As far as I know, displaying the activity type came from UX research which highlighted the fact that participants couldn't identify the type of activity from the icon.
Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Helen Foster -
Number of replies: 18
Now the war between the educators and the education managers is settling, we are being dragged to the next front, fighting the UX - User eXperience, what an irony, are we in to entertainment?
But why doubling the height of the icon and displaying two lines of text rather than one?
Surely the UX research will have also highlighted the amount of scrolling required by students as a negative too?
Surely the UX research will have also highlighted the amount of scrolling required by students as a negative too?
Isn't that more of a discussion on learning a new 'visual' language? Of course, people will struggle to identify the relation between icon and learning activity, but that was also the case when they started using Moodle in the first place.
IMHO, a user relies on a combination of the following to identify what an activity is about in Moodle:
IMHO, a user relies on a combination of the following to identify what an activity is about in Moodle:
- The icon
- The activity name
- The activity description
The icons themselves seem to be relatively easy to learn, so I don't really know why you'd want to tell users a is a file resource.
The description could also be added to a tooltip so hovering over the icon would tell the user what it was...
Exactly, Jon.
We should remember that for accessibility, every image is supposed to have "alt-text," which doesn't show, but (apparently) can be read by screen-readers. In a way (I am not sure if it is exactly as such) the "tooltip" becomes the alt-text.
We should remember that for accessibility, every image is supposed to have "alt-text," which doesn't show, but (apparently) can be read by screen-readers. In a way (I am not sure if it is exactly as such) the "tooltip" becomes the alt-text.
Maybe the icons need to be redone to include the word, as I show below.
If students wonder what something is, can't they click on it?
Or maybe Moodle needs a setting for "Show icon" and "Show name" for what should be displayed.
Or, why not use only the name if it is believed that the icon doesn't communicate enough.
Or, why aren't words always used next to any image, if this is what the UX folks think is needed?
@Rick, I'm not sure it is a good idea to include the name in the icon because that would mean that all languages other than English would have to recreate their icons.
Yes, you are correct, Mary.
I don't know if a "text" item can be overlayed on top of a graphic item, via HTML.
Your post makes me wonder about alt-text, in general. For example, when I include an image in a question, or in a post, Moodle allows me to type the alt-text. I type in English, but does this get converted to other languages?
I don't know if a "text" item can be overlayed on top of a graphic item, via HTML.
Your post makes me wonder about alt-text, in general. For example, when I include an image in a question, or in a post, Moodle allows me to type the alt-text. I type in English, but does this get converted to other languages?
No, the alt text is not translated automatically.
In addition to Mary's comment on including the module name in the icon: not all languages have module names that would fit into the icon square space automatically. An example: the mod_quiz activity is called Quiz in English, Test in Dutch, but Cuestionario in Spanish.
Another thing that comes to mind is the following: sometimes, a teacher / course creator will use a certain module in a somewhat 'off-label' way, like the Group choice module to choose one of two ways to participate in the Learn Moodle Basics MOOCs. I wouldn't say viewing the module type name in such a situation would be helpful to a participant, who's just there to perform a simple task and shouldn't have to know which technology or plugin was used to create it.
The icons, activity names and descriptions (which should always be used in a meaningful way) on their own should be more than enough, IMHO.
Another thing that comes to mind is the following: sometimes, a teacher / course creator will use a certain module in a somewhat 'off-label' way, like the Group choice module to choose one of two ways to participate in the Learn Moodle Basics MOOCs. I wouldn't say viewing the module type name in such a situation would be helpful to a participant, who's just there to perform a simple task and shouldn't have to know which technology or plugin was used to create it.
The icons, activity names and descriptions (which should always be used in a meaningful way) on their own should be more than enough, IMHO.
In reply to Helen Foster
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
"UX research which highlighted the fact that participants couldn't identify the type of activity from the icon."
Who were those researchers? People who never taught anything in Moodle?
Who were those researchers? People who never taught anything in Moodle?
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Mary Cooch -
Seasons greetings Visvanath! Well I wasn't involved in the research but I would imagine some students can't immediately guess what type of activity it is just from the icon. We know a hand holding a paper means an assignment and a paper with a tick/checkmark means a quiz, a big question mark means a Choice activity, but perhaps it wasn't so obvious to some students. (I'm just speculating.)
In reply to Mary Cooch
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Halllooo Mary, Many greetings from, ehmm. Moodle 4.0 land.
`I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, `for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'
GUI aka UI/UX is not my terrain. Like Alice I landed hard on 3.11 https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=429960#p1730645. To make the frustration worse the crowd was jumping from 3.11 to 4.0 as it was nothing https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=429960#p1731573. The now, a botched repair https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=429960#p1731578 made me land here, in 4.0, which I have never seen.
