Hello,
I'm playing with Moodle and another LMS and interested in creating the same or better behavior in Moodle for testing and comparison purposes.
We have a "program improvement assessment" that presents a number of characteristics to the director of a volunteer program. We ask them to what degree their program conforms to these characteristics of a successful program, and then based on their answer to each question, we present a recommended resource that will help them improve their program. See the demo at:
http://66.223.45.27/tipsdemo/
In our current Java-based LMS, our vendor apparently rewrote their survey object to accomplish this goal instead of extending the class or writing a subclass. (We don't have access to the source code.) So no other courses can re-use the survey object; it's now permanently designed to answer this one need. Uh-oh.
The administrative interface for this tool was built for us and is also pretty complex. The link to each resource needs to be maintained and checked manually for dead links. This is a lot of work.
So what's the smartest way to recreate this behavior in Moodle? Extend a current module? I'm going to have to create an administrative interface for staff as well.
Best,
Forest
Does it seem like the Questionnaire module would be best for this task, or perhaps the Survey module? Or build it myself?
I'm concerned about these modules' ability to return a custom list of recommended resources to users, and on the administrative side, I'm still going to need an intuitive interface so that staff can connect resources to specific question results.
Thanks,
Forest
I'm concerned about these modules' ability to return a custom list of recommended resources to users, and on the administrative side, I'm still going to need an intuitive interface so that staff can connect resources to specific question results.
Thanks,
Forest
Take a look at the Feedback module (forum: Questionnaire and Feedback modules).
If that doesn't do what you need then you might need to code something from scratch.
If that doesn't do what you need then you might need to code something from scratch.
No standard module has the logic required to make the recommendation to your users, so AFAICT you need to make a new module for Moodle just like it was done in the other LMS. You have a choice of which standard module to use as the starting point. In terms of adminstrative interface, it is hard to say anything without knowing any specifics, but you probably want to keep the data in its own table in the database and manage it there. Since this is a central (site-wide) config, you might want to imbedd it into the admin interface of Moodle, using one of the existing admin panels as the starting point to create your own, although you can look at the quiz module and the question editor as another approach.
Thanks for your responses. It sounds reasonable.
I guess I'll have to familiarize myself with the "best practices" around development since I'd want to be able to upgrade Moodle without causing problems for my module. Any huge holes in the ground I should be careful to avoid?
Best,
Forest
I guess I'll have to familiarize myself with the "best practices" around development since I'd want to be able to upgrade Moodle without causing problems for my module. Any huge holes in the ground I should be careful to avoid?
Best,
Forest
Hi Forest, you might look at an integration with PHPSurveyor (http://www.phpsurveyor.org/index.php), as it does conditional branching (which it sounds to me like you need for your project).
Another idea might be to pitch in with Mark on the Moodle Lesson module, one of the things we've discussed is conditional pages, where the branch a student takes would depend on a set of conditions (Answered 1, 4, and 5, yes, got >60% by this page, etc.).
Another idea might be to pitch in with Mark on the Moodle Lesson module, one of the things we've discussed is conditional pages, where the branch a student takes would depend on a set of conditions (Answered 1, 4, and 5, yes, got >60% by this page, etc.).