Badges Wish List

Badges Wish List

by Chris Wheatland -
Number of replies: 14

I've been playing with badges for a short while now and there are a few things I'd like to see implemented, if possible, that I think would probably be of use to others as well. 

1. Upgradable badges - students can earn different, upgraded versions of the same badge. The new version will replace the old one.

2. More badge criteria - at the moment badges are awarded on completion of certain activities or awarded manually. I would like to see badges which were awarded automatically based on scoring a particular percentage on a quiz, or even getting one particular question right (though this might be a little more challenging to implement well).

3. Badge Award Pop-ups - something a little triumphant to tell you you've won a badge instantly rather than waiting for the email.

4. Be awarded the same badge multiple times - like a gold star for excellent work. You can then measure progress against others by how many gold stars you manage to collect. There could even be another badge for 5, 10, 20 etc. gold stars. For example.

I've been reading a few of the other posts as well and I realise that some features are difficult to implement due to the Mozilla Open Badges integration with regard to the rules placed on the badges by Mozilla. I'd like to suggest that an option be added to remove Mozilla integration. Now I know that the entire point of the badge system seems to be to make them transferable but I would argue that for many many Moodle users this is a superfluous feature that they, or their students, simply will not use. I speak from the point of view of a UK high school teacher who runs a number of Moodle courses and I can't see any reasons why my students would want to save their badges, export them to Mozilla and be able to add them to CVs (which is what I understand the Open Badges system is actually for), except bragging rights.

When I invent a badge to be awarded to my students the reason is motivational; they will want to collect them and this will inspire them to complete more of the work and to complete it to a higher standard. Pupils love xBox Live achievements and the badge system mimics this for them, which is an absolutely brilliant thing to do. This means I will invent a lot of badges for some seemingly quite trivial things such as being good at a particular topic, handing in work on time etc. The English department has one for 'using 5 semi-colons'. My point is that an employer need not know about these and they need not be exported. Allowing a badge to be 'unexportable' might allow many more, desirable, badge options to be included which would increase student motivation ever more, which is the main reason I use them whether or not it was the intended outcome.

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Mat Cannings -

Hi Chris,

I have been playing with criteria over the weekend and am working on quiz and hoping to move on to login criteria.

The quiz at the moment has grades and attempts as options. So allows things like 100% on first attempt, 100% after more than 5 attempts and 13 attempts at a quiz. This is almost working on my test server.

The login would allow things like log in for 5 consecutive days, once a week for 4 consecutive weeks etc...

The problem is (that as far as I can tell) the badges in Moodle do not easily allow extra criteria to be added easily. There does not appear to be a mechanism in place to detect new criteria being added, like if you add a new block, filter or questiontype. I have the quiz one mostly working but it requires modifications to 2 core files (3 to do it correctly with language strings) to make it usable.

Hopefully I am mistaken and have missed something obvious as the criteria itself is simply contained in a single file, but it is not detected without the changes. I have logged a Moodle Tracker ticket regarding this at https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-39864 

 

Attachment quiz.png
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In reply to Mat Cannings

Re: Badges Wish List

by Simon Coggins -

You are right that those core changes are currently needed, and I agree that it should be easier. Probably the most sensible approach is to make criteria a sub-plugin type. The criteria could then be shared via the plugins database.

Thanks for posting the improvement bug on this subject.

Simon

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In reply to Simon Coggins

Re: Badges Wish List

by Chris Wheatland -

This looks rather good! If I had the coding skills I'd have a go at messing around with this sort of thing but I just don't know where to get started with Moodle coding.

Are there any helpful tutorials out there?

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Mat Cannings -

Hi Chris,

I don't know what your programming experience is but if you have none then I would recommend starting with getting to know basic programming concepts.  logic, looping, variables, functions, objects and classes. These are similar in most languages and transferable. Have a look for MOOCs running Computer Science 101 as these courses seem to cover that area.

If you are wanting to do programming for Moodle then you will need to look at the PHP programming language in more detail. There are many books and sites that have this area covered.

For me my first experience with PHP was Moodle itself, but I had programmed in several other languages before. I learned by getting familiar with what something does from a user perspective and then looking at the code and trying to deduce how it does what it does. I started by looking at blocks and comparing the code in two or three different blocks, you notice common traits. Then I copied a block that was already close to what I wanted to achieve and changed what I needed to.
The code in Moodle is pretty well documented through comments and uses sensible names for variables and functions which helps to make it quite easy to work out what is going on.

