Hello,
the documentation says: "Workshop is a powerful peer assessment activity".
I was talking to other people that have no idea what Workshop stands for but are looking for peer assessment in Moodle without success. Maybe this rename would help many people.
Best regards,
Daniel
Agreed!
The studies I've been done on active learning methodologies, the peer assessment is a key function for them. As long as the Workshop module is basically a peer-assessment tool, it is important that its name reflect its function. Then, I agree with Daniel about the name change and I guess it will help to increase the use of such module in Moodle courses. Workshop, in fact, is a kind of activity that can use peer assessment as a method, not the contrary.
Best regards
Giovanni
Sounds like a good idea to me too - Daniel - might be worth adding a tracker issue for this with a link to this discussion, allowing for people to add a vote in the tracker if they agree.
Interestingly, the Germans voted to change it to their translation for peer assessment some time ago.
(I'm just going to move this to the Workshop area...)
Hi,
great that you agree and also great that the German translation already did it (it remembers me of the case with access restrictions, "not available unless"... ) .
I have started the discussion on the brazilian portuguese community and many there also agree.
Issue created: MDL-60896
Best regards for all.
Hi,
for the sake of completeness:
The renaming of the workshop module in the german translation was triggered by my colleague Kathrin and me at Ulm University. Before the change, the workshop module was literally called "workshop" which was understood here more as a type of session / event than a method of collaborating. So, we had the need to find a better translation but didn't mainly want to get rid of the term "workshop".
There was some discussion among the german translators and some german key users in the community and in the end we agreed on the german term "gegenseitige Beurteilung" which is more or less "peer review" in german, but nevertheless is a german term because we didn't want to exchange an english term to another english term.
During this discussion, we were also talking to David if I remember correctly to evaluate a global change of the term "workshop" for the english language pack, but I think his arguments were the same back then and it was ok for us.
Thanks,
Alex
"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things."
-- Naming things is hard
This is not the first time when such a change is proposed. I believe I have already put my opinion before, but I can't find it now.
I do not think we should rename it, this has my -1 for now.
I do understand and respect the reasoning for proposing this change. But any module name will always be just a simplified label representing the wide range of features and pedagogical scenarios that a module can support. Some modules have more self-descriptive names, some are less obvious. If we rename Workshop, what should come next? Lesson? Hotpot? PoodLL? URL? SCORM? Dozens others from the Plugins directory?
I actually always liked the word Workshop for this. I have imagined it as a place where students are encouraged to create / craft something useful for the others, share it with the others, and get feedback from the others. It has always strongly resonated with the social constructivism pedagogy in my mind. I would actually prefer to improve the module so it feels even more like a real workshop with all the tools that can be used to actively produce awesome things, rather than renaming it to something that facilitates just the assessment part of it.
What I agree with is that all module names could and should be de-emphasized from the students UI. Students should not need to be aware what "Workshop" or "Foobar" module does. The name of the particular activity instance should be the primary guideline for them and the UI combined with the provided descriptions and instructions should be just intuitive. Let's work on that, no need to repaint this bike shed IMHO.
I agree with David. The issue here is not the name; like so many other things related to using Moodle the issue is a lack of understanding on the part users. Re-naming will have other unintended consequences, too.
What other consequences Dan?
My 2c: David is right, naming things is hard, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't choose the best, most communicative name of the options.
+1 from me for a change to Peer Review.
-Derek
Derek,
Thanks for listing those four things, which I deem the expected consequences. Another expected consequence will be the loss of the rich history of the Workshop as a method of teaching writing. The Workshop method of teaching writing is an outgrowth of the work of Donald Murray and many others. Murray did the most writing about the process, but that process or workshop method has been used by many others before and after Murray, including my mentor Frederick Manfred. The Workshop method/process is a revered staple of The Loft and many other writing schools and guilds. One of the most famous is the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop.
The concept of a writer's workshop includes peer assessment, but the term peer assessment does not include workshop. In other words, Workshop is a bigger, richer, more inclusive term than peer assessment.
There will be other unintended and unnecessary consequences by changing the name of this very powerful Moodle tool, too. The biggest problem with the Workshop Module is its complexity. We still don't have enough written about how to use it in all of the possible ways that it can be used. I'd rather spend our collective energy on making the wonders of the Workshop Module more accessible to more teachers and students. I'm not convinced calling it Peer Assessment will actually make it better understood and more accessible.
Dan, given all this, then there needs to be some additions to the description in the "add and activity or resources" and in the docs they link to. https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Workshop_quick_guide
I can find nothing on docs.Moodle.org. It is all in sterile education speak with no richness.
"Peer assessment" in my opinion is a good start. But I will withdraw my +1. You (the collective you) really need to sort out the communication so as you say "I'd rather spend our collective energy on making the wonders of the Workshop Module more accessible to more teachers and students. I'm not convinced calling it Peer Assessment will actually make it better understood and more accessible"
It can't be our collective energy. It needs to be you guys with the hidden cogknoski insight on this.
At present 'workshop' as it is used in general parlance is a noun. As you are dealing with it it is a verb. I am familiar with worshiping compositions. Workshop does not communicate at the moment, but maybe you can do something in Moodle help to help.
A little blunt maybe as a reply, I don't have time to soften it, please soften it in your mind.
Cheers
-Derek
I disagree with David. I think that both Lesson and Workshop should be renamed. Both names give little clue as to their core benefit and the Lesson is doubly confusion because there a very commonly used word in English that has a different meaning, i.e. a group of students learning something typically in a classroom.
The workshop offers the key benefit of peer assessment, that should be reflected in the name.
"Students should not need to be aware what "Workshop" or "Foobar" module does."
I think it would be fairly useful if they did, but enormously useful if Teachers did. At the moment there are probably tens of thousands of teachers who think it would be useful if Moodle included some kind of peer assessment tool but are unaware that Workshop offers this (to the very determined and patient who are willing to learn an rather complex tool)
I'm with you Marcus.
Peer Assessment is what the module does. Make it clear. Rename it.
I still think a simple version of self assessment should be included in the Assignment Module. Students should have to self assess against the rubric when they submit. Another issue I know.
It occurred to me that things that David mentions were named by very, very smart people. It also occurred to me that David Mudrak is a very smart person (I have met him and is smart and wears it lightly). Perhaps they are not the right people to name things when Joe Q Public will be using the thing
Those "...very, very smart people," were smart enough to make it so that language strings in Moodle, including the ones for Workshop, can be changed to whatever the site admin wants them to be. Granted, in this case there are about 37 that would need to be changed, but do it once, then forget about it, but name it whatever you want to.
AL, Brilliant solution for this issue. Thank you,
