Change the way Assignment works?

Change the way Assignment works?

by Mark Pearson -
Number of replies: 6

A major shift in how the Assignment activity works has taken place between v1.6 and 1.8 . In v1.6 the assignment activity was a monolithic entity with three component 'types', namely, 'Offline activity', 'Online text', and 'Upload a single file' screenshot. This allowed the course creator to easily switch between assignment types with little fuss. Thus one could create an offline assignment and then switch it to 'Upload single file' when desired. There were a few drawbacks with this system mostly related to the need to have students submit multiple files and also to be able to return marked up submissions to the students. Version 1.8 assignment has addressed the latter with the rather misleadingly titled "Advanced uploading of files" (the option does a lot more than just upload multiple files). However, in the process, the assignment activity has been split into 4 separate sub-activities -- screenshot. What this means is that now a teacher cannot switch between assignment types without creating a new assignment and copying the details over (there's still no way to copy or 'clone' an activity). This can also have an impact when restoring a course -- the teacher restores a course which she taught using Moodle 1.6 where the assignments were offline and now she has more confidence she wants to switch those assignments to Advanced upload files in the new Moodle 1.8 version. However, in order to achieve this she will have to create a new assignment for every instance in the restored course, copy the details over and delete the old assignment. Is this likely to happen, or will she not bother -- what's your guess?

This issue has surfaced in a conversation : Is it a bug or did we lost a feature?

I propose that the assignment module be refactored to incorporate the assignment functions within a single module as in v1.6 to allow easy switching between the different types.

I have looked through current unresolved issues with Assignment but have found no mention of the above topics. So, what do you think of this? Have you found this to be a problem, or likely to be a problem? Would you vote for this change on Moodle Tracker? Do reveal your innermost thoughts.

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In reply to Mark Pearson

Re: Change the way Assignment works?

by Michael Spall -
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I think this could be a good idea for the reasons you mentioned. But I also think that it could be a bad idea too. What should the expected behavior be when switching from "Advanced uploading of files" to one of the other types if a student has already submitted two files for the assignment? This could be solved by restricting when an assignment could be switched. But what is the rule to use? If an assignment had been opened for submitting and the first student was in the process of submitting but not yet completed, would Moodle be able to "do the right thing"? But an argument can be made, weaker I think, that by not allowing assignments to be changed, we would be encouraging teachers to delete assignments, potentially losing submitted assignments.

Much of this boils down to flexibility vs bad consequences /users not realizing the consequences. Similar problems exist when users switch a forum from standard forum to simple discussion and there are already two or more discussion topics. And from experience, Moodle and local administration will get blamed when users suffer from unintended consequences. The Wiki is another area where switching types would lead to potential problems if allowed.

Maybe the real solutions is the cloning idea or some other way to make it easy to make redesign changes. But that still doesn't answer the question of where the limits should be.

One final thing to consider, "Upload a single file" and "Advanced uploading of files" differ by more than just the number of files that can be uploaded. Maybe that issue should be tackled first and would make a lot of the discussion moot.

An idea, combine all four assignment types into one, the differences being whether the student has an html area to type in and the number of files the student can upload.
Currently:
Offline assignment:no html area, 0 files
Online assignment:html area, 0 files
Upload a single file: no html area, 1 file
Advanced uploading of files: html area optional (Notes option), 1+ files
There are other differences that I have glossed over. And this model might have UI issues. Could these be solved by:
  • templates
  • being able to click one selection and making several choices
  • hide advanced / show advanced.
The glossary leading to the database module went through this generalization process, with the glossary being kept as a separate module.

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In reply to Michael Spall

Re: Change the way Assignment works?

by Mark Pearson -
Michael,
You raise some important points which I'd like to address:
  1. Switching assignment type after files have been submitted. My feeling is that it's fairly obvious to a teacher when files have been submitted and so switching the type at this point is a) unfair to those students who have already submitted and b) obviously likely to lead to disaster. That said, the teacher may wish to extend the submission date which would also involve an update.
  2. In version 1.6 the assignment types were together in a single activity and the resulting UI was a rather clumsy two page affair. Perhaps the splitting was a consequence of this (though I didn't see any reference in the roadmap from 1.6 to 1.7). However, I do feel that Assignment should be a unified activity and not 4 separate sub-activities.
There's a need to keep a simple interface (maybe rename 'upload single file' to 'simple file upload' ?) but the nomenclature is fraught with problems. At the end of the day, I think that teachers just need to learn that:
  • 'upload single file' / simple file upload = quick and cheerful setup with no bells or whistles
  • 'Advanced uploading of files' = all the bells and whistles; take your pick but don't complain about complexity.
  • And the kicker is being able to switch between these assignment types with a simple 'update' rather than having to create a whole new assignment.
I think that your hunch about UI issues is key. My feeling is that until there's an AJAX UI that applies to the whole of Moodle we'll have these problems. With an AJAXed UI it'd be a trivial matter to set some sort of default preferences to apply, create a bunch of assignments, drag to their location in the (tabbed) Outline and then tweak each individually.
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In reply to Mark Pearson

Re: Change the way Assignment works?

by Gary Anderson -
When our faculty evaluated the move from 1.6 to 1.9, the loss of the ability to switch assignment types was a critical objection, so we changed it internally. And, since it is just an entry in the assignment database, it is not a difficult task.

One might want to switch from an offline activity to one that allows one to upload a file; or one might want to make an online activity into an advanced type so one can also upload a document. Frequently assignments are planned and posted weeks before students are asked to do them, and being able to switch formats without recreating the task is important, at least to our teachers.

Even going from Advanced to something less powerful is not an issue; files are not deleted and comments are not lost, although if you are using offline, you will have to switch back advanced to see the files. But that is pretty intuitive and something a teacher would need to consider if they switch types in the middle of an activity.

The ability to switch types would be a nice feature to return to Moodle core, IMO.
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In reply to Gary Anderson

Re: Change the way Assignment works?

by Terry Aulenbach -

Would you mind sharing how to change the assignment type in the database or at least give a few details? This is something that would be useful to us right now. Thanks

Terry

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In reply to Gary Anderson

Re: Change the way Assignment works?

by Anthony Borrow -
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Gary - I agree that it is a good thing to be able to switch assignment types. The only danger would be if a teacher starts out with multiple uploads and switches to one then which file gets shown or are some still in there that are not shown. Little things like stranded pieces of data but as long as the data is still there it is ultimately accessible. Have you submitted a tracker issue for this? Have I voted on it yet? Peace - Anthony
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