Hey Tim!
Thanks for reviewing. I appreciate the comments, and I'll try to respond to some of them. First of all, I just posted this spec over the last couple of weeks, and I still have some cleanup, and some additional screens that I need to write requirements around. Secondly, this is just the functional spec. At Moodlerooms, we generally write full functional specifications, review them with our clients and end users, and then move on to technical specifications. I'll be doing a formal review of the functional spec with ten or twelve end users, probably in about two weeks. I expect to have a few changes, but I've already been socializing this with many of them, and the feedback has been positive. Kris Stokking and Mark Nielsen will be doing the tech specificaiton. I believe that they've started thinking about it, but I don't think that they have posted it. I'll follow up with them, and we'll find a place to host it.
Okay, so, let me hit your questions or comments in order:
#1,#2 - Per my note, this is still pre-tech design. I'll leave that to people who are smarter than I am. (I'm a developer, but I haven't been developing for several years.)
#3 - I have some research on this, which I'll dig up tomorrow and include in the spec. However, I have a bit more work to be done here. A couple of broad concepts that I am working under. 1) Plugin System - By making this a pluggable system, we allow people to have different methods of completion for different types of programs. 2) We will probably only build the simplest ones by default. I'm thinking of just one based on % correct and maybe one based on streaks. 3) All of these are suggestive, rather than conclusive. One screen which I am currently mocking up is the Instructor Marking screen. They can choose one of the completion metrics, which will suggest which Outcomes have been achieved, but they can manually mark them or unmark them as well.
#4 - There's still a bit of work here (see #3). On the quiz stuff, we should clearly chat sometime in the next couple of weeks.
#5 - In answer to your specific question, I'd personally like to see the outcome as a property of the question itself, and independent of the quiz on which it is attempted. Mapping questions is a time consuming process, and including it on the question will encourage re-use of the question. In my research on how outcomes/standards are used in most professional schools and primary/secondary institutions, a well-written question is typically very granular, and maps against one outcome, and likely couldn't be mapped against a second outcome. However, we won't do anything to prohibit mapping against multiple outcomes.
#6 - Martin and I have talked about this at a high level, and I agree, this needs to tie into badges. I will defer technical implementation details to the tech team and MD. I think we all agree on the goals, however.
#7 - Yes. If that is not clear, I will update on my next revision.
#8 - No. Haven't thought about it, but I will think about it this week, and update, if necessary.
#9 - Gradebook - More work needed here for sure. I can share that very few clients are using outcomes as they are implemented today. We did some data mining on client usage. Of our approximately 900 clients, only about 25 are actually using outcomes. So, while I want data to migrate for those clients, the current implementation is not meeting the needs. In my spec review focus group in a couple of weeks, that seems like a good topic to probe with those few that are using the functionality.
#10 - Scales - So far, of the 20 or 30 people who have reviewed this specification (including our training and implementation team, who have been training people on how to use gradebook, scales, and outcomes), not one has asked that we maintain the dependency on specs. I'll wait for more people to chime in, but I don't know how we can leave the dependency on scales, unless we were to make "Scales" one of the achievement plugins (mentioned in spec and above).
Thanks again, and thanks for starting the discussion. I'll keep working, and we'll hope that other people start getting involved as well!
Phill