Hello,
I have a suggestion for Moodle. Why not a "like" button? Sometimes, people feel forced to reply to an announcement, comment, post, etc. We need some form of "like" button or "upvote system."
Best,
Payton Hammock
I have seen that here in some of the forums, I guess it depends on which one?
Interesting... If you could provide an example, that would be great! 😉
For starters, Moodle is not Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat or whatever anti-social media platform is popular and shouldn't try to be.
In a Forum, ratings can be activated, as seen below this box where it says "Average of Ratings:" Anywhere else does not need anything like it. Not all Announcements are going to appeal to everyone, you can always hear groans when a student sees the Announcement that the due date on the assignment they have been ignoring for the last few weeks is tomorrow. Do you think they are going to hit the "Like" button then?
Moodle is an educational tool, so at one level, what's not to like about it? At another level, it could also be asked what is there to be "Liked" about it?
"Like" buttons are meaningless tripe, for me, mainly because I am not interested in being "Liked". Holding out for universal popularity is a wasted effort, I suggest. All I ask is for people to to allow me to work with them, they don't have to like me, they only have to be generous enough to work with me. If they do like me, then that's a bonus for me, but otherwise, who cares?
In a Forum, ratings can be activated, as seen below this box where it says "Average of Ratings:" Anywhere else does not need anything like it. Not all Announcements are going to appeal to everyone, you can always hear groans when a student sees the Announcement that the due date on the assignment they have been ignoring for the last few weeks is tomorrow. Do you think they are going to hit the "Like" button then?
Moodle is an educational tool, so at one level, what's not to like about it? At another level, it could also be asked what is there to be "Liked" about it?
"Like" buttons are meaningless tripe, for me, mainly because I am not interested in being "Liked". Holding out for universal popularity is a wasted effort, I suggest. All I ask is for people to to allow me to work with them, they don't have to like me, they only have to be generous enough to work with me. If they do like me, then that's a bonus for me, but otherwise, who cares?
On top of all that, it seems that a Student's day can be made or broken by the number of "Likes" they get on a post to anti-social media, who is to say that same inane and childish attitude wouldn't be transferred to their Moodle posts? Is that what we're really after?
While I may agree partly in theory, the Like functionality is now a part of everyday language. It provides a quick and concise way for people to give feedback and there is nothing wrong with that. Moodle may not be a social media platform but it could learn a lot from those sites in ways of communication and user interface. I, for one, that would love to see Moodle become a social learning platform that incorporates many of the features we see in Facebook and Twitter as they are popular and encourage engagement from participants. A great quote I heard from Flipped Classroom guru Jonathan Bergman "A student will not care about learning unless he thinks that you (teacher) care about him" - a learning platform must allow for relationship building so why not start by incorporating communication tools that are current day and familiar to the younger generations.
Hi Emma, yes, that is a much older axiom than Johnathan Bergman, believe me. He does refer to it in a couple of videos throughout the Certification course, My objection is simply put that a "Like" is likely to degenerate into another popularity vote for teachers and students alike. Sooner of later, Admin and other so-called Educational Leaders are likely to pick up on that and use a lack of "Likes" as as evidence that teachers are not "doing their job" and use it to bludgeon teachers into submission or forcing them out of the profession. Not too many Math teachers are going to get a lot of "Likes" and unless students get to blow stuff up, few Science teachers will either. I don't know too many students who really "Like" poetry, or boring History or anything that forces them to think a lot. They don't get the same instant gratification that a "Like" will give them, so why buy into the nonsense?
That is akin to saying, "I am going to teach my way and I don't care what the students think about it of if they are learning anything"....you don't stop evaluating because you don't like the results, you change the way you teach...We all had our favorite teachers and it was not because of the subject they taught, it was because of the way that they taught and related to their students.
I agree, Emma. The reason why I brought up this "Like" button idea is because some people may not have the time to notify their instructors that they read their message. Usually, when a teacher sends out an announcement, I say: "Thank you, _______. I have read and understand your message." Wouldn't it be easier to have a "Like" button system where the teacher knows that you received the announcement? If you have Outlook, there's an option to "Like" an email, and I think that this should be implemented in online classes (maybe not all, but at least the ones that have several forums and announcements). 🤷🏽♂️
No that is not what I am saying at all and please, don't try to make inferences that are not there. We have to try to make what we are teaching interesting, otherwise it is nonsense for the students they will, rightly, object. All I am suggesting is that I cannot see me or any other teacher getting along with every student every day, it just doesn't work like that, we do not work on a system of perfection. I hated History and Math at school, but guess what my main degree was for, I know, weird, but that's the way it was. I liked Science, but my teachers were just not nice people, but I learned enough to get through and still be interested in Science. And btw, later, long after leaving school, I found that some of the teachers I met again hadn't changed, there were still not nice people...
If I and my other students had a "Like" button, it would have rarely been used, but that still didn't stop us from learning.
@Payton, your comment there is different than what I originally envisioned. I think that an acknowledgement of receipt is a good idea but as something other than a "Like" button.
This post is not related to this Activities->Feedback activity.
@mod, please move to a more relevant forum/discussion
@mod, please move to a more relevant forum/discussion