Now I am here, I have to talk 4.0, I suppose. 4.0 is about inventing a new language, I understood, that of icons. I don't know how much the "looks" (of the icons) tell what is inside. Never relied on that. Have no memories from the stone age and hieroglyphs either. In my time languages were already invented. I have zero imagination to associate an icon to something abstract. You say, paper and a tick means a quiz, for me it is the shopping list. The question mark is a choice? For me it means (not knowing) what to do! I don't think these things say something, the same thing, to the whole humanity. They are languages, which people (have to) learn. Going for a (pictorial) language which is in our genetic code, that would be a huge step backwards, even if there is such thing.
Anyway, I am disappointed that this much hyped UX change boiled down to designing icon sets. The theme developers have been doing that since ages. I thought Moodle is looking for the grand unified learning activity / resource, which replaces everything we knew, possibly in H5P/canvas look. Or making the course section one "living" document, or even taking it to a level where the course becomes one active document as demonstrated by Mathematica and copied by a whole industry from Flash to Jupyter.
GUI aka UI/UX is not my terrain. Like Alice I landed hard on 3.11 https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=429960#p1730645. To make the frustration worse the crowd was jumping from 3.11 to 4.0 as it was nothing https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=429960#p1731573. The now, a botched repair https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=429960#p1731578 made me land here, in 4.0, which I have never seen.
Now I am here, I have to talk 4.0, I suppose. 4.0 is about inventing a new language, I understood, that of icons. I don't know how much the "looks" (of the icons) tell what is inside. Never relied on that. Have no memories from the stone age and hieroglyphs either. In my time languages were already invented. I have zero imagination to associate an icon to something abstract. You say, paper and a tick means a quiz, for me it is the shopping list. The question mark is a choice? For me it means (not knowing) what to do! I don't think these things say something, the same thing, to the whole humanity. They are languages, which people (have to) learn. Going for a (pictorial) language which is in our genetic code, that would be a huge step backwards, even if there is such thing.
Anyway, I am disappointed that this much hyped UX change boiled down to designing icon sets. The theme developers have been doing that since ages. I thought Moodle is looking for the grand unified learning activity / resource, which replaces everything we knew, possibly in H5P/canvas look. Or making the course section one "living" document, or even taking it to a level where the course becomes one active document as demonstrated by Mathematica and copied by a whole industry from Flash to Jupyter.
`Come back!' the Caterpillar called after her. `I've something important to say!'
This sounded promising, certainly: Alice turned and came back again.
`Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar.
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Dr. Nellie Deutsch -
I presume the researchers were Moodle users (all roles) who volunteered to be part of the research.
In reply to Dr. Nellie Deutsch
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
I would call them test persons. "Researchers" are the people pulling the strings from behind.
In reply to Helen Foster
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Rick Jerz -
Folks, I have been working a little with the latest development release of Moodle and some CSS code (within Boost). I have gotten to a point where I can start seeing the light to Moodle 4.0. I still have some feature requests, incorporated into Tracker items.
Yes, my CSS removes this text that displays next to the activity icon.
Here is a video that should help. My CSS code is also attached. See what you think?
Yes, my CSS removes this text that displays next to the activity icon.
Here is a video that should help. My CSS code is also attached. See what you think?
In reply to Rick Jerz
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Garth Brady -
I like ALL the points raised by Rick. I'm ok with switching the checkboxes to 'Done' buttons positioned on the right, and I'm a HUGE fan of marking as a 0.00 if not submitted by the due date (provided there's opportunity to override for extenuating circumstances perhaps via the custom due dates for specific students which already exists in Assignments and Quizzes).
In reply to Garth Brady
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Rick Jerz -
Garth, thanks for your reply.
In my video, I actually show both a checkbox to enable "grade becomes zero..." and also show a textbox whose default is "0." I showed it this way because perhaps some instructors would prefer some other grade than 0, like a 10% or 20%. Not me, but maybe others. So in my case, all that I would need is a checkbox.
You bring up a good point. The due date should be the assignment due date unless there is an override.
In my video, I actually show both a checkbox to enable "grade becomes zero..." and also show a textbox whose default is "0." I showed it this way because perhaps some instructors would prefer some other grade than 0, like a 10% or 20%. Not me, but maybe others. So in my case, all that I would need is a checkbox.
You bring up a good point. The due date should be the assignment due date unless there is an override.
In reply to Rick Jerz
Re: Displaying the activity type in Moodle 4.0 (split from 'Mark as done'
by Fa Ahmed -
can you please share the CSS for making changes to 'mark as done' button.
Border and font color insider the button. I tried a few but none of them worked.
Border and font color insider the button. I tried a few but none of them worked.