Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Dave Balch -
Number of replies: 13
Hi,

My group is using a homebrew assignment submission system, but is planning to move to the Moodle Assignment module. The only problem is that the module doesn't have a facility for students to request a deadline extension - yet. I plan on modifying the Assignment module to implement this as part of a JISC-funded project smile

So, before I get too stuck in, I wanted to say Hi! and ask for any thoughts on the area, as I want to submit it back for inclusion in Moodle core.

Here's the only thread I could find on the topic: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=5915 which has a few interesting points.

I'm just starting the project, so don't have much more than a broad plan of attack, and a desire to track Moodle source via the Catalyst Git import (see http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Tracking_Moodle_CVS_with_git).

Cheers,
Dave.
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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Tom Schillaci -
Taking a shot at it here. You could enable Notes, so students have an open text box to send a note with submissions, like, "Here's what I have so far, may I have an extension for the deadline?"
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In reply to Tom Schillaci

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Tom Schillaci -
Clarification:

The Notes feature is only available in the "Advanced uploading of files" assignment type. Moodle Version 1.9.2 Build 20080711.

Allow notes

If enabled, participants may enter notes into text area. It is similar to Online text assignment.

This text box can be used for communication with the grading person, assignment progress description or any other written activity.

********
Tom S.
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In reply to Tom Schillaci

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Dave Balch -
Hi Tom,

Interesting idea, but I don't think it would have a clear enough workflow. I want it to be really clear on screen what one has to do to get an extension, which will mean a specific set of form controls.

Cheers,
Dave.
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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Anthony Borrow -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Dave,

In practice, I actually avoided the whole extension issue by setting a due date and then allowing late submittal from all the students. If a student wants an extension, they can send the teacher a Moodle message and the teacher can reply affirmatively or negatively. Then there is the message history that the teacher can go back to if they do not remember when they are grading a "late submittal". Might that work for most folks?

Stepping back and extending this to all activities was a goal expressed in MDL-7315 and we had some discussions about this also specifically related to the quiz module in MDL-14234. It may also be related to conditional activities but I would need to re-read to see if that can handle the functionality you are talking about. If you do work on some code and want to share the patch with the community please check out Development:Guidelines_for_contributed_code. I would be happy to help you share the patch with the community. Don't hesitate to let me know how I can be supportive.

Peace - Anthony
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In reply to Anthony Borrow

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Dave Balch -
Hi Anthony,

Interesting idea about using late submission and asking permission. I suspect that it won't fit the needs of our admins, but will run it by them just in case.

Thanks for those pointers - I shall get reading smile

Cheers,
Dave.
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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Anthony Borrow -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Dave - Sounds like a plan. Let me know if you need any help. I think I recall starting a basic set of specifications for how I thought this could be implemented. It required a time exceptions table with fields (id, modtype, instanceid, userid, timestart, timeend). There may have been more but the idea was to check if the $USER has a time exception that use it, otherwise, use the default times. This could actually be used to exclude a student (timestart and timeend both equal to 0). Peace - Anthony
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In reply to Anthony Borrow

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Dave Balch -
Hi,

My colleagues and I have (between other projects) been gathering requirements in my department, and I have a git dev environment setup - hurrah!

It seems that there's too much heavy lifting going on in the 2.0 branch for me to develop against it, so I'll be building on 1.9, and hoping that when the time comes to move to 2.0 that it doesn't cause to much pain.

I've been reading the plans for 2.0 and can't find anything about extended time for activities, but thought I'd just quickly ask if anyone has anything else that I should need to keep in mind when working on this...

Cheers,
Dave.
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In reply to Anthony Borrow

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Mark Pearson -

> In practice, I actually avoided the whole extension issue by setting a due date and then allowing late submittal from all the students. If a student wants an extension, they can send the teacher a Moodle message and the teacher can reply affirmatively or negatively. Then there is the message history that the teacher can go back to if they do not remember when they are grading a "late submittal". Might that work for most folks?

The problem with this approach is that the Teacher has to remember which students requested extensions when the time comes for grading. So, from a class of 30 he might have 10 late submissions (a typical situation here sad ) but only one has been granted an 'official' extension and the other 9 are going to be penalised. I think you'll agree that it's a lot of faffing about to keep track.

So I applaud the notion of a simple framework whereby a student can request an extension in advance of the due date (an email note to the faculty would help with this). Hopefully this will be implemented for all types of assignment. And props for choosing to do this with git -- go git!!!

Mark

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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Paul Ganderton -

Hi Dave et al,

I like this idea as it's something we use all the time. In our (school) case there can be extensions for a range of legitimate reasons but it would help if we could sort these out. As I read it, you want some form of radio button to request an extension which is then dealt with by a staff member to accept/reject? Once the reply has been given (assuming yes), the student completes the file and submits it.

So far, so good. However, I can also see Mark's point where if I'm grading either online or offline I need to know immediately if this is a legitimate late or not. So, online I'd need some warning sign on the assignment submissions page. In an ideal world I'd also like to see a simple system so staff can approve, approve with conditions (our common need is for a doctor's certificate to prove illness) or reject. Might it then be possible to put in an extension time and have that alter that specific students final upload date?

Best of luck with the project, I hope it works.

Paul

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In reply to Paul Ganderton

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Dave Balch -
Hi Paul,

Thanks for the info on your school's needs - I'll accommodate as many different ways of using extensions as I can.

I'll definitely be including an approval mechanism, and modifying the effective deadline (following Sam Marshall's suggestion in http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-14234?focusedCommentId=52145&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#action_52145).

Cheers,
Dave.
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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Dave Balch -
Hi,

It's taken far too long to get around to it, but here's a mockup of the extension workflow design, illustrating assignment creation, extension request and approval, and assignment submission & marking.

http://cascade.conted.ox.ac.uk/project-outputs/development-plans/mass-workflow-mockup

At the moment, I'm calling the module "extension" - hopefully it's understood that module names relate to the module function, rather than any programming terms.

All constructive criticism and suggestions welcomed smile

Cheers,
Dave.
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In reply to Dave Balch

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Mark Pearson -
Dave,

This is brilliant! It would certainly address some issues that arise with assignment submission here. May I make a couple of suggestions referring to the mass-workflow-mockup (great visuals BTW):
  1. In the interest of simplicity and to keep things manageable may I suggest limiting this to the 'Advanced uploading assignment' in the first place (which is what I think you're planning to do anyway)
  2. In 'Create assignment' I'd suggest leaving in 'Prevent late submissions'. After all, if this is set to 'yes' then, logically, how can extensions be granted at all? (There may be some discussion about this).
  3. An additional option entitled 'deadline for extension application' or something to that effect which sets a number of days before the due date that extensions have to be requested. Otherwise you will have the situation of students requesting extensions minutes before the deadline.

suggested addition to screen

This is an excellent extension to the Assignment activity and together with the ZIP download will constitute a major increase in functionality. I'd love to test it out.

Mark

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In reply to Mark Pearson

Re: Assignment submission date extension request/approval extension.

by Dave Balch -
Hi Mark,

Thanks for the feedback! Re your points:
1. Yup, that's the plan.
2. Yes, it'll stay in. Some people here wanted to remove the option of preventing late submissions (always 'no') - fine for us, but not for all other Moodlers. Certainly need to think how late submission and extension logic will interact...
3. Good idea. There's a policy aspect there as well - what response time an institution offers on extension requests.

D.
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