[Modules] Hiding and Viewing Modules for Individual Sections

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas LMS

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.

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185 Comments
kim_flowers
Community Novice

I'd love to know if there is any update/news on this? 

I know announcements and discussions are here/coming for sections. The last thing would be... modules! 

barsonbr
Community Member

This is a feature that our 1,600 instructors are always asking for at our higher ed institution. Every semester, there are countless times when a student goes on vacation and wants to work ahead, or is going on a work trip and wants to stay on top of their schoolwork before they leave, etc. Please resurrect this item and consider it for development.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

 

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

 

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

manson
Community Novice

Ditto to all above.

This is a basic and necessary component to handle issues around mandatory student travel and a range of accommodation and disability issues. Every other LMS/CMS I have ever used had this baked in from day one.

nfisher
Community Participant

Please do not limit this awesome idea to K12! We are in need of this also in Higher Ed. We have nursing courses that has a mix of first, second and third year students in the program. We have divided the students into sections to keep first years from seeing advanced material. We are now discovering that if we could build entire modules and only assign it to one section, it would make life very easy.  Great idea!

Nancy_Webb_CCSF
Community Champion

Yup instructors need the ability to be flexible for certain students.  Travel, accommodations for students with legitimate military, disability or health reasons. I remember one student who was going to give birth. Teachers do not wish to allow for just any reason, but there are definitely situations where one wants/needs to be understanding without changing things for the entire class.  Prerequisites and Requirements are wonderful and powerful, but need this extra flexibility of exceptions. 

I just went through the steps of creating a prerequisite module with a practice quiz which needs an access code, but there are many steps and settings in making this work right. It requires adding and removing of a prerequisite at the right times, and then dealing with importing this modified content to the next semester. Very very complicated and easy to mess up.

jrvarnes
Community Member

I agree! Even just an option to have a list of OR prerequisites for these students.

For example a prerequisite for Module 2 could be that EITHER Module 1 was completed, OR it opens on XX date (whichever is first).

johnsonmatt
Community Explorer

I would like to add my scenario and why this feature would be helpful. I have a student informational course that I intend to keep even as students graduate. I often implement changes to the incoming freshman. It would be nice to reduce the clutter for my other students as the information does not pertain to them.

GideonWilliams
Community Coach
Community Coach
Author

UPDATE: December

Was at a recent meeting of the Dutch Users Group who had strongly recommended this idea along with two others. The feedback we received was that it was currently not going to happen and the idea seemed to be only addressing a small group of people ie Netherlands. I argued against this citing the diverse range of users who have contributed and voted.

There we have it...