Idea: Fedora Contributor Classrooms

[Justin W. Flory]

======================================================================
=                           Quick Summary                            =
======================================================================
1) Online university meets contributing to Fedora (kind of)
2) Join process: Move from wiki to more modern + centralized "course"
3) Improve process to jumpstart new contributors
4) Four main questions to answer
5) Opinions / thoughts very welcome *

* Longer email, but worth the read!
======================================================================

Hello all,

This idea originates from a discussion Gabri (mailga) and I had in 
#fedora-join today.

Gabri pointed out the availability of a variety of different "online 
classroom" type of applications or websites. They're pretty commons 
nowadays, with things like Udemy or Coursera being used to let people 
take full-fledged courses in any subject they want (sometimes at a cost, 
sometimes not).

The article that started this discussion can be found here:

 
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/02/seven-free-platforms-for-teachin...

It's easy for someone to create a "course" in anything and set up a 
series of lessons or classes for their course. They can be in different 
formats depending on what suits the topic best.

The connection of this to Fedora that Gabri pointed out is that it may 
be something to look into to have a "Becoming a Fedora Contributor" 
course in an environment like one of these. The purpose of doing this 
would be to create a "curriculum" of the tools, resources, and 
information needed to be jumpstarted as a Fedora contributor.

There could be a general course with a few different lessons of 
different things in Fedora, and then perhaps subgroup-specific lessons 
about how to get started with a specific subgroup, e.g. Design, Kernel, 
Marketing, Packaging, CommOps, etc…

This would intend to replace the often decentralized wiki articles that 
accomplish the same thing. As it is becoming more well-known, the wiki 
is sometimes a difficult place to store useful information because it 
can be so difficult to navigate. Most subgroups have some sort of 
"Joining" series on the wiki, but finding all the pages can sometimes be 
a challenge.

The needs for something like this would be as follows:
1) Create a series of "lessons" for newcomers to follow in order to be 
"ready" to contribute to what interests them
2) Courses / lessons easy to update and keep current with the fast-paced 
speed of Fedora

Gabri also linked this article which may of use of finding a platform we 
like, should this be something we are interested in:

     http://blog.capterra.com/top-8-freeopen-source-lmss/

However, to the point - now what? There's a few questions I think we 
need to answer?



   1) Is this something we think would be useful to pursue?

   2) If so, what is the scope we want to pursue? Start small and see if 
it works well, then try a wider adoption?

   3) Is this something we would have as a long-term goal for 2016 for 
every subgroup to try to adopt (with the assistance of CommOps)?

   4) Are there any downsides that stand out by trying to pursue an 
online "contributor classroom" sort of style versus using the wiki?



I think these are the core questions we need to answer to move forward. 
This may be an interesting discussion topic for a meeting if there is 
support for the idea.

And Gabri, feel free to chime in and add anything in case I missed 
something. :)

Interested to hear your thoughts!

-- 
Cheers,
Justin W. Flory
jflory7(a)gmail.com

[Fedora-join] Idea: Fedora Contributor Classrooms

[Zach Villers]

