Proposal to separate resources from activites

Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Gustav W Delius בתאריך
מספר תגובות: 13

I think that now, with the introduction of the templates, is a good time to suggest and discuss possible improvements to the Moodle interface.

One of the nice paedagogical features of Moodle is its concept of activities. It is also really beneficial that all activities are on the same course page. The one thing that confuses lecturers here though is that Moodle treats resources as another kind of activity. Lecturers see those as two different things:

A resource is a resource that you can use in your activities, it is not an activity in itself. Similarly a label is not an activity. So I would perfer if these two disappeared from the activity menu.

Here is my proposal: there is enough space next to the current Add... menu to have separate Add activity and Add resource menus. I included an example of these two drop-down menus in this post but for some reason this editor deleted them. So I have attached a screenshot.

resource.gif

This also has three other advantages:

  1. the teacher can see the various types of resources that can be added already on the course page. This will avoid the many questions I get about "How can I link to a webpage" and similar.
  2. adding a resource becomes a one-step process. I find the current process with its two screens rather cumbersome.
  3. The "Add..." drop-down list becomes shorter.

ממוצע דרוגים:Useful (1)
בתגובה ל: Gustav W Delius

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Martin Dougiamas בתאריך
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Very good idea!   מאשר  

Although the action of reading a resource is definitely an activity, I agree that separating them like this makes a lot of sense (a lot is currently hidden under that little word "Resource" and it's the first thing people look for).

If the current resource module is later recast in a modular plugin structure then some of the other modules people are writing like Book and Shelf could also slot in to that menu as Resource Modules.

P.S.  Thanks for opening a discussion before going ahead with coding.  קריצה  Let's bounce this around for a little while before starting, since it's pretty central.
ממוצע דרוגים: -
בתגובה ל: Martin Dougiamas

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Howard Miller בתאריך
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This is interesting - we have had a lot of problems (pedagogically) with the academic community in my institution with the idea of a resource being a subset of activities. We have had to become quite bullish about it - "you can call it what you like, but Moodle calls it this". So from that point of view I quite like this.

On the other hand... I wonder if having two add boxes might add to user confusion, although I guess they will soon pick it up.

On the whole - a cautious 'YES'.
ממוצע דרוגים: -
בתגובה ל: Howard Miller

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Petr Skoda בתאריך
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I like this idea - it would really help our new teachers.
There are so many modules now - this is a way to make the list shorter and more intuitive.

I do not like the possibility to change resource type later. IMHO it only confuses the users.
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בתגובה ל: Petr Skoda

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Ger Tielemans בתאריך
  • I agree with Martin that changing the name of resource into an activity like "read this resource"
    or "study this resource" would end that academic discussion.
  • I also have the feeling - like others - that it helps teachers to design the content of section
  • The suggestion (Gestalt) is that you publish them together:
    1.  choose a resource
    2.  choose activity
    3. then publish them together? No, they are complete separated in the section

To difficult for version 1.4 but maybe an idea for 2.0

If one of the choices is RLO, then on a new page you could select resources + activities + grading type (this has to be worked out, becuase in some activities grading is integrated in the activity and not in others, like the "study this resouce")

Then you could publish them as set (and also store them in IMS/CP as group...)

ממוצע דרוגים: -
בתגובה ל: Gustav W Delius

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Martin Dougiamas בתאריך
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Moodle.com is currently working on this ... at the same time we are taking the opportunity to refactor the module into classes (same is happening to quiz and assignment).

This will make it possible to add drop-in resource types, and makes it easier to link to a DMS and other nice things.
ממוצע דרוגים: -
בתגובה ל: Martin Dougiamas

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Gustav W Delius בתאריך

You probably already know this: I love Moodle. Many thanks for implementing my proposal. approve

Some suggestions about language (by a non-native speaker blush):

Add resource  ->  Add a resource
Add activity    ->  Add an activity
Compose a new text page  ->  Compose a text page
Compose a new web page ->  Compose a web page

The first two changes are for consistency, the last two to save space (relevant in the "Main menu" block).

(By the way: running the new resource module in debug mode shows up a lot of warnings, but you are probably aware of that.)

ממוצע דרוגים: -
בתגובה ל: Gustav W Delius

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Martin Dougiamas בתאריך
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This was a long-overdue cleanup, thanks for your interface idea.  מאשר  I'm still tweaking help texts and strings ... feedback is welcomed.

I'm not seeing any warnings, though! עיניים פעורות Whereabouts?
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בתגובה ל: Gustav W Delius

Re: Proposal to separate resources from activites

על ידי Jill Kaminski בתאריך
If screen real estate is a concern, perhaps you could have submenus rather than a separate pull-down menu? Kind of like View - Toolbars - (other stuff) in many applications?
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