[Modules] Hiding and Viewing Modules for Individual Sections

[GideonWilliams]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas LMS

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Parts of this have been mentioned in previous requests (Modules within Modules and others) and I wonder if this is more to do with the needs of K12 than beyond?

We run a model based on UK curriculum which may be different to other school models (10+ subjects in a timetable, classes selected by ability, external examinations in 2/3 year groups, different content taught depending on the class etc). Having begun our implementation of Canvas the last thing we wished to do is create individual courses for each class and teacher in a subject. With up to 9 classes in a subject this would be an administrative nightmare and would go against much of what I believe a VLE is for - forward facing, collaborative, personalised, sharing of resources etc.

The reality is at school level it is very very difficult to create a core course that is truly personalised without some form of conditions/restrictions especially as "content is king". We add our classes as separate sections which enables assignments to be posted to individual classes. We would dearly like Canvas to go further and enable this option for other content such as pages/links etc.

The idea being suggested though is for teachers to be able to hide/view modules for individual sections

This would allow content (pages, links etc) to be viewed by individual sections. It would give teachers and students the best of both worlds. Modules could be 'turned on' for all sections or individual sections. It would allow you to create differentiated blocks of content/resources eg for those students who are perhaps sitting the 'Higher Level' exam. It would also allow us to support subjects where they have banded/set ability groups. It would also support subjects where topics are done on rotation due to resourcing. It would also reduce the risk of common core subjects such as Maths/Science developing vast 'silos' of resources/modules and making navigation harder than it should be. Would it also be less messy than Conditional activities?

I know that some suggestions have talked about creating extra courses but with the majority of our students having up to 15 courses to manage, the last thing I wish to see is doubling up courses and reducing engagement.

I think this is more of a K12 issue and it would be nice to see a little bit of love sent their way...

UPDATE: APRIL 2018

I was at the Dutch Users Group consortium on Friday. This consortium represents a sizeable and growing number of universities, colleges and schools within the Netherlands. As a group, we identified a number of ideas we wished to take forward and the one above emerged as a clear favourite (without any prompting from me!)

This is now an idea that has support across multiple educational organisations and the benefits of this idea are seen as hugely positive and wide ranging.

As the last comment on this was 16 months ago and 2 years since the idea was published, it would be nice to know what progress, if any, has been made here.

[ritchiedk]

This would be a good step forward!!

[GideonWilliams]

Super idea supported by very strong pedagogical ideas. Personalisation is key to engagement and success. Providing opportunities for differentiation by activity and outcome too.

Do consider this please which has similar ambitions - https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/5319-hiding-and-viewing-modules-for-individual-sections?sr=sea...

[canvas_support8]

Can't this be achieved using Mastery Paths?

[maguire]

I have found that one can add a gatekeeper assignment and then make a module that is "protected" by the gatekeeper assignment. This exploits the fact that you can set up prerequisites for access to a module. This assignment can be a purely administrative assignment where the student does not have to submit anything,  but the instructor has to assign a score - thus enabling the student to access the next module once the score is above the minimum to start this next module.

I have used this to facilitate students doing a self-enrolment in a course, then the gatekeeper assignment is used by a human who checks for eligibility to start this course.  Once the criteria to start the course are met, then the student can proceed to the next module - where they fill out a survey that is used to collect data about the degree project that they propose doing. This is used by an administrator to assign an examiner to the student. ...

In the future, I would like to replace the manual check for eligibility with a program that does this check - but that is not ready (yet).

[maguire]

I wanted to follow up my earlier comment with some background https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/2541-module-access-to-specific-groups-sections-or-students .   (see  @thompsli ‌ 's gatekeeper approach - with Prerequisite of "gatekeeper-ignore" module). Some additional documentation about this is at Followup to "Storträffen" 20181115: Chip sandbox  ["Storträffen" in Swedish means "Big meeting". The issue was to find a way to provide better control of the visibility of content - as Canvas lacks per page/object level access control - unlike the KTH Social system where each page of content can have one of three levels of access. The idea was to find a way to make more people comfortable with making their courses open by default, but just blocking access to some of the content by the public or others in the university. For example, there is some content in one of my courses that I only have permission from my co-author (who is not employed by my university) to use in this course. Other parts of the course could be completely public or certainly readable within the university, but not this specific content (for three lectures with videos). ]

[GideonWilliams]

Thanks. Will read this with interest especially after https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/5319-hiding-and-viewing-modules-for-individual-sections?sr=sea...‌ which is a very popular idea with the Benelux Canvas Users Group (and many others)

[maguire]

Note that it is possible to encode multiple requirements into the unlocking, for example - a degree project course might require that the student has completed a certain minimum number of points (encode this as 1) and to have completed a research methodology course (encode this as 2),  Furthermore, it might be possible for the director of studies to approve a student starting without completing both requirements (encode this as a 4), Then the criteria to unlock the subsequent module is simply a score of 3 or more.

I have not thought this through for more than this combination of 3 criteria, but I suspect that it generalizes.

[angela5]

This would be most useful for students who have to do make up work, without all the students have to sort through the opened modules.

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

I thought of another use - faculty peer reviewers are given student permissions when they visit a course under review, but if it is all locked up with requirements and prerequisites it's difficult for them to get a good look.  Would be very useful for observers to have modules unlocked for them.

[bstanley]

I think it is a great idea.  We also have students on 504 Learning Plans or IEPs that require individualization.  It is important that we be able to meet the needs of these students and others by allowing modules to be unlocked for individual students when it is appropriate