General developer forum

Hello and welcome You probably tried to add a link which is why your post was marked as spam but you should be fine in future. I don't have any specific suggestions to make (will leave that to the developers) but as an MFL teacher by qualification and wannabe computer geek by hobby I shall be interested to follow your progress, and particularly on the pedagogical side.

That all sounds good, except that someone else is going to be working on building that activity as part of this year's Google Summer of Code.

So, it might be good to find something slightly different to work on.

One other idea, is the idea of being able to embed questions anywhere, for example in the middle of a Moodle Page resource, or a label. This would need to be done as a Moodle filter (http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Filters ). The idea is you would have some sort of token that people could type, like {{question:123}}. The filter would replace that with an iframe, and in the iframe would be a script that lets the student interact with the question (a bit like what appears in the pop-up when a teacher previews a question in the question bank, but without any extra UI).

The trouble with that is that it is just a technical thing. All the pedagogy/theory would be in how teachers chose to use it.

Another idea, where some pedagogic theory would be required, but I have no idea what, would be some sort of report on forums. There must be scope for a report that analyses who has replied to whom in a forum, and computes something interesting about that. I am sure there is a literature about that, but as I say, I am not familiar with it. 

Dear Peter,

Having completed an MSc project in 2011, I would recommend:

Keep the implementation small and achievable in the time that you have, but big enough to justify your project proposal.  Something like a block or an enhancement to an existing component.

You can replicate other existing investigations / work at MSc because the project is about learning how to do and justify research.  Only PHd's have to be globally unique.  Double check what you will do with your tutor before getting too involved.  Avoid users under 18 as that leads to lots of paperwork.

Be actually interested in the research, pick an area that you find enjoyable such that you will keep going when things get tricky.

Idea:

As an eLearning MSc I would have thought you could look at the user interaction with Moodle as a possibility as I suspect quite a bit has already been written about pedagogical theory in classrooms / virtual tools.  Perhaps be more Moodle specific on how users engage with the software.

There is lots of current talk about the Bootstrap theme and 'Mobile first' in the forums, so perhaps now is a good time to look at the user interface in a mobile learning environment.  You could create / adapt a theme, try it with adult users and compare / contrast with other themes.

Cheers,

Gareth

Thank you for all your thoughtful responses. It gives me confidence that Moodle is the right way to go.  My initial responses to your suggestions are below but, when the time comes, I'll discuss them all with my supervisor.

Thank you, once again.

Peter

Tim: I thought someone on the Google Summer of Code might take up the self-assessment idea first! In any case, given the scope of the self-assessment project (you estimated "several months"), it's probably more suitable for the GSoC than for me. I'd only have enough time to gather the requirements and lay the foundations, which would be sufficient for an MSc project, but probably not what the Moodle project wants.

What do you think of the complexity of the embedded question idea? (I'm not sure whether you're the best or the worst person to ask, given your intimacy with the question engine.) It's certainly pedagogically justifiable: embedded self-test questions improve recall and meta-cognition.

I like the forum report idea, if there's demand for it. Technically, it doesn't sound overly ambitious, and a group of Moodle-using tutors who are willing to test it and give feedback could really bring the project to life. The only risk I can foresee is the problem of gaining ethical approval for what could be considered a surveillance system.

Alan: Despite my earlier remark about "bringing these strands together", I'm wary of connecting my work as an EFL teacher to my MSc project. I work in a junior high school in Japan so, if nothing else, it would be a nightmare to obtain bureaucratic approval from both the school and my university, and the risk of being turned down by the school would be very high. Also, most of my training as an English teacher is practical, rather than academic, so I'm likely to get bogged down in the literature review if I start a project that is focussed on language teaching.

Gareth: Thank you for the MSc advice - all stuff that bears repeating. I agree that usability and user interaction are an area where academia can make a big contribution to FOSS projects. I'm concerned that my circumstances may get in the way of running a formal usability study, but I'll discuss it with my supervisor and see if we can come up with something workable.

Dear Moodle people,

Sorry that I've gone quiet for a while. Please be assured that I have not lost interest in contributing to Moodle for my MSc project. I've given all of your suggestions very careful consideration. I'm going to have to commit to a project soon, so I'd like to discuss where I'm at with my ideas. I'd also like some feedback on one more idea I've had.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

The ideas suggested by other people were:

1. A dashboard for monitoring forum activity

I really like the idea, but I can't see a way to make something of sufficient scope for an MSc project without real world testing. And real world testing could lead to serious ethical problems. If you can see a way out of this dilemma, I'm all ears!

Tim seemed surprised about the ethical problems, so I'll explain in more detail. The university holds me to near-medical standards of research ethics. In my nightmare scenario, the ethics committee will say something like:

The mere fact of its usage suggests that the dashboard does more than just repackage available data.

We consider the students being observed by the dashboard to be indirect participants in the study, and their voluntary, informed consent will be required.

Students are sometimes required to use course forums for assignments. The power tutors wield over students might lead some students to conclude that it would be in their best interests to participate in the study, against their wishes.

We conclude that it is impossible to guarantee that all participation will be voluntary. Ethical approval denied.

This possibility is a risk I can't afford. So, unless someone can suggest a Plan B that will get me a good MSc project even if the committee says "no", I'm going to have to give up on this idea.

2. The question filter

I also like this idea, but I'd like to know more about the scope of the security problem before I commit to it.

I'm ignorant about Moodle's architecture, so please, please tell me more about this. What kinds of changes will I need to make? Will it be enough just to make the filter smarter, or will I have to modify other parts of the system, too? Will it require a Moodle fork? What about plug-ins?

3. Mobile usability study

I wasn't keen on this idea at first, but the more I think about it the more I warm to it. It could certainly be a great learning experience for me. However, the practical problems remain daunting, and I have no experience in these matters.

It looks too risky to attempt, but I want to discuss the idea with some usability experts here in Japan before I dismiss it entirely.

4. (my new idea) Adding a programming question type

Inspired by this discussion:

How can I include a Python interpreter written in Javascript in Moodle?

and by my experience of being obliged to take an appallingly designed multiple choice exam that was supposed to assess my competence in Java.

We can assess somebody's competence as a programmer by asking them to write a function or class that meets certain specifications. We can check the accuracy of the results using automated unit tests. There are various ways we can implement this.

We can run the unit tests:

1. in the browser, natively (if it's Javascript)

2. in the browser, through an emulator (e.g. brython, js.js)

3. in a browser plug-in (e.g. JRuby, JPython, Rhino and Clojure can all run in the Java Virtual Machine)

4. on the server (this one has already been done: Virtual Programming Lab for Moodle)

5. some combination of the above. (E.g. student checks his implementation in the browser, and then uploads it for official verification. Or the unit tests are on the server, the implementation is on the browser, and a web service connects the two.)

The student can edit the code in:

1. their preferred IDE.

2. a code editor embedded in the browser.

3. a code editor running on the server, via a virtual terminal embedded in the browser.

4. some combination of the above.

My proposal is to implements some portion of the above, and test the various permutations for suitability in various domains. (E.g. an in browser plug-in might be good for quick self-assessments, but server side assessment would probably be a must for high-stakes exams.)