This document summarizes the experience of transitioning a biannual face-to-face course on Cloud Computing into a fully online asynchronous course using Cloud Computing tools. The online course saw dramatically more students from more countries complete the course while maintaining a high satisfaction rate. Cloud services from Amazon Web Services, Google Apps, and others were used to deploy remote labs, automate feedback collection, and support over 230 students from 8 countries in an always-open online format. The success of the online transition demonstrates that Cloud services can effectively support high-quality online education at a large scale.

1. Instituto de Instrumentación para
Imagen Molecular
Universitat Politècnica de València,
Spain
ON
USING
THE
CLOUD
TO
SUPPORT
ONLINE
COURSES
2014
Frontiers
in
Education
Conference
(FIE)
Madrid
(Spain),
October,
23

2. GOAL
OF
THIS
TALK
• This
talk
summarises
the
experience
of
creating
and
supporting
an
online
course
on
Cloud
Computing
using
Cloud
Computing
tools.
• FROM
• A
biannual
face-­‐to-­‐face
course
with
up
to
10
students
per
edition
(some
editions
cancelled)
and
satisfaction
rate
over
9
out
of
10.
• TO
• An
always-­‐open
fully
online
asynchronous
course
that
trained
230+
students
from
8
countries
in
an
academic
year
while
maintaining
the
satisfaction
rate.

3. WHAT
IS
CLOUD
COMPUTING?
• Cloud
Computing
is
a
model
to
provision
and
use
resources
(storage,
computation,
services,
etc.)
from
a
third-­‐party
provider
typically
on
a
pay-­‐as-­‐
you-­‐go
basis.
• No
upfront
investments
• Elasticity
(on-­‐demand
provisioning)
Cloud Computing Providers
Virtual
Machines
Storage
Capacity
Services

4. THE
ONLINE
COURSE
• Online
Course
on
Cloud
Computing
with
Amazon
Web
Services
(AWS)
[Spanish]
• http://www.grycap.upv.es/cursocloudaws
• Mainly
Addressed
to
Computer
Scientists
/
Engineers
• Scalable
Cloud
Applications,
Deployment
and
Automated
Configuration
(DevOps),
etc.
• Hands-­‐on
Sessions
using
Remote
Labs.
@CursoCloudAWS
/CursoCloudAWS

5. AN
ONLINE
LEARNER
• Fully
asynchronous
online
course
in
which
the
students
acquire
the
competencies
and
provide
feedback
for
further
improvement.
puede mostrar la imagen. Puede que su equipo no tenga suficiente memoria para abrir la imagen o que ésta esté dañada. Reinicie el equipo y, a continuación, abra el archivo de nuevo. Si sigue apareciendo la x roja, puede que tenga que borrar la imagen e insertarla de nuevo.

6. ARCHITECTURE
TO
SUPPORT
THE
ONLINE
COURSE
Google Forms
Google
Spreadsheets
Amazon Web Services
(AWS)
PoliformaT
(LMS)
PoliTube
(Video Lessons)
Online Learning Platform
CFP
PoliMedia
(Video Intro)
(Management)
Remote Labs
Web Server / SSH
PoliReunión
(Conferencing)
Web Page
(Advertisement)
1. Find the
course
2. Enroll
the
course
3. Course
start. List of
students
Communication Platform
5. Migrate
anonymized data
Students
GMail 6. Send
credentials
7. Access course
materials and
guidance
8. Access
remote labs
Remote Labs Provisioner
Infrastructure
Manager
4.a Deploy
Remote
Labs
9.
Infrastructure
notifications
Devops Tools
(Ansible)
Remote Labs
4.b Deploy
Remote Labs
AWS
Management
Console
9. Report
feedback
Social Hub
10. Keep posted
Content & Management Platform
System Version
Control
SVN

7. TOOLS
FOR
VIDEO
PRODUCTION
• Polimedia
videos
are
recorded
in
a
studio.
• Screencasts
for
the
video-­‐lessons
are
recorded
on
a
MacBook
Air
+
ScreenFlow

8. HANDS-­‐ON
TRAINING
• Self-­‐guided
documentation
so
that
students
work
at
their
own
pace.

9. REMOTE
LABS
ON
AWS
• Remote
Labs
consist
of:
• AWS
Management
Portal
(Web
Interface)
• A
remote
machine
(Virtual
Machine),
shared
by
all
students
and
specifically
configured
with
the
required
tools
and
data.
• Provisioned
via
the
IM
• Infrastructure
Manager
–
http://www.grycap.upv.es/im
• An
open-­‐source
tool
that
you
can
use
to
deploy
customized
remote
labs
on
Cloud
providers.

