Selectively locking announcements

Selectively locking announcements

by One_Cable5781 OneCable -
Number of replies: 8

After a quiz, we post the grading pattern for the quiz and open it up for replies from students if they have issues with the grading key. After a specified time, we want the ability to lock this thread. 

Then, we post another announcement with our final decision on how we have resolved their queries. This post should not be open for further queries from students.

Is there a way to accomplish this?

As of now the way we do this is to go to announcements -> edit settings -> discussion locking and choose lock after a period of inactivity.

Then, when we post the final announcement to which we want no further queries, we go to Forum Administration -> Permissions -> Activity: Forum, remove students from being able to "reply to announcements" and "reply to posts".

This constant changing of student's permissions to be able to reply to announcement and not being able to reply to announcements/posts does not allow for a clean way to administer an ongoing course with multiple quizzes and feedback.

Is there a way, therefore, to selectively allow replies to specific announcements and then lock a thread after a specific time instead of locking it based on number of days of inactivity?

Thank you.

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In reply to One_Cable5781 OneCable

Re: Selectively locking announcements

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Your post made me wonder why you consider it important to prevent students from interacting in a course by preventing them from asking questions after a certain date.

Let's say, for example, that you provide a quiz in week one. Then (a good student), in week 10, reflects on a question in that Week 1 quiz and discovers an error in a question. Are you saying you do not want to recognize your mistake because it wasn't reported earlier?

Doesn't it make more sense to encourage students to always be able to question potential mistakes in your course?
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Selectively locking announcements

by One_Cable5781 OneCable -
I was afraid that my use case may be discussed more than the technical question behind it which hopefully has a categorical yes/no answer whether it is possible to accomplish selective locking of threads or not also based on criteria other than period of inactivity.

I somewhat disagree that students should be provided more than a reasonable time to dispute the grading key. Beyond a particular stage, we (instructors in the university I work at) feel that it is counterproductive to the grade-curving requirements we operate under and also student experience and expectations from the course.
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In reply to One_Cable5781 OneCable

Re: Selectively locking announcements

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Ah, now I better understand. If you are grading "on a curve," correctly changing one student's grade can affect others. Sorry, I don't grade on a curve.
 
A Moodle forum has a "cut-off" date, described as "If set, the forum will not accept posts after this date."
 
There might also be a way to use a "Restrict Access, Date" to restrict access.
 
You might also consider telling students that you fix their quiz grades on a specific date but will still entertain questions.  But you probably wouldn't want students exposing one of your wrong answers and letting all students see that you don't do anything about it.
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Selectively locking announcements

by One_Cable5781 OneCable -

>correctly changing one student's grade can affect others.

>But you probably wouldn't want students exposing one of your wrong answers and letting all students see that you don't do anything about it.

I still don't see valid cause for you to pass such passive aggressive comments at our grading system other than the fact that it is not to *your* personal liking. Preferences and methods and processes are heterogeneous, no?

Be that as it may, the two suggestions to my original question that you actually had unfortunately do not seem to serve the purpose. The question was whether a particular discussion/thread can be locked or not while your suggestions seem to apply to the forum [all threads/discussions] in its entirety.

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In reply to One_Cable5781 OneCable

Re: Selectively locking announcements

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Others here might be able to guide you to other solutions. I'm sorry, but so far, I am the only one who has offered ideas.
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Selectively locking announcements

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers
Individual discussion threads can be locked by clicking the three dots to the right of the discussion in the list - is that what you meant?
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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Selectively locking announcements

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Mary, from my experimenting, the feature you mentioned seems to work for me. However, when I set a cut-off date, that feature also prevents a student from posting (more technically, the "reply" link disappears), as shown in my graphic below. I am using Moodle 4.4. I am unsure why these features do not satisfy One_Cable.
 
At first, the cut-off date feature did not seem to work correctly.  Then it worked.  So, I wonder if my browser was using its cache and presenting an old page.  It might be best to make the change and then try accessing Moodle from another browser.

Also, one needs to log in as a student.  As the course administrator, I can always post.  So, I am unsure if One_Cable is still logged in as the teacher when they try these changes.  I think it is correct Moodle behavior to always allow the Teacher (or, in my case, Manager) to post.
 
Attachment discussionn locking.jpg
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