LabXchange 2018-05-10

Owned by Braden MacDonald
Last updated: Feb 08, 2021 by Nimisha Asthagiri (Deactivated)
3 min read
    Updates:
  • Nimisha: talk about Tuesday adaptive discussion?
  • Braden: Onboarded Jill Vogel , developer to work on prototype; Started developing prototype; will share WIP code later next week
  • Braden: Have been incorporating feedback into the Use Cases document
  • Braden: looked into seq_module.py to learn what we'd miss by excluding sequentials:
    • Problem due dates
    • "Hide sequence content After Due Date" feature
    • Various settings, data, and functionality related to proctored exams
    • Defining one sequential as an entrance exam
    • Prerequisite gating
    • Remembering the user's last unit viewed - this is one thing we would need, might be worth moving/optimizing this for the whole platform.
    • Bookmarking units
    • JS used to render completion checkmark icons - TBD if LabXchange needs this


    Questions:
  • Should we merge the OEP?
    • A: Arbiter + Review timeline needed first.
  • Is anyone from edX interested in writing up edX use cases for Blockstore, similar to what we're doing for LabXchange?
    • A: edX is working to prepare this by next Thursday's checkin.
  • Discuss terminology (Nimisha: " So, either we use the term Learning Unit throughout or we start using Learning Object (or whatever term we end up with). Maybe spending some time to flesh out the definitions might be a worthwhile goal for today's meeting - unless you had other plans/thoughts.")
    • Unit vs. Learning Object
      • Proposal: we will use "Unit" as the main term for a small, "singular learning experience" that is useful/learnable on its own. We are also saying that "Learning Object" is synonymous with Unit for LabXchange purposes.
      • When content authors edit a Unit, e.g. in Studio or OLX or the LabXchange frontend, they will see that a Unit is composed of one or more "blocks" (aka "Components")
    • "Pathway"
      • Tentative LabXchange def: "A small sequence of approx. 1-10 related Units, designed for a student to work through in order."
    • "Pathway Cluster", "Bundling"
      • "Pathway of Pathways" instead? Allowing Pathway to be used for arbitrary [ composition? hierarchy? ]
      • One option is to use taxonomies, because it allows a lot of flexibility.
      • A few options:
        • Define a very simple flexible taxonomy e.g. everything is a Pathway, Pathways of Pathways
        • Define a fixed taxonomy that we hope meets most use cases
        • Don't require use of any specific taxonomy, but allow developers to define their own taxonomies per use case and map that onto content.
          • e.g. LabXchange can use a taxonomy with only two levels, Pathway+Cluster
          • e.g. Legacy Open edX platform (Course > Course Run > Chapter > Section > Subsection) etc.
          • e.g. Next-gen Open edX platform (adaptive course)
          • We mentioned taxonomy editing software like https://unilexicon.com/ but it doesn't show ordered taxonomies
    • other terms larger than a Pathway
    • "Linkable"
    • "Student" (HS vs tertiary)
    • "Class" (in the LabXchange sense)
    • "Learning Context"
    • edX: Programs , Courses, Course Runs
    • Grade (Score too)
    • "tagging"
    • Resource vs. Asset?
  • (Related) Review MIT OSIDs: http://osid.org/specifications/osid/repository/package.html
    • Asset ("An Asset represents a unit of content,"), from the Repository package
      • Has a publisher
      • Can be tagged with ontologies
      • getSource: "Gets the Resource of the source of this asset. The source is the original owner of the copyright of this asset and may differ from the creator of this asset. The source for a published book written by Margaret Mitchell would be Macmillan. The source for an unpublished painting by Arthur Goodwin would be Arthur Goodwin."
      • getProviderLinks: "Gets the Resources representing the source of this asset in order from the most recent provider to the originating source."
    • Asset compositions can be created using the Composition interface. A Composition is a group of Assets and compositions may be structured into a hierarchy for the purpose of "building" larger content
    • Resource: "Resources may represent people, places or a set or arbitrary entities"
      • a Resource can also be defined as a hierarchical group of other resources
      • Resources may have arbitrary relationships to other Resources using the ResourceRelationship interface

Next Steps:

  • Nimisha Asthagiri (Deactivated) to lead the process of finding an Arbiter for the OEP; input welcome
  • edX Blockstore group + Adaptive group working on edX's use cases