I am getting ready to implement using a database to allow students to submit information to be seen by other students. Obviously I want the data to be approved before being posted. So far so good, however, if the student goes back in to edit the entry after it has been approved then they could potentially add inappropriate content. To prevent this, I think that the approval status should be revoked if the entry is edited by a non-teacher. To address this, I have commented on MDL-5581 and would encourage those interested to vote on it. To prevent entries from getting lost, I think there needs to be another sort option of Approved/Date Entered so that the oldest issues awaiting approval appear at the top of the list.
I have also requested the capability to have the database module send an email to the teacher when an entry is add/updated. This would let teachers know when something is needing approval and is similar to the behavior of forums and assignments. It is listed as MDL-8377 in the tracker.
Hello. I'm not sure if my experience is related to your point, but I have set up a research article review database for university students in which they find an article, get permission from a teaching assistant vis a vis the "appropriateness" of the article for review, do the review, get graded and then (hopefully), the review is approved and opened up for perusal by other members of class.
The problem we seem to be getting is that although the teaching assistant has approved the article as being appropriate for inclusion in the database, she has not approved the actual entry by clicking on the "Approve" link. Nevertheless, the article is still released for class perusal even though oftentimes the student has not finished entering data in all the fields.
This looks a little like the problem you mention. Being nosy, I might have looked at the record and I am wondering whether simply by opening up the record to look at it, I (or the assistant) have triggered the approval process. Obviously we don't want to have done this, so if we have, we want to be able to revoke the approval. Am I making sense?
Rick Danielson
The problem we seem to be getting is that although the teaching assistant has approved the article as being appropriate for inclusion in the database, she has not approved the actual entry by clicking on the "Approve" link. Nevertheless, the article is still released for class perusal even though oftentimes the student has not finished entering data in all the fields.
This looks a little like the problem you mention. Being nosy, I might have looked at the record and I am wondering whether simply by opening up the record to look at it, I (or the assistant) have triggered the approval process. Obviously we don't want to have done this, so if we have, we want to be able to revoke the approval. Am I making sense?
Rick Danielson
Thanks for sharing your database experience. Your experience sounds essentially similar to mine. Issuing an approval and then allowing students to change or update it without reseting the need for re-approval seems dangerous to me (especially in a K-12 environment). For university students I would not be as concerned but can still appreciate the desire to review the appropriateness of a submission. There is no need to worry about simply viewing a submitted entry. You can view it and not approve it; however, once approved it will stay approved. There is no button for un-approving and perhaps that should be included as well. It could be the same field but if the article is already approved then it would have a link to Unapprove. Perhaps a third option of Approve Permanently could be used and that would give teachers the freedom if they wanted to have edited submissions unapproved or not. Peace.
I agree with your suggestion about a re-approve button. In my situation, things are unravelling a bit. I now have 5 out of 20 students with work in progress being displayed to everyone, before it has been graded. By tomorrow night I'll have 20. There seems to be no way to prevent the database entries from being displayed even though nobody has approved them by clicking on the approve link. This looks like a bug or (hopefully) something silly that I have done.
I would like to be able to re-approve things or to revoke approval and then re-approve them again, etc. However at this point in my course it's getting serious that I am able to keep them "unapproved" until they have been graded. Do you know whether this is possible? Shall I start another thread on this?
I would like to be able to re-approve things or to revoke approval and then re-approve them again, etc. However at this point in my course it's getting serious that I am able to keep them "unapproved" until they have been graded. Do you know whether this is possible? Shall I start another thread on this?
You may wish to vote on MDL-5581.
Done.