM) ***cprofitt writes down his greg-g's name
(07:16:39 PM) greg-g: :)
(07:16:51 PM) cprofitt: The issue with CC greg-g is we are unsure of what level of restriction we want...
(07:17:17 PM) cprofitt: Do we want to limit a training center from charging for an on-site course using our material or not?
(07:17:31 PM) cprofitt: Can a school district or company use the training material internally...
(07:18:03 PM) greg-g: all valid questions, and I can relate experiences from others who have done similar things.
(07:18:28 PM) cprofitt: <Yasumoto> cprofitt: Have you heard about the Mozilla Education (http://education.mozilla.org) or Teaching Open Source (http://teachingopensource.com/) projects? Although they're more focused on "Open Source as curriculum" I think that there is some overlap in the projects.
(07:18:40 PM) cprofitt: I had not heard of those... so I will take a hard long look at them
(07:18:44 PM) mode (+o pleia2 ) by ChanServ
(07:18:51 PM) ***cprofitt thanks for those resources
(07:19:05 PM) cprofitt: st33med> QUESTION: Wouldn't it be better for the instructors to choose the licensing?
(07:19:25 PM) cprofitt: I do not think so. I do not want there to be confusion over what courseware is offered through the project
(07:19:51 PM) st33med: Probably GNU compliant?
(07:20:10 PM) cprofitt: I would think that having a sep. CC license for each course would cause confusion...
(07:20:27 PM) cprofitt: while that may make some contributors shy away, I would hope not.
(07:21:37 PM) thewrath: one license (sp) for everything less confusion i beleive
(07:22:06 PM) cprofitt: QUESTION:  where are the next meetings listed?  is there a wiki page for the group?
(07:22:16 PM) cprofitt: The wiki page will be created over the next few days...
(07:22:42 PM) cprofitt: there is a beginning on the page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning
(07:23:05 PM) thewrath left the room.
(07:23:12 PM) cprofitt: on the topic of the doc team Vantrax just told me the following
(07:23:12 PM) cprofitt: Vantrax> ive been speaking with dougie, most of the doc team isnt interested, but enough are to make it work
(07:23:35 PM) cprofitt: the next meeting is scheduled for May 2nd (this weekend)
(07:23:42 PM) cprofitt: at 21:00 UTC I believe
(07:23:49 PM) Vantrax: Hi all, sorry I havent been around to give more info
(07:25:46 PM) Vantrax: cprofitt, yep
(07:27:31 PM) cprofitt: Yes, SCROM and LAMS are the two formats that Moodle uses other than Moodle itself.
(07:27:43 PM) cprofitt: We are currently only looking at SCORM to my knowledge
(07:28:15 PM) Vantrax: SCORM is the standard being pushed by the US government as a standard but no decisions have been made at that level yet. Any informed opinions would be welcome.
(07:28:42 PM) cprofitt: Any other questions?
(07:29:11 PM) juan_marquez: buenas
(07:31:05 PM) cprofitt: pwnguin> QUESTION: how do you get a reasonable cohort on a self-paced course?
(07:31:33 PM) cprofitt: cohort... is not a word I am familiar with in this context... I only know Roman legion cohorts...
(07:31:40 PM) cprofitt: could you expand on that term?
(07:31:49 PM) pwnguin: i think it means the student body
(07:31:53 PM) pwnguin: ie your peers
(07:31:59 PM) cprofitt: ok...
(07:32:01 PM) Vantrax: its more a university term
(07:32:02 PM) pwnguin: people you can bounce ideas off of
(07:32:25 PM) cprofitt: with a self-paced you would not really have a concurrent group of students... you may or may not...
(07:32:37 PM) cprofitt: the instructor lead courses would have a defined start and end time for the course
(07:33:09 PM) cprofitt: dinda> QUESTION:  can you post the link to the Forums  Beginners Team?
(07:33:24 PM) Vantrax: At this stage the plan is to have IRC time available either scheduled or as required depending on numbers for the self paced courses, basically as a Q&A time
(07:33:30 PM) cprofitt: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam
(07:33:54 PM) cprofitt: pwnguin> QUESTION: do i need to be active in the forums to participate?
(07:34:06 PM) cprofitt: No, there is no need to be active on the forums...
(07:34:25 PM) cprofitt: we may use material from some of the how-to guides posted there, but you will not need to be active
(07:34:39 PM) cprofitt: unless an instructor wants to use the forums as an activity
(07:35:41 PM) Vantrax: any material used from how-to guides will be used only with the original author's permission
(07:35:43 PM) juan_marquez left the room (quit: "http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client").
(07:37:59 PM) cprofitt: pwnguin> question: will the service be able to host videos?
(07:38:05 PM) cprofitt: I believe it can...
(07:38:13 PM) cprofitt: Moodle can also host flash animations...
(07:38:25 PM) cprofitt: though I would like to find a FOSS alternative to flash
(07:38:53 PM) cprofitt: <dinda> QUESTIONS:  what about screencasts?  are you working with that team too?
(07:39:06 PM) cprofitt: I am not aware of us doing that yet, but we certainly would want too.
(07:41:49 PM) cprofitt: pwnguin> question: would a refresher course on new features every release be a reasonable project?
(07:41:57 PM) cprofitt: I think we would focus on LTS courses...
(07:42:11 PM) cprofitt: doing courses every 6 months would be difficult
(07:42:23 PM) cprofitt: we would try to keep courses up-to-date if possible
(07:42:38 PM) cprofitt: pwnguin> QUESTION: if you offer courseware via Creative Commons, aren't you basically required to disclose test and quiz answers to anyone who asks for them ahead of time?
(07:42:41 PM) cprofitt: Sure...
(07:42:57 PM) cprofitt: just like any workbook you buy the answers are in that section...
(07:43:14 PM) cprofitt: but if a person wants to get value out of it.. they likely will try to do the work
(07:43:44 PM) cprofitt: since there are no grades I am not sure why anyone would want to 'abuse' having the answers
(07:44:11 PM) pwnguin: imagine a community college course borrowing the courseware
(07:44:20 PM) pwnguin: for an intro to UNIX course or some such
(07:44:21 PM) Vantrax: also there is no certification, that is canonicals baby
(07:44:48 PM) Vantrax: pwnguin, that would be a good thing, long as its attributed
(07:46:14 PM) cprofitt: Now...
(07:46:36 PM) cprofitt: I am currently recruiting EDU curriculum writers to assist us with writing the first course...
(07:46:56 PM) cprofitt: and the first course will be a course on - How to Build A Moodle Course -
(07:47:11 PM) cprofitt: that will help other contributors build solid courses
(07:47:32 PM) cprofitt: if you know of an educator who has Moodle (or other LMS experience) we are interested in talking to them
(07:51:54 PM) cprofitt: Thank you for attending everyone...
(07:51:58 PM) cprofitt: have a good evening

MeetingLogs/openweekJaunty/CommunityLearning (last edited 2009-04-27 23:52:51 by pool-70-16-48-183)