Ananke documentation

Ananke documentation#

The Ananke project provides preconfigured JupyterHub images for Podman (a Docker-like containerization tool) with a focus on integrating JupyterLab and nbgrader into learning management systems (LMS) like Moodle, Canvas and many others.

The project’s core is the Kore service providing GUI-based course management and an LTI 1.3 interface for nbgrader.

Target group are administrators of small to medium-sized JupyterHubs used in teaching environments with a handful of courses. The project’s focus is not on large-scale JupyterHubs with thousands of users but on:

  • easy setup and operation for instructors and students,

  • advice and preconfiguration for administrators,

  • flexibility to implement different application scenarios.

Overall architecture#

The structure of an Ananke-based JupyterHub deployment is as follows:

  • A host machine runs one or several Podman containers.

  • Each container represents one JupyterHub, which may be used by a whole university or a department or by only one instructor depending on individual configuration needs.

  • One host machine may provide several JupyterHubs with different configurations and features.

  • Each JupyterHub provides individual JupyterLabs for all its users (instructors and students).

Available container images#

The Ananke project uses Podman for containerization. Podman is free, open source, and compatible with Docker. There are several reasons to choose Podman over Docker, the biggest being security-related (rootless containers, daemon-less).

The Ananke project provides the following container images:

  • ananke-base (JupyterHub with LTI login and nbgitpuller)

  • ananke-nbgrader (like ananke-base plus LTI integrated nbgrader)

Where to go from here?#

This documentation of the Ananke project aims at a wide audience including server administrators as well as instructors and students. Read this introduction to find out what kind of user you are. Then go on to the corresponding chapter targeting your role and needs.

For source code see Ananke’s GitHub repo.

For general information and download, see Ananke website.

Contact and contributors#

The Ananke project started as a joint project of Leipzig University of Applied Sciences and Zwickau University of Applied Sciences.

The project team currently consists of:

Funding#

The Ananke project started in 2022 as a government-funded project. Funding is provided by Saxon State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs (Germany) till the end of 2023.

For legal reasons, we state the following (funding information in German):

Dieses Projekt wurde durch den Arbeitskreis E-Learning der Landesrektorenkonferenz Sachsen im Rahmen der sächsischen E-Learning-Landesinitiative gefördert. Die sächsische E-Learning-Landesinitiative wird mitfinanziert durch Steuermittel auf der Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes.

Table of contents#

Contents