Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Kenneth Litwak -
Number of replies: 20

  I want to be able to go to a page that shows me all the forum posts, answers, discussions, responses, whatever, that a student has made, in reverse chronological order (i.e., select posts where student = "Bob Smith" order by post-date desc).  I want to be able to grade these posts on that page. 

This was totally doable in Moodle 1 and was a great aid for grading participation.  In Moodle 2, neither I nor our school's Moodle administrator can figure out how to do this.  If I go to the list of participants, I can eventually drill down to some of the student's posts but not all of them by any means, and when I see them, I can't grade them.  

Is this feature still available in Moodle 2 but we can't find it?  Or was it removed?  If it's the latter, please bring it back.  I don't know what language Moodle is written in but if it is in Java, and you can point me to the code that used to do what I want in Moodle 1, maybe I can retrofit in into my school's Moodle 2.  That would be hard to do correctly however, so I'd much rather that the Moodle developers do it.  Thanks.

 

Ken Litwak 

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Kenneth Litwak

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Helen Foster -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Hi Ken,

Moodle 2 also has a page showing all posts a student has made, which a user with appropriate capabilities, such as a teacher, can grade. You can access this page via the list of participants in a course - click on a student's name to access their course profile page, then in the navigation block you should find Current course > Course101 > Participants > Sam Student > Forum posts > Posts.

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In reply to Helen Foster

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Judy Crozier -

I think Moodle fixed what was not broken in Moodle 2 with changing the discussion forums grading.  I do NOT want to see ALL a students posts for the entire class.  Sometimes I have two or three forums a week for students to do classwork on.  I want to see that ONE board and ALL the students posts.  Moreover I want to be able to give private feedback to that student about that particular forum.  That option is gone.  Imagine the end of the semester and I am in participant and scrolling through ALL of their posts...

Whoever has power in Moodle - tell them to revert this Advanced Forum back... they have just tripled my workload in grading to grade individually instead of the way it was.  When I realized this change - I was livid.  I think Moodle needs to TALK to teachers prior to making changes so drastic like this.  Taking away an appropriate grading feature like this makes the forum useless and pointless.  Discussions in the online world are VITAL to creating a dynamic and interactive course.  To force teachers to go into each post and blindly grade EACH submission with the drop down is INSANE.  I cannot see if that student posted another time, or what kind of responses.  I need them ALL in one place as they were in Moodle 1 - Now I am having to figure out - is there some other discussion forum I can use outside of Moodle that will help me see ONE student on ONE forum and ALL of their posts and be able to grade and comment. 

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In reply to Judy Crozier

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Keith C -

I am about to launch a course where I will be using and graded a great deal of forum activity  so this caught my eye...but I don't yet have any experience with it.  Can't you do what you want to do with the advanced search?  You can search by user and forum there. 

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In reply to Keith C

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Judy Crozier -

I do not want to search for anything. I want to click a button and have access to all that I need the way that I need it.  It was FINE before.  They took something that was not broken and they BROKE IT!  I was able to go via the student... see all of the posts for that board/forum - I was able to grade and leave a note in the same window - If I needed to see more I could click a button and expand my view. 

Moodle really blew it with this.  Now that being said I have not talked to IT and have not discovered that there is some kind of other view that is not being addressed here.  I HOPE.  As this is truly AWFUL.

The way they have it now - I have to GO into the FORUM - and see each POST - I cannot connect the responses to the first post.  It is POORLY thought out and makes NO sense.  It truly seems as if whoever set this up had NO idea about grading or the needs or POINT of the board.  If you have ONE post and ONE response in the same place then its fine.  But if you have multiple posts and multiple responses - the hope of the board then it truly TRIPLES our work time in going into each individual post and there is NO way to connect the post to the person and ALL they did.  Going through the participant will most likely get you ALL their posts all semester - also a useless idea.

I do not understand why they took something that worked and messed with it.  Where did they get their research that this was a good idea.

 

SO frustrated.

I can only hope there is some lessor know workaround.

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In reply to Judy Crozier

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Keith C -

I just told you.  Go into the Forum search and search for all posts by the user you want to grade.  You can also limit it to one forum or choose all forums (which would be all the posts in all the forums).  It sounds to me like you are crying out of frustration because a large team of people are donating their time to make a powerful application and they changed something.  Welcome to technology!

