Courses based on atomic learning units

[e0d]

Opportunity Objective By changing the Open edX course experience to use blockstore as an alternative to modulestore, we can unlock a number of learner and author experience improvements that have proved elusive to date:

Flexible content reuse, with tagging (use any XBlock or LTI component in libraries)

Fully integrated adaptive learning (true dynamic content)

Full-featured course previews

Template courses and runs (CCX-like functionality without limitations of CCX)

More flexible course experiences

Easier extension for developers via simpler APIs

Market Evidence There have been consistent community requests for more useful content libraries, more options for content reuse, CCX-like functionality (copy a course from a template, customize it, then run it), and integration of adaptive learning engines. However, these are prohibitively difficult to implement with the existing modulestore system.

Proposal Specifics In new (blockstore-based) courses:

All courses start as a “course template” (default outline + default content) created by a course author. The default content and associated static assets is stored in Blockstore.

Instructors can create a new “course” from a course template. They may customize the course outline, adding, removing, or re-ordering sections and content.

A course outline can specify where content is loaded dynamically - from content libraries (e.g. randomized content), adaptive learning engines, or based on the user’s cohort, enrollment mode, etc.

Success Measures If this proposal is successful, course authors and instructors will voluntarily migrate courses to the new format in order to take advantage of the new features and flexibility, such as template courses, randomized content based on tags, and adaptive learning.

[jmakowski1123]

Explore relation to: https://github.com/openedx/platform-roadmap/issues/67

[bradenmacdonald]

I am planning to do some discovery around this in our next sprint (starts next week) and will likely be asking some questions around requirements, and then will share my findings.

[bradenmacdonald]

@jmakowski1123 @e0d As mentioned, I want to help define the goals and later implementation plan for this work. Is there a particular place where I should post this for discussion? (Here / forum / google doc / etc.) I can move this if so.

Here's a first draft at high level goals for this work, based on requirements of Open edX users I've been talking with. I would love to get feedback on this. This is somewhat aspirational so may have to be pruned back based on what's feasible.

Proposed goals:

• Make content re-use easier
  • Tagging: As a content author, I want to create (or import) a bank of problems with metadata that makes them useful in a variety of courses.
    • Example: I want to import a bank of 5,000+ physics problems, tagged by topic and difficulty level. Then in a course that I'm authoring, for a homework assignment, I want to be able to randomly pull problems from the problem bank, filtered by topic and difficulty level.
  • Convenience: As a content author creating a course, I don't want to have to decide in advance if the content I'm creating is "re-usable" or not. I want to create it in the context where I'm working but later be able to re-use it.
    • Example: an existing course has a couple of chapters that I want to use in the new course I'm authoring. If I make edits to improve those chapters in the new course, I want the original course to benefit from those updates as well.
  • Bundling: Assets (image files, PDFs, videos) used by a particular learning component are stored with that component, not in a general "course files" area. That way, when I use the content in a new context, the assets/links aren't broken.
• Make course re-use smarter
  • CCX-style: As an instructor, I want to make a copy of an existing reusable course, customize the outline (e.g. remove some sections), add a bit of custom content (e.g. introduction), then teach it. If improvements are made to the original template course while my course is running, I want to be able to pull in those updates.
    • Example: Campus and Davidson both had this use case
  • Enterprise: As a learning provider that targets enterprise customers, I want to take one of our popular courses and create a customized version of it for a particular enterprise customer. If improvements are made to the original template course while that customized course is running, I want to be able to pull in those updates.
  • Manageable: As a content author, I want to easily see what course instances are currently in use based on a given template course.
• Pedagogical Flexibility
  • Mini courses: As a learning provider, I want to offer mini-courses that are smaller, simpler, and lighter than the current course experience. I don't want to be limited to the strict Sections, Subsections, Units hierarchy.
  • Paths: As a learning provider, I want to offer customizable programs that combine [regular or mini] courses together into programs/paths/certifications, and to combine those programs/paths into larger programs/degrees/certifications.
    • Example: complete at least four mini courses from this set and two from this other set to earn this certificate
    • Example: LabXchange
  • Adaptivity: As a course author, I want to integrate an external adaptive learning engine into my course that can customize what content each learner sees based on their learner profile, learning activity, and the available content. This may involve displaying output and UI components from the adaptive engine on some or all pages of the course.
  • Scriptable/Extendable: As a course author, I want a plugin or an external system to be able to control course behavior (what content individual users see, what notifications they get, how their grade is computed, etc.) using a standard API.
• Backwards compatibility
  • Upgradability: As a course author, I want to be able to take advantage of these new features by upgrading my existing courses to support them, without having to re-create or re-work the course.
• Control
  • As an instructor I don't want a course to change without my knowledge and consent. When updated content is available I want to be notified and to approve the updates before my course instance is changed.
• Content Flexibility
  • As a course author, I want to be able to install new learning component types without having to ask the Open edX instance administrator
  • As a course author, I want to be able to use other content types besides XBlocks, such as LTI components or H5P components
  • As an Open edX developer, I want the system to support a new content API that is better sandboxed, runs asynchronously, and is more scalable.

