Hi,
Using 2.1.2. I would like to pre-poplate a glossary with terms from a reading and have the students choose one and provide a definition/explanation. Is it possible for me to create the terms and then have students edit the entries? In my testing so far it does not seem possible.
Pedagogically I know I could let the students create the terms, but in this case I want to make sure certain terms are included in the final product.
Thanks for any insight.
@Glenn,
What you want is not possible with the Glossary activity. You could try the database activity, which is more flexible.
Joseph
It won't work with the database activity. This requires either adding or importing entries on behalf of the students. It will be implemented in the dataform import and I will also add an option for an instructor to change the author of an entry in edit mode.
Sounds like a Wiki to me...
In the wiki you put your terms in enclosed in [ ] and your students then pick one marked with a ? - if they think they can improve on an entry already made then the history will show who came up with what.
e.g
[term 1]
[term 2]
[term 3]
True, but the history is partly hidden and at any rate may get convoluted unless the students follow the instructions strictly which is generally not humanly possible. In the glossary/database/dataform ownership persists and you can display the owner (author) info next to the content. It could also be extended to allow acquiring ownership, that is, the instructor adds an entry without an owner, and the first student to update it becomes its owner. And then it could be extended to allow students to give up ownership which may serve something like a choice activity.
We are looking at a similar issue (Moodle 2.1) in that we want to be able to have students create the entry and definition, but allow for peers to make corrections. We want to end up with a product that can be downloaded when the course is done. Is this possible with the Glossary? Is it possible to set just one Glossary in a site to be editable by peers without changing that setting for the entire site's Forums, Glossary, etc.?
Your question about setting just one Glossary activity to be editable got me thinking: Moodle locally assigned roles feature, which allows you to change the permissions on a given activity (or anything else in Moodle).
In my Glossary activity (while logged in as an instructor), I clicked on the "Locally assigned roles" link in the Settings block. Then click on "T.A. (non-editing Teacher)" and assign the students to that role. The result of the assignment is:
1. Students can now edit entries that they did not create (as long as the Glossary creator has allowed editing to be available in the Glossary set-up).
2. Students cannot change any of the settings of Glossary activity itself.
3. Students will not be listed as the "author" of the entry they edit. You will need to figure out some other way for students to be recognized for contributing to specific entries (if that matters to you). Maybe they can leave some sort of comment in the comments area for the entry...
Note that the new permissions are not global across the whole course site. The new permissions are limited to that specific Glossary activity and not other Glossary activities on the site.
Well, Glen, you do not need to give the students a special role (such as non-editing Teacher) in order for them to be able to edit Glossary entries. All you have to do is "over-ride" the student role in the Glossary settings, by giving them the "Manage entries" permission.
Please note that the "Manage entries" permission will not only enable students to edit their classmates (and their own) entries but also to delete any entries in the Glossary.
Which means you'll have to totally trust the students in that course not to do any mistakes, willingly or unwillingly...
Joseph
I have implemented a group work feature (allowing peers to edit the same entry; the entry is owned by a group) in the dataform, which does not require new roles or overriding permissions. The feature is similar to the other approaches in that it does not track (yet?) the history of modifications. It is a bit more flexible than overriding the 'manageentries' capability approach in that you can prevent deleting an entry.
With respect to downloading the content as an end product, as any other module the glossary/database/dataform may be exported to rich html, that is html page including linked files. In the dataform you can also export files as base64 such that all the content can go into one html file. Either way, this means that the content may be accessed outside the module/course/moodle.
All,
Thanks the replies and help. Using the wiki for this had crossed my mind, but since the glossary tool is offered by Moodle I thought I'd explore it first. Itamar, if you're involved in developing the glossary, the ideas you tossed out about refining the ownership settings would be welcome!
I'll look further at the wiki, though I don't really want students to have to navigate separate web pages just to read short definitions.
Glenn
