Due Dates

Due Dates

by Sherry Manison -
Number of replies: 12

I'm using the next-to-last version of moodle.

How do I set due dates?  I asked this before, and got one response, but that response didn't work for discussions.  There has to be a due date and a time for the discussion to end.  WHERE do I find that?

"Activity Completion" seems to be related to the student marking whether or not they have completed the activity.  And the "Ratings" section doesn't seem like it should be a due date.  What are "ratings" anyway?

Please, can someone tell me how to make a discussion due by a certain date?  Please -- a simple answer.  Don't make me read a whole document!  I need to get this done!

Thanks.

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In reply to Sherry Manison

Re: Due Dates

by Mark Whitington -

 

Hi Sherry

Not quite the answer you want but this may help.

We currently use the Completion Progress Block.

It allows expected completion dates and also provides a visual alert.

may be worth a look.

Completion Progress
block_completion_progress
Version for Moodle 2.7 onwards
2016090500

 

Cheers

Mark

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In reply to Mark Whitington

Re: Due Dates

by Sherry Manison -

So within the "Activity Completion" block, the "Expect Completed On" is the due date, right?

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In reply to Sherry Manison

Re: Due Dates

by Paula Clough -

Activity completion expected due date is for the teacher only and that date does not show to the students according to the info icon next to it on the set up page. I am trying to remember back to the older version and am now starting to remember the due dates showing but not in a forum. Haven't seen that in awhile.  I'll look around a little more. 

cool

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In reply to Sherry Manison

Re: Due Dates

by Paula Clough -

Hello Sherry, 

Not quite sure which Moodle version you are in when you say next-to-last version   I'm assuming 3.1 or so. Most of what I will talk about is kind of general though.

Ratings can be the equivalent of grades for the discussion. You can choose to average them, count them, give maximum or minimum etc. you can also use this ratings area to designate what posting dates you will grade between. I don't think that you can actually shut down the posting And still have the students able to go back to the discussion, but the previous will help you keep from grade late posts. Make sure you set up the grade section in the forum set up as well .

If you don't mind shutting down the discussion completely you can restrict access by date in the Restrict access area with a from date and that will keep students from doing anymore posting but they will not be able to read the posts either. 

Hope that helps. cool

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In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Due Dates

by Sherry Manison -

Hi Paula,

Thanks for replying!

Ok, I think I get the Restrict Access.  That means students can only post between Date X and Date Y, and the whole discussion is closed before and after that (and probably grayed out).

But the Ratings section will allow a teacher to see when something has been posted late, will automatically go into the gradebook, and will not shut down the discussion, making it possible for students to continue discussing if they choose to do so.  So this discussion never closes, even after grading.  Right?  So this makes the Ratings section the place that's comparable to the old moodle where we put in a due date.  Right?

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In reply to Sherry Manison

Re: Due Dates

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Sherry, you are asking some very good questions.

Due dates vary a little depending upon the type of activity that you are referring to.  In my courses, I use quizzes, assignments, and forums.  

For Quizzes: Look at "Timing."  The "Close the quiz" date is automatically put into the Moodle Calendar for students, and students cannot take a quiz after that date.

For Assignments: Look at "Availability."  There is a Due Date and a Cut-Off date.  When grading assignments, those that were submitted after the Due Date are tagged as "late".  I believe Cut-Off Date means students cannot submit after that date.  In Moodle 3.3, there is now a "Remind me to grade by" date, which is causing me some irritation, see Tracker MDL-59798.  Prior to Moodle 3.3, the assignment Due Date showed in the Calendar for students and teachers.  Now, the Remind me date shows, but only when there are submittals.  I hope this gets fixed.

For Forums: Look at "Ratings".  There is a Restrict Ratings From and a Restrict Ratings To set of dates.  Neither of these are put into the Calendar, but I have a Tracker Item MDL-31355 where I am asking for a Due Date that automatically goes into the Calendar.  Neither of these two dates restrict discussions, which I like, but the "From" date does help the grader (or teacher) see which posts are late by not allowing rating.  Forums do provide a "Restrict Access," which can be a date.  I have never used it (yet.)

There is also a Moodle User's Group project proposal that is attempting to address dates.  I am one who would like to see a somewhat consistent way of automatically putting dates in the Calendar for all Moodle activities.  It's a complex situation since Moodle also has a Dashboard, Upcoming Events, and other features that are connected to "dates."  But we (i.e., the moodle community) needs to get our arms around dates.  I haven't found time to help develop the new MUG proposal, yet.

