Development priorities for "newassignment"

Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Pablo Etcheverry -
Number of replies: 23
Picture of Core developers
Hi!
I think it would be a good idea to include the "newassignment" feature in an "Assignment development priorities" (like the Quiz development priorities).
The possibility of answering to a student by submitting his own work with corrections on it is a feature many would like to see, and I don't think this would complicate too much the Assignment code, correct me if I'm wrong.

TIA,
Pablo

P.S. English is not my mother's tongue. smile
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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Ger Tielemans -

Workaround: 

  • Take out the students work,
  • do the corrections/remarks offline,
  • beam it up as a resource,
  • and place a link in the feedback window of the assignment to that resource.

In the end I prefer also the newassignment add-on big grin

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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Pablo Etcheverry -
Picture of Core developers
Maybe... but in that case it becames PUBLIC for the rest of the students! I don't think it is such a hard work to make those changes, and in the end the benefits are great!
What can I do to help in this issue??

Pablo

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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Ger Tielemans -
..Unless you realise and promote that others can learn from your feedback and the workof the other student.Of course it would be fair to give the students who send in fast a bonus and say to the others: look at the products of the early birds and com back with improvements of that... 
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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Pablo Etcheverry -
Picture of Core developers
Ger, I agree with you 100%. Nevertheless, the constructionist model around which Moodle was built doesn't apply in all scenarios, and that's one of Moodle's features: it can be used even within different education paradigms.
In the environment I'm working on, social constructionism is not even known, but Moodle is getting more and more approval everyday.
My goal is to gradually "filter" new pedagogical approaches to the learning/teaching process, but first I need teachers to embrace Moodle as a useful tool for the uses they can give to it now.

My point is that even though we can have some workarounds for this problem, the solution can't be very difficult in terms of coding. Moreover, I think MANY could benefit from this feature, so cost/benefit rate has great figures! wink At least this is what I can tell from what I know from the politely built Moodle's code.

Cheers and thanks for your support (in the other thread) smile,
Pablo
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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Bob Gettings -
For me not uploading the files as a resource is just a mangement problem. I have 200 people in my class and if I uploaded student files with my comments on them It would make a very long list of resources big grin But thinking of social construction of knowledge, it might be good to have a setting where members of the same group could see the commented files.
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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by jean hardy -

Hi,

In our intro to computer class in Moodle students submit "lab projects" that are essentially identical. i.e., "Create an Excel,Word, Acces file following these steps..." Making an assignment public would only discourage students from doing original work. .We also have 30-100 students in a class. It expedites the process if I can highlight areas in their submitted work and send it back to them with notes in the comment box.

I totally support the constructivist pedagogy and am an ardent supporter of Moodle,  but not all learning situations adhere to a single policy.  I'm just giving this as another example, putting my two cents into the pot.

Thanks for listening. I don't know php well enough to help with development. Maybe in a year or so. thoughtful

Jean.

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In reply to jean hardy

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by N Hansen -
I agree with Jean. It really depends on the context. For example, the normal method of teaching hieroglyphs in the classroom is to have each student take a turn and recite their translation of a line in front of all the students. All students will (or should) have prepared translations in advance.

However, my intention is to do asynchronous courses online and such a method won't work. I need to be able to mark up a student's translation and return it to them. The collaborative aspect of the course will be in the forums, not the homework itself.

Would it be possible to set up the new assignment module so that the instructor could view the submitted assignment in the html editor? That has everything an instructor would need to mark up an assignment. I can cross out , use a red pen, or another color as I prefer, but that is really all we need to be able to do our jobs as we might do them on paper. Then we would just have to click a button to send them back to the students. I'm not a programmer either but it seems to me that if we utilize this great already existing tool rather than a comment box then it shouldn't be too hard to give it a lot of extra functionality. In my case it would be great too if I could insert images, or in other words, hieroglyphs.
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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Tim Allen -
Yes I agree that this feature is very much needed and would make a big difference to composition teaching in particular. 
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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
I haven't really commented on this this before, sorry. I do like these new features, very much, but they didn't get into 1.3 because they conflict with other plans for the Assignment module.

Most notably there needs to be a scalable alternative in the grading interface, since the current one was never meant to work for more than 20 or 30 students. One I have in mind is something very abbreviated, more like a spreadsheet table, with a popup window for each person's feedback.

In addition, there is the forever-talked-about move of the current journal module into a new assignment type called "online assignment".  This would allow teachers to comment inline on assignments using the standard HTML editor.

There is also Yusuf's wishlist, most of which I agree with as being very useful.

Lastly, we have the new templates work coming up so too much work on the GUI right now will be wasted effort.

Now, if someone wants to volunteer to take over as the "Assignment developer" to push it along, and will accept a list of suggestions from me, I would be very grateful. I will probably also be able to source some funding.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Tim Allen -

Thanks for your response Martin, these plans are very good.  smile

I'd just like to ask that the ability for the teacher to upload a file as feedback remain as an important option, because I and others use offline software to give feedback on work (I'm thinking in particular of the features in MS Word and especially Markin.  The latter software is developed by the HotPot folks).  These tools provide more powerful feedback mechanisms than would be feasible in the HTML editor.