On Tue, Jan 05, 2016 at 04:57:37PM -0500, Justin W. Flory wrote:
> ======================================================================
>  =                           Quick Summary                            =
>  ======================================================================
>  1) Online university meets contributing to Fedora (kind of)
>  2) Join process: Move from wiki to more modern + centralized "course"
>  3) Improve process to jumpstart new contributors
>  4) Four main questions to answer
>  5) Opinions / thoughts very welcome *
>  
>  * Longer email, but worth the read!
>  ======================================================================
>  
>  Hello all,
>  
>  This idea originates from a discussion Gabri (mailga) and I had in 
>  #fedora-join today.
>  
>  Gabri pointed out the availability of a variety of different "online 
>  classroom" type of applications or websites. They're pretty commons 
>  nowadays, with things like Udemy or Coursera being used to let people 
>  take full-fledged courses in any subject they want (sometimes at a cost, 
>  sometimes not).
>  
>  The article that started this discussion can be found here:
>  
>   
>
> http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/02/seven-free-platforms-for-teachin...
>  
>  The needs for something like this would be as follows:
>  1) Create a series of "lessons" for newcomers to follow in order to be 
>  "ready" to contribute to what interests them
>  2) Courses / lessons easy to update and keep current with the fast-paced 
>  speed of Fedora
>  
>  Gabri also linked this article which may of use of finding a platform we 
>  like, should this be something we are interested in:
>  
>       http://blog.capterra.com/top-8-freeopen-source-lmss/
>  
>  However, to the point - now what? There's a few questions I think we 
>  need to answer?
>  
>  
>  
>     1) Is this something we think would be useful to pursue? 
I definately think so.
>  
>     2) If so, what is the scope we want to pursue? Start small and see if 
>  it works well, then try a wider adoption?
>  
>     3) Is this something we would have as a long-term goal for 2016 for 
>  every subgroup to try to adopt (with the assistance of CommOps)? 
Would be willing to participate in a meeting to discuss.
>  
>     4) Are there any downsides that stand out by trying to pursue an 
>  online "contributor classroom" sort of style versus using the wiki?
>  
>  
>  
>  I think these are the core questions we need to answer to move forward. 
>  This may be an interesting discussion topic for a meeting if there is 
>  support for the idea.
>  
>  And Gabri, feel free to chime in and add anything in case I missed 
>  something. :)
>  
>  Interested to hear your thoughts!
>  
>  -- 
>  Cheers,
>  Justin W. Flory
>  jflory7(a)gmail.com
>   


>  _______________________________________________
>  fedora-join mailing list
>  fedora-join(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  http://lists.fedoraproject.org/admin/lists/[e-mail]...

[Gabriele Trombini]

Il giorno mar, 05/01/2016 alle 16.57 -0500, Justin W. Flory ha scritto:

[snip]
>  
>  And Gabri, feel free to chime in and add anything in case I missed 
>  something. :) 
Thanks for the head up Justin, you explained things much better than I
ever could do.

Looking at other distros it seems (not sure at all, anyway) they don't
have any "service" like this (provided directly from the Project) and
it could be another point in which Fedora is ahead.

Gabri

[Neville A. Cross]

On Tue, 2016-01-05 at 16:57 -0500, Justin W. Flory wrote:
> =====================================================================
>  =
>  =                           Quick
>  Summary                            =
>  =====================================================================
>  =
>  1) Online university meets contributing to Fedora (kind of)
>  2) Join process: Move from wiki to more modern + centralized "course"
>  3) Improve process to jumpstart new contributors
>  4) Four main questions to answer
>  5) Opinions / thoughts very welcome *
>  
>  * Longer email, but worth the read!
>  =====================================================================
>  =
>  
>  Hello all,
>  
>  This idea originates from a discussion Gabri (mailga) and I had in 
>  #fedora-join today.
>  
>  Gabri pointed out the availability of a variety of different "online 
>  classroom" type of applications or websites. They're pretty commons 
>  nowadays, with things like Udemy or Coursera being used to let
>  people 
>  take full-fledged courses in any subject they want (sometimes at a
>  cost, 
>  sometimes not).
>  
>  The article that started this discussion can be found here:
>  
>   
>  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/02/seven-free-platforms-for-tea
>  ching.html#.VowZWHXRbeQ
>  
>  It's easy for someone to create a "course" in anything and set up a 
>  series of lessons or classes for their course. They can be in
>  different 
>  formats depending on what suits the topic best.
>  
>  The connection of this to Fedora that Gabri pointed out is that it
>  may 
>  be something to look into to have a "Becoming a Fedora Contributor" 
>  course in an environment like one of these. The purpose of doing
>  this 
>  would be to create a "curriculum" of the tools, resources, and 
>  information needed to be jumpstarted as a Fedora contributor.
>  
>  There could be a general course with a few different lessons of 
>  different things in Fedora, and then perhaps subgroup-specific
>  lessons 
>  about how to get started with a specific subgroup, e.g. Design,
>  Kernel, 
>  Marketing, Packaging, CommOps, etc…
>  
>  This would intend to replace the often decentralized wiki articles
>  that 
>  accomplish the same thing. As it is becoming more well-known, the
>  wiki 
>  is sometimes a difficult place to store useful information because
>  it 
>  can be so difficult to navigate. Most subgroups have some sort of 
>  "Joining" series on the wiki, but finding all the pages can sometimes
>  be 
>  a challenge.
>  
>  The needs for something like this would be as follows:
>  1) Create a series of "lessons" for newcomers to follow in order to
>  be 
>  "ready" to contribute to what interests them
>  2) Courses / lessons easy to update and keep current with the fast-
>  paced 
>  speed of Fedora
>  
>  Gabri also linked this article which may of use of finding a platform
>  we 
>  like, should this be something we are interested in:
>  
>       http://blog.capterra.com/top-8-freeopen-source-lmss/
>  
>  However, to the point - now what? There's a few questions I think we 
>  need to answer?
>  
>  
>  
>     1) Is this something we think would be useful to pursue?
>  
>     2) If so, what is the scope we want to pursue? Start small and see
>  if 
>  it works well, then try a wider adoption?
>  
>     3) Is this something we would have as a long-term goal for 2016
>  for 
>  every subgroup to try to adopt (with the assistance of CommOps)?
>  
>     4) Are there any downsides that stand out by trying to pursue an 
>  online "contributor classroom" sort of style versus using the wiki?
>  
>  
>  
>  I think these are the core questions we need to answer to move
>  forward. 
>  This may be an interesting discussion topic for a meeting if there
>  is 
>  support for the idea.
>  
>  And Gabri, feel free to chime in and add anything in case I missed 
>  something. :)
>  
>  Interested to hear your thoughts!
>   
We did a small face to face experience with two universities in
Nicaragua that we called fedora little school. There was two sides to
this eight hours course. First there was Fedora specific stuff, like
what is Linux and Fedora, but also how to work and communicate with
Fedora: FAS, mailing list, irc, wiki, ask. Then the other side was the
tools of the trade. A bit of terminal, ssh, git, ftp. During this crash
course we installed fedora and setup wordpress in a remote server. We
find out that most universities tech to program but they do not teach
how to use version control and collaborative tools. In the end was a
lot of energy so we did not get people on board to get it done the
third time. We got people interested in fedora and linux, but nobody
really get to join the community. But at least we came up with a buch
of topic that we agreed that somebody needs to know to be able to
collaborate with Fedora. 