Open questions:

• Granularity of re-use. Do I need to be able to re-use chatpers? units? Or just atoms/molecules?
• Sharing content across Open edX instances?

Very rough implementation plan (to be fleshed out once goals are clarified):

• Abstractions for learning/courses/content that fits the above goals AND the current modulestore course paradigms are developed within openedx-learning
• Concrete implementations of that abstraction are developed for existing modulestore and a new more flexible content authoring system that's blockstore-based
• A tool can convert modulestore courses into the newer format for more authoring features, but existing courses also continue to work without changes

CC @ormsbee

Relates to: https://github.com/openedx/platform-roadmap/issues/67 , https://github.com/openedx/openedx-learning/issues/1 , https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AC/pages/737149430/Blockstore+Design

[jmakowski1123]

Thanks for this @bradenmacdonald ! Yes, agree it would be good to circulate this for feedback and input. We've discussed creating a dedicated Open edX Product - Roadmap space in the wiki, and are working on getting that up that now. I think it'd be great to use this as an example to kickstart product-oriented conversations and feedback loops with the community.

[bradenmacdonald]

@jmakowski1123 Great, let's do that :)

[bradenmacdonald]

@jmakowski1123 do you have a rough timeline for when the wiki will be available?

[jmakowski1123]

@jmakowski1123 do you have a rough timeline for when the wiki will be available?

We have the space newly set up, just working on getting it configured. Should be by end of the week!

[jmakowski1123]

@bradenmacdonald I have a very rough outline for a Product Management wiki space set up. I created a space dedicated to sharing discovery work and related documentation for Roadmap Initiatives. I have not designated any sort of workflow. Feel free to experiment and utilize this space in whatever way you think will be most effective for eliciting feedback, and let's see how it works? I'd like to see this space sort of evolve organically as we identify needs specific to product management workflows across the community :) https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OEPM/pages/3378118892/Atomic+Learning+Units

[ormsbee]

@jmakowski1123: May I please get access to https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OEPM/pages/3378118892/Atomic+Learning+Units ? I get a Confluence permissions error.

[bradenmacdonald]

@jmakowski1123 Actually I am getting an error too.

[ormsbee]

@bradenmacdonald: Please try again? @e0d made a change that fixed it for me.

[ormsbee]

@bradenmacdonald: I made some comment recently that this initiative was sort of like the Studio/Authoring cousin of the LMS-focused https://github.com/openedx/platform-roadmap/issues/67. Is it fair to say that the work outlined here should be implemented on the learning side in terms of the Learning Core platform?

[bradenmacdonald]

Thanks, it's working now.

And yes @ormsbee I think that's right, and we should find ways to align them both.

[jmakowski1123]

@bradenmacdonald I've created a simple template for sharing Discovery documentation in the Wiki, here: https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OEPM/pages/3378217204/Discovery+Documentation+and+Collaboration (and you can have a look at the Discovery space for the Documentation project as an example too: https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OEPM/pages/3389849714/Open+edX+Documentation+Restructure+Discovery)

I've been working with @ormsbee on a Concept Doc about Modularizing Open edX, where the Learning Core is the architecture/platform implementation, but is also positioned within a broader consideration of what a modular Open edX experience might look like, including the course authoring experience, the learner experience, the requisite use cases and possible UX/user journeys that could result. I might suggest the three of us get together for a brainstorming chat to explore overlap? I see a ton of overlap too and it's exciting. And we'll be sharing the concept doc in the same Wiki space very shortly :)

[bradenmacdonald]

@jmakowski1123 Sure! Could you ping me on Slack tomorrow or Friday and we can chat ? :) Or set up a call, whatever you prefer.

[bradenmacdonald]

I've moved the high level goals feedback request to https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OEPM/pages/3378118892/Discovery+Courses+Based+on+Atomic+Learning+Units @jmakowski1123 please feel free to edit directly if you want to change anything.