Outline draft 1
TODO / raw thoughts
- Use POP method? Appropriate?
- Talk about QGIS in the cloud
Intro
Lay out the community’s problem…
Planning & administering technical training is hard
Variance in user systems can make it harder!
- Hardware, operating system, and user comfort level
- I’m personally comfortable with only one very specific operating system
- User configuration:
- Installed programming languages & versions
- Dependency managers & installed dependency locations
- Inclusion and accessibility are important for learning; lack of these is a distraction or barrier to participation!
- Accessibility: Hardware is expensive, and operating systems are expensive. Not everyone has the time to set up their user configuration for a workshop.
- Accommodation vs Universal design
- Universal Design in Learning (UDL)
UDL places responsibility for accessibility on the course designer rather than on the learner
- UDL is more about pedagogy than technology, probably a bad choice of supporting evidence.
- Accessibility isn’t just about finances; it also means involving people with disabilities in decision-making. We did not do this, I just thought it is important to point out.
- Inclusion: It doesn’t matter what your operating system or hardware preferences are. Your user configuration can be totally unique, and as long as you have a browser, you can participate.
- Accessibility: Hardware is expensive, and operating systems are expensive. Not everyone has the time to set up their user configuration for a workshop.
- Hardware, operating system, and user comfort level
Issues caused by system variance are distractions
- Distractions contribute to cognitive load and reduce learning effectiveness
- TODO: Cite.
- Distractions take time to resolve at run time.
- Distractions take time to plan for: how many helpers do we need?
- Distractions contribute to cognitive load and reduce learning effectiveness
Purpose: Run a virtual QGreenland workshop for researchers that eliminates distractions from system variance
Outcome: Our workshop was able to serve 25 international learners, including
{list of countries}, from career levels{career level range}, while limiting technical prerequisites to Internet access and a browser.- Internet access is no small barrier to participation, but enabled international participation without requiring travel, which we felt was important.
Our solution (process)
JupyterHub to the rescue! Colleagues with the CryoCloud project run a JupyterHub which aims to transition the NASA research community to cloud and open source work patterns, and this aligns well with our workshop goals.
Explained in layers
- Jupyter Notebooks: Literate programming file format. Can be edited and viewed with various tools.
- Jupyter Lab: A comprehensive browser-based environment for using Jupyter Notebooks, with everything else (terminal, image previewer, tabular data editor, …) you might need.
- JupyterHub: JupyterLab deployed in the cloud so anyone can create a Lab on demand.
Working with an existing community benefitted both:
- Running workshops helps the CryoCloud team gather data
- Running workshops helps expand CryoCloud’s capabilities (we contributed
{N}PRs to the open-source project) - Running workshops helps expand the CryoCloud community
- Reduced costs benefit our workshop participants by allowing us to focus more on teaching
- Without: $4500 + 2-4 weeks setup
- With: $0 + 2-3 days setup + $75 cloud operating expenses
TODO: Point to CryoCloud’s & Openscapes’ sessions/tutorials.
- Twila: Last slide, or slide before conclusion. QR code? Also use the identifier for the presentation. Poster number, title.
TODO: “Sounds like you knew the right people to get this opportunity to use a JupyterHub.” Yes! There are multiple communities running hubs, however, and I think many are looking to similarly exercise their capabilities. Look at the list of hubs run by 2i2c for opportunities to collaborate.
Outcome bigger picture
- Twila: Highlight how other people can benefit from what we learned.