Even if programming is not for you then suggesting ideas in Moodle forums is a fantastic help for programmers. Producing wishlists of requirements can help provide inspiration or a challenge for a developer. If there is a sound reasoning behind a request and it will help benefit many Moodle users then there is a possibility that someone might rise to the challenge.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Mat Cannings

Re: Badges Wish List

by Chris Wheatland -

Well I have a basic knowledge of Java so programming isn't completely alien to me. Maybe I should delve into the code then and have a look. Is there a particular program that's good for php developing (like Eclipse or NetBeans for Java)? I find looking at un-delinated code in notepad rather confusing.

I'll hunt for some tutorials and have a look when I have any free time.

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

If you can do Java then PHP will not be hard, it is a language used by many people who forgot to learn to program smile.  I use Netbeans for PHP but others use eclipse.  For quick messing with code there is a lot to be said for Notepad++ .

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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Badges Wish List

by Mat Cannings -

I have recently started to use Aptana http://www.aptana.com/ and find it to work quite well. IDE's work well for learning as they will allow you to easily trace where unknown functions are created.

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Richard Bakos -

I would recommend Sublime Text 2... It's extremely light-weight, fast, incredibly extensible, and has a HUGE library of community created extensions... 

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Simon Coggins -

I think these are all good suggestions, would you be able to create a separate feature or improvement bug for each one in the Moodle tracker?

I don't think removing open badges support is necessary to make those changes. For example, with upgradable badges the badge within Moodle could replace the previous one, independent of if it has been uploaded to a backpack. The user would end up with two badges in their backpack if they are using it but that wouldn't impact the internal Moodle behaviour.

Since using the open badges format shouldn't impact on Moodle features, I'd prefer to keep that functionality, unless there is a very clear case where it is undesirable (rather than just not needed).

Although you might not expect your students set up a backpack or to export them, some of them might want to (even for trivial badges), for example if they are leaving the school/institution where they earned them. The whole point of the Mozilla system is that the user has control over the badges that they have earned, and having that control should, if anything, increase motivation further.

Simon

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In reply to Simon Coggins

Re: Badges Wish List

by Chris Wheatland -

More badge criteria - MDL-39921

Multiple identical badges awarded - MDL-39922

Triumphant badge awarding - MDL-39923

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Gideon Williams -

Hi Chris

I thought you could award badges based on particular activities eg quizzes? When I was playing about on badges on a friends Moodle I set up a football quiz to award a badge for 8 out of 10 correct using conditional activities. There are some videos on it on my ScoopIT at http://www.screenr.com/7v67 I think. Unless I am getting the wring end of the stick?

Gideon

PS Super list for badges. I would also like to see an organisational style system where students are awarded "higher order" badges if they achieve say 4 particular badges... More power to your elbow.

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In reply to Gideon Williams

Re: Badges Wish List

by Chris Wheatland -

That's a good workaround Gideon I'll use that, cheers!

It doesn't let you award a different badge based on scores though, which I think would be nice, for example 3/10 gets you a bronze, 6/10 a silver and 10/10 a gold. 

That combines a few of my wishes though, since you'd need replaceable badges if the pupil then went back and did it again to improve their score (something I encourage mine to do a lot).

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Nick Frost -

I'd second the 'upgradeable badges' idea. I'd like to award a series of badges - "Python programming level 1", "Python programmer level 2", etc. (or Bronze, Silver Gold) but although I can award a higher badge there is no easy way to remove the lower badge so this becomes hard to maintain (and clogs up pupil screens with 'obsolete' badges. As various people have commented, more badges makes the system less clear/rewarding so 'less is more' in this context.....

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In reply to Chris Wheatland

Re: Badges Wish List

by Bob Derezinski -

I agree, there needs to be functionality added that allows the same badge to be earned multiple times.

We have the scenario where students are enrolled into courses indefinitely.  When they first go through the course they can earn a course badge by passing the course final exam.  That badge is good for 1 year from the date it is earned, then it expires.  We need the student to then retake the same course and final exam to re-certify their knowledge in that area and earn that same badge, or somehow re-activate the expired badge.  Is there anything available for this? 

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