One thing we have been asked about by a number of students is the ability to see what activities they have completed (or at least looked at).
I don't think that this would be too difficult to do. A 'state' flag could be added to the appropriate database. An appropriate logo (tickbox or something) could then be displayed next to the activity in the course view.
I have an idea of three states, the not looked at stage, the looked at but not completed, and the completed one. The former two could be automatic, and the latter by the student ticking an "I've finished this" box.
Any thoughts! This is something I'd quite like to have a go at.
This is somewhat akin to the Quick Report I have just suggested in a separate thread in that allows students to see their current status at a glance.
I think that having students manually tick a box when they have completed an activity will be problematic just because you NEVER get 100% conformance on things like that. It might be better to have the number of states depend on the type of activity. For forums, for example, a tick could appear as soon as they have looked at the forum just once, and for quizzes, once it has been taken it could be automatically flagged as completed, and the same with assignments. There may not be so many modules that would require an "in progress"/"looked at" flag. Which ones, in particular, were you thinking of?
I think that having students manually tick a box when they have completed an activity will be problematic just because you NEVER get 100% conformance on things like that. It might be better to have the number of states depend on the type of activity. For forums, for example, a tick could appear as soon as they have looked at the forum just once, and for quizzes, once it has been taken it could be automatically flagged as completed, and the same with assignments. There may not be so many modules that would require an "in progress"/"looked at" flag. Which ones, in particular, were you thinking of?
Well, our courses tend to run to a long list of commentaries, readings, forum discussions etc. They can be quite large.
Students are having trouble remembering where they have been. Its really to give a visual feedback in the course view to show how far the student has got. So, to my mind it really applies to all activities. However, I do agree with you that what constitutes "looked at" and "done" will differ between resource types.
Another thought: Maybe all we need is the ability to put a student selected "flag" next to each activity in the course view. This could just be a small graphic selected from a list. Just a simple feature to enable them to mark activities so that they can remember what they have done or what is important/not important. Something like that!
Students are having trouble remembering where they have been. Its really to give a visual feedback in the course view to show how far the student has got. So, to my mind it really applies to all activities. However, I do agree with you that what constitutes "looked at" and "done" will differ between resource types.
Another thought: Maybe all we need is the ability to put a student selected "flag" next to each activity in the course view. This could just be a small graphic selected from a list. Just a simple feature to enable them to mark activities so that they can remember what they have done or what is important/not important. Something like that!