Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
Number of replies: 27
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I just created this tracker "bug" item, MDL-59113, and thought that I would mention it to everyone here just to see if anyone else can confirm this, and then vote for MDL-59113.  Here is what I put into Tracker:

When I set a due date for an "Assignment," this date is no longer put into my Calendar.  I am the "Manager" role. I think that this bug happened when Moodle 3.3 added the ability to "Remind me to grade by." In Moodle 3.2 and all earlier versions of Moodle, when I set an Assignment Due Date it always automatically was put into the Calendar.  It also does not show in my Dashboard.

But here is the odd thing.  If I either log in as a student, or switch my role to student, the Due Date seems to appear.  I did some testing and this is what I see.

So this seems to be a bug, that the Manager does not see an Assignment Due Date, yet the student does.


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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Mary Cooch -
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Hello Rick. I just commented in the tracker issue. I don't think this is a bug but is deliberate. Here is a tracker issue from before 3.3: MDL-58573 I will paste some of the comments below:

Thanks for raising this issue. This was a decision we made during the project about how best to show the teacher that grading is required.

The overview block on the dashboard has a hard requirement that it'll only show events that have a date that an action needs to be completed by.

In the case of teachers, using the assignment due date we didn't think made much sense because that's typically when they should start their grading (once all assignments are submitted) so using that date would mean the event would disappear from the dashboard before they even had anything to do.

Instead we decided to add an additional date setting when creating an assignment called "Remind me to grade by" which defaults to two weeks after the due date. This is the date that we use for teachers on the new overview block.


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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Ok Mary, I saw your addition to the Tracker item.

I know that this new "Remind me" date is the first of its kind, so it might be causing some rethinking.  But if this logic is to follow, if Quizzes (or other activities) are to ever have a Remind Me date, is that to say that due dates for Quizzes won't show in the Teacher's Calendar either?

It seems better to me that the Due Date for assignments still show in the Calendar for Teachers (and Managers), and that the Remind Me date should show in show in the Dashboard.  These two dates provide two different features.

Hmmm, I also have a long standing Tracker item that Forum's Due Dates automatically show in the Calendar.  I have to manually add them right now.

I forget where, but we have had discussions that a possible proposal for the Moodle User's Group projects would be to tackle a rethink of all of the various moodle "activities" dates to see if there is a way to make all activities dates be more consistent with each other. 

It just seems odd to me that I now have to switch my role to "student" to see assignment due dates.  Maybe so?  Or should the "Remind me" date show in my calendar?  Somehow, this doesn't not make sense to me.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Mary Cooch -
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The "Remind me to grade by" date does show in the calendar, I believe.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Mary, the “Remind me” date does not show in the Teacher’s calendar in my Moodle.  (Moodle 3.3+ (Build: 20170601), Boost.)  Should I post this in Tracker as a new “Bug,” or should my previous Tracker item be reopened?

This issue (problem) is going to take a lot more thought.  What I see is a transition into “Reminders” with this new “Remind me” date that right now seems to be only in the Assignments activity.  However, if Moodle starts doing this, then these “Remind me” dates might eventually make their way into every Moodle “Activity.”

Yep, how should Moodle handle “reminders” and “notifications?”  

My current belief is that reminders should be handled differently than “Due Dates.”  These are two separate instructional needs.  Additionally, it is the Activity Due Date that should automatically go into the Calendar, and this feature should be in available in every Activity because Due Dates commonly signal the end of an “activity” (meaning, no more activity.)

So, the removal of the Assignment Due Date from the Teacher’s Calendar is an oversight of the bigger issue -- consistently handing Due Dates while providing a Reminder feature.

Sure, maybe some would simply set the “Reminder Date” to be equal to the Due Date (and this would quickly satisfy me,) however, one might want multiple reminders, such as: “Remind me to send assignment due reminder to students,” “Remind me to inform students that this assignment is due tonight,” “Remind me to remind my teaching assistant to grade this assignment,” and “Remind me to double check that the TA has finished grading,” shows how complex reminders might become.  And I certainly agree that notifications are an important feature to moodle and needs much more thought and development.  There are many “reminders” that instructors might want for other Activities too; “Remind me to grade open-ended quizzes,” “Remind me to grade forum posts,” etc.  I don’t think these reminders will work well from within the creation or editing of Activities, they are better somehow handled in the Calendar.

But getting back to Due Dates, every Moodle Activity should provide for a Due Date and it is this date that should show in the Moodle Calendar.  A teacher should not have to switch to student-view to see student due dates.

