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I know that MOOCs were generally unsuccessful. However, I felt that M2O2C2 in Coursera was a great (at least my favorite) course and it's a pity it was removed. Does anyone have any info - will it ever be back under any format?

Emil N
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    Obviously Steven's answer has all you need, but there is still a multivariate course using similar software, e.g. https://ximera.osu.edu/mooculus/calculus3 which has the various interactive stuff, just presumably Jim's take on the material and not Steven's. – kcrisman Jul 22 '22 at 18:23
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    @kcrisman these texts currently in use by OSU have been very collaboratively written. You can check the commit history to see how many authors there are. I will particularly highlight the contribution of Bart Snapp. – Steven Gubkin Jul 25 '22 at 22:19
  • @StevenGubkin Thanks for clarifying that! (Which I think I also knew in theory but am glad for the reminder, since I've met some of those collaborators, and you are also one.) – kcrisman Jul 26 '22 at 20:45

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I was the primary author of the M2O2C2 content. So glad that you enjoyed the course!

My friend Jim Fowler wrote the backend code (called Ximera). All of the files for M2O2C2 were in an earlier, not backwards compatible, version of Ximera. So even getting the content to function on the web would require considerable work. I also think Jim is the only person who actually knows how to get the thing to work...

The tex files are all available on github:

https://github.com/kisonecat/m2o2c2

Please feel free to download all the files and mess with them until they compile as a pdf. I did enjoy writing up my unique perspective on multivariable Calculus for this course, but I have not had time or motivation to salvage it.

Steven Gubkin
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    Could you clarify why "it was removed"? Is it because the software that it uses is no longer supported? – JRN Jul 22 '22 at 15:47
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    @JRN Ya. Jim wrote (from scratch) a system called "ximera" which takes latex code and alternately parses it into an interactive webpage OR into a pdf. Things like \answer{x^2} would create a fill in the blank box where the student could type a function. Similar mechanisms for multiple choice, etc. The version of ximera which m2o2c2 was written in is no longer operational. Theoretically one could pull the old version from github and get it functioning, but the mechanics of setting up the servers was idiosyncratic and not well documented. So I think it might just be lost. – Steven Gubkin Jul 22 '22 at 16:53
  • I know this is somewhat OT, but what is the current status of Ximera (as a platform, not Mooculus and friends which Wikipedia misleadingly conflates with them)? I haven't asked Jim about it in a while and when I saw this post it was easier to ask here :) – kcrisman Jul 22 '22 at 18:19
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    @kcrisman AFAIK Ximera has reached a somewhat stable state, and is being actively used by a few content authors at various Universities. My own interests have shifted more towards creating human connections: I am less certain that text (even interactive text) can have that big of an impact for non-experts. – Steven Gubkin Jul 22 '22 at 18:36
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    This is one thing that I really love about the Stack Exchange Network! You ask a question, and it it might just happen that the original author (or "original online course instructor", or whatever) shows up and answers. (There are also some nice instances of this on, e.g., MathOverflow.) – Jochen Glueck Jul 23 '22 at 08:06
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    This is why I hate the state of commercial software as it is at the moment. A perfectly good program becomes unusable because the underlying infrastructure arbitrarily changes because of specious reasons. There are quite a few software packages that I paid good money for that I can no longer use because they don't work with later versions of Windoze. (Smug responders who sneer that I should be using Linux will be put on the list of people who I will be waiting for in the afterlife with a large gang of demons to torture you for eternity.) – Prime Mover Jul 23 '22 at 22:09
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    @primemover this isn't commercial software though: it is free, open source software. You are free to try and sort through the GitHub page and use old commits to get it working again! – Steven Gubkin Jul 24 '22 at 11:44
  • @StevenGubkin, just a minor clarification. I guess Jim also has no intent to come back to this project? – Emil N Jul 25 '22 at 10:14
  • I don't think so. – Steven Gubkin Jul 25 '22 at 10:57