General developer forum

Hi all,

I would like some feedback from developers on this initial idea before starting a new tracker feature suggestion.

The need for this idea comes out of the wish to improve Moodle usability (especially for course creators or teachers) as well as looking for a way to try and handle Moodle's growing complexity and (often overwhelming) abundance of options.

The idea is to allow admins to build flexible forms (and place them in blocks?) that in fact aggregate several Moodle actions into one place, letting the user fill in data in selected fields from those forms, and then automatically trigger several Moodle actions "behind the scenes" with those values and possibly some default values the admin sets when building the form.

I'll try to explain by way of a couple of use cases:

Multiple events creation form:

• A certain institution often uses the Calendar to publish several events at once.
• Currently, users would have to repeat the process of opening a new event several times.
• If an admin could construct an aggregate form with several repetitions of the main fields of an event creation form (e.g. Title, Type, Dates, Content) by way of "pulling" available fields from the form, and place those in a custom form or block, also defining that these would automatically trigger the creation of the several events, that would save quite a lot of work for the event openers and improve usability.

Flexible/quick course set up form:

• Currently, to create a course format variation requires a programmer. So if I wished to create a course format that automatically adds a SCORM activity and a Forum and a Feedback activity, I would have to either build a course format programmatically or use a template course to export and later import a course in that format.
• Imagine a form to automate a quick course set up that includes the following:
  • Course name and shortname
  • Number of sections field, and optional title fields for each of those sections
  • Checkboxes to choose which activities to populate the course with from a list determined by admin
  • Checkboxes to choose enrolment methods from a list determined by admin
  • Optionally other fields admin chooses to include
  • Also – admin may determine default values for other fields needed for the above activities and other called forms

The second use case is an example of a form that may save users a large number of clicks and forms, and let them focus on the important or common decisions they need to make.

Questions I have regarding this idea:

1. Does this kind of feature make sense in terms of usability?
2. Do you have any comments on the feasibility or ideas on how to implement, considering Moodle's current architecture and forms?
3. Are there any security or other concern that need to be taken into account?

There are some references and suggestions for similar needs and solution in Moodle.org and among Moodle users. See:

1. http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Wizard
2. http://elearningstuff.net/2012/04/23/i-love-you-but-youre-still-boring/
3. http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=118429
4. http://tomazlasic.net/2010/10/moodle-wizard/

So, if the above seems interesting, I may start a tracker suggestion, and add some initial specification and wireframe mock-ups.

Also - do you think I should reference or copy a similar discussion to general users' forum.

Thanks,

Amir