The ability for students to be able to make inline submissions is a step in the right direction for me, but the inability of the instructor to be able to make inline comments on those submissions leads me back to square one. My students need to be able to use a special font in their submissions and having the html editor to do so is helpful. However, I still can't add feedback using the same special font since instructor is not allowed to use the html editor in making the assessment, nor can I make inline comments to what they submitted. In short, I'm back with the New Assignment module as the best option for me so far, but all the uploading and downloading is a bit of a hassle.
I have to admit I'm baffled-is there no one here who when they teach using paper that makes comments/corrections directly in the body of the work that the students submit? Why are the no Moodle modules to date that allow a student to submit their work with the html editor, and for the teacher to be able to directly comment within that work using the html editor? Does everyone just scribble one comment at the top of a student's homework? I don't think I've ever taken a class in my life where the instructor doesn't do this, and it seems strange to me that no one has worked out a way to do such a common task in Moodle.
Hey N,
Martin has made the assignment module development a priority and is paying a developer to refactor the whole. My sense is that we will soon be able to plug in a variety of very flexible assignment modules.
I have great interest in this development, too, partially because I am interested in creating assignments that have a lot of structures for different learning styles, etc.. (like an assignment that might ask a student to fill in a venn diagram, etc.)..
Why don't you and I spend some time brainstorming four or five assignment plug-ins, describing the various fields, etc., plus some mock-up pictures of them so that Martin and his developer have a clear idea of what we'd like to see? I think developers can often work best when we have a roadmap of clearly articulated features. Maybe, for example, as you think about your in-line assignment feature, we should talk about glossaries that we could develop so that an in-line keyword will trigger a substantial glossary item on a punctuation, grammar, vocab, or composition error?
-Tom
Martin has made the assignment module development a priority and is paying a developer to refactor the whole. My sense is that we will soon be able to plug in a variety of very flexible assignment modules.
I have great interest in this development, too, partially because I am interested in creating assignments that have a lot of structures for different learning styles, etc.. (like an assignment that might ask a student to fill in a venn diagram, etc.)..
Why don't you and I spend some time brainstorming four or five assignment plug-ins, describing the various fields, etc., plus some mock-up pictures of them so that Martin and his developer have a clear idea of what we'd like to see? I think developers can often work best when we have a roadmap of clearly articulated features. Maybe, for example, as you think about your in-line assignment feature, we should talk about glossaries that we could develop so that an in-line keyword will trigger a substantial glossary item on a punctuation, grammar, vocab, or composition error?
-Tom
Tom-Well, I need something fairly simple, but there are ways it could be made more sophisticated. What I need is for students to submit translations via the html editor, and then I want to be able to go in and correct them in the html editor as well. This may consist simply of marking everything correct. But if there are mistakes, I want to be able to cross them out, write the correct answer next to it, maybe insert comments about certain things. Now, this could be done simply with just a new version of the file, or an additional copy with my annotations being saved to the db.
However, it could be improved beyond that. For instance, the instructor's insertions and markings could be by default in a different color from the student's, so the teacher doesn't have to change the color each time they insert something-or it could even just have a grey background like the autolinked glossary items do. Or the file that would be saved with the teacher's remarks could be separate from the student's original submission, and the student then could have the option afterward of toggling between viewing their original submission, and the marked submission.
As you know, I'm going to be teaching hieroglyphs. There is a French CD-Rom for learning basic hieroglyphs that does some nice things, being a self-tutoring product. Students are supposed to transliterate what they see-and as they type, they get a different sound if what they type is correct or not. And I think it changes color perhaps too when it is an error. This sounds similar to what you describe about automatic pop-ups.
But these seem like features more appropriate for lessons, which are more for self-learning, whereas at least to me the assignment is more something that the teacher must review, and anything that would make the teacher's job easier in that respect would be helpful.
As for another plug-in, my dream would be to see an Oekaki Poteto plug-in that would allow students to be able to draw things and then submit them. I certainly think something like this would be useful for language teachers who are teaching students a new script. Might have other uses too-rather than just fill in a venn diagram-you could have student draw one from scratch.
However, it could be improved beyond that. For instance, the instructor's insertions and markings could be by default in a different color from the student's, so the teacher doesn't have to change the color each time they insert something-or it could even just have a grey background like the autolinked glossary items do. Or the file that would be saved with the teacher's remarks could be separate from the student's original submission, and the student then could have the option afterward of toggling between viewing their original submission, and the marked submission.
As you know, I'm going to be teaching hieroglyphs. There is a French CD-Rom for learning basic hieroglyphs that does some nice things, being a self-tutoring product. Students are supposed to transliterate what they see-and as they type, they get a different sound if what they type is correct or not. And I think it changes color perhaps too when it is an error. This sounds similar to what you describe about automatic pop-ups.
But these seem like features more appropriate for lessons, which are more for self-learning, whereas at least to me the assignment is more something that the teacher must review, and anything that would make the teacher's job easier in that respect would be helpful.
As for another plug-in, my dream would be to see an Oekaki Poteto plug-in that would allow students to be able to draw things and then submit them. I certainly think something like this would be useful for language teachers who are teaching students a new script. Might have other uses too-rather than just fill in a venn diagram-you could have student draw one from scratch.
Might have other uses too-rather than just fill in a venn diagram-you could have student draw one from scratch.
Gee, you make my teaching sound exciting, N!
My larger notion is a variety of reader responses, so that the assignment turns more into: select one of these 10(?) response formats (one of them could be drawing heirogylphs) to your reading last night... One might be a summary, one might be a translation, one might be an analysis, etc... (Differentiated learning...)
As for the automatic pop-ups, I'm proposing a system of shorthand. I, too, spend a great deal of time writing on student papers. Often, I'm saying the same thing in the margins. (e.g. sentence fragment, lack of topic sentence, etc.). If many of those comments were pre-written and articulated in a glossary, an assignment could produce an "editing palette" where I just pasted in keywords/shorthand links in the student papers that would link to more elaborate (and standardized) feedback.
In any case, graphic mock-ups of what students and teachers would see in these various screens would help our developers.
Gee, you make my teaching sound exciting, N!
My larger notion is a variety of reader responses, so that the assignment turns more into: select one of these 10(?) response formats (one of them could be drawing heirogylphs) to your reading last night... One might be a summary, one might be a translation, one might be an analysis, etc... (Differentiated learning...)
As for the automatic pop-ups, I'm proposing a system of shorthand. I, too, spend a great deal of time writing on student papers. Often, I'm saying the same thing in the margins. (e.g. sentence fragment, lack of topic sentence, etc.). If many of those comments were pre-written and articulated in a glossary, an assignment could produce an "editing palette" where I just pasted in keywords/shorthand links in the student papers that would link to more elaborate (and standardized) feedback.
In any case, graphic mock-ups of what students and teachers would see in these various screens would help our developers.
Just as an aside, the latest version of the Workshop module allows teachers to add "Stock comments" to the various elements in the assessment form. Once added a single click appends the comment to the comment box. It's a good way to standardize assessments as well as save a bit of time.