The Mechanical MOOC is a web based app for running a course with a large number of users. Users can sign up for a course, you can send regular email updates about the course and group people into small groups where they can discuss the course with their peers. Nothing more and nothing less.
The Mechanical MOOC is written as a Django application. You can use any hosting provider, but the easiest way to get going quickly is with heroku.
Get the code from github git clone https://github.com/p2pu/mechanical-mooc
After setting up a heroku account if you havent already, run heroku create and git push heroku master
For sending email and managing mailing lists we use mailgun. Unfortunately mailgun doesn't have a free account option, so sending out emails will cost some money :( You will need to set up a mailgun account and get the API keys. Update: mailgun now has a heroku addon with a free option. You can investigate if this supports lists and let us know!
Running mailgun requires that you have a domain name set up (the @whatever.com where your emails will come from). See the mailgun documentation for instructions on how to configure this.
You will need to set a few configuration variables on heroku:
- SECRET_KEY - a random string used for ecrypting user cookies
- MAILGUN_API_DOMAIN - the domain that you will use for email
- MAILGUN_API_KEY - your mailgun API key
- EMAIL_HOST - smtp.mailgun.org
- EMAIL_HOST_USER - the user for sending email through mailgun
- EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD - the password for sending email
- EMAIL_DOMAIN - the same as the MAILGUN_API_DOMAIN (we probably need to remove this)
- DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL - the email address that will be used when sending out emails
You can set these variables by running heroku config:set MAILGUN_API_DOMAIN=yourdomain.org
Don't forget to update the confirmation emails that are sent out to people who sign up. The templates are in the templates/signup/emails folder.
We recommend that you also setup a mailbox for the default email address that you are sending from. This way you can analyze the messages sent during the run of the course.
Next you need to create the database. Add the postgres addon by running heroku addons:add heroku-postgresql:dev.
Then set the config variable DATABASE_URL to the value of HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_URL
Comment out south in the settings.py file and run heroku run python manage.py syncdb. If you know what you are doing, you can use south, but be warned that currently the migrations break and you have to do some custom SQL and fake migrations.
During the database creation, you need to create a superuser. This is the user that you will use to log in and create and send emails.
You also need to create a sequence for your MOOC. A sequence is like a single run of your course, obviously your course will be a resounding success and you will want to run many more!
heroku run python manage.py shell
> from sequence import models
> from datetime import datetime
> start_date = datetime(2013, 12, 1)
> signup_close_date = datetime(2013, 11, 23)
> models.create_sequence(start_date, signup_close_date)
> exit()
Enable the Heroku scheduler to send out the emails to new signups and scheduled emails. Run: heroku addons:add scheduler:standard
Then add the tasks - log into your application dashboard. heroku addons:open scheduler will open the dashboard in your webbrowser. Through the web form, add the following scripts:
- python manage.py handle_new_signups
- python manage.py send_scheduled_mail
The first task should run every 10 minutes and the second task should run every hour.
That's it, you are all set up to run your very own Mechanical Mooc and enlighten the world with peer learning!
The Mechanical MOOC has been used to create a number of educational experiences on the web. We've included the relevant Trello boards for the MOOCs to show the learning design and content development phases as well.
Learning Creative Learning: learn.mit.edu
A partnership with the MIT Media Lab, the Learning Creative Learning Mechanical MOOC supported over 14,000 learners.
Data Explorer Mission: schoolofdata.org/datamooc
A pilot project with the Open Knowledge Foundation, the Data Explorer Mission supported 13 learning groups and 151 learners. Trello Board for Data Explorer Mission
A Gentle Introduction to Python: mechanicalmooc.org
The original "Mechanical MOOC" is a partnership between MIT OCW, OpenStudy, Codecademy and P2PU. Now in its 4th cycle, MOOC has supported over 10,000 learners.