Date: 17 March 2023
Introduction
The Data Working Group focuses primarily on advancing the data and analytics capabilities of the Open edX platform. Our primary goals are to establish and promote data and analytics best practices across the ecosystem, and ensure that the Open edX platform provides and supports analytics capabilities specifically for small- to medium-sized Open edX deployments.
Consider this report as a compilation of what we’ve done over the past year, what we’re looking at doing in the next 6 months, and a wider vision of the group’s future beyond that.
Accomplishments
Over the past year, our major accomplishments were:
Initiating and specifying three major milestone projects: Open Analytics Reference System (OARS), Events over Message Bus, and Tracking Log Event Cleanup. These projects arose from the experiences and discussions between Data WG members. But they really took shape once Brian Mesick joined tCRIL to head the Platform Data effort, and Jenna Makowski directed her Product Management lens at the pain points and use cases expressed by the community.
xAPI schemas and tracking events conversion – links?
Further, we’ve made significant progress on the following initiatives:
Discovery and Specification for OARS V1
We have decided to replace Insights with the Open Analytics Reference System, a light, flexible data pipeline based primarily on 3rd party open source solutions for routing, storing and analyzing Open edX event data. The OARS architecture will be cost effective for small to medium sized Open edX sites, will scale appropriately for their expected data use, and comprise loosely-coupled components which operators can exchange if their deployments require. OARS is composed of several components, and we have investigated and decided on most of the technologies included in the reference implementation, including Redis, Clickhouse, and Superset.Reference implementation for OARS V1
Alongside the discovery and specification, we have also begun the reference implementation for OARS.
[optional] We continue to engage in a set of ongoing tasks; these tasks are work we need to be sure we’re doing on a regular basis, but we don’t want to lose sight of their importance. Those tasks are:
Ongoing task 1; 1-2 sentences of importance/impact
Ongoing task 2; 1-2 sentences of importance/impact
…
Optional: We’ll provide a deeper dive into (name accomplishment(s) you’ll deep dive into) later in this report.
Concrete Plans - Next 6 Months
Over the next six months, {working_group_name} has some really exciting work queued up. We hope to drive {key metrics, description of impact, etc}. Our primary goals are to {work on / complete / another word} the following tasks and projects:
If applicable: Links to roadmaps/GitHub projects/important wiki pages/etc
Optional: We’ll provide a deeper dive into (name project(s) you’ll deep dive into) later in this report.
Future Vision for the Group (Optional)
Moving beyond the next six months, the {working_group_name} is really excited about making progress in {areas of interest}. Describe why these areas are interesting/important, and what their intended impact is. Include as much information as you wish here, but short and sweet is also OK.
Deep Dive: Accomplishment/In-progress Initiative/Ongoing Task/Concrete Plan (Optional)
Use this section to write or link to deep dives into any of your accomplishments or initiatives that would benefit the community to know more about. You can assume readers at this point will have the background knowledge to understand this being written in industry jargon. You may have as few or many “Deep Dive” links as you’d like. If you don’t have a place to post deep-dive content at the moment, consider posting them as blog posts on the Open edX site.