[IPython-dev] Developing a MOOC with IPython notebooks

[Wes Turner]

There was a thread a few days ago about "[IPython-dev] Making custom
converter/template with nbconvert"
specifically in regards to generating edX OLX:
http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/ipython-dev/2014-December/015576.html

On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 8:32 AM, Anton Akhmerov <anton.akhmerov at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I am a part of the team developing an EdX online course on topology in
> condensed matter (see http://tiny.cc/topocm), and I'd like to ask
> several IPython notebook questions.
>
> We decided to develop the course predominantly using IPython/Jupyter
> notebooks for several reasons. First and foremost, the notebooks are
> really awesome; thanks to the team and community for developing this
> great tool.
> On a smaller scale, the notebooks allow to share content with people
> not willing to register on EdX, to tightly integrate the programming
> elements of the course with the rest of the content, and finally to
> decouple the course development from the EdX studio.
> We intend to develop all of the course as a bunch of IPython notebooks
> and develop a custom tool that uses nbconvert to generate EdX folder +
> xml + content course structure.
> The reason why that last part is an advantage is because there is no
> notion of version control in the studio, and it's a relatively
> rudimentary tool with a heavy GUI.
> In a longer term perspective we could also run a jupyterhub instance
> to relieve the course users from the need to setup their own
> programming environment (this doesn't seem to be an option right now
> due to the time constraints).
>
> So here go the questions:
>
> * Is the rough release date for v3.0 known? There are several
> important modifications to the notebook format that make this change
> relevant for us. I also hear that the release is planned soon, so do
> you aim for a release some time in January?
> * What are the best practices for keeping notebooks in git? We've
> found nbdiff, but it seems limited: for example it doesn't do anything
> to diff markdown cells. Is there a better way?
> * What are the current options for creating rich graphic content that
> doesn't rely on having a live kernel? I know of mpld3, ipywidgets, and
> bokeh. For us ipywidgets seem like the best solution so far, but it's
> a pet project of Jake Vanderplas that didn't see any action in around
> half a year. So I wonder if there is anything more alive in that
> respect, that'd be great. Perhaps in v3?
> * In general, do you have any further advice?
>
> Thanks,
> Anton Akhmerov
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