in the Center of Innovation for the Information Society (CICEI) at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), a block named Course dedication block has been developed. This block allows to see the dedication estimated time to a Moodle course by the participants of the course.
Instructions of how to use it are in its download page in Modules and Plugins database. There are versions for Moodle 1.6 and Moodle 1.9.
We hope you enjoy it. Any idea will be well received. We'll try to answer here any questions related to this block.
Borja.
this is a nice motivational tool for students. I have installed it on 1.9.2 and it works fine.
There seems to be a small language problem. It appears that "minutos" hasn't been changed to "minutes" in the en-utf8 language file. Apart from that it all works good
Thanks a lot for sharing Borja.
Cheers,
Fred
as Robert says the texts in English are in /lang/en_utf8/block_dedication.php. However Fred, in the future i will change this text and other texts. For example, Chris Collman suggested me a better title for the block. I'm sorry, but my english is not very good
Thanks to both,
Borja.
Hello,
This is exactly what I was looking for. I have installed the block.
However, I can't seem to find the instructions:
1. Where in moodle do I find this function now as an administrator? How do I track now the students?
2. If we want the student also to access this information for his/her time spent on the course, where would they find this? Please let me know the exact link.
Thank you!
1. In 1.9.3 version don't work if you insert it in sticky blocks for courses.
2. It's possible groups filter? Thanks.
Lo tengo en un 1.9.3 y veo dos problemas. Si lo pongo como bloque sticky no funciona. También estaría bien poder filtrar los resultados por grupos en lugar de mostrar todo el listado de alumnos. Esto último es una sugerencia que podría mejorar el bloque.
Enrique
Hello Enrique,
I was able to set up the block, thank you. As administrator, I can view the dedicated times for each student.
However, I still do not know how to set up so an individual student can view his dedicated time. Can you please provide me with isntructions how to set this up?
if you want individual student can view dedicated times for each student and teachers (a student viewing only his dedicated time is not posible) you can do it in two ways:
- Allow capability Course dedication to student role
- Overrides permissions on a concrete course or block context.
Hello Enrique,
I think the block should well work as sticky block. But you must bear in mind that by default only administrator role can use it and that the block can be used only in course pages (nor in main site page nor in my moodle page). Could you try it again with this considerations?
And thanks a lot for groups filter suggestion. We don't use groups nowadays but i think it would be an interesting feature to add to the block in the future.
Borja.
Thank you Borja for your response. Is there any possibility you might consider a version that would do this in the future? The reason is that we are giving students some credit for the hours they spend online learning, and they have been asking if they could check on the hours themselves. It would be great if in the future, this were possible so that students have access to their information only.
Thank you!
I think that this would be a little dangerous. I think the time returned by this block must be only considered as an estimated time. This block may be useful for an administrator or a course coordinator to extract conclusions. But to say to a student or a teacher: "you have spent x hours in the course" may be a bit dangerous.
For example: a student goes to the course and open 5 new tabs or windows. Then the block will says that this student spent 2 minutes in the course (the time that he spent opening the tabs or windows) but he actually spent "1 hour" (the time that he spent reading all the content of the opened tabs or windows).
What do you think about?
Borja.
Hi Borja,
Yes, definitely you are right and that this is an "estimate". What is happening is that some students are asking if they can see estimates of how much time they might be credited and the instructor/teacher is indeed using your solution/dedication to estimate.
We are temporarily having students click on the "Notes" tab in Moodle when they leave the system so it gives them an ongoing way to access the activity log, when they login, and then by click the Notes tab, this is alos logged when they exit.
We just wondered if there might be another way to do this through your system. We realize that this may be subject to abuses, but it's more to give students a tool to estimate.
Thank you
i think that a good solution would be to have two capatilities instead of only one:
- To see course dedication (of all participants)
- To see your own dedication
I will have this in mind in the future.
Regards,
Borja.
First of all congratulations for the block.
I am being asked to implement the group filter. Do you have any progress or suggestion that might be useful?
and excuse me for the delay in responding. I am sorry but I have no progress on it, although I think it might be a necessary feature. The only obvious suggestion is to add a group selector in dedication.php and according to it show the table with only the desirable students. At the moment I can not give your more help.
Regards.
Enrique and rest of people,
Can you use "course dedication block" with filter groups?
