Canvas vs. Moodle

Re: Canvas vs. Moodle

by Nathan Lind -
Number of replies: 2
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

I guess I just wish Moodle would automatically monitor things like when faculty set a forum to use groups, but they don't have students in groups. A forum set to use groups will prevent any and all students who are not in a group from using that forum. Consider this common scenario:

A faculty member with a course that does not use groups turns editing on in their Moodle course, they move their mouse to click the Edit button to the right of a forum, and accidentally click the gray person icon for "No groups" instead of the Edit button. The group icon changes to "Separate groups" and suddenly that forum ceases to be usable by students since they are not in groups. 

We have tried to mitigate this mistake by changing the group icons from all one color to different colors. Screenshot in the attachment field below. But still, I wish Moodle would say, "Hey there, looks like ya just set a forum to use groups, would you like help to actually make those groups?"


Attachment Moodle Group icons.png
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In reply to Nathan Lind

Re: Canvas vs. Moodle

by Howard Miller -
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We built a custom theme with hints for this sort of thing. It's put a dismiss-able alert at the top of the page if we see anything that commonly causes support issues. Even basic things like "do you know your course is hidden", "this course had no enrolments", "this activity has permission changes". The theme is too specific to be shared but it isn't that hard to do and might give someone some ideas.  

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In reply to Nathan Lind

Re: Canvas vs. Moodle

by Rick Jerz -
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Interesting Nathan (and Howard.)  In this discussion about Moodle versus Canvas, I might be a little off-base as to what you seek, Nathan.

I post two discussion topics from my Canvas course.  Can you tell which one has groups and which one does not?  Well, at least Moodle shows you.  And Moodle does take it one step further that you can change the grouping by clicking on the icon showing you what is what.

So might you be suggesting that Moodle's approach makes it too easy to allow teachers to make mistakes? Are you saying that you would prefer that Moodle not show you which discussions are grouped or ungrouped, like Canvas does, and forces you to have to go deeper to avoid unintentional errors?  Or are you simply saying that you prefer that changing grouped forums not be so easy?

Or, does your question have nothing to do with Canvas and is instead just a feature request for Moodle?  I do like your coloration.  I am not an "accessibility" expert, but somehow it seems that colored icons have become less common, maybe for accessibility reasons (that I don't understand.)

Attachment Group Forums Canvas.jpg
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