10. PROVISIONING
REMOTE
LABS
Software Repository
Infrastructure
Manager
(IM)
Virtual Infrastructure
Descriptions (RADLs)
SSyyssaaddmmiinn IInnssttrruuccttoorr
Virtual Machine image
Repository & Catalog
(VMRC)
Virtual
Infrastructure A
Virtual
Infrastructure B
Cloud Provider
Configurator
(Ansible)
Web Interface
Repository of
Educational Material
Students
ODISEA / IM

11. GATHERING
FEEDBACK
• Google
Forms
allows
to
automatically
gather
and
process
the
feedback
after
each
module.

12. PROCESSING
FEEDBACK
• Aggregated
information
to
know
the
highest
rated
video-­‐lessons.
• Enables
to
progressively
improve
each
module
according
to
students’
suggestions
• Goal:
Improve
the
educational
material
until
it
converges
to
zero
doubts
for
students.

13. PERSONALISED
MESSAGING
• Based
on
a
programmed
Google
Spreadsheet
that
enables
personalised
custom
messaging.

14. INSTANT
OFFICE
HOURS
• Requests
from
students
arrive
to
instructor’s
mobile
phone
within
few
seconds.
• The
instructor
decides
if
the
answer
can
be
delayed
• https://boxcar.io

15. WORKLOAD
OF
E-­‐MAILS
PER
COURSE
EDITION
• Instant
notifications
can
be
a
source
of
stress
unless
its
number
is
very
low.
• An
average
14
e-­‐mails
per
edition
with
an
average
25
students
per
edition.
40"
35"
30"
25"
20"
15"
10"
5"
0"
#"of"e&mails"vs"#"of"students"per"course"edi4on"
1" 2" 3" 4" 5" 6"
#"of"students"
#"of"doubts"
• The
strategy
of
iterative
refinement
of
the
educational
material
pays
off.

16. MAIN
RESULTS
• Answers
from
101
students
(out
of
a
population
of
203
students),
from
8
countries,
during
2013/2014
[0,10].
Question
Rate
The
organization
of
the
course
has
been
appropriate
9.10
The
instructor
masters
the
content
of
the
course
9.53
The
course
adapts
to
my
learning
pace
8.31
The
instructor
has
rapidly
resolved
my
doubts
9.59
I
would
recommend
this
course
9.03
The
means
used
for
the
course
(Internet
+
Remote
Labs)
have
advantages
over
9.06
face-­‐to-­‐face
I
am
satisfied
with
the
course
9.06
• 71%
of
students
finished
the
course
with
an
average
grade
of
9.17
(objective
test
questions).

17. ONLINE
COMMUNITY
IS
IMPORTANT
…
• Hola

18. …
BUT
BEING
RANKED
#1
IN
GOOGLE
IS
THE
KEY
First
position
in
Google
(after
the
ads).
Basic
SEO
(Search
Engine
Optimization)
techniques.

19. GOOGLE
ANALYTICS
• Being
struck
by
the
spanish
version
of
the
Slashdot
Effect
(barrapunto.com).
• From
10-­‐20
hits/day
to
300+
hits/day
worldwide.

20. LESSONS
LEARNED
• Online
courses
can
be
highly
dynamic.
• New
material
can
be
included
on
demand.
• Unlike
books,
errata
only
impacts
the
first
student
that
finds
it
and
notifies
it.
• New
learners
are
used
to
MOOCs.
• Online
learning
has
BIG
advantages
for
students
and
instructors.
• You
have
to
AUTOMATE
if
you
want
to
survive.
• Cloud
services
and
technology
is
mature
and
ready
to
support
online
instruction.

21. CONCLUSIONS
AND
FUTURE
WORK
• Use
of
Cloud
Services
to
simplify
online
course
management
while
delivering
a
high
quality
learning
experience
to
a
worldwide
audience.
• Cloud
Services:
Amazon
Web
Services,
Google
Apps,
Google
Analytics,
Infrastructure
Manager
(IM),
BoxCar,
Social
Platforms.
• Current
status:
• No
editions.
Always
open.
230+
students
from
8
countries.
• Enroll
anytime
and
work
at
your
own
pace.
• This
paves
the
way
for
Education
as
a
Service
(EaaS),
where
courses
are
available
when
and
how
the
students
demand.

22. CONTACT
Germán
Moltó
Instituto
de
Instrumentación
para
Imagen
Molecular
Universitat
Politècnica
de
València
Camino
de
Vera
s/n
46022,
Valencia
SPAIN
gmolto@dsic.upv.es
http://www.grycap.upv.es/gmolto
http://formacioncloud.blogs.upv.es
@gmolto