I use moodle 2.2 and the block shows all students/user of the course, but I can't separate students groups?
Any suggestion?
Thanks
Juan
- If it is a sticky block checks that user has permission to see the dedication estimated time at course context.
- If it is a normal block checks that user has permission to see the dedication estimated time at block context.
Regards.
Regards.
I have downloaded your dedication block and I have found some problems installing it. I am using Moodle 1.9.3+ (Build: 20081224).
1. First Moodle is complaining about a missing version.php file in your last version 1.9 block.
2. I made up a version.php file for it, and found there were missing the mysql files in the DB directory.
Can you help.
Saludos,
Manuel.
I'm sorry for being late so much in answering you but when i saw your message i was busy and later i forgot it and then I went on holidays...
So I hope that this mail is not of help to you because already you have solved the problem
1.- I think blocks doesn't need a version.php file.
2.- In dedication block nothing must be added to database. The only thing existing in de DB directory is for add capabilities to roles.
So i don't know what can be happening. If still you have the problem, can you give me more information about it?
Saludos.
I have a similar problem:
Downloaded and installed.
But when visiting the /admin page there are no messages.
And the Block does not show under Administration menu, Modules, Blocks.
(Presume it should show as "Dedication"?)
I'm using Moodle 1.9.3+
Anyone else encountered similar ?
Thanks, Stuart.
I have just installed it in a clean Moodle 1.9.3+ and i have not that problem. It shows as Course dedication under Administration menu, Modules, Blocks, Manage Blocks.
Regards.
Interesting... I'll see if I can work out why it didn't work here and post back
Stuart
This Block has indeed now appeared, and works
I can only think it was some type of cache problem initially.
Can you explain a little more about how the calculations are made?
Even though these may not be 'accurate'(?) I think this is such a simple way to see a measurement many teachers want to see ("How long did Student X spend in this course?") that I'd like to understand it a little better.
Many thanks for developing and releasing this
Stuart
the calculations are made bearing the following definitions in mind:
Session: set of two or more consecutive clicks in which the elapsed time between every pair of consecutive clicks does not overcome an established maximum time.
Session duration: elapsed time between the first and the last click of the session.
So the total student dedication to a course is the sum of all his session durations in a chosen period. And the clicks are obtained from the log table of the database.
Regards.
Thanks Borja
Hola Borja, en primer lugar espero que nadie se moleste si no escribo en ingles... pero logicamente me expreso mejor en español...
Soy novato con moodle, y a pesar que leo mucho, no se como solucionar el problema que tengo con tu módulo.
Uso moodle 1.9.4+, he subido la carpeta dedication sin modificar nada al servidor, mas concretamente dentro de la carpeta blocks; si no tengo mal entendido, eso debería crear dentro del panel de administración un apartado nuevo llamado Dedicación al curso, pero no existe; he mirado este mismo post, para verificar la ruta de donde debería estar ese nuevo apartado... Si no tengo mal entendido deberia salir en Administración - Modulos - Bloques - Gestionar bloques, pero allí no aparece, no se si puedes ayudarme a solucionar esto, pues necesito saber y crear reportes del tiempo de conexion al curso que tiene cada uno de los alumnos.
Tal vez sea por la version de moodle, la verdad es que no lo se... reitero las gracias a todos por ayudar a este novato.
-- brief English translation --
Sure English is preferred but the most important thing is to find a solution. Did you login in as admin and click on Notifications in the Site Admin block? If not, do so because that is what initiates the install process for new blocks. Then you should be able to see the block in Admin - Modules - Blocks - Manage Blocks. Peace - Anthony
Hola Borja,
Intentaré explicarme en ingles ...
Thanks a lot for your comments, i stayed 1 week in Paris and when i return i see your answer and i solve the problem... my mistake was that i did not entry in Notifications.
Your block works perfectly in this version and i would say to you thanks for your job.
Regards from Andorra.
the time returned by this block must be only considered as an estimated time. This block may be useful for an administrator or a course coordinator to extract conclusions. But to say to a student or a teacher: "you have spent x hours in the course" may be a bit dangerous.
At this moment i think it is not possible to present a question or a captcha periodically.
Regards.
Is this compatible with moodle 1.97+?
I've tried to install it but it said "Block dedication is not compatible with the current version of Moodle and needs to be updated by a programmer.".
Any solution? please.
