Currently for some strange reason, the design of the Assignment module is different from the File module. I would like to have the similar optional capability in the Assignment module to drag and drop Assignment instructions as a File rather than having to create a link, upload the File, etc.
Is this easy to do for a user (not admin)? Or do I have to wait until Admin finds time to do this?
Does anyone know why this option is not currently available in Moodle 2.3? Thanks.
I would imagine the reason it is not there is simply because it wasn't there before and no-one made the suggestion to include it when the new assignment module was being created. I know you can do something similar by adding a 'cover sheet' in the pdf assignment type and this is working its way into core so maybe that functionality will be part of wht gets to core and will be usable with other assignment types as well?
Otherwise it may be worth filing an improvement suggestion in the tracker.
Richard
The version of the PDF annotation plugin that is being integrated into core will only be a feedback plugin, not a submission plugin. It will allow you to annotate PDFs that have been submitted via the 'file' submission type (or any other submission type that produces files, so, for example, a submission plugin that integrated with an external system for scanning to PDFs would be included in the files that could be annotated).
As a result, the submission features of the PDF annotation plugin will not be present - the main feature being the coversheet functionality.
I may look at creating a new 'coversheet' plugin to allow files to be uploaded by the teacher as a coversheet (and optionally, in the case of PDFs, filled in via a form on the student's submission page). However, the chances of me having some spare time to write this are slim, so it might be something that would happen if there was some funding available for it (it would almost certainly be an adaptation of my current PDF submission plugin).
Thanks. Do you know why it wouldn't have been included when drag and drop was added to 2.3? Drag and drop wasn't there before for Files, after all and yet it was added.
The having a 'mandatory field' of Details in Assignments indicates to me that the developers think all assignment are just a few lines of text and not a complete file.
Is there any plugin that is available that I can send admin to integrate when they get around to improving our version of 2.3? Thanks.
Drag and drop upload was added to all file upload form elements and all main course pages in 2.3 (I should know, I wrote it).
Adding drag and drop to file upload form elements is a completely separate task from adding new file upload elements to pages.
As there wasn't a file upload element on the assignment editing page, then there was nothing to add drag and drop upload capabilities to. If you think there *should* be a file upload element on the assignment editing page, then I suggest you open a new request on tracker.moodle.org (and then encourage people to vote on it).
Thanks. I don't know that I understand what you are saying but I will add to the tracker.
What I don't understand is that File Uploads in the 1.9 version were not drag and drop. So the drag and drop feature was added I presume in 2.3. Assignment File Uploads (I am speaking of professors uploading Assignment instructions in a file were not drag and drop in 1.9. So why couldn't they be added in 2.3 as well?
On my other post, do you know why Details is a Mandatory field in File Upload. How can it be turned off so it is optional?
Site admin > Plugins > Activity modules > File > Require activity description.
As for why you can't add instructions to assignments via drag + drop. Click on 'reply' to this message. You will see 2 boxes - one to type in, one to upload files (via the 'add' button or drag + drop). If you do the same on a Moodle 1.9 site you will see 2 boxes - one to type in, one to upload files (via the 'add' button, no drag + drop option).
Now do the same on an assignment settings page. On both a 1.9 site and a 2.5 site you will see one box to type in a description and no box to upload a description as a file.
The drag and drop feature updated all existing file-upload 'boxes', so that they could accept files being dragged + dropped. This feature did not automatically add file-upload boxes where none existed already (as is the case on the assignment settings page), but just improved the existing file-upload boxes (such as here on this forum).
You could certainly make the case that it would be helpful to have a file-upload option on the assignment settings page, but, unless someone specifically decides to add such a new feature it won't just happen. This is why I suggest going to tracker.moodle.org and putting in a request for this new feature (after searching to see if anyone has already requested it).
Thanks for the information. I guess I am trying to understand why when moodle was created what the logic was for not having the option of adding a file as an assignment. It seems cumbersome to me to have to use the link-upload file- upload file-select file series of instructions when adding a file should be a simpler function when doing assignments. Do you know why it was designed that way? From my standpoint as a professor trying to use moodle as a technology to lessen the amount of work required that I have to do, the logic of not enabling file uploads in the Assignment function in the original moodle escapes me.
As for the other issue, I guess the fact that it involves "Site" Administration that a lowly professor with a Course Site cannot change the default? Thanks.
Thanks. That sort of makes sense, except that moodle provided files for resources/files so students would have to download those anyways.
I guess no one thought of it before. A lot of my colleagues still provide extensive descriptions of assignments in their course syllabus. My course is year long and the assignments students do are elaborate and often are adapted to where the students are at in a particular class during the year,so I can't provide more description in the course outline and prefer not to write text on moodle...Files are just so much easier to drag and drop for Assignment pane. And you can format them in Word and emphasize what you want to emphasize rather than monkeying around with formatting in the Details pane. Plus it is so much easier the next year to just go to the File in your computer and make revisions rather than having to go to the moodle site to find the exact wording one used.
All in all, having drag and drop as an option is so much better. People who want to still write in the Details pane can still do that. The thing I want in moodle is to have as many options as possible, and fewer Mandatory fields so I as a professor can choose what I want and don't want to use. Anyways, that is my principle of operation with this software!
