Attendees

The Technical Oversight Committee met on Apr 9, 2024 with the following members in attendance:

• Anant Agarwal (2U)

• Dustin Tingley (Harvard)

• Edward Zarecor (Axim) 

• Ferdi Alimadhi (MIT)

• George Babey (2U)

• Nacho Despujol (Instructor Representative, UPV)

• Regis Behmo (Operator & Core Contributor Representative, Edly)

• Xavier Antoviaque (User/Learner representative, OpenCraft)

Absent

• Virginia Fletcher (2U)

Notes

2025 conference

• A discussion about the 2025 conference location was mentioned. 

Potential grant project for the Open edX project

• A proposal was submitted for a sub-award on an NSF grant supporting educational research  This continued a discussion from the last meeting. The scope of work was discussed, the grant would be to improve research analytics, and could benefit Open edX in improving both research and API coverage. The proposal aimed to present content to learners in a way that would allow researchers to influence how it was presented

• There were concerns about ensuring these changes do not interfere with other ongoing efforts and Axim's workload. The importance of building generic platform capabilities that can be used with other experimental programs beyond the grant project itself was stressed, to make the grant worthwhile even if the project itself doesn't gain traction to mitigate potential issues, some members suggested setting up institutional "forcing functions" to ensure that any specific integrations did not leak into the core platform, for example by ensuring the providers selected to work on the core and on the non-core features are different teams.

• The project with Spanish universities was discussed, focusing on integrating new functionalities in the platform and aligning with the community. It was concluded that ways of working could be adapted and a campus working group coordinated.

• For the next meeting, the goal is to present more detailed documents for this project

Converting the discussion service from Ruby to Python 

• The group discussed the proposal to rewrite a portion of Open edX's forum codebase. Currently, the service is implemented in Ruby and utilizes MongoDB for data storage – both technologies that are not widely used or familiar within the broader open edX community. The proposed change involves translating the current code from Ruby into Python and migrating data models from MongoDB to MySQL. This would simplify the stack, potentially making it more accessible for developers to contribute improvements.

• The forum proposal was discussed in detail. The group discussed whether a discussion forum should be built and maintained by the Open edX project or whether integration with third-party solutions should be preferred.  Having a robust, open source solution remains a priority in either event.  A recommendation was not made at this meeting.

• The proposal for migrating the forums includes a progressive rollout plan to support large installations, especially organizations like 2U.  The question was raised whether the complexity introduced by this approach created enough value to justify that complexity.  Conversations with stakeholders will happen between now and the next meeting.

• While most agreed on its technical benefits, questions arose around prioritization among various projects as well as funding sources for such an undertaking.

• A document was suggested to recap all the projects and changes currently being discussed in the different working groups and the vision behind it. This was seen as beneficial not just for the TOC, but also for the broader community.

Proposal to make course content easily installable on any Open edX instance

• The idea was discussed: the content should be easily shared, allowing people to easily contribute to it. 

• It was suggested to add syndication features to existing courses already licensed under creative commons, to allow sharing between instances. A "cartridge" feature was also mentioned, for turning Xcode courses into importable content on other Open edX instances.

• The importance of designing content for reusability and modularity, rather than creating a single, long course, was emphasized. It is unlikely that individual institutions or companies will invest in such a library due to its public good nature, making it an ideal funding opportunity for organizations like Axim.

• The conversation concluded with the idea that all content should be decomposable into constituent pieces, allowing people to choose how they want to export it. Due to time, further discussion of this topic was postponed.

Action items

• Summarize the discussion on the grant project in an email, highlighting key points and areas of concern. This will include exploration of funding options and potential partnerships for the project.

• Continue the conversation on the forum proposal offline or via email, seeking specific feedback on the benefits and challenges of transitioning from Ruby to Python.

• Prepare a presentation outlining the architectural thought and refactoring processes currently underway, as well as a list of possible tactical interventions in the platform over the next two years. This would be presented at the next meeting in June.

• Initiate a conversation on course content reusability, specifically focusing on creating a new format for course content and finding ways to encourage content creators to make their courses more reusable.

• Gather input from the TOC members on a consortium proposal, possibly scheduling individual calls for more detailed discussions.

• All participants to review the Seer project scope and the forum proposal, providing further feedback and suggestions to ensure alignment with the overall goals of the organization.