La Trobe University Australia - Technical Considerations for Implementation of EASICONNECT

EASICONNECT @ CQUni

Damien ClarkTwitter: @damoclarkyhttp://damos.world

Colin BeerTwitter: @beerchttp://beerc.wordpress.com

Rolley TicknerTwitter: @rolleyhttp://rolleys.wordpress.com

Is a Team Effort

Colin Beer Rolley

Tickner Me!

Introductions

Is a Team Effort – Team Background

Teaching

Research

Programming Data

AnalysisSystem Administration

Graphic Design

DB Design

Complementary blend of skills:

Self Appointed:Ed Tech Team (not in org. chart)

Central L&T

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/6727304641/

The Institution

CQU Context (Brief Overview)

Where is CQU?

Our footprint…

Where is CQU?

Where are our HE students?

20+ Locations

Source: CQU Student Records

+ VET - 2014

Distance Ed

International

Source: CQU Student Records

Distance Ed

International

Where are our HE students?

DemographicsP

redominantly

Regional/R

emote

Enrolm

ents

Live Demonstrations

Early Alerts Student Indicators (EASI)

Presentation

Estimate of Success (EOS)

Emphasises communication between teachers and students rather than accurate prediction

https://xkcd.com/612/

Aggressively weighted towards risk of failure More false positives than false negatives

http://www.hangthebankers.com/5-top-economic-advisers-forecast-world-war/

http://sorenandersson.com/a-sustainable-nudge/

Nudge

Nudge (verb):1. to push or poke (someone) gently, esp with the elbow, to

get attention; jog2. To push slowly or lightly3. To give (someone) a gentle reminder or encouragementhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/nudge

Nudging in Business

Amazon Marketing

Early Alerts Student Indicators (EASI)

Presentation

CQUni’s Moodle site doesn’t have MAV

No MAV links

MAV installed in browser

MAV Staff Self-install Page

Firefox Add-ons / User Scripts

MAV installed in browser

Moodle Activity Viewer – Under the Hood

No changes toMoodle code ✔

Moodle Database Copy

Moodle Activity Viewer – Under the HoodNo changes toMoodle code ✔

Examples of Use (MAV)

http://www.doityourself.com/scat/handtools/

Responses:

“I can see which links are being clicked on and which students are clicking on those links and I can see whether or not I am wasting my time producing a video that no-one ever watches or if there is something that has got the students’ attention and there is a lot of people clicking on it, I can see what that is.”





IT Change Management

Recommendation:“Implement Vanilla systems (remove or reduce customisations unless essential or demonstrated benefit over cost)” (CQUniversity Information Technology Department Restructure, 2013)

http://www.praqma.com/services/plainvanilla

https://twitter.com/vanillagames

Moodle Activity Viewer – Under the HoodNo changes toMoodle code ✔

Remember this?

http://elevator.empowernetwork.com/blog/lifes-too-short-to-be-plain-vanilla

We think…


https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/6727304641/

Remember, context is everything!


IT Management - Context KPIs

http://thespankingcontroversy.weebly.com/the-argument-for-and-against.html

SLAs

Downtime =

IT Management - Context

Let some goofs (that’s us) change the LMS…

http://www.adnews.com.au/campaigns/captain-risky-gets-riskier-with-budget-direct

=

Change introduces risk

IT Management - Context

http://www.adnews.com.au/campaigns/captain-risky-gets-riskier-with-budget-direct

=

Thus…

Contextual Constraints – Risk Aversion

Break through

professionalcommunicationinbusiness.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/communication-barriers.html

Work around

or

Let’s get technical

Software Stacks

http://theamericangenius.com/editorials/how-to-tell-between-a-geek-and-a-nerd/

Integration Points

Scalability

Business Continuity

EASI/MAV – Foundation Software Stack

PHP 5.4

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mrmiller/15-121/Homework/hw8/hw8.html

Redhat EL 7

PostgreSQL 9.3

Apache 2.4

GIT

EASI – PHP Software Libraries/Package Management

Smarty 3.1


PHP MVC & OOP

Propel 1.7Composer

MAV – PHP Software Libraries/Package Management

Smarty 3.1


PHP MVC & OOP

Guzzle HTTP Client

Arara\Process

EASI – Javascript Frameworks

jQuery-UI

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_library_framework_inside.jpg

jQuery

MAV – Javascript Frameworks

Firefox Greasemonkey Add-on

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_library_framework_inside.jpg

jQueryjQuery-UI

EASI – Integration Points

PHP Term Class

https://support.xmatters.com/hc/en-us/articles/202864035-The-Getting-Integrated-Guide-part-1-

LADB

“Hard-coding” gotchas

Moodle course site re-use?

LADB – Learning Analytics Database

Data Sources & Aggregation

Nightly Aggregation Framework - PHP

Nightly Aggregation Framework – PHP Class Hierarchy

Demarcation of components

MAV Aggregation Table

Sample data

MAV Aggregation Table

MAV Aggregation Process calls Moodle Event2 API

MAV Aggregation

MAV Aggregation Process calls Moodle Event2 API

MAV Aggregation Script (PHP)

EASI - Hardware

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeker's_Hardware

Web/DB Frontend Staging Database

2 x CPUs

4GB Ram

100GB HDD

4 x CPUs

8GB Ram

1000GB HDD

Backups/Business Continuity

http://www.safetyphoto.co.uk/photo%208/safety%20photo%208.htm

Data Protector – FS Backups

VM Snapshots

Postgresql PG_DUMPs

Hosting Challenges

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupperware

Data aggregation @ Netspot or La Trobe?

Does La Trobe transfer nightly cloud backups locally?

Thanks!

https://coub.com/view/4pyf0

Education

La Trobe University Australia - Technical Considerations for Implementation of EASICONNECT