Development:Adding_question_types_to_lesson#Discussion says please discuss here, so I am.
It seems there has been a recent flurry of activity around Development:Lesson_2.0, which is great.
I really just wanted to highlight two changes that are coming along which will affect these proposals.
First, I am in the middle of Development:Moodle_2.0_question_bank_improvements / MDL-16345, which should hopefully be done in the next couple of weeks. The significant part of this is that the code for rendering the question bank is getting refactored into a class, that you can then subclass to customise the display. That should only make it easier to integrate the display of the question bank into the lesson editing interface.
The second is Development:Changing_the_Moodle_Question_Engine. These are some rather bigger and longer term plans for ripping up the guts of the question engine (what happens when a student attempts a question). No idea when I will have time to implement that. (Or even finish the details of the proposal.)
Again, I think that these changes should only make things better. For example, it may be helpful if the lesson can use a custom 'interaction model'. Also the fact we are removing the restriction that each question can be used at most once in an attempt. Anyway, you should probably be aware I am having these crazy thought. And you probably have useful suggestion on my proposal.
I guess we need to make sure you don't try to refactor the lesson at the same time that I am refactoring the question engine, but that should be manageable. Also, I acknowledge that if you get your changes done first, then it will be my responsibility not to break the lesson module when I work on my changes.
Thanks Tim and Mark,
To others, here is what I think, what do you think?
I am very happy to see energy being put into Lesson and a discussion being advanced about general movement. The development piece is something I have a vague idea about and everyone should realize my own comments could be made from a place of absolute ignorance. Oh yes, I use 1.5 Quiz module so I am way behind Tim and others. But I would like to understand and see other users of Lesson toss in their own visions or desires.
Lesson is an "old" module, just it's name tells me that. I suspect it has collected functions that other "newer" modules do better. As I understand it, there are several goals for Lesson improvement. Improving importing page objects and the navigation interface.
The immediate importing object goal has to do with aligning Question bank with Lesson and Quiz. This is also going to involve some changes in both Lesson and Quiz. My assumption is that this process will allow question pages to be used in other modules, say a random question block or in an RSS feed. Not to mention involving updating modules to new coding standards within Moodle. From my standpoint, I see Lesson pulling question pages from Question Bank, then specialized information being added to the basics by the teacher. New questions can be created in a Lesson, but like Quiz these will actually be created in the Question Bank.
That sounds easy for a multiple choice question but what about a numeric question?
And then there is exporting our questions from a 1.9 legacy lesson to populate question bank category/folder, so we don't have to rekey them in.
The other importing page object projects are on the backburner. This is the infamous ImportPPT. Frankly, I would scrap it after replacing it with ImportText and ImportImage or even ImportHTML in the add page functions. Is a Branch Table really a non-graded Multiple Choice page with buttons? I could go on but will not.
Navigation is something that Mark has spent some time considering and playing with. I like the adaptive jumps associated with question and branch pages. I also like Mark's idea to come up with a "checkpoint" page, instead of a cluster page or end of branch page. It is a conditional checkpoint. In a simple form, "did something happen" and "what should happen now". It certainly would be easier to explain!
One of the other potentials for a navigational checkpoint is a condition based upon a score. For example, the 50% student goes on, the 100% student goes to end of lesson. That is exciting stuff that I understand could be in future with a checkpoint.
There is also the conditional dependency (activity locking) which will could be part of 2.0. This will eliminate the need for that kind of code in Lesson and add even more flexibility to the overall adaptive potential for a course.
Lesson could use another name but it's beauty is in presenting a series of html pages to the student with adaptative link potentials built into them for the teacher.
Change can be difficult but it is also exciting. Thanks Mark, Tim and Michael for pushing forward!
Chris.
To others, here is what I think, what do you think?
I am very happy to see energy being put into Lesson and a discussion being advanced about general movement. The development piece is something I have a vague idea about and everyone should realize my own comments could be made from a place of absolute ignorance. Oh yes, I use 1.5 Quiz module so I am way behind Tim and others. But I would like to understand and see other users of Lesson toss in their own visions or desires.
Lesson is an "old" module, just it's name tells me that. I suspect it has collected functions that other "newer" modules do better. As I understand it, there are several goals for Lesson improvement. Improving importing page objects and the navigation interface.
The immediate importing object goal has to do with aligning Question bank with Lesson and Quiz. This is also going to involve some changes in both Lesson and Quiz. My assumption is that this process will allow question pages to be used in other modules, say a random question block or in an RSS feed. Not to mention involving updating modules to new coding standards within Moodle. From my standpoint, I see Lesson pulling question pages from Question Bank, then specialized information being added to the basics by the teacher. New questions can be created in a Lesson, but like Quiz these will actually be created in the Question Bank.
That sounds easy for a multiple choice question but what about a numeric question?
The other importing page object projects are on the backburner. This is the infamous ImportPPT. Frankly, I would scrap it after replacing it with ImportText and ImportImage or even ImportHTML in the add page functions. Is a Branch Table really a non-graded Multiple Choice page with buttons? I could go on but will not.
Navigation is something that Mark has spent some time considering and playing with. I like the adaptive jumps associated with question and branch pages. I also like Mark's idea to come up with a "checkpoint" page, instead of a cluster page or end of branch page. It is a conditional checkpoint. In a simple form, "did something happen" and "what should happen now". It certainly would be easier to explain!
