Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by Todd Vasquez -
Number of replies: 7

I've been through the documentation on settings for feedback on quizzes and settings for activities. For instructional designers and those who live and breathe Learning Management Systems, it is not too difficult to figure out the features of the settings and how they might best be used. BUT . . . for non-specialists (the vast majority of Moodle users), they really need more help and guidance. 

Feature Request: Create a Moodle Assignment Wizard

So if an instructor creates a new assignment, they could click an "Assignment Wizard" button which would bring them through the settings for that assignment or quiz to set it up with what they want:

  1. Would you like to see a word count?
  2. Is this a summative or formative assessment?
  3. Do you want students to see the answers to the question right after they take it or after they finish the entire quiz?
  4. Do you want students to take the question over and over again until they get the right answer? 
  5. How would you like that to be scored? Points off for wrong answers? 
  6. etc.

The point is that a wizard like this helps 'translate' the functionality of settings in Moodle and does a better job of teaching what is possible (instead of leaving it to instructors to click on question marks next to each setting to figure it out). I know it is a big ask, but I believe functionality like this would increase demand for Moodle.

Average of ratings: Useful (4)
In reply to Todd Vasquez

Re: Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by Stefan Scholz -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Todd,

I think this is a brilliant idea. I have already planned something like that for an upcoming plugin which we are currently developing. However, we had planned to build it within our plugin (which is an activity which has a lot of use cases).

Your post made it clear to me, that an „activity creation wizard“ could be a thing. A number of activities come into mind that could benefit from this, e.g.

Each of them have „too many features“ (which is perfect for experts, but overwhelming for non-experts).

What do others think? Is that something of value for teachers?

We already have a plugin which makes creating courses easier (kickstart), so it would make sense for us to add such a wizard for activities.

Cheers

Stefan 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Todd Vasquez

Re: Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by Daniel Thies -
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This already has been developed in a way as system feature. An admin has the ability to add User tours. Tours can also be added via install or upgrade scripts. So they can be added by a plugin if desired.

I believe that this is an admin or a designer responsibility rather than a core issue. The example above could very easily be added to a site as a User tour. However sites may desire more or less detail based on their users' expertise.
Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Daniel Thies

Re: Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by Davo Smith -
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There is a vast difference between a user tour that pops up once and explains all the different settings that are visible on the page (then goes away and leaves you to try and figure out how to use those settings to do what you want to do) and a (repeatable) wizard that asks you a number of guided questions, then finishes with an activity configured and ready to go.

Hopefully a _really_ good wizard would (at the end of the process) also give you an option of seeing all the settings that it has configured for you (so as to be a useful learning exercise, rather than a prop that teachers are uncomfortable to move beyond).

I like the idea of the wizard - but the really tricky part is to determine the right questions to ask, to split the features up in a way that works for the different use cases (because everyone will be able to come up with a list of the core, essential features of each activity, and everyone's list will be different). An extensible wizard that can be customised by local admin teams (via some sort of UI to edit every question shown and edit the outcomes - both in terms of activity type generated and settings configured), would be ideal, but one that started with a good, solid range of initial questions, so that institutions do not _have_ to customise it, for it to be useful.

Thinking, as I type, an import/export would also be nice, to share good wizards with different institutions ...

Just to be clear - I'm not here to volunteer to write this system - I have quite enough Moodle code to write in my day job! Besides, as I implied above, the code is probably the easy part, the hard part is the questions and the decision tree - that needs a lot of careful thought, research and user testing.
Average of ratings: Useful (4)
In reply to Davo Smith

Re: Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by Daniel Thies -
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Kickstart mentioned above is a simple course wizard. The admin adds several course backups and a couple prompts. The novice teachers select one of the options when they enter the course and are prompted for course name etc.

Something similar could be done with a Kickstart activity. The admin would add activity backups and prompts. The teacher would select Kickstart activity from chooser and be prompted for the name and description and which of the templates to use. After the form is saved the selected activity backup would be restored with the new title etc. The teacher could edit in the usual manner after that.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Davo Smith

Re: Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by Todd Vasquez -
Instructors also tend to want the same, general settings for each of the Moodle Assignment types they use. So, what if, after the Assignment Wizard for a particular activity type (say, a Moodle Forum) walks them through the settings for the forum, there is a choice between two buttons: "Apply to All Activities of This Type", "Apply to This Activity Only"? Imagine how quickly this would speed up making sure all settings were set in alignment with the instructor's expectations or fixing them if an instructor inadvertently messed some settings up??

P.S. I would be willing to write up the default questions (in English), if someone wrote the code (to make them customizable by local admin teams).
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Todd Vasquez

Re: Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by Stefan Scholz -
Picture of Plugin developers
Hi all,

I think that a kickstart activity is a brilliant idea. As mentioned above, the first version of it could follow the same logic as kickstart (the course format):

1) The admin creates a number of activities pre-configured for the most important use cases.
2) The admin then creates a backup of this activity and adds it to the kickstart "activity templates"
3) The teacher can then open the activity chooser and
a) either pick "core naked" activity
b) or pick the kickstart activity, which acts like a "wizard"
Within the kickstart activity, all activity templates, each with a description and instructions would be provided.
The kickstart would then, instead of saving a kickstart activity, import the activity templates and the teacher can (optionally) configure it.

In a future version, we could add the "decision tree" using questions like discussed in this thread.

We currently work on a development (for another activity) which has 90% of the functionality, once we've completed that, we could wrap that within a separate activity easily, something like mod_kickstart

I'll post updates about the developments here.

Any feedback or features requests are welcome!

Cheers
Stefan
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Daniel Thies

Re: Feature Request > Moodle Assignment Wizard

by John Ultra -
Just logged to say that this is an interesting design choice.
Average of ratings: -