Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Beatriz Rojo -
Number of replies: 10

Hi there,

I'm glad to read that there are some attempts and interest to modernize the lesson module. I use it quite often but it is quite unflexible and not very user-friendly.

I am most disappointed about the feedback and I would like to suggest some improvements from my teacher and student side:

  • feedback: it should appear near to the answers and not below. It took me a while as a student to understand which answer was wrong and which one was right.
  • feedback: it would be better if it says how many answers were right.
  • questions: it is extremely disappointing when you are accostumated to the quizz questions to go back 20 years and have only a very limited typology. I would like to have the same questiosn typology as in the quizz module and, even greater, to have also the hotpot module in the lesson module.

May be I'm dreaming, but I have also whised something like the Assignment and the Workshop module and they are now a reality!

Regards,

Beatriz.

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In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Beatriz,

In "reality" if the content of your lesson is to be presented in a linear fashion, you can do what you want to right now by using a regular Moodle Quiz. You can use feedback to suggest a student go back to "relearn" if they get an answer wrong, but you can't enforce it like in the Lesson Module with a jump.

Use the Description type "question" for your lesson content. Use a different description "question" for each content section that you would normally place on separate pages of a lesson. The description "question" will let you use text, pictures, audio, and video, if you so desire. Create all of your desired graded questions using any of the available quiz question types.

Create your "Quiz" for the lesson and set the Layout > Question order to As shown on the edit screen so that things do not get shuffled out of your desired order. Set the Question behaviour > How questions behave to Adaptive Mode so that students can check their answers and get feedback right away like in the lesson. Set the Review options > During the attempt to whatever you want the students to see when they click the Check button for each question.

Assemble the quiz adding the descriptions and actual questions in the order you want them presented. At this time you can also manually set page breaks to occur wherever you desire.

Yesterday was our last day for students until August, so I can possibly come up with a short demo, if anyone is interested.

HTH,

AL

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In reply to AL Rachels

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Beatriz Rojo -

Hi Al,

thanks a lot for your detailed description! You are right, the quiz module can do much more than the lesson. It is just that I like to use each activity for one different function, and I use the quiz for assessment and review and the lessons for presenting new information.

But it is also very interesting to adapt an activity so that it has different functions. I will try next time with your recommendations.

Regards,

Beatriz.

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In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Marinda Faasen -

Hi 

I would like to add to what Beatriz is saying. The lesson activity is a great replacement for the creation of SCORM modules, but a few enhancements to it would be wonderful. 

I also switch between the quiz and the lesson module, depending on what I am trying to achieve, but in some cases, only the lesson activity will work. I'm trying to create lessons that will not concentrate on grades, but will rather force a learner to interact with content, and will redirect the learner depending on choices made. 

The lesson activity is already a wonderful tool, but it can be improved. I would like to see the following:

  • Add all the question types that are currently found in the quiz tool. 
  • Uploading pics as part of the answer choices. Currently you can only add a link to an already uploaded picture.
  • Currently when you change the answer choices to html format, the words fall under the radio button. I would like to align it. I had to change it because I am using glossary linking (another great feature), but I don't want it to link in the questions, so I have to unlink it in the questions.
  • Display in a new window without showing the blocks, like the quiz.

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In reply to Marinda Faasen

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

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

This was discussed at the Hackfest following the UKMoot14 in Edinburgh

http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Lesson_activity_module_2

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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Sali Kaceli -

It would be ideal if the lesson module would allow for better navigation via tabs or icons similar to the attached image. The user then would go next ... next.. in a linear way or by jumping to another section within the lesson. The side block navigation is OK but I think the top one would work better. 

top navigation

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In reply to Sali Kaceli

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Isabelle Langeveld -

I just this report about Lesson improvements https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Lesson_activity_module_2#Initial_participants

It dates from May 2014. I am curious how any work is coming along.

Only now I am realizing why I always am in agonizing doubt about whether to use Lesson or Quiz; their purposes are just not clear! Some features of the Lesson are really good:

- make navigation between pages possible with buttons

- or create paths according to given answers

- Menu on the side for Content pages

Unfortunately it has many disadvantages now. They are very well stated in the discussion report.

