Overview
Background
There has been a growing trend for incorporating computational notebooks(in particular Jupyter) into higher education, including institutions such as Bath, Sheffield, Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh. These notebooks offer a new way for both lecturers to teach and students to learn programming skills through the development of Computation Narrative, providing context alongside live programming content.
In many instances academics appear to work in isolation, creating their own materials and often running local notebooks from their own machine, few institutions have adopted an inclusive approach limiting the ability to share good practice and increasing individual workload. This work will build upon a previous project (RSS030) that created a cloud-hosted Jupyter environment initially focused on research implications.
The aims of this pilot are multifaceted; firstly, to work alongside academic colleagues within various Schools across the University to develop a centrally managed Jupyter Notebook service deployed within the cloud to support learning and teaching. Alongside this, the pilot will allow for the creation of a Jupyter network for sharing good practice and promoting the use of this tool.
Scope
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To assess the pedagogic impact of using notebooks to introduce programming concepts.
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To assess the desire and need for a centrally support notebooks service within the University of Edinburgh
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To assess the use of Jupyter notebooks for creating OER materials
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To assess the running cost of supplying this service within the University of Edinburgh
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To assess the appetite for a shared service for the wider HE sector
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To analyse and assess current service operators to ensure that this service is comparable and competitive
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Work with EDiNA to develop a development plan for the Noteable service to incorporate service improvements and feature requests
Out of Scope
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Although Jupyter notebooks have implications for sharing and working collaboratively on a research project this will not be addressed within this pilot as we are firmly concentrating on the application within and for learning and teaching.
Benefits
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University of Edinburgh staff will benefit from the introduction of a cloud-based, locally supported notebook service to allow them to seamlessly introduce their students to programming concepts without the need for prior experience and installed packages.
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As part of the project, a collection of notebooks will be created in order to highlight good practice and innovative use cases.
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Feedback and case studies from this project can be used to highlight and promote the service within the University of Edinburgh.
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As part of the project, the University of Edinburgh will seek to create and maintain a community based around the inclusion of Jupyter notebooks within teaching and seek to be a sector leading institution in this regard driving discussion and innovative practice.
Objectives and Deliverables
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O1 |
Deliver a stable platform to run notebooks for teaching purposes |
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D1.1 |
Highlight and resolve issues derived from user feedback in order to improve the system in terms of usability |
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D1.2 |
Collect new feature requests to enable the creation of a system that adequately reflects the needs of its users |
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D1.3 |
Integrate with LEARN to improve ease of use for both staff and students |
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O2 |
Develop pricing plan |
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D2.1 |
Analyse running costs for the provision of the service |
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D2.2 |
Conduct market analysis of similar service providers |
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D2.3 |
Develop contacts within higher education to promote the use of this service |
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O3 |
Support use of service via creation of relevant training materials and establish a user community |
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D3.1 |
Develop internal University of Edinburgh community for use of notebook within teaching to allow for sharing of good practice |
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D3.2 |
Create and update relevant training and support materials for current users and to enable prospective users to employ notebooks within their teaching |
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O4 |
Develop and deliver a communication campaign to promote the use of both computational notebooks and the Noteable service for teaching purposes |
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D4.1 |
Explore avenues for increasing the profile of the service both within and outside of the University of Edinburgh e.g. blogging, engagement events, sector level conferences |
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D4.2 |
Promote publishing of notebooks as OERs to highlight the uses of notebooks within teaching |
Outcome
Rather than having defined success criteria this project will seek to deliver recommendations as the key outcomes of this pilot. These recommendations will be based on the key conditions listed below.
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That there is a need to provide a cloud-hosted, openly available Jupyter notebook service to users within the University of Edinburgh
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That there is a strong case for a centrally supported service rather than individual schools hosting their own environments with their own support and maintenance structure
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That the Noteable service is the best option in delivering this centrally supported service as opposed to other competing services such as Azure Notebooks or CoCalc.
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That there is a market for a shared sector service within UK Higher Education institutions and that Noteable will be a viable service compared to its competitors
Each of the recommendations based on these outcomes will then affect how the Noteable service continues and will be included in the closing report.
Project Milestones
(Please copy and paste from Milestones log)