Blended Learning / Classroom Experience

There are a few threads related to blended learning, but it seemed useful to take a step back, properly define the overall product definition, review the use cases it needs to fulfill. Then, based on these elements, proceed to establish the correct approach for its implementation: the one that would answer these needs correctly, and at the same time fit correctly within the overall architecture of Open edX, both from a product and technical perspective. The goal being to turn it into something edX could bless, and that can be more integrated with the future plans for the rest of the platform.

Thanks to Campus’ sponsoring, @Braden has been working on a document for this:

One of the things you will see in this document is that the focus was put on the use case and features from a product perspective (blended learning), rather than on CCX itself. The idea being that we want to find a way to have these features supported in the platform, rather than specifically pushing for CCX if edX prefers other options (CCX remains one of these options though).

Some of this can definitely be a fair amount of work, but they are also pretty exciting features. Both options 2 & 3 would benefit tremendously to the platform, even outside of the blended learning use-case - especially option 3, although that’s by far the biggest of the 3 in terms of size of work.

We still need to make sure we have accurately captured the use cases, and generally get comments about the elements detailed in the doc. The goal being to turn it into a comprehensive and authoritative resource for the product needs around blended learning.

So reviews welcome! Either directly in the doc, or here in this thread.

Xavier.

Thanks, @antoviaque and @Braden for leading the work on this!

on the Campus side - @anna and I already put out comments and feedback inside.

We’d be happy to hear thoughts and feedback from @juliegoff, @pdpinch, @Colin_Fredericks, @EthanBarden, @JoeHope, and anyone else who wants to see a sustainable and sufficient blended learning solution in open edX.

Cheers,
Yoav

cc: @eran @Berkay_Baykal

Sorry I took so long to get back to this! I’ve added a few notes and comments to the document.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that I’m back from some holidays and caught up on my emails, so I’ll be reviewing the feedback we’ve received on this document so far and incorporating it this week. Please keep an eye on this thread and let me know if you have any more updates or feedback!

Cheers,
Braden

Status update: I’ve sent this document to a few people at edX to get their input. At the same time, I’m involved in some exciting new potential changes to the platform that could be used to greatly improve the blended learning experience as well, which aren’t yet incorporated into the document. More to come in April as plans solidify

Any chance someone here knows how to get in touch with Berkeley? They showed interest in Blended learning in open edX?

Hi everyone!

Some time has passed since the last updates to this thread, and in the meantime plans for blended learning-related platform improvements solidified: OpenCraft recently started working on a set of changes and features for CCX that Campus is funding. (See the timeline for this work for more information.)

In the long term, edX would like to replace the current CCX implementation with a better approach based on Blockstore, so OpenCraft also looked into how much work this would involve. (OpenCraft is heavily involved in the development of Blockstore, which is still in its infancy at this point in time.) The estimates that we came up with are as follows:

• Improving Blockstore’s support for the general CCX use case (having one template course and creating customized child courses) and implementing UIs for it in React: 500h
• Recreating existing CCX features: 800h
• Total: 1300h

We currently expect Blockstore to become mature enough to allow us to move forward with this work by April 2019.

We have interest in sponsoring this work from one of our clients, but we are still looking for additional partners to secure the full funding of this project. So if you’re interested, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

To start I’ll CC everyone that’s either participated in this thread or has been mentioned in a previous comment:

@juliegoff @pdpinch @Colin_Fredericks @EthanBarden @EthanBarden @JoeHope @eran @Berkay_Baykal @yoavca @anna

If you know of anyone else who might be interested, please spread the word!

Cheers,
Tim (@OpenCraft)

@yoavca @anna @Colin_Fredericks @tikr I have created a corresponding thread for this on the official forums:

Would you be ok with posting your next future replies in the new thread?

See Moving to the official Open edX forum? for details or feedback.