Website Migration Plan: Coda → Obsidian

Last updated: June 2026

---

Confirmed Decisions

---

Site Audiences

Three distinct audiences — the structure should make navigation clear for each:

• Students → current-teaching/ and resources/
• Teachers / Colleagues → for-teachers/ (workshops, AI CPD, teaching philosophy)
• Administrators / Employers → for-administrators/ (norms, assessments, FAQs, about/CV)

---

Courses 2026–27

Courses not continuing (but archive stays public)

• Personal & Professional Development — the four briefs (GitHub Pages, Case Study, Year Planning, Professional Materials) are strong reusable templates; worth keeping visible
• Communications — class notes from 2025–26 are good reference; artist statement and worksheets are reusable

---

Phase 1: Technical Cleanup (Do First)

1.1 Choose publishing platform

This must happen before frontmatter cleanup because platforms differ in conventions.

Recommendation: Quartz or Flowershow. Quartz has more polish and a larger community as of 2026.

1.2 Strip Coda frontmatter

Every file has coda_page_id and coda_url fields — meaningless in Obsidian. Remove from all 101 files. Keep title, draft, and hidden (or replace hidden with publish: false per platform convention).

Can be done with a single bash script once platform is chosen.

1.3 Rename DRAFT_ and HIDDEN_ folders/files

These are Coda filesystem conventions. In Obsidian, use frontmatter (draft: true / publish: false) instead. Rename everything.

High-priority renames:

• DRAFT_current-teaching/ → current-teaching/
• DRAFT_mathematics/ → mathematics/
• DRAFT_research-and-study-skills/ → research-and-study-skills/
• DRAFT_aiml-web-authoring/ → aiml-web-authoring/
• DRAFT_ai-for-business/ → ai-for-business/
• HIDDEN_contact.md → contact.md (with publish: false)
• HIDDEN_random-writings.md, HIDDEN_scratch-paper.md → move to unpublished local folder

1.4 Fix internal links

Search for coda.io/d/ across all files and replace with relative links. Affected files include at minimum:

• index.md (homepage) — at least 4 Coda links
• communications/index.md
• personal-and-professional-development/index.md

Script: grep -rl "coda.io/d/" . to find all affected files.

---

Phase 2: Homepage Rewrite

The current index.md needs a full update:

• Bio: Update Masters to "completed" — add thesis link (link TBD, please provide)
• Consultancy URL: Replace test.com with real URL (please provide)
• CV section: Add content (placeholder heading currently empty)
• Contact email: Keep joshuaaaron@dcfe.ie
• Remove: All Coda links in body text
• Add: Clear navigation pointing each audience type to their section

Still needed from you:

• Thesis link / URL
• Real consultancy URL
• CV content (or decision on what to include)

---

Phase 3: Restructure (New Folder Layout)

Proposed structure

/ (vault root)
├── index.md                              ← homepage, about, links to three audience sections
├── contact.md                            ← publish: false (or handle via form service)
│
├── current-teaching/                     ← STUDENTS
│   ├── index.md
│   ├── mathematics/
│   │   └── 2026-27/
│   ├── web-authoring-and-databases/
│   │   └── 2026-27/
│   ├── ai-for-business/
│   │   └── 2026-27/
│   ├── research-and-study-skills/
│   │   ├── the-humble-banana/            ← keep and develop
│   │   └── 2026-27/
│   └── programming-design-principles/    ← NEW, Python, QQI level
│       └── 2026-27/
│
├── resources/                            ← STUDENTS (primarily)
│   ├── index.md
│   ├── mathematics.md
│   ├── programming.md                    ← Python focus given new course
│   ├── web-development.md
│   ├── ai-and-machine-learning.md
│   ├── research-and-study.md
│   └── professional-development.md
│
├── for-teachers/                         ← TEACHERS / COLLEAGUES
│   ├── index.md
│   ├── how-i-think-about-teaching.md
│   ├── ai-workshops/
│   │   ├── non-technical/                ← days 0–3 exist, solid content
│   │   └── technical/                    ← days 1–2 exist; day 3 is stub
│   └── guides/                           ← how to learn X (these are teacher-useful too)
│
├── for-administrators/                   ← ADMINS / EMPLOYERS
│   ├── index.md
│   ├── norms-and-expectations.md
│   ├── assessments.md
│   └── faqs.md
│
├── guides/                               ← PUBLIC — general how-to-learn pages
│   ├── how-to-learn-mathematics.md
│   ├── how-to-learn-computer-science.md
│   ├── how-to-learn-programming/
│   │   └── learning-python.md
│   ├── how-i-recommend-learning-to-learn.md
│   └── learning-math-through-programming.md
│
└── archive/                              ← PUBLIC (stays findable)
    └── 2025-26/
        ├── personal-and-professional-development/   ← briefs stay visible
        ├── communications/                           ← class notes stay visible
        ├── prior-teaching/
        │   ├── bfei/
        │   └── dcfe/
        └── aiml-web-authoring/

