http://www.CollegeSherbrooke.qc.ca/languesmodernes/604-HAE_Grammar_Practice/
I track student progress and scores for three conditions:
1) the exercise has been consulted only;
2) the exercise has been started but not finished, here is the interim score;
3) the exercise is complete, here is the final score.
My friend disagrees, basically saying my argumentation is futile. Most people turn off cookies. He would think this is a default state of most browsers, or users. I disagree.
I bring this discussion here because 1) I need a snippet of code and 2) Moodle.org, being an solid example of Web-based teaching, cookies are important for the good functioning of Moodle.
What is your opinion of cookies and Web-based teaching? Here is a summary of my fellow:
We say cookies are no use to people who make Web-based teaching materials for general access over the Web, because users often turn cookies off. ... I don't particularly care why people turn off cookies (although I know enough about them to turn them off by default myself); my point is that for whatever reason, cookies can't be used, in general, for storing data related to Web-based exercises, because they're not reliable. ... If you're relying on cookies, the student might do a lot of work before she even discovers (if she ever does discover) that the data is being lost.
Do sooo many people turn off cookies? I personally believe they are only unreliable, to use his vocabulary, because people turn them off. I believe his stance joins the general parnoia over cookies. People who cannot see them, don't know how they work, don't see their value, worry over spyware/adware don't see the benefit of leaving them on.
That said, is there a way to detect with javascript that cookies are turned off, therefore document.write('please turn cookies on please!');
John