I keep coming back to and continually post about the navigation issues with Moodle. So far the users in my test instance complain about the whole breadcrumb method of moving around courses and the site in general. How do you keep the sidebars on every single page (activity pages, especially forums) with a navigation type block?
In the user tests that I have down frequently the users have no understanding of where they are when they click on forums or Quiz or other such activities. The breadcrumbs are invisible to them eventhough I made them red and bold just to see what would happen. A core navigational element seems like it should be a major part of future revisions of Moodle. Please any thoughts and specific suggestions greatly appreciated....
I realize that when I say activities I really mean on Module pages. Only a few module pages support blocks and this seems to be a real issue. thats the coding changes I need....
Yes, blocks do need to be pushed out into more of the modules. Then you can use sticky blocks more effectively.
In the meantime, if you have a static navigation thing you could always put it in the header.html of your theme.
Try turning on My Moodle too
In the meantime, if you have a static navigation thing you could always put it in the header.html of your theme.
Try turning on My Moodle too
The Moodle usability studies that we have done at my university came to the same finding. We have a good training and support system in place to educate our users, but primary navigation via the breadcrumb has been problematic. Based on our research, the user group that experienced the most difficulty with this navigation paradigm were adult users (grad studies, continuing studies and many of our faculty). Even with training they found this aspect of Moodle to be the most frustrating part of their "initial" experience.
We would be very happy to see all the core modules of Moodle have the option to display blocks. This would make block-based course navigation strategies easier to implement. Some (heavily customized) Moodle sites, such as at Royal Roads University have already done this on their own. Still, to have this functionality out-of-box would be a really good thing for the community as a whole.
My list of priority core modules to have blocks enabled soon include: Forums, Assignments, Quizzes and perhaps also Lessons. Participants and Gradebook would also be nice. These are the basics Modules (plus Resources) used by almost all institutions using Moodle for online education. Of course it would be nice if all the core modules had this functionality (although in my opinion I think the list of core modules should be reduced), but these essential 3-6 would be a great start and serve to illustrate how block based navigation strategies could be used effectively.
So, how can we begin to make this happen? What sort of process is needed to start making this change to modules? How do we get these changes added to the core distribution?
- Mark
We would be very happy to see all the core modules of Moodle have the option to display blocks. This would make block-based course navigation strategies easier to implement. Some (heavily customized) Moodle sites, such as at Royal Roads University have already done this on their own. Still, to have this functionality out-of-box would be a really good thing for the community as a whole.
My list of priority core modules to have blocks enabled soon include: Forums, Assignments, Quizzes and perhaps also Lessons. Participants and Gradebook would also be nice. These are the basics Modules (plus Resources) used by almost all institutions using Moodle for online education. Of course it would be nice if all the core modules had this functionality (although in my opinion I think the list of core modules should be reduced), but these essential 3-6 would be a great start and serve to illustrate how block based navigation strategies could be used effectively.
So, how can we begin to make this happen? What sort of process is needed to start making this change to modules? How do we get these changes added to the core distribution?
- Mark
The quiz already supports blocks, at least on the view.php page.
If you think that blocks should appear elsewhere in the quiz, then obviously it would be possible to implement, but the question is, would it be desirable? On some of the quiz pages like the reports and edit.php, screen space is already fully used. And on the attempt page, some people don't like any additional information whatsoever.
So if you want to propose a change, look at http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Quiz_user_interface_overview, which summarises the quiz user interface, then add a page off http://docs.moodle.org/en/Developer_notes#Quiz_.26_question_types outlining your proposal for exactly how you think it should work. Then debate this with other users in the quiz froum, and if you can get a consensus about what the right plan is, then it is quite likely to happen when someone has enough time to implement it.
For other modules, the procedure would be similar.
If you think that blocks should appear elsewhere in the quiz, then obviously it would be possible to implement, but the question is, would it be desirable? On some of the quiz pages like the reports and edit.php, screen space is already fully used. And on the attempt page, some people don't like any additional information whatsoever.
So if you want to propose a change, look at http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Quiz_user_interface_overview, which summarises the quiz user interface, then add a page off http://docs.moodle.org/en/Developer_notes#Quiz_.26_question_types outlining your proposal for exactly how you think it should work. Then debate this with other users in the quiz froum, and if you can get a consensus about what the right plan is, then it is quite likely to happen when someone has enough time to implement it.
For other modules, the procedure would be similar.
I have to agree - the breadcrumbs are confusing.
Although, having said that, a block will take up a lot of room as Tim said. The main thing I find frustrating is wanting to jump sideways e.g. to another forum in another course, but having to go up first. I often go to the front page just to change courses and then its several more clicks to reach the activity I want.
I'd favour some tabs along the top, just above the breadcrumbs. It would save on screen real estate and has the potential for a double row, giving a two tier system. The best thing for me would be to have 'my courses' up there, spread out horizontally, with the second tier having types of activity within each course, then each of those having a roll-over drop-down showing the individual activities, so I can select forum X from course Y without leaving the page I am on.
Initially, it could be plonked into the theme header and use YUI's connection manager to AJAX in the course details dynamically as it changes tabs.
Matt
Although, having said that, a block will take up a lot of room as Tim said. The main thing I find frustrating is wanting to jump sideways e.g. to another forum in another course, but having to go up first. I often go to the front page just to change courses and then its several more clicks to reach the activity I want.
I'd favour some tabs along the top, just above the breadcrumbs. It would save on screen real estate and has the potential for a double row, giving a two tier system. The best thing for me would be to have 'my courses' up there, spread out horizontally, with the second tier having types of activity within each course, then each of those having a roll-over drop-down showing the individual activities, so I can select forum X from course Y without leaving the page I am on.