---

Phase 4: Content — Empty and Stub Pages

Empty pages (fill or cut)

Stub pages (have some content, need more)

---

Phase 5: New Courses (2026–27)

Programming Design Principles (NEW)

Build from scratch. Minimum viable structure:

• index.md — course overview, what students will learn
• briefs/ — assignment briefs (1–3 assessments depending on QQI requirements)
• resources/ — Python-specific links (link to main resources/programming.md)
• exercises/ — hands-on Python exercises

Research & Study Skills (Build out)

Only 1 real page exists currently (the humble banana). Needs:

• index.md — course overview
• exercises/ — the banana and other exercises
• resources/ — link to main resources/research-and-study.md
• Worksheets for key skills (note-taking, source evaluation, etc.)

AI / AI for Business (Build out)

Very sparse. Needs:

• Course overview and structure
• Updated prompt guides (currently just prompt-guides.md, one file)
• Resources page linking to resources/ai-and-machine-learning.md
• Assessment briefs

Mathematics, Web Authoring & Databases

These have more existing structure — main task is archiving 2025–26 and creating fresh 2026–27 folders with updated dates on briefs.

---

Phase 6: Resources Section

Currently resources-and-recommendations.md is a one-liner. Build into a proper subject-organized section:

resources/programming.md

Priority — supports both Programming Design Principles and Web Authoring. Should include:

• Python learning resources (given new QQI Python course)
• General programming practice sites
• Tools (IDEs, notebooks, etc.)

resources/mathematics.md

Links to practice sites, YouTube channels, worked examples relevant to QQI level

resources/web-development.md

HTML/CSS/JS references, tools, hosting options — feeds into Web Authoring & Databases

resources/ai-and-machine-learning.md

Non-technical and technical resources — feeds into AI for Business and teacher workshops

resources/research-and-study.md

Note-taking methods, search strategies, citation tools — feeds into R&SS course

resources/professional-development.md

Portfolio building, CV, GitHub Pages — reuse from PPD briefs which are staying public

---

Ordered To-Do List

Immediate (before any content work)

• Choose platform: Quartz vs. Flowershow
• Collect from Josh: thesis link, real consultancy URL, CV content

Phase 1 — Cleanup (can script most of this)

• Strip coda_page_id and coda_url from all 101 frontmatter blocks
• Rename all DRAFT_ and HIDDEN_ folders and files
• Find all coda.io/d/ links and replace with relative links

Phase 2 — Homepage

• Rewrite index.md — update bio, add thesis link, fix consultancy URL, add CV content, add audience navigation, remove all Coda links

Phase 3 — Restructure

• Create new folder structure (see Phase 3 above)
• Move existing content into new locations
• Move 2025–26 content to archive/2025-26/ (publicly accessible)
• Write index.md for each top-level section (current-teaching, resources, for-teachers, for-administrators)

Phase 4 — Empty/stub pages

• Write or cut the 6 empty pages (see Phase 4 table)
• Develop 6 stub pages (see Phase 4 table)

Phase 5 — New 2026–27 courses

• Build Programming Design Principles from scratch
• Build out Research & Study Skills (develop banana + add more)
• Build out AI for Business
• Create Mathematics 2026–27 folder
• Create Web Authoring 2026–27 folder

Phase 6 — Resources

• Write resources/programming.md
• Write resources/mathematics.md
• Write resources/web-development.md
• Write resources/ai-and-machine-learning.md
• Write resources/research-and-study.md
• Write resources/professional-development.md

Phase 7 — Publish

• Configure publishing platform
• Set publish: false on any pages not ready
• Test locally
• Go live