Completion Progress

Blocks ::: block_completion_progress
Maintained by Jonathon Fowler
The Completion Progress block is a time-management tool for students.

Completion Progress Version for Moodle 2.7 onwards for Moodle 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, 3.1

Note This plugin version is no longer available here in the plugins directory.

Me at the Moodle Moot NZ11
Stuart Mealor
Friday, 21 April 2017, 8:25 AM
Usability
10/10
Accessibility
10/10
Technical
10/10
General comments

This plugin Block is in many ways the Block that 'Progress bar should have aways been - in that it ties in directly to the core 'completion tracking' of activities within Moodle smile

It's possibly one of the most useful Blocks around, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this Block, or a direct derivative of the code, in core Moodle one day.

It is important to understand that there are configuration settings that only the Moodle site administrator can make once this Block in installed, so it will be important for Moodle admin and academic staff to work together to ensure that the global settings are the most appropriate for the specific site and use.

You can try this Block yourself for real on our public plugins site: http://plugins.moodlebites.com

Usability

Very easy to setup for Teachers, with a good range of options including the fact that the ordering can be based on expected completion times, or on the (linear) order of the activities in the course.

Adding the Completion Progress Block to the Dashboard produces a view of ALL courses for Students - fantastic !  This is something many Teachers and/or Managers / Administrators will find very useful too.

The interface and graphs for Students are excellent - and provide not only a clear visual snapshot of progress, but by association a potential motivating factor for learners too smile

Accessibility

During the development of this plugin there were many forum discussions about the accessibility aspect or colours, layout, and other display factors.  

To address accessibility concerns the Block can display using multiple lines, allowing the bar to scroll, or squeezing the bars together (the default is to squeeze) - see note above about Moodle administrators choosing the setting.

By default, the colours used in the block are red, blue, yellow and green, but all these colours can be changed to reflect accessibility needs - brilliant !

Technical

I haven't reviewed the code for this plugin, but it has been around for a long time (albeit initially with a different name) and being developed by Michael we can be sure it passes the most rigorous technical standards for Moodle plugins.

The performance of the Block when used within a course is fine, with no noticeable slow-down of the page rendering.

The plugin has been maintained well, and updated regularly, so I would have no hesitation in recommending this for use on any Moodle site.