General developer forum

Point 1. Yes, there are plans to completely change assignment, althought I don't think the details exist anywhere outside Petr Skoda's head at the moment.

From disucssions, I think that the basic idea is to completely get rid of the old assignment module and subtypes. This is rather like the way the single monolithic resource module and subtypes in 1.9 was replaced by separate modules page, url, imscp, etc in 2.0.

The point is that now we have the gradebook, File API, etc. Moodle 2.0 is now a sufficiently rich platform that writing a separate activitiy module is actually just as easy as writing an assgnment subtype, and imposes many fewer constraints on what you do.

Note, however, there are some outstanding TODO items on the gradebook API to make this picture really work. All this is probably due to be done for Moodle 2.1, but it is not in the roadmap yet.

Now to turn to your bullet points, which I will refer to as a) b) etc.

a) Reasonable idea. The workshop module does this using a capability, so look there for inspiration.

b) & c) This is the kind of instanely complex requirement and workflow that UK universities seem to require. This is the sort of place where you can do it using the flexibility of being a separate activity module, rather than being an assignment subtype.

d) The easy way to do this is to just hide the column in the gradebook until after the manager has approved it. That works for us now at the OU.

e) This is silly. Files stored in Moodle in 2.0 are secure. If they are not, then you are totally screwed anyway. There is probably more sensitive stuff in the file pool than assignment submissions.

f) This is a gradebook feature. You can already do it using the gradebook XML export code and a bit of scripting. We have had that working for a couple of years here at the OU. Of course, it woudl be nice to have a web service API for accessing the gradebook data, but this is really separate from assgnment types. It would be good to make a separate proposal about that.

g) This is a really silly requirement. In my experience it is a bad mistake to hard-code this sort of business rule into the software. If you really need to enforce this sort of thing, just knock up an admin report that lists all assignements worth more than x% of the coures total, and which are not currently double-marked, and make it email someone when something pops up on that list. I bet you will soon hit exceptions where actually it is right to 'break' this rule.

h) i) Managing workflow across the whole site. Again, be careful not to waste time hard-coding volatile business rules at a low level. Helping people monitor what they need to do now is a high-level view-type thing. The best way to handle that in Moodle is to make some blocks or admin reports that provide that view of "thinks that need to be graded now". Then admins can add those blocks in approriate places, which might include the my Moodle page.

h) ii) Generating overall transcripts at the end of a degree. Again this is a separate problem that you might solve with a gradebook report or a block. Or, it may not belong in Moodle at all. The MIS/SIS may already do this.

I am not sure if this is a good place to bring this up or not, but if there is new current effort being made in the Assignment area I would REALLY like to see a handwritten option here.

I have played with javascript options in the past to collect handwriting - and even some basic recognition. Recognition is less vital here, though. I just think it would be great to be able to create a space on the page where a student could submit a handwritten response - especially for math, but perhaps also for other non-textual information like diagrams or graphs, etc.

This is assuming students are using tablet computers or devices, but I guess it could work with a mouse as well.

I would be willing to help with the process as well.

Thanks,

Jon

I'm wondering if this is also the place to bring up the idea of allowing 'deadline extensions'?

It would be great if you could set a deadline for an assignment, with 'prevent late submissions' set to Yes, but then override the deadline on a student-by-student basis (possibly with a space to type in the reason for the extension - 'major illness', 'family bereavement', etc.). The extension (+ reason) could be added as extra fields in the 'assignment_submission' table.

I was wondering if you could update us on your progress. I am the assistant Dean at an overseas university with validation agreements in the UK, and so we follow the QAA guidelines on blind marking and double marking. If this module is up and running we would certainly support it.

Regards,

S