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Presentation of the paper "On Using the Cloud to Support Online Courses" at the 2014 International Frontiers in Education Conference. October 23, Madrid (Spain)
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ON USING THE CLOUD TO SUPPORT ONLINE COURSES
2014 Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) Madrid (Spain), October, 23
Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular
Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
GOAL OF THIS TALK
• This talk summarises the experience of creating and supporting an online course on Cloud Computing using Cloud Computing tools.
• FROM • A biannual face-‐to-‐face course with up to 10 students per edition (some editions cancelled) and satisfaction rate over 9 out of 10.
• TO • An always-‐open fully online asynchronous course that trained 230+ students from 8 countries in an academic year while maintaining the satisfaction rate.
WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING?
• Cloud Computing is a model to provision and use resources (storage, computation, services, etc.) from a third-‐party provider typically on a pay-‐as-‐you-‐go basis. • No upfront investments • Elasticity (on-‐demand provisioning) Cloud Computing Providers
Virtual Machines
Storage Capacity
Services
THE ONLINE COURSE
• Online Course on Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS) [Spanish] • http://www.grycap.upv.es/cursocloudaws • Mainly Addressed to Computer Scientists / Engineers
• Scalable Cloud Applications, Deployment and Automated Configuration (DevOps), etc.
• Hands-‐on Sessions using Remote Labs.
@CursoCloudAWS
/CursoCloudAWS
AN ONLINE LEARNER
• Fully asynchronous online course in which the students acquire the competencies and provide feedback for further improvement.
StudentStudent
Video Lessons Documentation Online
ResourcesRemote
Labs
Self Study Self Assessment
CompetencIes / Skills Feedback
Peer Interaction
Instructor Guidance
Lear
ning
M
ater
ials
Self-
Lear
ning
Out
com
e
Online Tests
ARCHITECTURE TO SUPPORT THE ONLINE COURSE
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Google Spreadsheets
Google Forms
PoliformaT(LMS)
PoliTube(Video Lessons)
CFP (Management)
Remote Labs
Web Server / SSH
PoliReunión(Conferencing)
PoliMedia(Video Intro)
Online Learning Platform
Web Page(Advertisement)
1. Find the course
2. Enroll the
course
3. Course start. List of
students
Communication Platform
5. Migrate anonymized data
StudentsGMail 6. Send
credentials
7. Access course materials and
guidance
8. Access remote labs
Infrastructure Manager
4.a Deploy Remote
Labs
9. Infrastructure notifications
Devops Tools (Ansible)
Remote Labs Provisioner
Remote Labs
4.b Deploy Remote Labs
AWS Management
Console
9. Report feedback
Social Hub
10. Keep posted
Content & Management Platform
System Version Control
SVN
TOOLS FOR VIDEO PRODUCTION
• Polimedia videos are recorded in a studio.
• Screencasts for the video-‐lessons are recorded on a MacBook Air + ScreenFlow
HANDS-‐ON TRAINING
• Self-‐guided documentation so that students work at their own pace.
REMOTE LABS ON AWS
• Remote Labs consist of: • AWS Management Portal (Web Interface) • A remote machine (Virtual Machine), shared by all students and specifically configured with the required tools and data.
• Provisioned via the IM • Infrastructure Manager – http://www.grycap.upv.es/im
• An open-‐source tool that you can use to deploy customized remote labs on Cloud providers.
PROVISIONING REMOTE LABS
Infrastructure Manager
(IM)
Virtual Infrastructure Descriptions (RADLs)
Virtual Machine image Repository & Catalog
(VMRC)
SysadminSysadmin InstructorInstructor
Virtual Infrastructure A
Virtual Infrastructure B
Cloud Provider
Configurator(Ansible)
Web Interface
Software Repository
Repository of Educational Material
Students
ODISEA / IM
GATHERING FEEDBACK
• Google Forms allows to automatically gather and process the feedback after each module.
PROCESSING FEEDBACK
• Aggregated information to know the highest rated video-‐lessons.
• Enables to progressively improve each module according to students’ suggestions
• Goal: Improve the educational material until it converges to zero doubts for students.
PERSONALISED MESSAGING
• Based on a programmed Google Spreadsheet that enables personalised custom messaging.
INSTANT OFFICE HOURS
• Requests from students arrive to instructor’s mobile phone within few seconds.
• The instructor decides if the answer can be delayed • https://boxcar.io
WORKLOAD OF E-‐MAILS PER COURSE EDITION
• Instant notifications can be a source of stress unless its number is very low. • An average 14 e-‐mails per edition with an average 25 students per edition.
0"
5"
10"
15"
20"
25"
30"
35"
40"
1" 2" 3" 4" 5" 6"
#"of"e&mails"vs"#"of"students"per"course"edi4on"
#"of"students"
#"of"doubts"
• The strategy of iterative refinement of the educational material pays off.
MAIN RESULTS
Question Rate
The organization of the course has been appropriate 9.10
The instructor masters the content of the course 9.53
The course adapts to my learning pace 8.31
The instructor has rapidly resolved my doubts 9.59
I would recommend this course 9.03
The means used for the course (Internet + Remote Labs) have advantages over face-‐to-‐face
9.06
I am satisfied with the course 9.06
• Answers from 101 students (out of a population of 203 students), from 8 countries, during 2013/2014 [0,10].
• 71% of students finished the course with an average grade of 9.17 (objective test questions).
ONLINE COMMUNITY IS IMPORTANT …
• Hola
… BUT BEING RANKED #1 IN GOOGLE IS THE KEY
First position in Google (after the ads). Basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
• Being struck by the spanish version of the Slashdot Effect (barrapunto.com).
• From 10-‐20 hits/day to 300+ hits/day worldwide.
LESSONS LEARNED
• Online courses can be highly dynamic. • New material can be included on demand. • Unlike books, errata only impacts the first student that finds it and notifies it.
• New learners are used to MOOCs. • Online learning has BIG advantages for students and instructors.
• You have to AUTOMATE if you want to survive. • Cloud services and technology is mature and ready to support online instruction.
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
• Use of Cloud Services to simplify online course management while delivering a high quality learning experience to a worldwide audience. • Cloud Services: Amazon Web Services, Google Apps, Google Analytics, Infrastructure Manager (IM), BoxCar, Social Platforms.
• Current status: • No editions. Always open. 230+ students from 8 countries.
• Enroll anytime and work at your own pace.
• This paves the way for Education as a Service (EaaS), where courses are available when and how the students demand.
CONTACT
Germán Moltó Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular Universitat Politècnica de València Camino de Vera s/n 46022, Valencia SPAIN [email protected] http://www.grycap.upv.es/gmolto http://formacioncloud.blogs.upv.es
@gmolto