1. An Instructional Computing Framework
Jim Farley
Harvard University
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

2. History Born of two parents: iCommons and the Provost’ Innovation Fund
Generalize tools developed by the College, Business, and others for use across the university, in a central ASP model (to start)
Provost’ Innovation Fund grants:
Foster forward-thinking efforts in instructional computing and distance learning tools (tools, experiments, courses, etc.)
Lessons learned
Improve the process
Define the ground rules
Lower the barriers
=> Sustainable, pragmatic collaboration is key
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

3. Motivations Frictionless technology IP Shift focus to the Good Stuff
“Appropriate” defined by pedagogy and learning experience, not architecture issues
Configuration instead of porting
Core theme of the iCommons effort: leverage
Shift focus to the Good Stuff
“The best plumbing is the plumbing that you never see”
Innovation, not logistics and infrastructure
Improve development process (and sense of community)
Faster tool development, higher quality code, etc., etc.
Eliminate wheel patent disputes
Shared framework => collaborative environment
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

4. Requirements and Constraints
No incremental funding for the Framework
Built on the backs of internal Harvard resources and projects
Focus on immediate needs of Harvard programs
Implies strategy and prioritization of services, utils
…with an eye towards external/industry standards and collaboration
Support “critical mass” of technical hosting environments at Harvard
Too many => loss of focus and effectiveness
Too few => loss of critical constituents
For Harvard, the right formula was Java and Perl
…with an eye towards external collaboration
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

5. Cross-Platform Design Process
Shared, conceptual design
Semi-independent
implementations
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

6. R&D Framework Manifest
Business
services
Infrastructure
services
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

7. R&D Framework Management
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

8. Status of Services
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College

9. Futures (Near and Far) Step up to business layer Content services
People, courses, content, assessment, etc., etc.
Content services
Integration with repositories (formal and informal)
Local, loosely-managed “collections” in files, local RDBMS, WebDAV access
Institutional, archive-quality collections
Content metadata standards (SCORM, etc.)
Library content, process and systems
Evolve the community
Integrate “framework thinking” into development process
Continuous re-drawing of the line between “pragmatic” and “cosmetic”
Performance issues with reference implementations => hard design decisions
Keeping the faith on the benefits in the face of real deadlines
May 11, 2019
Copyright © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College