As you and others can see, starting to put “Reminders” into moodle is going to require a lot more thought.  I give credit to those who were involved in the decision to include reminders into Assignments, but having it replace the Due Date in the Calendar seems a little short-sighted.

So, what are your thoughts moving forward?  


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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Mary Cooch -
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Rick - can you use our School demo site school.demo.moodle.net to set up an assignment with a deadline and a "remind me to grade by" date and check if it does appear in the calendar? The teacher account is username = teacher and password = moodle. I was under the impression it does appear in the calendar.


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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Yep, just did this in the Digital Literacy course (first topic).  I set the dates shown below.  Then went to the Calendar for this course, the Assignment did not show.

Attachment Digital_Literacy.jpg
Attachment test.jpg
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Here is a screen shot of the calendar.

Attachment calendar.jpg
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Mary Cooch -
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So it appears the "Remind me to grade by" date does appear in the calendar once someone has submitted an assignment - but if nobody has submitted then it doesn't appear in the calendar (or the dashboard)

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Well Mary, now isn't this really a bit strange?  A teacher is setting up a course and dates for a number of assignments, but when the teacher goes to the calendar, they see nothing.  The teacher cannot verify that the correct date shows in the Calendar unless they switch their role to "student."

Okay, is this how we really want moodle to work?  Shouldn't the teacher be able to set a due date for and activity and immediately see that it is in the Calendar?

I think that I have to go back to my earlier comments.  Moodle is starting to mix "reminder dates" with "due dates". I think this is leading to a bad practice.  This practice is taking me back to my days of using Blackboard, when Blackboard's "due dates" never showed in the calendar, making the Calendar a passive feature.

I guess that I can put in a feature request in Tracker that all activity "due dates" show to everyone in a course, especially the teacher.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Harry Dickinson -

Not sure if this is relevant but since I upgraded to 3.3.1 no assignment event information, at all, is appearing on the Calendar; due dates or grade by dates. Assignments are now practically invisible as events to lecturers, managers and admins. Makes the lecturers' Dashboard less than useless. Students can still see events. 

More than a little confused

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In reply to Harry Dickinson

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Harry, I am glad to see that someone else (meaning you) sees a problem with the new approach.  I need to create a Tracker feature request for this so that people can vote on it.  I applied the code changes that Chris suggested, and this fixes the problem (or as some might say, fixes the improvement.)  Quite honestly, I don't agree with this change.  I feel that "due dates" should always show in everyone's calendar.  The "remind me to grade" date is something different, as I mentioned, a transition into mixing Reminders with Due Dates.

With the current method, Teachers and Managers do not see the Assignment due dates that they just set.  And if the "Remind me date" is used, this still doesn't show in the Calendar until a student submits something.  So I do not see the logic.  There is no easy way to see that Assignment due dates are correct.

Well, the problem is actually a little bigger.  Forum do not have any internal mechanism to show due date in the calendar either.  You can view my MDL-31355 about this.  I don't use all of moodle's various activities, so some other activities might also need due date fixes.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Harry Dickinson -

Rick, cannot believe that we are the only ones to believe that the ability to view all upcoming events, at individual course level, is an essential feature. I am finding it a real headache checking course modules set up by lecturers; I am having to trawl through the topics to check assignments and quizzes. Course Calendar should display all events to all users with access to that course. Please create a Tracker feature request and I will gladly support it, as I am sure others will when they realise the importance of its’ functionality.


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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Chris S -

and this function  in the file /mod/assign/lib.php


function mod_assign_core_calendar_is_event_visible(calendar_event $event) {
    global $CFG, $USER;

    require_once($CFG->dirroot . '/mod/assign/locallib.php');

    $cm = get_fast_modinfo($event->courseid)->instances['assign'][$event->instance];
    $context = context_module::instance($cm->id);

    $assign = new assign($context, $cm, null);

    if ($event->eventtype == ASSIGN_EVENT_TYPE_GRADINGDUE) {
        return $assign->can_grade();
    } else {
        return !$assign->can_grade() && $assign->can_view_submission($USER->id);
    }
}


is responsible for not showing the ASSIGN_EVENT_TYPE_DUE  to teacher/manager in the calendar

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In reply to Chris S

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Chris, this is very helpful.

As a non-moodle programmer, I am having difficulty trying to figure out which line of code to change so that the due date is shown to teacher and manager.  Might you be able to guide me?

