Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Bob Puffer -
Number of replies: 8
I was greatly disappointed to receive the following reply to my recent post in the tracker:

[ http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-14493?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=71498#action_71498 ]

Anthony Borrow commented on MDL-14493:
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Robert and Jestin - Thanks for your comment on questionnaire module. I think at this point now that the decision has been made to go with feedback that we continue down that path. For those who prefer questionnaire they can install it and disable feedback. I know that there were multiple factors considered in making the determination to include feedback rather than questionnaire. They are both great modules. I find myself, like Jestin, hoping that we will be able to build up whatever functionality is missing in feedback so that we have something that is simple to use and fully functional. I simply reopened the issue because the feedback block was not added and I did not want it to be overlooked. Thanks for your input. I look forward to seeing Moodle 2.0 move forward. Peace - Anthony

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I would strongly encourage everyone interested in an up-to-date, best-case decision to post to this forum and the tracker issue listed above. Moodle 2.0 is likely a year+ away and I'd greatly value Questionnaire going in as core code.

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In reply to Bob Puffer

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Martin Dougiamas -
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Well, here is the story.

A long time ago (almost three years!!!) we had to decide on one of these, and after some discussion (this one!) the consensus at that time was clesrly for Feedback to be standard (note that carrying both modules in core is simply not an option).

Feedback had enough features and an interface people liked plus cleaner, more Moodley code that programmers liked (to ensure people built more in future).

Questionnaire was a bit of a Frankenstein module at the time with an awkward interface borne of it being built around PhpESP.

So finally Feedback got into core over a year ago (where it is now) awaiting the next release. It's working fine there, just needing a few tweaks to polish it up (in my opinion). Everyone knew this was now a core module, and there is a 1.9 version that can be used now, with no fear of losing data in an upgrade to 2.0 later.

Meanwhile, development continued heavily on Questionnaire. (This makes me a little sad sad because I would love to have seen that effort going into the one we'd chosen here instead).

Questionnaire is now a lot more Moodley and usable. However, I just had a quick skim and still see some problems, such as non-strict XHTML (hard-coded styles, tables for layout), all the questiontypes being crammed into one file instead of being pluggable, no inline documentation etc. So it's not perfect, and needs quite a bit work to review it properly and polish it up for 2.0.

If we switched to Questionnaire now it would

- upset a lot of people who had counted on Feedback being standard
- be quite a lot of extra work, with more cost and more delays to 2.0

I would do it if there was an OVERWHELMING vote to do this, but otherwise it just doesn't seem to be fair.

I would much rather see a clear analysis/specification of the bugs and missing features from Feedback so we can direct some effort into improving that module.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Mike Churchward -
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Hi Martin -

Out of respect to the people who put a lot of effort into what questionnaire has become, I would like to correct a few of your points.

To begin with, I respect the decision that was made to include Feedback into core. A decision had to be made, and at the time, the noise that was coming from the community seemed to tip the scale toward Feedback.

The reality of questionnaire is that the entire module had been rewritten to make the interface what the people wanted before Feedback was announced as a core module. It was released into contrib almost the same week as the announcement. Communication was just not what it should have been to give Moodle the information they needed to know that.

Now to specifics:

non-strict XHTML (hard-coded styles, tables for layout)

I do not believe this is the case. Joseph dedicated a lot of time over the last years to resolve these. There are no hard-coded styles that I'm aware of (there are some unused constants that have been removed just recently). There are some tables in some of the question formats, as there are in Feedback.

all the questiontypes being crammed into one file instead of being pluggable

Somewhat true. Making them pluggable was being held off while it was determined if the question library could somehow be used instead. Feedback does have somewhat pluggable questions, but does not use the question library either.

no inline documentation

Not true at all. There is a ton of inline documentation. One of Joseph's biggest efforts was in this area. And it has translations into many language packs.

and needs quite a bit work to review it properly and polish it up for 2.0

Not sure about this either. A version already exists in 2.0 and is being constantly updated with the changes to 2.0.

Questionnaire has a very large install base, and will continue to be maintained and improved. At some point down the road, when Feedback satisfies all Questionnaire users, it might be possible to create a migration path from one to the other, allowing the two projects to fuse.

Mike
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Mike Churchward -
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(taken from MDL-14493):

IMO, the best path for Moodle core is a module called "Survey", that is whatever the best features of Questionnaire and Feedback are in one stable module. The current 'Survey" module would then simply be a standard pre-configured version of this delivered with Moodle. And, this path would require an automatic transition from the module being used to the new one (that is questionnaire => survey / feedback => survey / survey => survey).
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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Joseph Rézeau -
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I agree with Mike's last two posts. It has long been obvious to me that there should only be one such module in Moodle, correctly called "Survey". The current "Survey" module is not very useful, but as Mike suggests, could always be shipped with Moodle as an "example". The names "Questionnaire" and "Feedback" are misleading (especially the latter). And the other existing module, "Choice" has very limited features, but could live on in Moodle.

On principle I also agree that the new "Survey" module should include all (or most) of the currently available features of Questionnaire and Feedback. Ideally it would also include one feature currently not available in either module, namely Conditional Branching (as per LimeSurvey and other such well-known survey software).

Daniele has provided a little wish-list of features (in contrib MDL-14493) which would need to be prioritized. Those interested may also look at my comprehensive (at the time, summer 2008) side-by-side comparison of the Questionnaire and Feedback features here.

However... I do not see the practicality of such a venture at the moment. As it stands now, Feedback is not very different from what it was a year ago. If the plan is to continue to abide with the decision taken about a year ago to have Feedback in Moodle core (from 2.0), there is a lot of work to be done on Feedback (not just a couple of days' work...). This would mean Moodle HQ devoting some programmer time to help Andreas with the job, but it's not for me to say.

Whatever further decision is taken, in order to promote the use of the new "Survey" module, and whatever distance separates this new module from the existing Feedback and Questionnaire modules, efforts should be made to ensure data transfer from those modules to the new one, by providing some export/import tools (as described by Mike).

Joseph

PS.- Should this discussion continue in this thread? or maybe we should start a new thread? How to get people posting to the Feedback forum informed of the discussion? Or should all discussion take place in the Tracker?

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In reply to Mike Churchward

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Jonathan Moore -
I like the idea of a merger of the two with the survey name. On the practical side last time I looked at the stats questionaire was the most downloaded module. Not sure if still the case or not. I know I get a lot of requests to install it.
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In reply to Jonathan Moore

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Anthony Borrow -
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Keep in mind that we already have an activity module called survey so the naming will be a little tricky. To compare the relative download popularity, I took a quick look at the download stats page and questionnaire was averaging about 36 (1.9) + 5 (1.8) + 2 (1.7) + 2 (1.6) + 4 (HEAD) = 49 downloads/day and the feedback package was averaging 31 (1.9) +2 (HEAD) = 33 downloads/day. They are both relatively popular. Questionnaire leads the contrib plugins list and feedback leads the package list. Questionnaire has been around a little longer which may explain some of its edge in popularity. I suspect the rest of the edge is because of the fine work that Mike and others have done to make it very attractive to users. Peace - Anthony
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Questionnaire and Feedback Modules - Opinions

by Bob Puffer -
Now that the Feedback modules being made part of core has gotten bumped again (to 2.1... perhaps because there's been little work done on the enhancements necessary to make it compete on equal footing with the Questionnaire module), could we reconsider making Questionnaire part of core? Seems a shorter path with folks (Mike and Joseph) willing to work at improving the module.
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