I hate the way Windows releases a new version every couple years and moves all the menu's around.  Do you know why they do that?  Because then everyone who wants to use it will need to provide a crap load of training to their company keeping the training networks in business.  That is marketing...it's different than what's happening here.  You should learn about things, how they work and why instead of just complaining.  You have wasted enough time in grief about this it would seem.

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In reply to Keith C

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Keith C -

Let me try to put it a different way...

If a developer writing the Advance Forum and search features designed it to render the information you want by pushing the submit button in the search feature...why would someone then write a report that does the same exact thing and put it somewhere else?  Maybe your report was in the wrong place to begin with and it's a natural child of the search feature...but it wasn't programmed into the earlier version of Moodles search so they added a report.

I don't even know because I can't see what you are talking about ... but what you are complaining about is change and your discomfort with it without recognizing the positive elements of change.  If it's that much of an issue then don't upgrade your Moodle.

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In reply to Keith C

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Judy Crozier -

Actually it is not about the change.  What I am complaining about is that there was nothing wrong with how it worked before if there needed to be some report then fine put that in - leave the rest alone.  I am fine with change - I am NOT fine with taking something that worked and making it worse.  It seems there was ZERO thought process in this. 

But what I need are the tools to grade and that has been removed.  What I have been taught now - as to how to grade in this new moodle makes my job three times harder and longer and it makes it a disconnected process instead of a connected process.

Here is what I need.  I need to be able to go into a forum and grade that forum only.  In that forum I need to be able to see each student and the number and the context of their posts - all collectively.  I need a window to post a grade and I need a box to make comments.

Is that still there?  No.  There is NO way to make comments even... the Moodle video I saw suggested we post ON the board... that is not private.

My understanding - and as I said I have not been told of a workaround yet - so maybe it is there and I have not found it... But I am being TAUGHT that to grade a forum I have to go into each POST and I will see the grade drop down and I will grade from each post - so if my student posts TEN TIMES I get ten drop downs for those posts.  And I see only the posts - by POST not by student.  WHich means It is all disjointed.  So under a post I could have ONE post by the first student and TEN students responses... I cannot see that the first student never responded anywhere.... I do not get to KNOW that... BUT so far NO WHERE can I see in ONE spot ALL of ONE students POSTs and ONLY for that forum.

 

This is a serious problem.  I need to be able to see how ONE student is doing in ONE area.  I do not want to have to hunt and find where ONE student posted responses.  I do not want to have to GO out of the forum and into participants - that created extra steps for me... I do not appreciate someone making my job HARDER that annoys the hell out of me. 

It is the same as if someone does you a favor and then makes MORE work for you... that is no favor and so far for this Board issue - they ruined something that was good and made if really THREE times more time consuming.

I am hearing that I have to go into the students and will then see ALL the posts for the entire semester - really going to suck at the end of a semester to have to deal with all that.

Not sure what you are referring to writing a report and putting it somewhere else... but this is about grading and reading the posts and being able to make judgments about ONE students work.  It is a VERY disjointed and time consuming process now.

 

it is a VERY VERY valid complaint.

 

Show me some way to do what I need to do with limited clicking.  I welcome assistance.

 

The other thing I need to have is MY original board post - to see if they hit the prompt.  I need to have access to that along with all the other things I mentioned.  They were ALL there - why change it and take things like that away... it makes no sense.

 

Just as I can go into the the ONE assignment and grade that ONE assignment I need the discussion boards and the work SELF CONTAINED to be able to grade it.

 

I need it self contained by student and by forum.  I need to be able to grade AND give feedback.

 

They took out the feedback feature.  That is completely gone - there is NO private feedback feature. 

So in my two or three boards a week - I cannot offer any feedback except to go to email....  That is INSANE... I have to open email - and then explain which board post I am talking about - and then explain the issue... instead of it being right there....

 

I am complaining because they truly RUINED something good and removed things that I needed and were valued.

 

So I have a board post where they students did excellent... back and forth conversation and working together etc... but now a nightmare to grade.  I was basically grading BLIND.  I cannot see what they did for the whole board - posts and responses and I had NO way to comment.