There has been at least one attempt to build a Fedora school in LATAM
community, it got to the point to have the server running and be ready
to people start creating their curses. But creating a good small
tutorial for one topic, like creating a FAS account, is a lot of work.
Making some short videos, adding a doc, presenting a exercise, it is
all time consuming. I taught one online course in an university using
moodle and it was not easier that teaching face to face. Probably I
would have benefited the most if I had taught the course again, because
i would just fine tune and re-use everything. But it is a gigantic
commitment to make this reach critical mass, so people will look at it.
Besides this is not just update content, somebody has to be ready to
answer questions coming from the small courses.

Probably I sound all too negative. What I really want to say, this is a
big challenge and has to be considered as such. It is needed to gather
all the help possible. I will love to help with one or two topics.

Neville

[Justin W. Flory]

On 01/05/2016 05:14 PM, Zach Villers wrote:
>  Would be willing to participate in a meeting to discuss. 
Hi Zach - seeing as there is a decent amount of buzz about this, I think 
it will probably be brought up at the next Community Operations meeting. 
We meet on Tuesdays at 17:00 UTC in #fedora-meeting-2 in Freenode - 
you're encouraged to attend if you are available!


On 01/05/2016 06:21 PM, Gabriele Trombini wrote:
>  Il giorno mar, 05/01/2016 alle 16.57 -0500, Justin W. Flory ha
> scritto:
>  Looking at other distros it seems (not sure at all, anyway) they don't
>  have any "service" like this (provided directly from the Project) and
>  it could be another point in which Fedora is ahead. 
This was my thoughts as well. I've never heard of anything like it 
either, and it seems like an effective type of tactic to look into 
pursuing (albeit the fact it would require a lot of work - as Neville 
aptly pointed out). More on that in a bit.


