README: Pathway Structure

An explanation of how the educational modules are structure. Pages such as References, Resources, Sample Data, and FAQ remain outside of the FOR EDUCATORS and FOR GENERAL PUBLIC page.

The educational modules are structured in a way that reflects feedback that we have received. We call this structure pathways. Essentially, they are possible ways of utilizing each module.

What does that mean?

Well, say a project has a hardware and a software portion. An educator or general learner may or may not want to go through every possible part of a module. They may want something tailored for a class focused on Machine Learning and purely the software side of things. This means that the material regarding hardware set-up and assembly are extraneous. Read the Example Structure in order understand the rationale behind this is greater detail.

Pathways

None of the modules have a pre-determined number of pathways, extensions, or additional assignments. More pathways (or extensions and assignments) can always be added by the CHI@Edge Education team or the community of users that want to contribute.

Each pathway is designed with a different learning environment in mind and are independent and self-contained. This means that there may be repeat information between pathways.

Below we provide an example of how an eduational module may be set up with pathways and the rationale behind each pathway.

Example Structure: Module I Autonomous Cars

Inside of the FOR EDUCATORS and the FOR GENERAL LEARNERS pages, you will find the same pathways (merely structured a bit differently), that being, at this moment in time, the Regular, Classroom, and Digital pathways.

The Regular Pathway: Targeted at Intro to Engineering 

This pathway requires the student to:
-assemble the car
-connect the car to CHI@Edge and Chameleon
-collect data
-clean data
-train machine learning model
-deploy machine learning model

Classroom Pathway: Targeted at Intro to Engineering and Intro to Machine Learning

This pathway requires the TA to:
-assemble the car
-connect the car to CHI@Edge and set up Chameleon Node

This pathway requires the student to:
-assemble the car
-connect the car to CHI@Edge and Chameleon
-collect data
-clean data
-train machine learning model
-deploy machine learning model

Digital Pathway: Targeted at Intro to Machine Learning

This pathway requires the student to:
-(optional)collect data
-(optional)clean data
-train machine learning model
-deploy machine learning model

Diagram of Educational Module Structure: Click to View Enlarged Image

Why is the educational module set up this way?

As you can see from the set-up, there are different scenarios and things emphasized.

Sometimes a class or learner may not have the capital to buy the hardware.

Sometimes a class may not care about learning about the hardware or the cloud.

Every pathway is made for broad scenarios and take some of the burden off the user when utilzing this education module.

However, even though the pathways are supposed to account for various scenarios, it can not do so for all and as such, the Github Repository for this educational module provide the assets and markdown documents necessary for unique alterations to unique circumstances.