 

The board is now pretty much useless to me.

 

it is disjointed at best.  I do not know how to better explain it.

 

It is a writing class they do peer review and ALL rough draft type work on the board - and I cannot see ALL the work of one student...  I cannot give comments...

Does Moodle what good pedagogy is for online learning? Do they know what best practices dictates for online learning?  clearly they do not or they would know how VITAL a discussion board is to online learning.

Oh and here is the real kicker - why it is three times longer

 

SO I go into the post to grade... and I have to hit the drop down menu each time I see a student... now that student Might have posted responses ten times but only TWO responses count - HOW do I keep track of that? I cannot - so while the system will only allow the max points I have given for the assignment - I cannot keep track of who I graded so I just hit the drop down... five points here four points there... so I am replicating grading someone who might have already hit their allotment of points... and yet - to be safe I need to keep grading because out of 20 or 30 students that one could have in a class I will not remember if Suzie hit all her responses...

 

Does that make sense?  I am grading unnecessarily sometimes.  And while the old Moodle I would have been able to SEE all that one persons posts in one place I could see that Suzie did a short response to one person but the two substantial responses to other people.  Instead in new Moodle I will be wasting my time placing a grade on them ALL.

So say that student gets 1 point for the one sentence... and then say they did FIVE times - one sentence and I gave ONE point for each because I cannot track how many times they did one liners... that should mean that person should only get ONE point for a five point response... but if they posted FIVE times with one line the system - might (not sure yet) add up all those five points so that student THINKS they are getting all the points for those one liners...when in fact if I could make comments I could say you are getting ONE point because your post is not substantial enough.

So NO mister - whoever you are jumping to conclusions that I am complaining because I do not like change... I am complaining because I have VERY VALID complaints and that MOODLE screwed this one up - badly.  I only hope I can find a backend way to get into grade more appropriately. 

 

You do what I do - three boards a week and then try grading it in this disjointed fashion... good luck.  You would be just as pissed off as I am.

 

Once I am done grading this STUPID way then to see what each student go I have to go into the grade book - see the total they received and then if I need to make a comment - if I give a crap about the learning process - I would then have to EMAIL them to give them a private comment.

What Moodle did so far appears very ignorant and not well thought-out.

 

SO PLEASE someone tell me or find me a backend way to grade this appropriately.

 

 

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In reply to Judy Crozier

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Keith C -

 

Here is a screen shot of the Advanced Forum Advanced Search I am talking about and how to implement it to see all the posts by one student in a particular forum.  It works I just tested it. 

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In reply to Keith C

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Keith C -

as far as the comments on the posts...I agree with you that is very important.  I looked and I don't see it and quickly browsed the documentation as well.  Perhaps it's a setting in the Advanced Forum Module administrative settings to allow private comments on posts...I can totally see that.

Now, I am going to have to do the same thing and I can think of several easy solutions that are much better than the messaging system.  I have not tested these but will run through a couple for you:

Create one assignment.  When you are grading keep the assignment open in one window and the list of students work in another.  Keep adding comments to the assignment submission as you go through the course by quickly pasting in the forum post and your comments.

Use a wiki and change the permissions so students can't see each others work.  So you would just open the students Wiki page and put your info there.  The nice thing about this is you could make an independent record of each comment...because the Wiki module is about keeping track of the revisions.

Use the database module.  Create a form.  Have the students create a record.  Then comment on the record for your comments.  The nice thing about this one is you could also then grade the student on the totality of their work.  So let's say you have a Unit 1 forum and a Unit 2 forum ... you could just copy the database you create for each unit and then put the comments you have into each one as you go along...then you could rate the students entry to reflect a culminating grade for the activity not just some amalgamation of your ratings on the posts.  Hence, you could use the grading in two different categories.

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In reply to Keith C

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Judy Crozier -

Problem is solved.  Use the Joule Grader.  ON the side - go to Course Admin - and then to Joule Grader.  That opens for me in the grader for Discussion Boards.  You see ALL of that post - one student at a time.  Comment box.  Grade - and The drop down menu to switch students.

There is also a drop down box so you could GRADE ALL other ASSIGNMENTS through this window.

WHEW!  I think the problem is solved.