Thank you.
this block is compatible with 1.9.7+
Could you test if folder ...yourmoodle.../blocks/dedication and its content exists and has all permissions right?
Regards.
So I reinstalled moodle 1.97+ (20100210) and install course dedicate block, it works. So I don't know what's wrong with my old moodle(may be because I have install some Major patch in my old moodle). By the way, thanks for your advice.
Regards.
the translation has been added to the code of the block.
Regards.
Hi Borja,
I'm now using Moodle 1.9.8, encounter below error after installed this block and click 'Notification' link.
Tried to modify database, but "E:\Moodle\server\moodle/mod/dedication/db/mysql.sql" doesn't exist!
dedication tables could NOT be set up successfully!
I've login as admin, try to access <myip>/blocks/dedication but failed with "Object not found!" message.
Could you please suggest any advice?
Thanks.
Adrian C.
I found the cause of error and it shows obviously in above path.. it's just folder issue. I've put the whole folder in wrong place, it works when I move back to the right folder "..\moodle/blocks/"..
don't worry since it often happens
Regards,
Borja.
Hello Borja.
First of all, congratulations on the development of this useful block. I've been using it since early 2009 for monthly statistics.
I wanted to note a particular behavior of the block when users get the "forum mail error" registered as an Action:
In this case, Ana Gabriela has the Student role in the course but she never actually accessed it. All her actions are "forum mail errors"
The conditions for this scenario are:
- The user has the Student role
- The student is subscribed to the forum (in this case, all students are subscribed automatically)
- For some reason, the server is unable to send the email notification when someone makes a post and generates an error.
This results in the Course Dedication Block taking her "forum mail error" actions as real activity, creating false data.
Of course, this can be solved in a variety of ways, fixing one of the 3 conditions I listed...I just wanted to show this particular case to the world
It probably happens with other "false actions" like this as well.
Hope you find it useful.
Juan Pablo, from Chile.
Hi all,
would be a version from Moodle 2.0?
Thanks.
Hi Paco,
I think that when we were using Moodle 2 we will upgrade the module.
Regards.
Hi Paco,
It is legal and possible. And it would be great.
Regards.
I would really love to see this block available for Moodle 2.0 too. Thanks!
By the way, is there any other 3rd party Moodle plugin that does similar things that is fully compatible with Moodle 2.0? Just curious. Thanks!
I'm the developer, I used a few lines of code of this block to creathe this column
See
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=4283
Hi,
¿Take "course dedication time" into account dedicated time for SCORM also? For example, if an user are seeing any SCORM and he exits without close session neither do click in another section.
Thanks.
The course dedication time uses the same code that this plugin for calculating the time, so, If the course dedication block take into account the SCORM time, the configurable reports also
The block takes into consideration all clicks saved in log table. And SCORM saves all its own clicks in log table, so those clicks are considered.
Offtopic: Juan aprovecho para comentarte que el Configurable reports nos parece la bomba, muchas gracias.
Regards.
Excuse me, but SCORM clicks are registered all in log table only in case of debuggin is turned on. In another case log table only register the beginning (with action=view) and the final (with any action in another module) and I should consider scorm_track table entries.
Regards.
Hi Paco,
Then those clics are the only ones considered by course dedication block.
Regards.
This block has been updated to Moodle 2 version by Aday Talavera Hierro, member of CICEI from ULPGC.
You can download it from the old database of modules and plugins or download it from our server.
We have published this plugin in the new plugins database.
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=block_dedication
Hi
just for information
the block "dedication" works well on my 2.3 Moodle.
and there is the documentation i made for the french community :
http://docs.moodle.org/2x/fr/Dedication.
cheers.
Buenos días
Me he descargado vuestro bloque para la versión 2.1 y funciona genial... gracias! Pero necesitaría que apareciesen las ip's de cada franja de conexión de cada alumno ¿es posible?
Gracias, un saludo
Instalei esse bloco para o Moodle 2.4.3+. Está funcionando perfeitamente. Mas não estou entendendo seu funcionamento.
Não entendo o que seja "Tempo entre os cliques (em minutos)".
Por padrão vem escrito marcado 60 minutos. Mas para cada valor diferente que marco, o tempo resultante é diferente.
