When showing one section per page hide the General Section

When showing one section per page hide the General Section

by James Henestofel -
Number of replies: 3

We are trying to get more of our instructors to use the Course display option of "Show one section per page" to prevent the scroll of death.

The issue we are having with this option is that the General section shows on the section page with the section selected.  A lot of our instructors fill that area with a LOT of information about the course.  We try to encourage them not to but most don't listen. 

I would like peoples opinions on the following options

  1. hide that general section permanently
  2. create a checkbox config option that says "Hide General Section".  This may be confusing if people aren't using the "Show one section" option.
  3. create another option in the dropdown that says "Show one section per page and hide general section"

I know where the code is for hiding this but I would like to see this in core.

I was going to create an improvement tracker but wanted thoughts on this before I did that.

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In reply to James Henestofel

Re: When showing one section per page hide the General Section

by Gareth J Barnard -
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Hi James,

I am never in favour of using software to implement a 'stick' approach when the issue is a human one.  It only makes the humans who are using it get annoyed with the software and give it a bad press.  They tend to be tenacious and find work-a-rounds bringing you back to square one.  The problem here is not the software it is the instructors are simply not listening to your instructions despite what I assume is well thought out and directed training for them.

Reading between the lines it appears that if they keep adding lots of information to the general section then a) they have poor course design skills and or b) they can't be bothered with the quality of the course material.  In both situations the solution is with them being taught and having dictated performance management targets which will hurt them the most and wake them up to do a proper job.

The options in Moodle (as I've come to learn) have to be positive.  Therefore if there still is going to be an improvement then my vote will be for '3'.  If you do raise it, then please post the number here, I'll look at it and may even consider implementing it.

Cheers,

Gareth

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: When showing one section per page hide the General Section

by James Henestofel -

I know what you mean about good course design.  We stress that and are trying to come up with templates and master courses so we can lock down what they can and can't do.  But we have instructors that feel the need to explain each course, introduce themselves, put useful docs, etc.. in the General Section.

Regardless of the course design.  I don't see any reason that the general section should be shown on the individual section pages anyway.  I don't see how any information in that section would be useful for every single section that is available to students.

Anyways thanks for the current and any future input.

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In reply to James Henestofel

Re: When showing one section per page hide the General Section

by James Henestofel -

I've created an improvement tracker here MDL-43381 and implemented a fix for Option 3

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