Learning Platform
Overview
At CodePath, we have created the building blocks of a powerful learning and knowledge platform. This platform provides a significantly better way for developers to document their technical knowledge, collaborate on curriculum, and schedule and execute effective courses.
This isn't a single tool or software but instead a suite of software solutions specifically targeting technical documentation and training.
Principles
This learning platform has a number of guiding principles:
No online platform can ever replace the importance of social and in-person interactions
Designing and building courses should be similar to building open-source software
Courses must be measured and improved based on continuous feedback and analytics
Leverage software and frameworks to ensure course quality from design to execution
We want to build the premier learning platform for highly effective, scalable, and outcome-oriented technical education. Our goal is for this platform to be capable of supporting by hundreds or even thousands of in-person high-touch courses at the same time.
Platform
The learning platform consists of a variety of functions and features targeted around the following:
Curriculum Development
Curriculum collaboration for technical content with easy branching and tracking
Course Scheduling.
Scheduling solution for courses offered where applicants can apply to a course
Admissions Management
Admissions system for accepting applicants and managing the end-to-end admission process
Hybrid Course Delivery System
Online course platform for seamless hybrid courses combining live and online components.
Assignment Tracking and Scoring
Tracking assignment submissions from participants during the course with built-in scoring.
Course Workflow Automation
Attendance management system for tracking absences
Automating operations during the course i.e grouping people into teams
Technical Q&A Support System
Searchable question and answer system for technical issues during the course
Technical Guides
Documentation of technical topics which is well-structured and searchable
Announcements and Reminders
Online integrated communication and messaging platform during the course
Analytics Platform
Collection and visualizations of classroom, instructor and participant analytics
Review the Learning Platform Slides for a high-level overview.
Schema
At the core of this system are a few concepts:
Concept | Description | Example |
Course | Types of curriculum that can be used | Intro to Android |
Cohort | Individual instances of a course that are run | February Android @ Facebook |
Members | Students, moderators, and admins within cohorts | Jane Smith |
Application | Students applying to be in a cohort | Jane's Application for Feb 2016 @ Facebook |
Each type of class and curriculum in our system is called a "course". Courses are developed, similar to how open-source software is developed, using git, GitHub, and a certain directory structure. Think of the course system as a "framework for developing curriculum" just as Ruby on Rails is a "framework for developing web applications".
Components
This learning platform consists of the following major software components:
Component | Description |
Scheduler | Course scheduler for booking and viewing upcoming classes |
Enrollment | Allow eligible applicants to apply to upcoming courses |
Admissions | Manages the admission process for any course start to finish |
Courses | Course content viewer available for access by participants |
Discussions | Questions and answer companion for solving technical issues |
Guides | Technical topic guides available to be searched and accessed |
Mailer | Templated emails to be sent to people before and during a course |
Roster | Unified people tracking everyone involved with classes |
Gradebook | Review and score assignments submitted during a course |
Analytics | Collect and visualize classroom, student and instructor analytics |
Billing | Organization tracking with automated billing based on per-seat |
In Production
To achieve the functionality outlined above, the following software modules exist but need to be further developed:
Unified Member Database - Unified database and API for all cohorts and members
Enrollment - Custom course application system for applicants
Admissions - Admins can easily manage the entire end-to-end state tracking for applicants
Course Viewer - Course content available for access by participants
Guides - Technical topic guides available to be searched and accessed
Discussions - Announcements and Questions and answer companion for solving technical issues
Mailer - Templated emails to be sent to people before and during a course
Gradebook - Review and score assignments submitted before and during a course
Roster - Unified people tracking everyone involved with classes
Future Modules
On top of our core learning platform, there are additional modules that we want to build in the future including:
Virtual Career Fairs
End-to-end platform running large-scale virtual career fairs for our students
Matches students to companies for Zoom interviews, and manages the entire process before and after
Projects Showcase App
List of apps created by project groups including short description and screenshots and team
Can be submitted and crowdsourced by our students
Alumni Portal
Opt-in to certain communication
Link to "staying involved" page
Links to all the ways to stay plugged in:
meetup, slack, facebook, opportunities
See upcoming classes and events
LinkedIn Tracker
Track all students for job changes on their profiles
Connect with all students from our classes automatically
Web front-end for viewing all companies
Direct Talent Marketplace
Provide access to opportunities from companies
Companies can signup to find alumni
Alumni can sign-up to find company opportunities
System helps match alumni to companies
Resources
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