UPDATING SEQUENCE OF ONLINE COURSES FOR NEW LEARNERS WHILE MAINTAINING PREVIOUS SEQUENCES OF ONLINE COURSES FOR PREVIOUS LEARNERS

• US 20190318437A1
• Filed: 04/11/2019
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Coursera, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Coursera, Inc.
• Inventors: LEE, Colleen Chia-Yen, KSHIRSAGAR, Yash, QIAN, Yilei, FINK, Allison, ODELL, Katharine, PALMATIER, Christopher Moonlight, SCHULLER, Donald Geoffrey
• Granted Patent: US 11,315,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/205 Education administration or guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/065 Combinations of audio and video presentations, e.g. videotapes, videodiscs, television systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers

Abstract

A method can present a new sequence of online courses within a specialization for a group of new learners while maintaining a previous sequence of online courses within the specialization for a group of previous learners. The method can include maintaining a base class, associating a first learner with the base class, receiving a request to update a previous sequence of courses, generating a child class, associating a second learner with the child class, responding to a request for a sequence associated with the first learner, and responding to a request for a sequence associated with the second learner.

Claims

1. A method of presenting a new sequence of online courses within a specialization for a group of new learners while maintaining a previous sequence of online courses within the specialization for a group of previous learners, the method comprising:

maintaining a base class, the base class including a base course combination field identifying the previous sequence of online courses;

associating at least a first learner from the group of previous learners with the base class;

receiving, from an administrator, a request to update the previous sequence of courses by removing at least a first online course from the previous sequence of online courses and adding at least a second online course to the previous sequence of courses to generate the new sequence of online courses;

in response to receiving the request to update the previous sequence of courses, generating a child class, the child class including;

a child course combination field identifying the new sequence of online courses; and

a child base identifier field referencing the base class;

associating at least a second learner from the group of new learners with the child class;

in response to a first request for a sequence associated with the first learner from the group of previous learners;

retrieve the previous sequence of online courses; and

present the previous sequence of online courses to the first learner;

in response to a second request for a sequence associated with a second learner from the group of new learners;

retrieve the new sequence of online courses; and

present the new sequence of online courses to the second learner;

wherein the previous sequence of online courses includes at least the first online course that is not included in the new sequence of online courses, the new sequence of online courses includes at least the second online course that is not included in the previous sequence of online courses, and the previous sequence of online courses and the new sequence of online courses both include at least a third online course.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the base class further includes a base identifier field that stores a null value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a latest class, the latest class including a latest field that references the child class.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining that the new sequence of online courses is a most recent version of the specialization by:

checking the latest field in the latest class; and

checking the child course combination field of the child class based on the latest field referencing the child class.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning the base class in response to a client request for the previous sequence of online courses.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning the base class and the child class in response to a client request for a family of the specialization.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning the child class in response to a client request for the new sequence of online courses.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each learner in the group of previous learners is associated with the base class and is not associated with the child class.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each learner in the group of new learners is associated with the child class and is not associated with the base class.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to a request from the first learner to update the specialization:

disassociating the first learner from the base class; and

associating the first learner with the child class.

11. A method of updating a database storing a specialization that represents a sequence of online courses, the method comprising:

presenting a previous sequence of online courses to a first learner associated with the previous sequence, the previous sequence including a first online course and a second online course, the previous sequence being represented in the database by a previous sequence node within a directed acyclic graph (DAG), the DAG including edges from the previous sequence node to at least a first course node representing the first online course in the previous sequence and a second course node representing the second online course in the previous sequence;

adding, to the DAG, a new sequence node representing a new sequence of online courses, the new sequence of online courses including the second online course and a third online course but not including the first online course;

adding edges from the new sequence node to the first course node and the second course node based on the previous sequence node having edges with the first course node and the second course node;

removing a first edge between the new sequence node and the first course node;

adding a second edge between the new sequence node and a third course node representing a third online course for which no edge exists between the third course node and the previous sequence node;

presenting, after the new sequence node has been added to the DAG, the previous sequence of online courses to a second learner previously associated with the previous sequence before the new sequence node has been added to the DAG; and

presenting the new sequence of online courses to a third learner who has been associated with the new sequence of online courses.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising maintaining a class representing the previous sequence, the class comprising:

a course combination field identifying the first online course and the second online course; and

a base identifier field.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the class is an original class generated for the specialization and the base identifier field comprises a null value.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the class is a second or subsequent class generated for the specialization and the base identifier field identifies an original class generated for the specialization.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating a child class, the child class identifying the second online course and the third online course.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon for updating a database storing a specialization that represents a sequence of online courses that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to at least:

present a previous sequence of online courses to a first learner associated with the previous sequence, the previous sequence including a first online course and a second online course, the previous sequence being represented in the database by a previous sequence node within a directed acyclic graph (DAG), the DAG including edges from the previous sequence node to at least a first course node representing the first online course in the previous sequence and a second course node representing the second online course in the previous sequence;

add, to the DAG, a new sequence node representing a new sequence of online courses, the new sequence of online courses including the second online course and a third online course but not including the first online course;

add edges from the new sequence node to the first course node and the second course node based on the previous sequence node having edges with the first course node and the second course node;

remove a first edge between the new sequence node and the first course node;

add a second edge between the new sequence node and a third course node representing a third online course for which no edge exists between the third course node and the previous sequence node;

present, after the new sequence node has been added to the DAG, the previous sequence of online courses to a second learner previously associated with the previous sequence before the new sequence node has been added to the DAG; and

present the new sequence of online courses to a third learner who has been associated with the new sequence of online courses.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the computing system to maintain a class representing the previous sequence, the class comprising:

a course combination field identifying the first online course and the second online course; and

a base identifier field.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the class is an original class generated for the specialization and the base identifier field comprises a null value.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the class is a second or subsequent class generated for the specialization and the base identifier field identifies an original class generated for the specialization.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising generating a child class, the child class identifying the second online course and the third online course.