MoodleNet/Roadmap: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:46, 6 September 2019

Roadmap

Note: this is a work in progress to create a high-level overview of the MoodleNet project. For more granular detail, please check out the Moodle Tracker (you must be logged-in to view).

2018

The first year of the MoodleNet project focused on the Conceive, Plan, and Develop parts of the Product Lifecycle. An overview of what we achieved can be found in this 2018 retrospective post on the MoodleNet blog.

Q1 & 2 2019

The first half of 2019 was focused on the Test and Iterate parts of the Product Lifecycle. We launched the first version of MoodleNet to a group of beta testers (~100 English-speaking, ~100 Spanish-speaking). The value proposition we were testing was, “Do educators want to join communities to curate collections of resources?”. By listening to users and evolving the user interface based on their input, we received useful feedback. The value proposition was validated, the tagline of Share. Curate. Discuss was chosen, and we understood the top 10 priorities from testers:

Search for specific keywords and topics of interest.
Easily find out when something has changed within a community they’ve joined, or a collection they’re following.
Sort lists of communities and collections by more than ‘most recent’ (e.g. by number of collections or discussion threads)
Tag communities, collections, and profiles, to make it easier to find related content.
Upload resources to MoodleNet instead of just adding via URL.
Indicate ‘resource type’ (e.g. ‘course’, ‘presentation’ or ‘plugin’)
Send resources they discover on MoodleNet to their Moodle Core instance
Add copyright information to resources and collections
Easily rediscover useful resources they’ve discovered in collections they’re not following
Access MoodleNet on their mobile devices

After the testing period, we said goodbye to our previous backend developer, and welcomed two new members to our team. We ran a workshop at the UK & Ireland MoodleMoot where we received some extremely useful feedback, and attended the Creative Commons Summit where we found links between our work and that of allies in the Open Education movement.

As a result of all this activity, we did a deep dive into [search https://blog.moodle.net/2019/search-in-moodlenet/] in MoodleNet, as well as rating systems and categorisation of resources.

Q3 2019

The third quarter of 2019 has been focused on the Iteration part of the Product Lifecycle. There was some meta-level things to deal with in the form of planning to sunset the existing moodle.net, work with the marketing team on a new MoodleNet page for moodle.com, and finalising the first version of MoodleNet's Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for a community consultation.

More practically, the draft User Agreement and Covenant for Instance Administrators helped us draw a line in the sand based on some issues that the wider 'Fediverse' was having. In addition, we decided that MoodleNet would be focused on free cultural works which differentiates it from other options.

We shared a clickable prototype of a new user interface with the community for their feedback, and created a lightweight spec based on it. A read-only version of the basic features in the new UI is now live on our staging server. Our small, part-time team has been punching above its weight to get a long list of features ready for a beta release in November. Before that, we will be running a [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/federation-testing-programme/ federation testing programme, which we announced during this quarter, receiving a good number of sign-ups.