On 01/05/2016 06:59 PM, Neville A. Cross wrote:
>  We did a small face to face experience with two universities in
>  Nicaragua that we called fedora little school. There was two sides to
>  this eight hours course. First there was Fedora specific stuff, like
>  what is Linux and Fedora, but also how to work and communicate with
>  Fedora: FAS, mailing list, irc, wiki, ask. Then the other side was the
>  tools of the trade. A bit of terminal, ssh, git, ftp. During this crash
>  course we installed fedora and setup wordpress in a remote server. We
>  find out that most universities tech to program but they do not teach
>  how to use version control and collaborative tools. In the end was a
>  lot of energy so we did not get people on board to get it done the
>  third time. We got people interested in fedora and linux, but nobody
>  really get to join the community. But at least we came up with a buch
>  of topic that we agreed that somebody needs to know to be able to
>  collaborate with Fedora.
>
>  There has been at least one attempt to build a Fedora school in LATAM
>  community, it got to the point to have the server running and be ready
>  to people start creating their curses. But creating a good small
>  tutorial for one topic, like creating a FAS account, is a lot of work.
>  Making some short videos, adding a doc, presenting a exercise, it is
>  all time consuming. I taught one online course in an university using
>  moodle and it was not easier that teaching face to face. Probably I
>  would have benefited the most if I had taught the course again, because
>  i would just fine tune and re-use everything. But it is a gigantic
>  commitment to make this reach critical mass, so people will look at it.
>  Besides this is not just update content, somebody has to be ready to
>  answer questions coming from the small courses.
>
>  Probably I sound all too negative. What I really want to say, this is a
>  big challenge and has to be considered as such. It is needed to gather
>  all the help possible. I will love to help with one or two topics.
>
>  Neville 
It's great to know you have some experience doing something like this in 
the past, Neville. And I completely agree with the points you make about 
the difficulties that creating a "virtual course" for Fedora would 
include. I think creating the initial content for a curriculum would be 
a significant challenge and come as a curveball, but if we can overcome 
the initial challenge, it would (ideally) be easy to maintain, update, 
and keep current.

On the same note, this would be something that would have to have a 
long-term focus and I think it's important to place this on the CommOps 
map at the next meeting.

I'd especially like to get either decause or threebean's input regarding 
Fedora Hubs and how maybe these are interrelated types of tasks. I'm not 
as versed on the mission, goals, and overall design of how Hubs will 
work, but from what I do understand, this might be the kind of thing we 
could have embedded into that, in terms of what platform we deliver 
these "courses" or "lessons" through.

Do you have any links to any of these past attempts, Neville?


--
Cheers,
Justin W. Flory
jflory7(a)gmail.com

[Gabriele Trombini]

Il giorno mer, 06/01/2016 alle 19.24 -0500, Justin W. Flory ha scritto:

[snip]


>  
>  It's great to know you have some experience doing something like this
>  in 
>  the past, Neville. And I completely agree with the points you make
>  about 
>  the difficulties that creating a "virtual course" for Fedora would 
>  include. I think creating the initial content for a curriculum would
>  be 
>  a significant challenge and come as a curveball, but if we can
>  overcome 
>  the initial challenge, it would (ideally) be easy to maintain,
>  update, 
>  and keep current.
>  
>  On the same note, this would be something that would have to have a 
>  long-term focus and I think it's important to place this on the
>  CommOps 
>  map at the next meeting.
>  
>  I'd especially like to get either decause or threebean's input
>  regarding 
>  Fedora Hubs and how maybe these are interrelated types of tasks. I'm
>  not 
>  as versed on the mission, goals, and overall design of how Hubs will 
>  work, but from what I do understand, this might be the kind of thing
>  we 
>  could have embedded into that, in terms of what platform we deliver 
>  these "courses" or "lessons" through. 
Good points coming both from Justin and Neville and I think that there
are two ways to integrate this kind of platform (if we decide to go
on):

- Hubs, as you said before;
- Whatcanidoforfedora which should be alive also when hubs will be
online (if I recall correctly).

In the case of whatcanido, Ralph should be the right person who can
evaluate the feasibility of this project; if the study of feasibility
has to be done on hubs project, maybe we should involve Mairin.

Of course I'd like to get feedback from Neville in order to know issues
they got along the work. Perhaps with a larger part of community aware
of this idea, we could reach the solution.

Thanks.

Gabri

[Neville A. Cross]

El 2016-01-06 18:24, Justin W. Flory escribió:

>  
>  Do you have any links to any of these past attempts, Neville?
>   
it was at http://college.fedora-latam.org/ but it is no longer online

the software was built by echevemaster from Venezuela

https://github.com/echevemaster/fedora-college

Neville