Thanks again,

Tim.  smile          

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In reply to Tim Allen

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Tom Murdock -
Tim,
I think we could create our own Moodle Markin (nearly so) if we identified all of the comments we wanted to paste in a linkable glossary. Then we would just need to create a kind of toolbar/palette (like the "Use emoticon" window that opens when you are using a browser without the html editor) that lets us choose the various comments. I haven't figured out the annotation piece, yet, but I think the code is close to be able to do something like Markin.

Thanks for the link, I'd never seen the software before.

-Tom
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Tim Allen -

Tom,

If the functionality of markin could be achieved within moodle, that would be even better.  I can see that some can already be done now.  Markin also allows annotation as you mention, as well as the statistical analysis of the number of errors of each type, the insertion of stored links, as well as other things.  I have attached an HTML page generated by Marking to show just some of what it can do to provide feedback on student composition.

All this would not be trivial in coding terms, I am sure, but it would be worth it in enhancing the social constructionist value of moodle.  I am currently studying language testing in my Masters course and realize that students feedback and assessment is a vital part of the equation in fostering learner engagement, self-knowledge and responsibility. 

I only wish that the wonderful tools that Ray Kingdon developed, such as rubrics and criterion-referenced scales, were available througout moodle, and not just in his own wonderful modules!  sad 

Until such things are in moodle, the ability to upload a file by the teacher for individual student feedback would be invaluable.

Tim.

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In reply to Tim Allen

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by N Hansen -
Tim-I just looked at that Markin output you posted, and you know what, having a tool like that would be useful for my students to have, rather than myself! Because in teaching hieroglyphs, students are normally expected not only to translate, but to parse the text grammatically. Markin seems like a good tool to do that.
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In reply to Tim Allen

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Tom Hogan -
Hello,

I see that this thread has been dead for a while, but in all my searches I have not seen it picked up anywhere else. Is there any development in making a "Moodle Markin"?

I am just starting out now with a Moodle site where 99% of the work is large-scale essay correction. The workflow, however, is clunky:

  1. Essays are submitted using the online assignment module
  2. Teachers copy the essays into Markin, mark them there, and export an HTML file with all the corrections
  3. They then upload the HTML file and make a link to that file in the Feedback box in Moodle
While workable (at least improvements have been made since June 2004! wink), it does not scale well, and I would be very very happy to see Markin features integrated into Moodle. That is the kind of thing I would be willing to pay for.

Markin is really a great piece of software, and every part of it is crucial for our operations - the links databases, the customizable annotation buttons, the canned text databases, etc. The HTML output is really excellent and usable.

Now if it could be all done online...!

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In reply to Tom Hogan

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Rick Barnes -
If you are using 1.7 or newer then there is an assignment type called advanced. Withthis you get the option to upload response files like your markin files.
Hope this helps.
I looked at markin but without being able to return work I have not yet made use of it, but now may be the time.
Rick.

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In reply to Rick Barnes

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Tom Hogan -
Dear Rick,

I think you misunderstood my post. I am currently uploading my response files (exported from Markin) without even using the advanced assignment type. I just upload them and make a link to them from the teacher feedback form.

What I wanted was something far more advanced: to forgo Markin altogether and have the same functionality that it does inside of Moodle.
As far as I have understood, all Markin files (annotation button sets, useful links/useful text databases, output files) are stored as XML, so it should not be an insurmountable task for a competent programmer (i.e. not me blush) to create the same in a "Markin Assignment" module.

The student would submit a written assignment online, like now, but the teacher would be able to correct it as s/he would do in Markin from within the module. No copying of the assignment to Markin, correcting it there, and then uploading it back to Moodle.

For large institutions, it would also save the money and headache of getting licences and installing Markin on every single PC where someone is grading assignments. For a system like Moodle, I think it should be a priority to be able to do everything online.
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In reply to Tom Hogan

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Rick Barnes -
For most of the work our pupils submit it needs to be example of document they have created etc, so it is always an upload file type.
I too would love to see more marking style feedback options for online text assignments for other departments where pupils might be drafting and redrafting work before a final submission.

Rick.
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Developingment of evaluation/questionnaire

by Clarence Kayange -

Hello pals, 

  How can you restrict students from viewing their grade, till they have filled course evaluation form or questionnaires about the course they are attending.

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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Pablo Etcheverry -
Picture of Core developers
I volunteer! Besides accepting your suggestions... is there any other requirements? I lead a small development team, so we could save a time slot for this project.
TIA,
Pablo
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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Fantastic, Pablo!  I'll discuss this offline with you for a while.
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In reply to Pablo Etcheverry

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by Sean Tierney -
(I am part of a group curently evaluating moodle in comparison to our exisitng VLE). It strikes me that the option for online completion of the assignment in a text/HTML editor would be of enormous benefit for shorter student submissions and would make the reading/grading of this kind of assignment much easier.  The option to add comments or edit the submission would be particualrly useful

It would also be nice to have an option to choose to make the assignment (with or without the edits) available to others or indeed an option to choose to make none or all the assignments available perhaps after the closing date to help encourage collaborative learning.

Sean
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In reply to Sean Tierney

Re: Development priorities for "newassignment"

by W Page -
Hi!

Checkout MoodleWiki in v1.4DEV where it is already installed.  I think this will address the "edit" function you mention above.

WP1
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