Course dedication

Blocks ::: block_dedication
Maintained by Dan Marsden, Catalyst IT
This block allows to calculate estimated dedication time of participants within a course.
Latest release:
6761 sites
1k downloads
209 fans
Current versions available: 5

NOTE: This plugin has a new maintainer.

Thanks to the University of Canterbury for sponsoring the upgrade work to support Moodle 4.0 and the new report builder API.

Introduction

This block allows to see the estimated dedication time to a Moodle course by the participants of the course.

How dedication time is estimated?

Time is estimated based in the concepts of Session and Session duration applied to Moodle's log entries:

  • Click: every time that a user access to a page in Moodle a log entry is stored.
  • Session: set of two or more consecutive clicks in which the elapsed time between every pair of consecutive clicks does not overcome an established maximum time.
  • Session duration: elapsed time between the first and the last click of the session.

Features

This block is intended to be used only by teachers, however the block can be configured to show dedication time to students too.

Teachers can use a tool to analyse dedication time within a course. The tool provides three reporting methods:

  • Dedication time of the course: calculates total dedication time, mean dedication time and connections per day for each student, which you can filter by course group if required.
  • Dedication of a student: detailed sessions for a student with start date & time, duration and ip.
  • Report builder source: The plugin includes a custom report builder source to allow for site-level reporting to be generated.

Credits
Original developed by Aday Talavera, CICEI at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University
Updated to support Moodle 1.9 - Moodle 3.X 
by Borja Rubio Reyes.
Support for Moodle 4.0 was sponsored by the University of Canterbury.

Screenshots

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Contributors

Dan Marsden (Lead maintainer)
Borja Rubio Reyes: previous author
Aday Talavera: previous maintainer
Please login to view contributors details and/or to contact them

Comments RSS

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  • Susanna Callari
    ສຸກ, 19 ມ.ກ. 2024, 3:39 ໂມງແລງ
    Hi,
    I have installed the plug in and set the cron job but I still have the error "Time spent calculation task has not run yet", how can i fix the problem?
    Thank you
  • Marc Infante
    ພະຫັດ, 25 ມ.ກ. 2024, 10:09 ໂມງແລງ
    Hello to everyone,

    I am a Moodle administrator and I have encountered the following problem these days... After the last update of the 'Course dedication' plugin 2023112000.

    When I try to download an Excel with the connections of a specific participant (View session duration report), it shows me the connections of the authenticated user instead of the consulted user.

    Can you help me please? I have not touched any of the code since the last update 2023112000.

    Thank you very much for your help.
  • Josick Guermeur
    ອາທິດ, 11 ກ.ພ. 2024, 12:03 ໂມງເຊົ້າ
    Hi this updated version doen't give any access to the course dedication configuration thus losing all interest.
    Where did you get the picture of that screen called course dedication configuration with dates, list of participants?
    Besides records participant by participant doesn't have any time frame so is pretty unuseful too.
    I just wonder why take the time to create an upgrade which entirely destroys the goal of a plugin...
  • Paul Grant
    ຈັນ, 12 ກ.ພ. 2024, 7:54 ໂມງແລງ
    This is my first time using this addon, is there a location I could read info on setting up this plugin and how to see interaction information. (Sorry, very new to moodle)
  • Dan Marsden
    ອັງຄານ, 13 ກ.ພ. 2024, 3:29 ໂມງເຊົ້າ
    @Paul - you can either add it as a block to a course: https://docs.moodle.org/403/en/Block_settings#Adding_a_block_to_a_page

    or the plugin also includes a report source that allows you to build your own site-level report with the columns you would like to see:
    https://docs.moodle.org/403/en/Custom_reports
  • Paul Grant
    ອັງຄານ, 13 ກ.ພ. 2024, 4:49 ໂມງແລງ
    @Dan,

    You are a gentleman and a scholar Sir, thank you very much for such a speedy reply. Much appreciated.
  • Flemming Bornemann
    ພະຫັດ, 22 ກ.ພ. 2024, 5:05 ໂມງແລງ
    Hi
    Is there a way to add this plugin to all courses?
  • Dan Marsden
    ສຸກ, 23 ກ.ພ. 2024, 7:20 ໂມງເຊົ້າ
    @Flemming - you might be after something Moodle calls "sticky blocks" which are documented here: https://docs.moodle.org/403/en/Block_settings#'Sticky_blocks' but if you're just wanting to report on all courses then the best way to do that is using the "custom reports" (https://docs.moodle.org/403/en/Custom_reports) which includes a report source from the dedication plugin.
  • Flemming Bornemann
    ສຸກ, 23 ກ.ພ. 2024, 2:55 ໂມງແລງ
    Thank you @Dan
    I think you are rigt, I want a sticky block. I already looked in to the source you linked to.

    For the various options with blocks they provide step by step guides on how to do. But for the one I need it just states this:

    "Making a block sticky in a category
    A user with category rights might for instance wish to display a Remote RSS feeds block in all of the courses within a particular category, such as a Head of Science adding Science news feeds to the Physics, Biology and Chemistry courses."

    But no directions on how to achieve it. Can you help?

    Tanks again.
    Flemming
  • Dan Marsden
    ສຸກ, 23 ກ.ພ. 2024, 4:10 ໂມງແລງ
    @Flemming - best to create a new post in the forums - the comments here aren't ideal for general moodle support - thanks!
  • Juan Antonio Moreno Carmona
    ອາທິດ, 3 ມ.ນ. 2024, 2:46 ໂມງເຊົ້າ
    Hi Dan. Thank you very much for your plugin. I wonder if the plugin also computes the time spent in the course when the user enters a course from the mobile app. Some users complain that all the time spent on the course does not appear. And those users use the app from time to time.
  • Dan Marsden
    ພະຫັດ, 7 ມ.ນ. 2024, 2:02 ໂມງແລງ
    @Juan - the plugin generates the time-spent using Moodle logs table - not all interactions within the mobile app will generate a log entry associated with the user in the logs so we are limited to the usage that generates data within the logs. Students and staff should treat the time-spent calciulations as informational and a general approximation, it is very hard to improve the accuracy of this data. We do have other future improvements we'd like to make that would improve the stats and we could also look to include mobile app usage within this as well, but we'd need likely need someone to fund that development effort - feel free to reach out if you are that organisation who has the funding to put towards tihs!
  • Aca G
    ພຸດ, 20 ມ.ນ. 2024, 2:22 ໂມງເຊົ້າ
    Hi, great block. In Spain the state-subsidised courses require a record of the time spent, so this block is widely used. Without it we would not know what to do.
    Any idea why a course that used to show correctly the time spent by each student now seems to have been "reset" and counted again from zero?
  • Aca G
    ພຸດ, 20 ມ.ນ. 2024, 2:38 ໂມງເຊົ້າ
    I add to the previous message:

    could it be because it is affected by the general "logstore_standard | loglifetime" time settings ?
  • Dan Marsden
    ພຸດ, 20 ມ.ນ. 2024, 5:18 ໂມງເຊົ້າ
    @Aca - there's a site wide setting called "allloglifetime" in the admin> blocks > dedication that clears out older logs so if you have that set low then yes, it will clear out data used to display how long the student would have spent in the course, not sure what else would do it.
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