I do see that "ASSIGN_EVENT_TYPE_DUE events will not be shown to teachers" but I don't see this in this area of code.  I don't see in this code how students get to see the due date on their calendar, and how teachers/managers do not.  There appears to be an "eventtype".  Might one approach this as changed the eventtype for the Assignment Due Date?

Any additional advice that you can provide would be helpful.

Thanks much.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Chris S -

You could try changing



        return !$assign->can_grade() && $assign->can_view_submission($USER->id);
   


to just


        return  $assign->can_view_submission($USER->id);
   



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In reply to Chris S

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Okay Chris, this works!  Thanks.

Here is what this change is really doing.  It is allowing the "Remind me" date to show for the teacher.   Yep, this is one good solution.

If I end up modifying code, might there be an easy code fix that shows the Assignment Due Date in the calendar?  I wouldn't even mind showing both the Due Date and the Remind Me date, as a general solution.  Quite honestly, I don't really need the "Remind Me" date because (I hate to say this) I stay on top of my courses and grading, so I don't need a reminder.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Chris S -

Are you sure it doesn't show the DUE DATE for the teacher in the calendar ?

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In reply to Chris S

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Oops, you are right!  blush

Great!  Thanks.

I still wonder if this is a better general solution?  Maybe some teachers only want to be bothered with Calendar dates when there is something to do, while others want to always see a due date.  I am sure that the group who worked on this change concluded as they did, but I am still not sure.

Also, I still wonder about future direction.

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In reply to Chris S

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Kyriakos Taliotis -

Chris, your awesome php method works for me til it's hopefully rectified by moodle themselves. Although editing the php file now gives tutors the option to make a submission. Is there any way to disable this with some code?


Thanks


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In reply to Kyriakos Taliotis

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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I believe that this code fix was meant to only pop the assignment due date in the calendar.

Are you saying that it also allows "tutors" to submit assignments that was not allowed before the fix?

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Harry Dickinson -

The PHP edit does add the assignments to the relevant course calendars but one of the unfortunate, for me, by products is that each assignment now also appears on your Dashboard as an assignment with the option to submit. As I lecture on a number of courses during any given semester, my Dashboard looked more like a busy air traffic controllers station, and I had notifications popping up everywhere. Had to change the edit back to restore sanity.

Still strongly believe that the assignments should show as events on each individual course page for lecturers/teachers, but would like to see this implemented without interfering with the Dashboard.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Kyriakos Taliotis -

Hi Rick, yes but not via the submission activity in the course. So if a tutor goes to the submission activity in the course they see the usual page with submission attempts participants etc like always, but on the dashboard page on the timeline tab where we see the upcoming submissions there’s a link added to each submission that says “add submission” and if the tutor clicks it it goes direct to the same page a student sees when they are about to submit an assignment.. it’s very strange..

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In reply to Kyriakos Taliotis

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Harry and Kyriakos,  I do not really use the dashboard myself so I seldom look at it, but your posts are making me think about logging in as a students and seeing what they see.  Also, I am not using the "Remind me data" either, so I wonder if you are.  There are a number of things to experiment with, so I am going to try things and report my findings.  Maybe you could try not using the Remind Me date and see what happens (for your tutors.)

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In reply to Chris S

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Christopher Molnar -

I am wondering if there would be any way to make this an option in the course settings?


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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by David Le Blanc -

I've just come across this thread whilst looking for a solution to why assignment due dates were not showing in the the calendar to teachers and managers. I am working with a college which is implementing MOODLE 3.3+ for the first time. I have been preparing instructor training sessions which alerted me to this change. I love the reminders feature in the dashboard; however, I agree that removing the highlighted calendar events for teachers and managers is untoward. As the dashboard is not in view when viewing any particular course page, upcoming assignment due dates shown to students should also display to course instructors so that they see the same reminders that their students see. It's great to see the current month's course due dates at a glance while looking at the course page rather than losing focus and needing to refer back to the dashboard. black eye      

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In reply to David Le Blanc

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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About the best you can do right now is to vote for my Tracker "bug" item, which is currently closed.  I might need to create a new tracker item as a "feature request."

https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-59113

(I am on vacation right now but plan to more activity work on this feature request soon.)

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Assignment Due Date is not automatically put into Calendar (for Manager)

by Rick Jerz -
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Okay folks, I have created a Tracker feature request to go back to showing the Assignment Due Date in the calendar.  Please vote for it

MDL-59798


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