The project coordination role for the collaborative course was played by Steven Gordon at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC). The first task for this role was the recruitment of collaborating universities. This was done through a variety of email lists, XSEDE newsletters, and personal emails sent to previous participants.
The course materials for the workshop version of the course is maintained on the Moodle course management system at OSC - moodle.xsede.org. OSC staff are responsible for maintaining the server while the project coordinator maintains the course information. That includes adding discussion forums for all of the participating institutions, obtaining student enrollment information from each institution, sending enrolled students instructions for connecting to the course management system, and helping to answer course questions. The course management system has links to all of the video lectures, online quizzes, and homework assignment instructions and datasets. In addition, it provides a mechanism for students to upload their completed assignments. Those assignments are then available to the individual faculty members to grade.
In addition, the project coordinator arranged for an introductory online meeting with the lead instructors and participating faculty, regular online meetings with the faculty, and discussions with the faculty about the course and the collaborative model. Arrangements were also made with the independent evaluator for the XSEDE project to evaluate the experience of students and faculty participating in the course. The results of those efforts are summarized in the evaluation section of this site.
