For some time now I've been wanting to make this format, but haven't found the time to do it yet.
I think it would be ideal for Using Moodle ... my main motivation is to stop using the Recent Activity block altogether, because the traffic around here is too high for it.
So this new format looks just like the topic format normally, except instead of the "Topics" bar at the top of the sections there are two tabs, one says "Topics" and the other says "Recent Activity".
Clicking recent activity would show the same display as http://moodle.org/course/recent.php?id=5, but it would be embedded in the course page. A user preference is set that remembers which tab you prefer so it stays sticky.
I may add this very soon just to make Using Moodle work better ... any comments about the plan though?
Clicking recent activity would show the same display as http://moodle.org/course/recent.php?id=5, but it would be embedded in the course page. A user preference is set that remembers which tab you prefer so it stays sticky.
I like this idea very much. The only comment I would have is when I look at the recent activity page it is still very long. I still get all of the names of the forums and stuff that hasn't changed.
How about only hiding them as well so it's just pure recent activity rather than recent activity + titles of everything else? I think this would make your idea even more efficient. In fact, hiding the user icons would make even quicker / shorter perhaps?
EDIT: In fact, you could perhaps add the 'mark read' forum ticks to this page also next to each post to save going into the forums(?)
I like these ideas. I always go directly to
I like Darren's addition too.
Definitely think this is the way to go! Other tabs that might fit into this scheme may become obvious going forward.
This got me thinking.
Wouldn't it be great if you could add a block as a tab. In otherwords you could add tabs (from blocks) for things such as recent activity, people, admin and the like. 
That way screen estate could be reduced (you could get rid of every block if you wanted to) and new tab content could be developed using existing block methods.
