The idea is that for large numbers of rows, the header row is repeated every 'n' lines (as in the mock-up, below):
and the same goes for a large number of colums (another mock-up):
PHPMyAdmin does this nicely:
there could be some other logic such as 'never before a total column' and such too.
"Floating" sounds like a reasonable solution, a bit loke how the ads on some web pages follow you down the page when you scroll...
I have suggested this solution previously:
Add controls to My Preferences, similar to 1.8 gradebook:
- Reprint Headers: select # (meaning how often headers will be repeated)
- Reprint Headers with Categories names: Yes/No (depending on gradebook structure, instructor may want to see just names of the activities or corresponding categories as well)
- Reprint Student names : select # (how often the column with students names will be repeated)
- Stick Student names on the left?: Yes/No (this is what LSU gradebook offers)
What to you think?
Edited to add: What is/where can I find the LSU gradebook? It doesn't appear in the Mods and Plugins area.
Also, if you like the idea, vote for it in the tracker (link at the top).
From the dropdown area you may want to review Gradebook, Quick Edit Items and Quick Edit Categories. Plus, if you turn ediitng on , note QE links for columns and rows.
Elena
Elena's suggestion is more appropriate I think, especially for people who don't want the frozen students column.
I have another idea to submit to you: a mouseover info box. As you put your mouse over a grade field, it gives you the name of the student and the activity to which the grade belongs. This would be done in a way that doesn't prevent the user from using the other elements of the interface. Currently there is a mouseover for feedback, but I am not sure it is very useful, compared with this.
What are your ideas?
Eleana's reply would suit us near-perfectly, and it was pretty much what I was trying to suggest in the first palce (I must work on writing more carefully and NOT using pictures instead).
The mouse-over idea is a good one: it could provide the required information succinctly and quietly.
As for the mouseover info, I agree it could be helpful. Not that I want to model the grade book after Bb, but they do have some nice features with the mouseover events that allow more information without having to go to another page (more information, faster). This would seem to be a step in the right direction IMO.
You can login as
username: teacher
password: testm00dle
I added the feedback in the overlib, because otherwise you can't see it without editing the grades. I would like to make the background semi-transparent, but there's no current cross-browser solution for that. Any styling ideas would be welcome.
By any chance, is there something out there in the works that allows faculty to sort their my moodle course listings? Should I ask somewhere else?
Thanks for the extremely quick response (and work)!
Please correct me if I am being dense, but the test server's gradebook has a horizontal scroll-bar, which my Moodle (1.9.3+, 20090120) does not. It is a very useful and welcome addition to the gradebook. Do we need to get the latest 1.9.3 weekly or is that particular addition not available just yet?
None of the improvements you see on the test server are yet in Moodle CVS. This a long-winded process which must pass many tests before we can put these improvements in 1.9.5. We will keep everyone informed of the release date of this version.
Just looked at the new test server gradebook. It is the first 1.9 gradebook that has made me think we may actually upgrade from 1.8! Great job putting these improvements in!
Scroll bars, mouse overs, and the simpler interface will make it much more usable for the low end user.
My only request would be the ability to "take away" options in the gradebook dropdown through and administrative menu to make it even simpler. I know I can code them out (which I will do as an alternative.) There are just soo many options I think I will confuse alot of my users with the upgrade.
Brian
Regarding the gradebook dropdown menu, a number of options can be removed by changing permissions. Please see Simplifying the gradebook by changing permissions for more details.
Any idea when these improvements in the test gradebook are slated to make it to a 1.9 release? I hope in the next few months! They are exactly what most of us have been looking for!
I have a lot of custom modding to do on 1.9 before I would be able to go production in the fall and would love to get started.
We put in some automated processes and other reports in our 18 version...like K-12 progress reports...that we need in the K-12 environment. I can only make those changes in the summer and I don't want to start until there is a version of 1.9 ready to be worked on.
Brian
As the improvements we're proposing to add to the gradebook are quite major, we'd like lots of testing and feedback from teachers before adding them to 1.9.5. Please see Development:Gradebook improvements in Moodle 1.9.5 for full details.
Nicholas,
I don't think that this is necessarily the case. If you go to Stu Nicholls' CSS Play and take a look at the Layouts you'll see that the CSS frame demo page has a moving centre section with space on the top and left side, and the movement is controlled solely by the browser scrollbar rather than internal scrollbar. All done with CSS. Mind you, I'm not sure how compatible this is with Internet Exploder versions or whether it is suitable for the particular gradebook interface we're focussing on, but it might be a technique worth looking at.
On the CSS frame page the frozen column on the left does not scroll together with the centre section so this wouldn't work for student names (frozen) and grades (moving). They need to move together and line up with each other.
If the centre section were bigger than the screen a vertical scrollbar would appear and scrolling horizontally would cause the content (grades) to move but the headers to remain fixed. So the content (grades) would not line up with the headers. So sadly this CSS solution will not work for the gradebook.
Must add my agreement with these improvements. This makes it far easier to use and more likely to be taken up by our lesson tech-oriented staff.
One small point - the LSU gradebook example has fixed the name column but let the other float. Can the same be done vertically i.e. to float both dimensions or can the scroll bar be at the top as well. Often I need to check out a years worth of students which is 200. Scrolling to the bottom of the screen, altering the view and going up again would be time consuming. small point but if it can be investigated...
thanks,
Paul
I just realised the link between your name and your user icon
I explained earlier in this thread that this double-floating solution would not work with the gradebook. Maybe you could explain why you need to "Alter the view" when at the bottom of the form, and why you need to "go up again".
As you said, it's a small point, and trying to implement a workable, usable, accessible, cross-browser solution with floating vertical and horizontal headers would be absolute overkill considering it's a small point. The mouseover solution should cover most of your needs in this regard.
I mean by having the students names at the top as columns and the asignments on the right?
Also is there a collapsable icon so you only see one student at a time?
floating names in the gradebook is in the tracker:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-13950
please vote for it!
re: repeated headers (18504) -the sad thing is that they used to exist in 1.8 - and then disappeared in 1.9....
I'd really like to see Ajax work in the gradebook, too for drag and drop when editing categories and items, etc...
best,
clark
Repeating headers were a part of the gradebook plus (GBPv2) hack for versions prior to 1.9. So they weren't actually taken out but were a part of this hack that didn't make it across into core when most of its functions were included. ( I think)