Q4 2019

Our plan for the final quarter of 2019 is to focus on the Launch part of the Product Lifecycle. At the Global Moot in Barcelona at the end of November we will announce the beta version of MoodleNet, ready for early adopters to start using.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 '''''Note:''' this is a work in progress to create a high-level overview of the MoodleNet project. For more granular detail, please check out the [https://bit.ly/epic-MN Moodle Tracker] (you must be logged-in to view).''
-=== Q1 2018 ===
+=== 2018 ===
-Conceive
+The first year of the MoodleNet project focused on the '''Conceive''', '''Plan''', and '''Develop''' parts of the Product Lifecycle. An overview of what we achieved can be found in this [https://blog.moodle.net/2018/retrospective/ 2018 retrospective post] on the MoodleNet blog.
-In this phase, we researched our options and came up with a high-level goal for a platform that will be of immediate use to educators. This involved talking to a lot of educators and technologists, and looking to other platforms and services for [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/MoodleNet/inspiration inspiration].
-=== Q2 2018 ===
-Plan
-This phase focused on planning how to achieve our high-level goal, deciding on the functionality it should have. We ran a [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/MoodleNet/Design_Sprint design sprint] to ensure we had a coherent plan focused on developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). We also hired Mayel, our [https://blog.moodle.net/2018/welcome-mayel/ Technical Architect] to ensure that we make the correct [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/MoodleNet/tech technical decisions].
-=== Q3 2018 ===
-Develop
-In this phase we developed prototypes and worked with [https://outlandish.com Outlandish] on the [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/MoodleNet/Front-end_dev_workshop front-end development]. We hired Alex, a [https://blog.moodle.net/2018/introducing-alex/ backend developer], who built out the crucial plumbing using [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/MoodleNet/tech/stack Elixir].
-=== Q4 2018 ===
-Iterate
-This phase was about iterating existing designs and approaches so we could be laser-focused on producing something of value to educators. We onboarded Ivan as our [https://blog.moodle.net/2018/say-hello-to-ivan/ designer and front-end developer], and brought together the front-end and backend development work. We did some early testing around the [https://blog.moodle.net/2018/sign-up-feedback/ sign-up process], and re-imagined it to ensure there's no blockers for testing.
 -----
-=== Q1 2019 ===
+=== Q1 & 2 2019 ===
-Test
+The first half of 2019 was focused on the '''Test''' and '''Iterate''' parts of the Product Lifecycle. We launched the first version of MoodleNet to a group of beta testers (~100 English-speaking, ~100 Spanish-speaking). The [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/why-test-moodlenet/ value proposition] we were testing was, ''“Do educators want to join communities to curate collections of resources?”''. By listening to users and [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/evolving-the-moodlenet-ui/ evolving the user interface] based on their input, we received useful feedback. The [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/what-we-learned-from-testing/ value proposition was validated], the tagline of '''Share. Curate. Discuss''' was chosen, and we understood the top 10 priorities from testers:
-We're scheduled to launch the first version of MoodleNet to a group of beta testers in January 2019. Our plan is to recruit around 100 existing Moodle users to test the platform, and rapidly iterate the platform based on their feedback. We'll then give them invites to share with friends and colleagues, meaning we grow organically and sustainably.
+# Search for specific keywords and topics of interest.
+# Easily find out when something has changed within a community they’ve joined, or a collection they’re following.
+# Sort lists of communities and collections by more than ‘most recent’ (e.g. by number of collections or discussion threads)
+# Tag communities, collections, and profiles, to make it easier to find related content.
+# Upload resources to MoodleNet instead of just adding via URL.
+# Indicate ‘resource type’ (e.g. ‘course’, ‘presentation’ or ‘plugin’)
+# Send resources they discover on MoodleNet to their Moodle Core instance
+# Add copyright information to resources and collections
+# Easily rediscover useful resources they’ve discovered in collections they’re not following
+# Access MoodleNet on their mobile devices
-In addition, we will be working on testing federation so that MoodleNet instances can communicate with one another. This will involve setting up a HQ-run API-as-a-service, which also needs testing.
+After the testing period, we [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/thanks-alex/ said goodbye] to our previous backend developer, and [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/welcome-karen-and-james/ welcomed two new members] to our team. We ran a workshop at the [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/what-we-learned-by-running-a-workshop-at-mootieuk19/ UK & Ireland MoodleMoot] where we received some extremely useful feedback, and attended the [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/ccsummit/ Creative Commons Summit] where we found links between our work and that of allies in the Open Education movement.
-=== Q2 2019 ===
+As a result of all this activity, we did a deep dive into [search https://blog.moodle.net/2019/search-in-moodlenet/] in MoodleNet, as well as [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/rating-systems/ rating systems] and [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/voodoo-categorisation/ categorisation] of resources.
-Beta launch
-Once we've tested both the value proposition and federation, we'll double-down on fixing bugs and responding to user needs before opening registrations. During this quarter we aim to develop a plugin to allow users to send collections from MoodleNet to courses in Moodle Core.
 === Q3 2019 ===
-Extending functionality
+The third quarter of 2019 has been focused on the '''Iteration''' part of the Product Lifecycle. There was some meta-level things to deal with in the form of planning to [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/update-sunsetting-moodle-dot-net/ sunset the existing moodle.net], work with the marketing team on a [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/new-moodlenet-page-at-moodle-com/ new MoodleNet page for moodle.com], and finalising the first version of MoodleNet's [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/dpia-consultation/ Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)] for a community consultation.
-After delivering the core functionality of MoodleNet, we'll be adding functionality such as Open Badges integration, searching third-party repositories, and thinking about ways we can implement crowdfunding of openly-licensed resources that have been requested, but don't currently exist.
+More practically, the [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/user-agreement-covenant/ draft User Agreement and Covenant for Instance Administrators] helped us draw a line in the sand based on [https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/12/20691957/mastodon-decentralized-social-network-gab-migration-fediverse-app-blocking some issues] that the wider 'Fediverse' was having. In addition, we decided that MoodleNet would be focused on [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/free-cultural-works/ free cultural works] which differentiates it from other options.
+We shared a [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/clickable-prototype/ clickable prototype] of a new user interface with the community for their feedback, and created a [http://bit.ly/2Z83Gr3 lightweight spec] based on it. A [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/late-august-update/ read-only version] of the basic features in the new UI is now live on our staging server. Our small, part-time team has been punching above its weight to get [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/planning-for-the-moodlenet-public-beta/ a long list of features ready for a beta release in November. Before that, we will be running a [https://blog.moodle.net/2019/federation-testing-programme/ federation testing programme], which we announced during this quarter, receiving a good number of sign-ups.
 === Q4 2019 ===
-Opening registrations
+Our plan for the final quarter of 2019 is to focus on the Launch part of the Product Lifecycle. At the Global Moot in Barcelona at the end of November we will announce the beta version of MoodleNet, ready for early adopters to start using.
-At the Open Edtech Global event, we'll open registrations on MoodleNet so anyone can register. By this point, MoodleNet will be a safe, secure, and scalable app.

Documentation