Moodle plugins directory: Stash | Moodle.org
Stash
The stash block is a good way to encourage more interaction with activities and is invaluable for teachers looking to gamify their course.
This plugin introduces a block that shows students items that they have picked up through the course.
The teacher can create items and then place them in activities and resources for students to find.
Items can be set to be collected once and encourages exploration of the course material. It is also possible to set an item to have an unlimited supply from a set location. This could encourage students to return to specific areas to collect more items.
You can also check out this video:
Quick start
We've crafted a sample course for you to try, it is the best way to see what this plugin has to offer. Please accurately follow those steps:
2/ Install the three following plugins (without exception)
- This plugin (block_stash)
- The availability plugin (availability_stash)
- The filter plugin (filter_shortcodes)
4/ Restore this backup file as a new course
5/ Enrol a student in the new course
6/ Now, login as that student and try the course
Important note
In order to make this plugin easier to use and fully featured, please also install:- The availability plugin (availability_stash)
- The filter plugin (filter_shortcodes)
- NEW! The tinyMCE plugin (tiny_stash) -- Greatly improves the experience of creating and inserting items and trades.
They are highly recommended.
I really like the plugin! One nice addition would be if there could be statistical overview for the teacher (probably not very difficult to do?), similar to what is shown in "assign" elements.
For example - number of participants, number of stashes available (in total), average number of stashes, and perhaps (if the total is not too large) a breakdown of the number of users with "X" stashes. Alternatively, perhaps a tabulated view of who has which stash, with one user per row and one column for each stash, and a simply checkmark (or filled green vs. grey) box.
That would really be great - my course currently has 1250+ students, and getting an impression of their "stash progress" is hard to achieve, as I currently seem to be limited to "sorting by name"...
Best regards,
Guido
We're glad to hear that our plugin is of some use. Unfortunately stashes are currently restricted to a single course.
Thank you for trying out our plugin. We currently only have a limited report setup for the stash which shows which items have been collected by each student. I can understand that it could be difficult to make your way around this report with so many students. I think that your suggestions are useful. When we expand the reports, hopefully we can incorporate these ideas.
What a cool tool is this! Just tested and absolutely loved it. Thank you!
In Moodle 3.2 with Boost theme, while adding a location, the "Supplies" option displays twice. Unfortunately I can't share a screenshot here... :{
Could you please raise an issue for that in the github repo if there isn't one already?
Cheers!
Fred
Sure, I would be glad to. Just because I have never worked with github before, please confirm that this https://github.com/FMCorz/moodle-block_stash/issues is the place where I should raise a New issue (since nothing similar seems to be there).
Best
anna
Thanks for sharing your ideas. We have thought of setting a strict limit on the quantity of an item for the whole course, it's a good idea. We could also add more options to conditionally display the item. The trick is to find the right balance between have too many options, and not enough.
You can already reward for a high achievement for a quiz. Set a quiz feedback for a result higher than 90% and add the shortcode there.
Feel free to report your suggestions at https://github.com/FMCorz/moodle-block_stash/issues/
Fred
Great idea to hide a stash in a quiz or assignment feedback--love it! Wanted to bump up Stuart's feature request for a way to "cash in" your stash for "rewards", or a cool integration would be to tie Stash into Moodle's built in conditionals--e.g. trade in 5 gold coins to unlock an Activity or Bonus Treasure section!
This plugin has a TON of potential once gamification of courses takes off as instructors catch up to pedagogical innovations....
Thank you Frederic and Adrian for this great plugin!
About being able to "cash in" your stash for "rewards", I have been working on this feature. It's currently being reviewed by Fred. It should be released very soon.
Thank you for your feedback. Your comments help keep us motivated to work on this plugin in our spare time.
To me understanding it already is possible to "tie Stash into Moodle's built-in conditionals". Have you had a look at https://moodle.org/plugins/availability_stash? Although, as Adrian mentioned, swapping items for other ones will be released soon, you can already limit the access to activities/sections based on student's collected items.
Thank you for your hard work on Stash--can't wait until the swap feature is implemented, and I completely forgot about the availability plugin already made for Stash! I poked around and it is wonderful! Thank you for sharing your great work with the Moodle community!