CloudEngine: Creating networks for professional development and research

Presentation Cloud: cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5937

Dr Nick Freear (n.d.freear@open.ac.uk)

Rebecca Galley (r.galley@open.ac.uk)

The Institute of Educational Technology, Open University, UK.

#sedaconf16

What who FLOSS?• Free / libre / open-source software• “Free as in speech, not as in beer”• “Help thy neighbour”• GNU General Public License; MIT License; BSD License…

• Mostly by professional developers, system administrators…• Day job or “spare time” or a mix, cf. Moodle, Redhat

• RIP Dennis Ritchie – developer of C, co-dev of UNIX

What?• CloudEngine is an easy

way to create a social web site - using 'Clouds' and 'Cloudscapes'

• Ideal for events & discussion

• CloudEngine is lightweight, fast & fully-featured

• It's free & open source software, licensed under the GPL!

• CloudEngine powers Cloudworks

Who?

Professor Grainne Conole Academic leadDr Juliette Culver Lead Cloudworks DeveloperRebecca Galley Evaluation, support and guidanceDr Nick Freear Lead CloudEngine Developer, API,

InternationalizationRichard Lovelock Direct messaging, admin interface,

configurationStephen Turvey (Yep Design) Graphic design, Cloudworks and Aurora

themes)Martha Vasiliadou Translation (Greek) funded by the EU via the

EUPT3 project

Features• Clouds, Cloudscapes • Direct messaging - NEW • Host & archive events - workshops etc. • Search, tags, user profiles, Cloudstreams • Favourite & follow • Embed video, slides, Twitter ... (oEmbed) • RSS feeds, API • Internationalized – currently English & Greek! • Admin: statistics, moderation• Accessible, extensible, themable

First concepts...

Design methodology

‘the fluid, empathetic, dynamic, environment-responsive, future-orientated

and solution-focused nature of design’. Kelly et al. (2008, p.5)

Design-based research approach (DBR)

Object centred rather than person-centred in nature

juhansonin http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/2250554147/

“The fallacy is to think that social networks are just made up of people. They're not; social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared object.”

(Engestrom, 2005)

Theoretical frameworks

• Launched July 2009

• Over 4500 registered users

• Over 95,000 unique visitors (1000+ unique visitors/ week)

• Core of regular users; active discussions; events…

Cloudworks...

15 min activity: Cloudquest

Cloudquest Cloud: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5945

1. If you haven't already done so, create a Cloudworks account (you can view anything on the site, but to post comments or add anything you need an account)2. You may wish to open your search in a new tab or page in your browser so that you can easily navigate back to this cloud 3. If you are new to Cloudworks you might like to take a look at our 'Using Cloudworks Cloudscape'. 4. Explore the site to find answers to the challenge questions

Finally... Post answers to the questions on the activity Cloud Review and respond to the answers of others

Discourse-centred online ethnography

Evaluation strategy

“a combination of systematic observation of online activities and interviews with online actors”.

(Androutsopoulos, 2008, p.1)

• Data analysis

• Observation

• Interviews and surveys Galley et al. 2011

Recent developments

• More embeds: LAMS, Prezi, OU player (Extends our use of oEmbed http://embed.open.ac.uk)

• Search fixes/ usability enhance

• HTML5 forms• Direct messaging

Search before…

• Search bug• Usability

“Very large page to scroll…”

• Score/ relevance?

Search after…

HTML5 forms

• Browser handles errors – usability, simplicity, consistency

• type=email|url .. required, pattern ..

• To do: more forms

Messaging

Roadmap

• Embeds: CompendiumLD/ SVG…• Plugins: authentication, etc.• Upgrade to CodeIgniter 2• …• Project site – CloudEngine powered!• More internal/ external uses• Community, sustainability

Get involved

CloudEngine is a free and open source project and we very much encourage and appreciate any contributions.

• Contribute feedback, publicity• Contribute documentation• Contribute code• Contribute translations• Ideas for integration

Get CloudEngine…

Support and guidance...

Further reading... Alevizou, P., Galley, R. and Conole, G., (2011) Collectivity, performance and self-representation: Analysing Cloudworks as a public space for networked learning and reflection in Exploring the Theory, Pedagogy and Practice of Networked Learning. Ed. Dirckinck-Holmfeld, L., Hodgson, V. and McConnell, D. London: Springer

Conole, Grainne (2010). Facilitating new forms of discourse for learning and teaching: harnessing the power of Web 2.0 practices. Open Learning, 25(2), pp. 141–151.

Conole, G. and Culver, J. (2009), The design of Cloudworks: applying social networking practice to foster the exchange of learning and teaching ideas and designs, special issue of CAL09, Computers and Education, doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.013

Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (forthcoming) Community Indicators: A framework for observing and supporting community activity on Cloudworks Journal of Interactive Learning Environments

Presentation references

• Bouman, W., Hoogenboom, T., Jansen, R., Schoondorp, M., de Bruin, B. and Huizing, A. (2007), The Realm of Sociality: Notes on the Design of Social Software, PrimaVera Working Paper Series, Amsterdam: Universiteit Van Amsterdam, [accessed 7/8/08] http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/courses/lis2176/Readings/bouman.pdf

• Engeström, J. (2005). Why some social network services work and others don't - Or: the case for object-centered sociality. Zengestrom Blog, weblog posting, 13th April 2005. [accessed 19/11/09] http://www.zengestrom.com/blog/2005/04/why_some_social.html

• Kelly, A. E., Baek, J. Y., Lesh, R. A., & Banna-Ritland, B. (2008). Enabling innovations in education and systematizing their impact. In A. E. Kelly, R. A. Lesh & J. Y. Baek (Eds.), Handbook of design research methods in education: innovations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning and teaching (pp. 3-18). New York and London: Routledge.

Thank you

• Go to http://getcloudengine.org • Take the Cloudworks virtual field trip

http://youtu.be/N0HjlyU8OAU • Discuss http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5100• Twitter @nfreear @Rebeccagalley• Email: cloudworks@open.ac.uk

This presentation is available for download from SlideShare via cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5937

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