One of the other potentials for a navigational checkpoint is a condition based upon a score. For example, the 50% student goes on, the 100% student goes to end of lesson. That is exciting stuff that I understand could be in future with a checkpoint.
There is also the conditional dependency (activity locking) which will could be part of 2.0. This will eliminate the need for that kind of code in Lesson and add even more flexibility to the overall adaptive potential for a course.
Lesson could use another name but it's beauty is in presenting a series of html pages to the student with adaptative link potentials built into them for the teacher.
Change can be difficult but it is also exciting. Thanks Mark, Tim and Michael for pushing forward!
Chris.
I can't take any credit for pushing this. I am just sitting in the next room, causing trouble, and I simply wanted to give warning of that 
Hi Tim,
I'd really like to see features like instant feedback, and deferred feedback for Quiz and Lesson Modules.
To reduce the amount of time our tutors have to dedicate to marking student answers we plan to introduce Self Grade Quizzes / Lessons. All day marking is not effective in Moodle.
This is proving very difficult to accomplish in moodle's current state (using 1.8.8) with Lesson or Quiz modules.
If instant feedback was displayed immediately after each individual question upon clicking the 'Submit' button then the student could see the 'Marking Scheme' which I intend to provide in the feedback section.
The student can then use this marking scheme displayed in the feedback to answer the following question, which will simply ask the student to select a grade for their previous answer.
This question will use 'matching choice' and simply provide a number of percent values for the student to select from. This will match to the actual percent they will receive. Please see below - matching fixed grades altered to provide a larger range of percents
With 2 questions shown per page this would be an effective means of self grading. AND save one hell of a lot of the Teachers'/Tutors' time. This would be a BIG bonus.
NOTE - Full range of percents :
I have amended the arrary which holds the list of Fixed Valid grades found in /lib/questionlib.php lines 243-270 ish (moodle 1.8.8) to allow for greater flexibility of matching qtypes. Most of my questions are out of marks that we're unworkable with the current fixed grades.
I simply added the desired values in the array and HEY PRESTO!! more valid grades for use with GIFT import and from the question edit screen.
code looks like this :
/**
* Returns list of 'allowed' grades for grade selection
* formatted suitably for dropdown box function
* @return object ->gradeoptionsfull full array ->gradeoptions +ve only
*/
function get_grade_options() {
// define basic array of grades
$grades = array(
1,
0.99
0.98
0.97
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
0.92
0.91
0.9,
0.89
0.88
0.87
.....................
................etc
0.01,
END CODE
Now the whole range of percents can be used from 1%-100%.
I'd really like to see features like instant feedback, and deferred feedback for Quiz and Lesson Modules.
To reduce the amount of time our tutors have to dedicate to marking student answers we plan to introduce Self Grade Quizzes / Lessons. All day marking is not effective in Moodle.
This is proving very difficult to accomplish in moodle's current state (using 1.8.8) with Lesson or Quiz modules.
If instant feedback was displayed immediately after each individual question upon clicking the 'Submit' button then the student could see the 'Marking Scheme' which I intend to provide in the feedback section.
The student can then use this marking scheme displayed in the feedback to answer the following question, which will simply ask the student to select a grade for their previous answer.
This question will use 'matching choice' and simply provide a number of percent values for the student to select from. This will match to the actual percent they will receive. Please see below - matching fixed grades altered to provide a larger range of percents
With 2 questions shown per page this would be an effective means of self grading. AND save one hell of a lot of the Teachers'/Tutors' time. This would be a BIG bonus.
NOTE - Full range of percents :
I have amended the arrary which holds the list of Fixed Valid grades found in /lib/questionlib.php lines 243-270 ish (moodle 1.8.8) to allow for greater flexibility of matching qtypes. Most of my questions are out of marks that we're unworkable with the current fixed grades.
I simply added the desired values in the array and HEY PRESTO!! more valid grades for use with GIFT import and from the question edit screen.
code looks like this :
/**
* Returns list of 'allowed' grades for grade selection
* formatted suitably for dropdown box function
* @return object ->gradeoptionsfull full array ->gradeoptions +ve only
*/
function get_grade_options() {
// define basic array of grades
$grades = array(
1,
0.99
0.98
0.97
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
0.92
0.91
0.9,
0.89
0.88
0.87
.....................
................etc
0.01,
END CODE
Now the whole range of percents can be used from 1%-100%.
Please see my posts here for more details : http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=128925#p567735
I believe instant feedback in combination with my suggestion would be a wonderful method for providing Self Graded Quizes.
So personally i'd love to see the instant feedback feature ASAP. Of course the rest of the suggested improvments are also fantastic, but this is definately number one on my priority list.
Any opinions?
Could you please point out where I might start to look in the moodle code so I can tackle this particular improvement feature myself. I'm no expert coder but perhaps I can hack this up.
Many Thanks,
Steve
I believe instant feedback in combination with my suggestion would be a wonderful method for providing Self Graded Quizes.
So personally i'd love to see the instant feedback feature ASAP. Of course the rest of the suggested improvments are also fantastic, but this is definately number one on my priority list.
Any opinions?
Could you please point out where I might start to look in the moodle code so I can tackle this particular improvement feature myself. I'm no expert coder but perhaps I can hack this up.
Many Thanks,
Steve