 

Okay - here is the million dollar question.  WHY then when I was looking for tutorials about how to grade discussion forums - why was this not something I was able to find?  Who is putting out this information?

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In reply to Judy Crozier

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Kim Salinas -
Picture of Testers

Hi Judy, I believe the Joule items are MoodleRooms specific. They should have some training available for you if needed. smile

We also have MoodleRooms as our host, but I do not see any forum options in the Joule Grader. All I am seeing are Assignment activities, even though I do have points assigned to my forums.

I am curious as to how you have your forums set up so that they are showing in the Joule Grader? Are they set up to grade within the forum, or have you set up an Offline assignment type item for this?

Thank you in advance.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Kim Salinas

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Jason Hardin -

Kim is correct Advanced forums and Joule grader are features that Moodlerooms developed as an add ons to Moodle. Currently Advanced forums is released to the community as a plugin but Joule Grader is not. We are working with Moodle HQ to get both plugins into Moodle Core in 2.6, 2.7 or 2.8.

Documentation for Joule specific features can be found at http://manuals.moodlerooms.com/dashboard.action. For advanced forums you can look specifically at http://manuals.moodlerooms.com/display/JOULE2/Moodlerooms+Manual#MoodleroomsManual-AdvancedForum. For Joule grader you can look at http://manuals.moodlerooms.com/display/JOULE2/Joule+Grader+Manual.


We also have videos tutorials and feature descriptions on Youtube. See:

Joule 2: Advanced forums overview:


Joule 2: Creating Advanced Forums:

Advanced forums and Joule grader:

I am sorry this was so frustrating. If you have any other concerns around advanced forums please feel free to contact me or send an email to our support system. We are looking at improving Advanced forums and Core forums in the near future so any feedback would be appreciated.

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Judy Crozier

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Guillermo Madero -

This is why people are asked to list as much as possible the characteristics of the environment they are working on (server, OS, versions, hosting). Yes, Moodle 2 brought many less-than-useful changes to the user-interface, I definetely agree, but had the fact that MoodleRooms was the hoster, maybe since the beginning someone would have come with the solution and all the frustration could have been avoided.

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In reply to Keith C

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Judy Crozier -

Exactly what am I supposed to do with the search feature?
Type in each students name - every week - once for each board?
and search for that specific board?

Even copying and pasting that is ridiculous.

To use a search feature is insane.

I want to click on one button and get where I want to go.  I do not want to search each student three times a week so I can grade a board post.

 

You have to admit this was just really poorly thought out on the part of Moodle.  To ask us to search each time -

 

Oh by the way - you want to know what comes up for me on the search forum - advanced search... 11 PAGES!!!!

That is ONE forum. Thirteen posts per page - approximately. Depending on the length.

 

I selected the one forum I wanted to grade and that is what comes up.... 11 pages!

to see JUST one student at a time - I have to type the students name into the advanced search and click on that specific forum - drop down menu....

That's NUTS!

 

I am simply NOT doing that 75 times a week!

 

What Moodle did to the advanced forums - broke something that did not need fixing!

 

This is Moodle that probably does not have a real teacher who works on the staff - and they blew it a huge way.

 

When a new textbook comes out - what happens? They hire teachers to use it and evaluate it.  Where is that?
I see none of that going on.

 

This cannot be remedied - unless there is some workaround they have not shown us.

 

I go in during the week and interact with the board posts so by the weekend and close date I have read

most - and so I am not needing to re-read them - but refresh on what was there - look at responses and grade and COMMENT.

I have to grade blind NOW because I am NOT using the search by name feature that would take hours. When typically grading the board takes about a half hour.  This weekend - opening each post - and clicking each drop down - it took three times as long - and I did two boards for two different classes - and it did NOT get faster.  It takes time for the page to refresh when you click on a post -

 

Oh and when the advanced search comes up - I have no option as to the order - it is by last posted.  So, unless the student posted all at the same time - again disjointed.

 

So what they did was take my one or two buttons - and turned it into me having to TYPE in an advanced search - each and every student by NAME to grade their board post - oh and by the way - what is missing when you look at those posts - the original post!  I was able to click back and forth to the original post or to the student post that a person was responding to - and see it all with simple clicks.

That option is also not available anymore.