Initially, it could be plonked into the theme header and use YUI's connection manager to AJAX in the course details dynamically as it changes tabs.
Matt
Hi Matt,
>I often go to the front page just to change coursesWhy don't you display the Courses (or Course categories) block on the home page of each of your courses? That way you can jump from one course to the other without having to go to the site front page.
On a more general note, I think most Moodle users agree that the present breadcrumb system is not ideal (there have been countless discussions on this topic in the past) but most would also agree that it is near impossible to have a navigation system which will please everyone. Some (like you, it seems) want to have a maximum of links at the top of their current page to be able to jump from activity X in course B to activity Z in course A. Others (like myself) find that on many pages the moodle interface is already too much "cluttered" and the students get lost, so we want to keep things minimal. For instance I have (through my orangechoc theme's header) totally disabled the Jump to... dropdown box at the top right of my moodle courses.
Also, an ideal navigation system would be able to "intelligently" adapt itself to the actual user's role (Teacher, Student, etc.) and - more difficult - the actual user's degree of proficiency in navigation (admiral, captain, sailor, ship's apprentice...).
For me, the single most important thing that is missing on a moodle course front page is a hierarchical system for organizing ressources within topics, to replace the inefficient present Show all topics/Show only Topic 1 boxes system (which is so misleading that I have chosen to disable it in my Visual Theme).
Joseph
Why don't you display the Courses (or Course categories) block on the home page of each of your courses?
I have, and its a life saver, but that still means that going from a forum in course A to a forum in course B, I have to go up to course A first, then choose course B from the block, than find the forum in course B. Same number of clicks as going to the front page and choosing course B from there.
I agree about the need for it to be optional and to adapt to roles. Not sure quite what you mean by the heirarchical bit though. Urs Hunkler's accordion theme for 1.5 was a great replacement for the show one-show all mechanism, but sadly it doesn't use YUI and isn't 1.8/1.9 compatible. I'd say that would be second on my navigation wishlist after tabs of some sort.
I have, and its a life saver, but that still means that going from a forum in course A to a forum in course B, I have to go up to course A first, then choose course B from the block, than find the forum in course B. Same number of clicks as going to the front page and choosing course B from there.
I agree about the need for it to be optional and to adapt to roles. Not sure quite what you mean by the heirarchical bit though. Urs Hunkler's accordion theme for 1.5 was a great replacement for the show one-show all mechanism, but sadly it doesn't use YUI and isn't 1.8/1.9 compatible. I'd say that would be second on my navigation wishlist after tabs of some sort.
English isn't my first language, so i'm not really sure i understand what you mean...
But, if you talk about using horizontal tabs for all your courses (in one line), it would only be usable with just a little courses, with small title. Really unusable when you have, say, 30 courses.
Or you should have a double (or triple) drop down menu, one to select the course, then one to select the activity (type, then one for the activity)...
Séverin
But, if you talk about using horizontal tabs for all your courses (in one line), it would only be usable with just a little courses, with small title. Really unusable when you have, say, 30 courses.
Or you should have a double (or triple) drop down menu, one to select the course, then one to select the activity (type, then one for the activity)...
Séverin
Which then raises accessibility issues ... (and performance issues, as you generate a huge complicated menu on every page load) ...
We did it (well mostly Mark and Jeff did it
with the YUI, page load has been pretty good so far.
Wow.
Any chance of releasing the code?
Any chance of releasing the code?
The Flexpage that Micheal Penney mentioned is a step in the right direction for solving this navigation issue. I really do feel that something like this Flexpage should be a core feature or in this case I believe its a course format. The flexibilty and UI benefits that something like this Flexpage will go along way to adding to Moodles lengthy lists of strengths. So what is the chance of getting this Flexpage or something along these lines into future versions of Moodle?
For one course it's much easier!
Did they use the $THEME->makenavmenulist setting that we already have in the themes? It produces an XHTML menu ideal for that sort of application (though I've not seen any theme designers use it yet!)
For "all my courses" there is more work that needs to be done on every page (all the course/modinfo data is probably too big to cache well in the session) and it would add a significant about of non-caching data to each page. SQL load is probably not as bad as I feared ... I think it could be done in one call.
Did they use the $THEME->makenavmenulist setting that we already have in the themes? It produces an XHTML menu ideal for that sort of application (though I've not seen any theme designers use it yet!)
For "all my courses" there is more work that needs to be done on every page (all the course/modinfo data is probably too big to cache well in the session) and it would add a significant about of non-caching data to each page. SQL load is probably not as bad as I feared ... I think it could be done in one call.
I have played with this $THEME->makenavmenulist or at least tried to and have yet to get anything to show up. My understanding is that this creates a drop down menu like the jump to menu on module pages? On a course by course basis tabbed browsing seems to be the best way to allow for easy usability. The fact that this navmenu only shows up on module pages seems to be inconsistent. The best thing about tabs and that Flexpage is that they are always there on every page. That consistency doesn't make the user think too much about where and how they need to go about navigating the course page or the site as a whole. I am still curious as to what this makenavmenulist is all about so if anyone can be point me in the right direction that would be great.... thanks!
It could be done using YUI to create a treeview widget and then load the data dynamically as each node is expanded. Its pretty fast that way and would avoid the need for caching as well as making for a fast page load.
For an example, see here (the treeview can also be generated horizonatlly, and skinned).
Maybe in this discussion can fit the problem raised in http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-10039 ?
Looking for a general solution, it is good to know as much as possible all related open issues on the same argument.
Looking for a general solution, it is good to know as much as possible all related open issues on the same argument.