"Restrict Access" also can be set for Assignments and Quizzes.  I haven't used these, and therefore can't explain what they do, but Moodle does provide a method of allowing access to activities based upon previous activities being completed, and I think that this is where "Restrict Access" comes into play.  Also, I haven't used the other moodle Activities of Chat, Choice, Database, Feedback, Glossary, Lesson, Survey, etc., to know how they handle due dates.  You can see that it really does get complex.

Consider voting for my tracker items.

Maybe others can jump in and help clarify what I have shared.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Due Dates

by Sherry Manison -

Thanks, Rick!

I like it that the Ratings will not shut down a discussion after the due date.  That's what I was looking for.  I'll have to figure out how to use the Ratings.

Will have no problem voting for your proposals, but first I should work with it a bit and know what I'm talking about.

Thanks again -- so helpful!

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In reply to Sherry Manison

Re: Due Dates

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

What I typically do with discussions is to tell students that they must make them by Friday, 11:55PM (as an example.) I set the "Ratings to" date to Saturday, 00:00AM (just after midnight).  With this method, if the student posts after 11:55PM, I will not be able to Rate it (meaning, their post was late and they don't get points.)  I also tell students that they have to make 4 or 5 good posts, and I then provide 0,1, or 2 points for each of their posts, and I use "Sum of Ratings" to add these up and put their points automatically into the grade book.  Works great.

The problem that I propose fixing is that I really believe that the Due Date, meaning Friday 11:55PM, should be set when I am editing (and defining) the forum.  Right now, I have to remember to go the the Calendar and manually enter this Due Date.  So I think a third date in the forum configuration, such as simply "Due Date," or less simple "Calendar Due Date" should be added.

Voting for a Tracker Item involves logging in to Tracker, finding the item, and clicking on Vote For This.  Adding comments is optional.

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Due Dates

by Sherry Manison -

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the explanation on the Ratings.  I haven't used that yet.  I did vote for your update, though.  That only makes sense.  All forums for points should be in the Calendar.

Something else that would make sense to me is to separate the forum to initial posts, and responses.  I have one deadline for the initial post, and another one for the discussion after that.  I've often wondered why that wasn't possible as well.  

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In reply to Sherry Manison

Re: Due Dates

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

You made me thing about "for points."  Hmmm, since a Forum is defined as a moodle activity, I still that that whether it is for points or not for points, that it is still an activity that could have a due date.

Interesting concept about each initial post having its own due date.  This could get a little difficult, since students can usually create new initial posts.  I am not sure about how to control due dates for each student's initial post.  It seems to me that the date might be best controlled at the "forum" level, as they are today.

You might find it interesting that another popular LMS, Canvas, does not allow the teacher to create topics within a forum.  Each topic has to essentially be its own forum.  Somewhat awkward, but maybe no worse than Moodle if you were to create a separate forum for every topic in order to have different due dates.  Canvas is the only other LMS that doesn't provide for separate topics within a forum.  And no other major LMS provides the ability to read posts and "rate" them while reading.

For me, I have one weekly forum with a due date (that I manually add to the calendar), and then I create 5-8 topics that students can pick from for discussion.  This has been working well.

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In reply to Sherry Manison

Re: Due Dates

by Lynn Wilhelm -

I wanted to have multiple due dates and grades for a forum discussion. I found a work around with the "move this discussion" function.

Simply open two forums--set the maximum grade in the ratings section so they'll show up in the gradebook. You might want to restrict the second one for now.

In our case, students were to post SMART goals for their group work. We gave them a due date (as others said, it won't show up in a calendar) and rated items posted by that date. Oh and this forum was set as a Q&A so that each group responded to the instructor's prompt, this kept it to one discussion per group. 

After rating the first forum, simply open each discussion--we had one for each group--and select the new forum in the "move this discussion to..." drop down menu. Click move and it will show in the new forum.



It took a few minutes to move all 18 discussions but it was the only way I found to do what I wanted. The discussions will completely disappear from the first forum and fully appear in the next.

In the new forum (I set it to a Standard forum), set a new ratings window and students will be able to see their previous posts but only the new posts/replies can be rated. Now you'll have two grade items in the gradebook. (Sadly, the initial ratings, while saved in the gradebook as a grade with the previous forum, will no longer be visible for each post after you move the discussion.)

The other solution I'd devised was to simply keep adding to the grade in the original forum with new ratings--just keep extending the rating window. Then set to sum of grades and they'll add up in the gradebook. This was a less elegant solution, but could have been less work than moving the discussions.

I would love to see the forums set with grading options for multiple grading windows. But until then, this will work for us.


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