For me the most important difference between a Lesson and a Quiz would be that a Quiz is for grading with consequences and a Lesson is for interacting with content to find out what you are interested in, know/understand already and still have to devote more energy to. It's individual and independent from teacher or peers. You can save your answers to go back to them later on, perhaps to improve or compare and discuss them with a teacher if you want to.

What I really like is the idea of an interactive map as a starting page. I could make something in a tool outside of Moodle, but if Moodle would offer the opion: Create map from defined branched and some formatting options, I would be happy.

You don't wat to dive into Captivate or Articulate every time you want some interaction with multimedia.

I can't code, what can I do to help?

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In reply to Isabelle Langeveld

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

You are helping already, Isabelle, by making suggestions and saying how you'd like the lesson to work smile It's one of my favourite Moodle activities too and we are fortunate in that recently, Jean-Michel Védrine (along with Stephen Bourget and  also with Adrian Greeve at HQ) have been fixing bugs and making improvements to the lesson activity, most of which as Jean-Michel said, will arrive in Moodle 2.9 Here is a list of some of the Lesson issues being worked on.

I agree - you don't always want to dive into Captivate or Articulate every time you want some interaction with multimedia. Unfortunately many people do because they think it's easier (often they work in similar ways to Powerpoint) or more attractive (shiny, flashy) or easier to figure out - Lesson is an advanced module - but I have every confidence we can improve Lesson to make it a more attractive option than such expensive packages ;)

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Isabelle Langeveld -

Wow that is quite a list of issues. I wouldn't mind doing some test or peer review work. How do I sort the issues for which I can contribute?

Comparing to Captivate or other tools outside of Moodle: it is nice if you can customize the look of your lesson. But I am beginning to discover what you can do with classes and styles wink

My colleagues and I are asked to make interactive content that fits in different platforms or we make stuff we sell. Then alas, the Moodle lesson is no option. Or, it should miraculously translate itself to HTML5...

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In reply to Isabelle Langeveld

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Mat Cannings -

I just wanted to add how pleased I am that Lesson is getting some attention. I had disregarded it several years ago and used Page, Book or other Quiz for most purposes.

During a search for SCORM tools that created "mobile friendly", ie HTML rather than Flash I found the following blog post by Lewis Carr that made me re-evaluate the lesson module - http://lewiscarr.co.uk/2014/08/the-moodle-lesson-activity-truely-is-an-amazing-content-creator/

For me I see the Lesson tool as potentially a great tool for creating simple SCORM like activities but with a shallow learning curve. At the moment some of the options are either confusing or too complicated. I got some nice working (linear) courses created but there was a lot of trial and error involved. I think the branching is very important to be able to make more interactive lessons and a visual tool would be fantastic.

A thought that I had a while back, that might be completely crazy, was that it would be wonderful if the Lesson module could function similarly to the Moodle Realtime Quiz - https://moodle.org/plugins/view/mod_realtimequiz

I guess it would only work with Lessons that had no branching. I also thought that it would be nice to have voting in the Realtime quiz so that might be a possible addition smile

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In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: Lesson improvement proposal: feedback and questions

by Sali Kaceli -

It would be great if the following two features would also be considered: 

1. Ability for the student to see the submitted answer for essay questions. 

We use the Lesson module quite extensively particularly in our online courses and one of the issues is that when using Essay Questions into the various pages of the lesson, the student cannot go and review what they already submitted and/or review the feedback from the instructor. For a while we used the Lesson Essay Feedback add-on module which served as a workaround (not ideal but somewhat worked), but that module is no longer supported in Moodle 3 thus a slight problem. 

2.  Ability for Essay questions to not show up in the Gradebook until graded. 

Currently, until Essay Questions are graded, the student will see an F in the Gradebook and thus panic. 


FYI, for those of you wanting to figure out the lesson module, I have created an extensive tutorial from

. 



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