 

 

Here is the only viable option - to do what I did when I had students on a private group Facebook page - I had them copy and paste it into an assignment window so I could grade it.

That takes the extra time of me opening and assignment for the board posts - and the flaws would be if someone forgot all the places the posted - although THEY could do the advanced search and find all their board posts.

Then they can copy and paste it into the window and I can grade it and give feedback (while seeing the original post) but the drawback is that I will not know who they were responding to.

 

Sorry - Moodle blew it on this one.

 

They need all those features they had before.

 

They can add but they should NOT have taken away.

 

They took the most important tool in online learning and ruined it.

 

And I am not going to a Wiki to give feedback.  This job is not how many different places can I go to - to get the job done.  This is about being getting this done efficiently and effectively.

 

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In reply to Judy Crozier

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Judy Crozier -

PS

 

If you see a way to change the naming of assignments - when you download them - and I found how to download them in a batch - they come out under the FIRST name of the student.  Seriously, who are the numbnuts who work at Moodle that make these stupid decisions?  Yes I want all my assignments by FIRST name!  I do not see a way to change that and I just looked at my last years work and that came out under last name first. 

 

You get my support until you do something shortsighted, inept, poorly planned, or poorly researched and then I am done.

There is no reason for this ignorance.

 

So is there another ten steps I need to do to correct this in Moodle 2?

 

Thanks Moodle

Frankly I did not have a problem with Moodle 2 - until I needed to grade.

 

But I could just pass that irrelevant step - who needs grades anyway?

 

 

I mean - not in alphabetical order - just a hiccup.

But the discussion board....

Who needs to be able to see the whole picture when grading...

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In reply to Keith C

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by as as -

t is been said that students are good teaches as in their age they will be having a lots of doubts and curiosities around the things around them and they themselves tries to find accurate solution for tit which is beyond their education.

 

<a href="http://www.microsoft-chat.com">microsoft-chat.com</a>

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In reply to as as

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by dawn alderson -

A note to confirm, that there is a qualified teacher with extensive years of experience-across the age range 3-65ish who is an active and qualified researcher with Moodle. Thus, all dominant research outcomes inform QE.

warm wishes

Dawn 

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In reply to dawn alderson

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Dwight Hawley -

Hello all.

I venture into these waters with some trepidation. Perhaps I can change the tone if not the substance. I agree with Judy that for those digging around in multiple forums serving numerous students the changes appear far from beneficial. Personally I prefer the old look but that is really not the issue. Time and technology move forward. Modern pedagogy seems to weigh in favor of examination of a students body of work in a more sterile environment.  We can now grade work that is posted without name or source so that we do not introduce any prejudice. We can have it graded by someone other than the instructor entirely and compare our grade with the impartial 3rd party.

But i like Moodle's inherent pedagogy of community based learning where your relationship in the community is a defining factor in how your work is perceived. How are you growing in relation to your peers? And that is where I personally seem to be at odds with the new direction of forums. But I will survive.

We just went from Moodle 2.5 to 2.7 and as I waited for the onslaught of support requests I received but one. Forums:

All,

It looks like they changed Moodle versions last night.  As a result, I am no longer able to tell who posted a response unless they sign their post or I click reply.   Also as a result, the quick link to a learner's profile is no longer available, and added steps are required if you wish to message a learner within Moodle versus post a response.

They haven't even hit grading yet. I can hardly wait. This isn't me. I have no immediate stake in this. This is a faculty member I serve and I have no way to help them. If anyone has found ways through or around this please let me know.


Dwight


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In reply to Dwight Hawley

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hello there. Do you know which version of Moodle 2.7 you upgraded to? I believe the issue referred to in that message is related to this tracker report MDL-47246 which was fixed in Moodle 2.7.4 out on 11th of January.
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Viewing and rating all student forum posts on one page

by Dwight Hawley -

Hi Mary,

It is 2.7.4+ (Build: 20150129)


The attachment shows the teacher view. If students open with Hello [name] and close with their own name you can infer identity but the one at bottom highlighted with no closing given by the student gives an idea of what it would look like if they neither opened nor closed with a name. There would be absolutely no identifying information.


Dwight   <<< Identifying information smile

Attachment FORUM screen.jpg
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