So, I'm interested in working on the Blog Assignment Type [docs.moodle.org], and I figured I'd start up a thread on the project idea. There has been some discussion of one particular aspect of the project in a different thread, [moodle.org] but a fuller look at the project seems desirable.
Here are the thoughts and ideas I've had about the project so far:
It seems like it would be possible to implement this idea with very minimal changes to the actual blog code. If all of the assessment, comments, and grading happens within the scope of the assignment, then the blog stays relatively unchanged. This would be a simpler solution than integrating the actual blog entry into the assignment. However, it would mean that the teacher's feedback and grades would not show up for the student when they are viewing their blog, only when they are viewing that particular assignment. I'm sure there are other advantages and disadvantages that I'm not thinking of at the moment.
Teachers should be able to set a specific time period during which the blog entry was posted, and a specific time period during which the entry can be submitted for the assignment. I think it would also be nice for the teacher to be able to set a minimum and/or maximum word limit for a particular assignment, which is automatically checked when the entry is submitted.
The concern brought up in the other thread was that a student could potentially read another student's public blog entry and plagiarize their work. If the blog assignment were implemented in a more integrated fashion, a possible solution could be to have a “private until graded” privacy setting for an entry. However, the disengaged implementation would make this significantly more difficult. In that case, I think it would be the responsibility of the students and teachers involved to make sure that original work was respected.
It is possible that a system of tags could be set up for blog posts that are being used as assignments.
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Anyone have any thoughts, ideas, concerns, flames, or particularly witty one-liners concerning any of this? Got any other ideas about the blog assignment type idea? Also interested in the project and want to get some forum face time? Here's the place.