Overview
Background
What is Noteable?
The Noteable service is a cloud-based application providing access to Jupyter notebooks online. Noteable provides a central space to store and run Jupyter notebooks in a variety of languages.
The purpose of Noteable is to allow students and staff to access Jupyter notebooks at any time without the need for pre-installation which can be cumbersome and difficult for programming novices. Noteable is integrated with Learn to allow for a central launch point into a pre-set environment without the need for a separate login.
Noteable Pilot
The aims of this pilot were 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 allowed for the creation of a Jupyter network for sharing good practice and promoting the use of this tool.
The initial pilot of the service was run for the duration of Semester 1 of the 2018-19 Academic Year concluding in December 2018. There was then interest from key partners for the pilot to be continued into Semester 2. Hence the Noteable pilot continued through Semester 2 of the 2018/19 academic year. Feedback information from staff and students as well as usage data and indications of further demand was collected and presented in July 2019.
Following on from the pilot, it was decided to transition the pilot into a full service.
Scope
- To transition current Noteable pilot into a full service with all the relevant documentation in place.
- To assist Edina with marketing Noteable to other universities by providing case studies and examples of good practice.
Objectives and Deliverables
| Ref | Objective/Deliverable | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Objective 1 | To transition Noteable pilot into a fully supportable service hosted within Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.1 | Create and Publish Service web pages on www.ed.ac.uk - includes case studies and best practice examples | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.2 | Create and Publish a Service Description document | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.3 | Create and Publish an Operational Level Agreement (OLA) document that will detail the relationship between DLAM and Edina | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.4 | Create Service support documentation, such as Help guides, to enable service to be supported effectively by the DLAM Team | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.5 | Create and Publish Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for the service | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.5 | Create and publish a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for the service | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.6 | Complete Student Systems Protocol form. | Must Have |
| Deliverable 1.7 | Create and publish a Data Retention Policy for the service. | Must Have |
| Objective 2 | To assist Edina with marketing Noteable to other universities | Should Have |
| Deliverable 2.1 | Create material for Edina such as best practice examples, case studies etc. | Should Have |
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Benefits
Noteable service pilot has already established the benefits that this service will bring such as:
- Staff who already incorporate Jupyter notebooks into their teaching will benefit from removing the need to have students install Jupyter beforehand which is time consuming and can cause issues especially when using multiple additional packages.
- Affirm the functionality of the platform itself, providing the basis to promote its use at other institutions.
- The delivery of a centrally supported notebook service will also help more staff to use notebooks for teaching purposes and provide a possible platform for the DLAS project.
This project will continue delivering the above benefits but with all service related artefacts in place. This will enable delivery of a fully supported, documented service where users and other stakeholders have clarity of what can be expected from the service and team supporting it. Additionally, this project will ensure legal compliance such as GDPR and the Equality Act by creation of documents such as DPIA and EQIA.
Project Milestones
Deliver best practice resources to Edina 06/12/2019
Project Closure 03/02/2020