evaluate format options for learning materials

[mbjones]

Previous courses we've taught have used various open formats for learning materials, including Quarto notebooks, Jupyter Notebooks, and RMarkdown notebooks. Other Learning Management Systems might also be of interest. Evaluate and decide on the format for course materials. Candidates:

• Quarto Books: https://quarto.org
  • Examples: Arctic Data Center Scalable Computing Course
• Jupyter Books:
  • EarthLab Fundamentals of Vector Data in Python

The repository for the materials to be built is in https://github.com/cyber2a/cyber2a-course

[carmengg]

Some pros and cons of using Quarto or Jupyter Books:

Jupyter Books

Pros

• Mature tool with a vast gallery of examples
• Easier to migrate content if it's already all in Jupyter Notebooks?

Cons

• Version control: solutions to not sync the output to GitHub were not straightforward. In particular, from this discussion in Pangeo forum:

“In this situation, members would look at a notebook wo changing it, but Git would say it was changed and there was a merge conflict due to the XML associated with code output (say plots). These type of merge conflicts don’t arise with qmd files since they are flat ascii.”

• (minor) Markdown rendering appearance discrepancy between executing notebooks on a website versus executing same notebook in the JupyterLab UI.
• I haven' tried this, but it seems that skipping execution of certain cells in Notebooks is harder than doing that in qmd. See: https://jupyterbook.org/en/stable/reference/cheatsheet.html -> #tags , and https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/is-there-a-cell-tag-convention-to-skip-execution/5445/9.

Cool examples
Environmental Data Science Book
Website
Repository

Earth and Environmental Data Science Book
Website
Repository

Quarto Books

Pros

• Backed by Posit (formerly RStudio), which works on unifying developments and increasing ease of use.
• big advantage: Quarto source file is a text file (qmd); easy to version control and see changes.
• Can also execute and render Jupyter Notebooks: https://quarto.org/docs/tools/jupyter-lab.html

Cons

• Downloaded ipynb files can display the outputs if they are included without needing to execute them. But qmd files need to be rendered locally to see outputs.

Cool examples
Python for Data Analysis
Website
Repository

Arctic Data Center Scalable Computing Course
Website
Repository

[carmengg]

I also checked out Notion, the LMS Kate suggested. Seems like a great tool for organizing teams and sharing documentation. However, this doesn't seem like the best platform for sharing course content because there is no support for executable code. You can add code in-line and code-style cells using markdown, but there isn't a way to execute cells and render outputs.

[carmengg]

Also checked Discourse. This is a platform to create community forums. This seems like a great complement to an online book and, in general, to build the Cyber2A community. An example of how this could look like is the Discourse for the Pangeo community.

I looked through the plugins and this Calendar plugin seems like something we'd want so we can display the dates for the seminar and trainings, but only found this one. But at a closer look it does not seem quite like what we need (since every user can add to it) and it’s only available on the Business plan ($300/month).

[mbjones]

@carmengg I added a github action to build the example quarto book that you made and publish it to Github pages anytime someone pushes to the main branch. You can see:

• Action: https://github.com/cyber2a/cyber2a-course/actions/workflows/publish-book.yaml
• Built book online: https://cyber2a.github.io/cyber2a-course/

We can link the book into the main Cyber2A web page later when it is more mature. Maybe it would be good to add a "DRAFT" indicator to the title and first page of the book?

[carmengg]

@mbjones
Thanks for setting up the GitHub action and deploying it on GitHub pages.
I added the Draft mention in the book and the README for this repo.

[chiayuhsu]

@carmengg, thanks for the detailed evaluation.

I think it might be worth considering a Learning Management System (LMS) or MOOC platforms for our Cyber2A course. While Quarto Books excel at interactive lectures, an LMS or MOOC could offer additional teaching and learning tools, such as grading and analytics.

LMS Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• All-in-One Solution: These platforms can cover everything from video lectures to assessments and forums.
• Interactive Content: Some platforms have the capacity to run interactive code, although this could incur extra costs.
• User Management: They're great for managing many students, from enrollment to progress tracking.
• Analytics: These platforms often include tools for improving the course and assessing student engagement.

Cons:

• Application Process: There might be a vetting process we'd have to go through.
• Collaboration Needed: Working with the provider to set up our course might take time.
• Timeline: The speed and flexibility of setting up can vary.
• Cost: Free options like Moodle exist but may lack some features.

MOOC vs. LMS:

Here's a preliminary comparison between MOOC platforms like Coursera, Udemy or Udacity and traditional LMSs like Moodle, Canvas, or Blackboard.

MOOC Pros:

• High Visibility: These platforms already have a large audience, which could increase the visibility of our course.
• Ready-to-Use: They come with built-in features for quizzes, peer reviews, etc.

MOOC Cons:

• Less Control: We'd have limited control over aspects like student data and pricing.

LMS Pros:

• More Control: We'd have greater flexibility in shaping the course and how we interact with students.

This list isn't exhaustive, but it should give us a good starting point for discussion.