Abaixo uma tabela de exemplo.(esse é um relatório de um curso REAL, só troquei o nome dos alunos)
Destacando alguns exemplos:
ALUNO-08: se marco "1", o resultado é que ficou "22 minutos"; se marco "60" o resultado é que ele ficou "3 horas e 15 minutos".
Então pergunto: afinal, esse aluno ficou 22 minutos ou 3 horas e 15 minutos?
ALUNO-16: se marco "1", o resultado é que ficou "4 minutos"; se marco "60" o resultado é que ele ficou "1 hora".
Então pergunto: afinal , esse aluno ficou 4 minutos ou 1 hora?
ALUNO-38: se marco 1", o resultado também é "4 mintuos"; se marco "60" o resultado é diferente do aluno-16, e resulta em "1 hora e 32 minutos"
ALUNO-40: se marco "1", o resultado é "5 minutos"; se marco "60", o resultado é "38 minutos".
=> não consigo entender a LÓTICA ou PROPORÇÃO. Para piorar, também uso o GMOODLE que me dá resultados totalmente diferentes desses.
GOSTARIA DE RECEBER EXPLICAÇÃO PARA ENTENDER O QUE SÃO ESSES RESULTADOS
NOME | Para 1 min | Para 2 min | Para 3 min | Para 4 min | Para 5 min | Para 10 min | Para 20 min | Para 60 min |
Aluno-01 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 15 min. | 15 min. |
Aluno-02 | 1 min. | 6 min. | 8 min. | 16 min. | 16 min. | 23 min. | 36 min. | 36 min. |
Aluno-03 | 2 min. | 3 min. | 6 min. | 6 min. | 10 min. | 16 min. | 16 min. | 16 min. |
Aluno-04 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-05 | 13 min. | 20 min. | 26 min. | 32 min. | 32 min. | 38 min. | 1 h. e 16 min. | 3 h. e 13 min. |
Aluno-06 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-07 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-08 | 22 min. | 50 min. | 1 h. e 0 min. | 1 h. e 4 min. | 1 h. e 8 min. | 1 h. e 49 min. | 2 h. e 47 min. | 3 h. e 15 min. |
Aluno-09 | 2 min. | 2 min. | 5 min. | 5 min. | 5 min. | 19 min. | 19 min. | 19 min. |
Aluno-10 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-11 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-12 | 3 min. | 5 min. | 5 min. | 5 min. | 9 min. | 15 min. | 49 min. | 49 min. |
Aluno-13 | 1 min. | 4 min. | 10 min. | 10 min. | 10 min. | 10 min. | 10 min. | 43 min. |
Aluno-14 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-15 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-16 | 4 min. | 12 min. | 17 min. | 17 min. | 17 min. | 17 min. | 30 min. | 1 h. e 0 min. |
Aluno-17 | 5 min. | 5 min. | 5 min. | 8 min. | 8 min. | 14 min. | 14 min. | 14 min. |
Aluno-18 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-19 | 0 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 11 min. | 11 min. |
Aluno-20 | 6 min. | 9 min. | 16 min. | 27 min. | 32 min. | 32 min. | 49 min. | 49 min. |
Aluno-21 | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. |
Aluno-22 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-23 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-24 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-25 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-26 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-27 | 2 min. | 2 min. | 2 min. | 2 min. | 2 min. | 2 min. | 2 min. | 31 min. |
Aluno-28 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 3 min. | 3 min. | 8 min. | 27 min. | 38 min. | 2 h. e 7 min. |
Aluno-29 | 1 min. | 2 min. | 2 min. | 6 min. | 6 min. | 11 min. | 11 min. | 11 min. |
Aluno-30 | 10 min. | 12 min. | 15 min. | 18 min. | 22 min. | 34 min. | 48 min. | 1 h. e 53 min. |
Aluno-31 | 0 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 22 min. |
Aluno-32 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 12 min. | 12 min. |
Aluno-33 | 5 min. | 12 min. | 12 min. | 12 min. | 12 min. | 38 min. | 38 min. | 38 min. |
Aluno-34 | 1 min. | 4 min. | 6 min. | 6 min. | 6 min. | 6 min. | 40 min. | 40 min. |
Aluno-35 | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 1 min. | 12 min. | 12 min. |
Aluno-36 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Aluno-37 | 3 min. | 9 min. | 12 min. | 12 min. | 17 min. | 40 min. | 40 min. | 1 h. e 1 min. |
Aluno-38 | 4 min. | 6 min. | 8 min. | 12 min. | 12 min. | 29 min. | 59 min. | 1 h. e 32 min. |
Aluno-39 | 2 min. | 3 min. | 3 min. | 3 min. | 3 min. | 3 min. | 3 min. | 3 min. |
Aluno-40 | 5 min. | 6 min. | 6 min. | 6 min. | 11 min. | 11 min. | 38 min. | 38 min. |
Aluno-41 | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. | 0 min. |
Hola,
un saludo a los desarrolladores del módulo y les quería preguntar si hay una fecha tentativa de cuando podría estar lista la versión para el Moodle 2.6. Utilizaré el módulo y quiero saber si voy a tener que bajar la versión o podría esperar. Gracias !!!
