Start Branch, End Branch and Content pages?

Start Branch, End Branch and Content pages?

by Chris Collman -
Number of replies: 4

Just a suggestion, can we make the branch pages more robust?  Give them a name make over? 

John Isner got me thinking about "Branch Tables" again.  Some have heard this before, I believe that the first pages in the Lesson module were Question pages.   Then the concept of Branch was introduced and a Branch Table was added to MoodleLexicon.  Thus initially,  content was envisioned to be in questions and  Branch Tables had an area where the branch links could be described or prefaced.

With all due respect to the MoodleElders, I would rename and redefine the whole branch table page concept in Lesson.   I would suggest a "Start Branch", "End Branch" and "Content" pages in a Lesson.    

The "new" Content page in the first release would look like a Branch Table.  It would be absolutely neutral in score.  However, Content pages will now appear inside a branch along with question pages.

I would like to see both the new Content page and the "Start Branch" or the good old current "Branch Table" be more robust in the student selection area. It should be similar to "answers" in a multiple choice lesson question.  For example, click on the display HTML would allow a teacher to put in a picture, or create their own bar with text that is associated with a specific jump. 

Wonder what others think.  Why do I think the HTML suggestion is already on the drawing boards at HSU?   Thanks for all your efforts.

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In reply to Chris Collman

Re: Start Branch, End Branch and Content pages?

by Mark Nielsen -
Hi Chris,

Branch Tables have been overloaded, but I think the solution will have to come after the lesson to question bank conversion. There is a description question type (I think that is the name) and it could be used for a content page.

I'm toying with the idea of removing End of Branches, Cluster, End of Cluster and the idea of jumps for each question answer and instead implement the idea of State Checkers.

None of this is final, just brainstorming on ways to improve lesson and simplify editing. The switch to the question bank would be a good time to perform these changes so users will only have to learn a new system once and the module will only have to go through one migration process (meaning less opportunities for things to break).

Cheers,
Mark
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In reply to Mark Nielsen

Re: Start Branch, End Branch and Content pages?

by Chris Collman -
Thanks Mark for the link. That is a lot to grok for a mere bald mortal. I think you are on a couple of levels higher than me with the State Checker concept.

You know my way of thinking: there are pages and navigational markers. I would rather call it a Page Bank smile . Lesson and quiz pages formats should be interchangable.

I thought the major difference between a quiz and a lesson page was that the responce and jumps were not shown in a quiz and the choices could not be randomized in a Lesson. I figured that these differerences could be controlled by variables in the settings by the user in a generic unipage or some variables hard coded in the user friendly page edit forms ( for T/F, short answer, Content pages) . I know that this is really simplistic and probably not very elegant for either Lesson or Quiz.

For the simple minded, Branches and clusters seemed to be special changes in the default navigational state in a lesson. One way of looking at it would be to say there are "state markers" in the logical order which create special effects for a group of pages. One of the states could be to randomize choices, another to randomize the navigational order and etc. Thus a lesson or lesson segment, could react just like a quiz.

I better just stick with the user end after you figure out the hard stuff.

Keep up the great work. Chris



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In reply to Chris Collman

Re: Start Branch, End Branch and Content pages?

by Mark Nielsen -
One of the states could be to randomize choices, another to randomize the navigational order and etc. Thus a lesson or lesson segment, could react just like a quiz.

Yes, this is close to the goal, which is to make the lesson navigation system much more simple yet much more powerful/flexible at the same time. Currently, the navigation is controlled in each question, between a Branch and End of Branch, between a Cluster and End of Cluster or a mix of the above. I find it all confusing myself. I think it would be much more valuable to have the thought process go, "I need to send students to page X so I need to add a State Checker (or whatever it may be called)" rather than, "I need to send students to page X, should I add a branch table, a question, a cluster, etc etc".

For the simple minded, Branches and clusters seemed to be special changes in the default navigational state in a lesson.

I think this is important. There should be an overall default for how one navigates from one page to the next. EG: Correct answer goes to next page in the logical order, Wrong answer goes to same page. Then the lesson author adds in special markers to change the default navigation of the lesson. This allows for quicker lesson navigation building/editing because the editor does not have to enter every question, cluster, etc and change the navigation. Instead, just modify the default lesson navigation and the markers.

Cheers,
Mark
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