"Download this question in Moodle XML format" in "Preview question" should be retained in Moodle 4.0

"Download this question in Moodle XML format" in "Preview question" should be retained in Moodle 4.0

by Dominique Bauer -
Number of replies: 3

Hello,

In versions prior to 4.0, there is a "Download this question in Moodle XML format" link in the "Preview question" pop-up window, as shown in Figure 1 below. This link is useful because it allows a question to be downloaded from the "Edit quiz / Preview question" page, that is, without having to look for the question in the question bank.

The link was added in 2019 by Tim Hunt (https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=389500#p1570207 following Tracker MDL-63738. The implementation of this feature was supported by Adrian Perez, Anton Tremetzberger, Bernat Martinez, Daniel Thies, Dominique Bauer, Germán Valero, Hartmut Scherer, Ioana Gatzka, Jean-Michel Vedrine, Jens Eremie, Jetmire Sadiki, Silke Kirberg, Luca Bösch, Michael Hughes, Raül Cambeiro, Roland Boettcher, Samuel Witzig, Sebastian Homer, Shirley Gregorczyk, Stephan Tjettmers, Stephen Bourget, Tina Tanurovska, Ueli Zumkehr, as well as Al Rachels, Rick Jerz, Joseph Rézeau and Marcus Green.

You must keep this link in version 4.0. As Tim Hunt said: "Putting it on the Preview question page isn't brilliant user-interface design, but I couldn't think of anything better, and at least this got the feature implemented. We can always improve the UI later." Improving the user experience is not about removing a feature that is useful and used by everyone. This consists of improving it, for example in the form of an "Export as Moodle XML" button on the "Preview question" page, brilliantly proposed by AL Rachels (https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=432404), as shown in Figure 2 below.

exportsingleq.png

Figure 1  "Download this question in Moodle XML format" link in the "Preview question" pop-up window - Moodle versions prior to 4.0.

ExportMockUp.png

Figure 2  "Download this question in Moodle XML format" link as a "Export as Moodle XML" button in the "Preview question" pop-up window - as it should appear in Moodle 4.0.

Average of ratings:Useful (2)
In reply to Dominique Bauer

Re: "Download this question in Moodle XML format" in "Preview question" should be retained in Moodle 4.0

by Tim Hunt -
When I first put the link on the preview pop-up, that was really just a quick and dirty work-around for not being able to add it anywhere better. I never thought that was a good place for it.

Later, we added it in the drop-down Actions menu in the question bank, which is a much better place for it, and it is still there.

I really don't like your suggested button location. That is a row of buttons all related to controlling the preview. Download is completely unrelated, so it is confusing to put it in the same group.

What I was wondering about is: would it make sense to have the entire actions menu for this question from the question bank in the pop-up (perhaps just with 'Preview' removed?)
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: "Download this question in Moodle XML format" in "Preview question" should be retained in Moodle 4.0

by Dominique Bauer -
Tim,

As you say, you didn't know where to put the link. But, hence inadvertently, you put it in the right place, that is, in a quiz page, not in the question bank.

You don't like the suggested button location. I dare to hope that it is not because the idea is not yours. The proposal is actually from Al Rachel, teacher and true Moodle veteran.

You say that Download is 'completely' unrelated. From a teacher's point of view, you are 'completely' wrong. You don't seem to understand the difference between questions in a quiz and questions in the question bank. For a teacher, it is very useful to be able to export a question from the quiz without having to search for it in the question bank.

When editing the quiz, the teacher sees the quiz questions, i.e. all and only the questions from they quiz. He knows immediately which questions they are and obviously in which quiz they are used. He does not have to look for them in the question bank! He can click on the 'Preview questions' magnifying glass icon to ensure that it is the right question he wants and press AL Rachel's "Export as Moodle XML" button.

The proposal from by AL Rachel makes perfect sense and is supported by many other teachers.
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In reply to Dominique Bauer

Re: "Download this question in Moodle XML format" in "Preview question" should be retained in Moodle 4.0

by Dominique Bauer -
Tim,

If you still don't understand the principle, read Peter Diedrichs's post (https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=432354 ↗). Peter clearly explains that the questions of a quiz can be all over the place in the question bank and that it is laborious to trace them, for example for archiving reasons. A good user experience would be to have a command, in the quiz Questions page, to export questions from the quiz.
Average of ratings: -