[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.

[IEML11]

It is now 6 years since the idea emerged, but nothing seemed to have happened or did I miss anything?

[DeletedUser]

This is a feature that is still highly needed. As an instructional specialist who is currently trying to support differentiation within the Canvas platform, this is becoming a logistical nightmare to navigate. We can differentiate assignments, discussions, and quizzes with relative ease due to the assign to option, but everyone has access to the modules, pages, links, files, etc. since there is no way to add permissions or visibility to specific sections of students for those items. As someone in the US who is required to have our special education students inside of our general education student's Canvas classes, we are finding this to be a massive issue. How can we modify and differentiate for students effectively without this setting in place? It also disheartens me to know that this was brought to the attention of Instructure in 2016 and yet there has still not been any movement or progress in creating this item feature. 

[mads2]

Great idea. Please implement that 🙂

[IEML11]

...another year has passed, and still nothing has happened. I can set different deadlines for sections, and prevent other sections from seeing messages. However, everything else is shared. We use a single course for a specific module. While the course is set up as new every term, it is used for all classes taking the specific course at any one time. It would be really great if you could "personalise" the overall similar course for sections.

...still waiting.

[ddemiray]

I support this idea! Many instructors including myself need to accommodate our students in various circumstances and this function would our lives a lot easier. 

[TarynHumphries]

Why on earth would you allow me to cross-list sections under one course, but then tie my hands in how I can interact with individual sections?!?! I appreciate that I can send an announcement to a section at a time or individualize due dates for different sections, but I need that capability throughout the course. I need to be able to publish a page to a section at a time or assign a To Do on a page to individual sections. Ultimately, if I am supposed to be able to work with individual sections within a course, I need the whole course to give me that option. PLEASE consider fixing this.

[CorleyHumphrey]

I teach all 10th grade at my school and having pages publish all at the same time causes so much confusion for my students. Having the choice to publish pages at a time and for specific sections would be very beneficial. Hopefully this is considered and changed soon!

[TracyHarelson]

Problem statement:

As a teacher, I need to be able to remove the course sequence prerequisite for one or more students in my section, so that they may complete their assignments in any order. This functionality would provide a way to disengage prerequisites/sequence control for the user (typically for IEP) .

Proposed solution:

In our legacy LMS, we have the following functionality: - Provide an on/off toggle switch on the People page - Toggle switch should disengage any prerequisites for assignments or context modules within a course - Switch should be “on” as default

User role(s):

instructor,student

@KristinL I have no way to respond to your inquiry. But This is similar to Unlocking Modules for individual students and can be combined.