MZ
Hello,
Your plugin useful he will soon be available for Moodle 2.6?
thank you
Daniel
We have published a major update of this block with great new features. You can see the new plugin description and screenshots for more information in https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=block_dedication
Note: as a side effect translation changed a lot and we needed to delete all of them except English and Spanish, as these are the only languages we can translate.
With Moodle 2.7 this block no longer works, due to the new logging system.
Is there any work around for this? I tried enabling the legacy logging system but it still doesn't work.
At this moment we can't test against Moodle 2.7 due to their software requirements. We hope to update our servers this year and provide an update.
Hi Aday,
Do you plan to update this plugin, to make it officially compatible with Moodle's 2.7 (and more) new logging system and recent Moodle versions (3.1 and 3.2), and available in the plugin directory?
It would certainly help a lot of people...
Séverin
Hi there,
+1 for Séverin's proposal, we think it's a great plugin and we'd love to see it updated in the plugin directory.
Anyway, just in case you don't know, we've been using this officially unreleased version of the plugin in Moodle 2.7, 2.9 and 3.1 without any issue; it was originally published by Aday here:
Iñigo
+1 too
First, thank you for a very useful tool.
I am using v2.5 and would like to ask if there is a simple way to make the report include all course users, not just the currently enrolled users? This is important for the how we use Moodle and the way our course hosts develop reports to their management.
Many thanks,
Hello, I am using the course dedication block and one of colleague asked if it is possible to add the username field in the table of the dedication tool?
Thank you.
Hi everyone!
I have a problem with this plugin, I installed a platform with version 2.8.5 in which you install the plugin, but does not display data that accounted for time on the course.
Forum in Spanish they loaded a plugin which download and install time, asking me to change name, change the name to load the plugin and shows me the following error:
The plugin declare ITS name is 'dedication' but That does not match the name of the root directory.
I don't know where to go on, I hope you can help me. On both platforms I use the version 2.8.5
You need to make sure that the name of folder is correct to install it. If the plugin is called dedication, then the folder that you zip and then upload must also be called dedication.
You're amazing Emma! thanks a lot. I appreciate your help, hey partners I made it! Thanks everyone.
Hi Borja,
Can you please explain calculations a bit clear. I am totally confused.
I am using moodle 2.9, in that it is not using "mdl_log" table, instead they are using "mdl_logstore_standard_log".
Hi, I've published the new version supporting Moodle 2.7+ and Moodle 3.x+
Sorry for de delay publishing this new version. If you detect any errors, please contact with me by private messages.
Thanks Aday for this update
- Greetings, where can I download
Hi Aday,
Do you plan to release a new version, compatible with new Moodle versions (including 3.5) and GDPR?
Séverin
PS : compatibility with new Moodle mobile app would also be a +
In Moodle 3.5 cannot find the Course dedication block.Is it because of version issues. Please help.
@Santanu ... Please see:
https://moodle.org/plugins/pluginversions.php?plugin=block_dedication
shows/claims compatibility with 3.x+ but download is for up to 3.2.
The maintainers names are at the above URL. Suggest contacting one of them to inquire.
Issues: https://bitbucket.org/ciceidev/moodle_block_dedication/issues
From the description think you could remove the block, do the upgrade, then wait for maintainers to provide an update ... reinstall.
'spirit of sharing', Ken
Hi all,
I am trying to obtain some sort of side wide report of the dedication per curse. Just similar to listing displayed per student.
Someone is willing for give some light about the internals of the block dedication?
The report will be created via SQL queries only.
Thanks,
Jorge Dávila.