Our CLIx software platform, which way to go?
One of the salient and grounding features of the CLIx project is the effective and meaningful collaboration between TISS (Mumbai) and MIT (Boston) – across all realms and levels – so that the goals and objectives of the action research project are achieved. As a part of this, between 5th and 9th of December, 2016, we had a software development workshop at TISS Mumbai.To understand the rationale and purpose of this workshop, we need to step back and look at the story so far. For the current year roll-outs we have been using two modes for student as well as teacher targeted tech deliveries or platforms.
One is an online course authoring (Content Management System) with a simple course player (Learning Management System), analytics and buddy login used for the design and deployment of a course. This platform is based on an evolving, free and open-source platform called Gstudio created for collaboratively creating and publishing open educational resources. The architect of this platform, Prof. Nagarjuna G of Homi Bhaba Centre of Science Education (HBCSE), Mumbai, is actively involved with CLIx, not only as a partner, but also as a Technology Advisor to the parent body CEIAR at TISS. The course Invitation to CLIx was delivered to teachers and students alike on this platform during the current year. The second mode is via what is called ‘Unplatform’, an idea born out of MIT. It makes use of certain artefacts from Open Service Interface Definitions (OSID), whose architect is Dr. Jeffrey Merriman (Jeff) of the Office of Digital Learning at MIT. Unplatform is the platform through which CLIx-created modules on Geometric Reasoning and English were delivered to students of the ninth grade.There are , therefore, currently two modes of engagement with the learner deliveries.
Going forward, we are looking at a unified interface for the learners so as to ensure greater productivity within meaningful timeframes while avoiding the unnecessary complexities; the mantra is to ‘simplify without becoming simplistic’ So it has been decided that we will take the best features of GStudio and OSID and develop our future CLIx software platform for student delivery scenarios as well as for Teacher Professional Development (TPD). This was the purpose of the software development workshop held in TISS between 5th and 9th December.
Now, back to the workshop! Jeff had come down from MIT and was able to spend a good four days with us. In the meantime, GN and our team of enthusiastic and ‘eager beaver’ software developers had prepared the elaborate groundwork, mapping Gstudio and OSID and developing methodologies of interwork. The workshop days, which began around 10.00 a.m., went on till late in the evening – till about 8.00 p.m.
Both architects were in full flow! After all, each of them has been developing and enhancing their ideas for the past circa 15 years! A lot of notes were exchanged and suggestions for the improvement / finehoning of both OSID and Gstudio from the point of view of the evolving CLIx platforms were frozen; and quite a few prototypes were developed to test out ideas. Now we know how to move ahead confidently, within a meaningful timeframe and deliver.
Suffice to say that – the workshop was a grand success. 🙂
[Ramjee Swaminathan, Chief Technology Officer, CLIx]
