How to allow students to move on while waiting on module requirements

[eric_orton]

I have a course with a structure like the following inside of a module (which represents a unit):

• Instruction pages A, B, and C
• Practice Quiz 1
• Rough draft assignment
• Rough draft review assignment (no submission -- this item provides instructions on how to schedule and participate in a live, online rough draft review and also provides a place for the instructor to enter points indicating that the student participated in the review)
• Final draft assignment
• Instruction pages D and E
• Practice Quiz 2
• Another assignment

I want to prevent students from seeing the rough draft review assignment before submitting their rough draft, and from being able to submit their final draft before participating in the rough draft review. Therefore, I have these three things set up as module requirements with the stipulation that they must be completed in order. The other items in the module have not been designated as requirements because I would like students to be able, while waiting for their scheduled review appointment and/or for the teacher to enter the participation points, to move on to pages D and E, practice quiz 2, and the next assignment. There is really no need for them to wait until submitting their final draft of the first assignment.

I thought this would work, but it doesn't. Students are not allowed to move on in the module until their final draft is turned in, which means potentially several days of not being able to progress in the course while waiting for their appointment time.

Because each module should represent a unit, I'd rather not break this into multiple modules. Short of doing this, though, is there any other way to achieve what I want?

[kona]

 @eric_orton , I did some testing and it appears that if you put Instruction pages D and E, Practice Quiz 2, and Another assignment BEFORE the rough draft assignment, rough draft review assignment, and final draft assignment then the settings you are trying to use should work.

So this would be the order of the content in your Module:

• Instruction pages A, B, and C
• Practice Quiz 1
• Instruction pages D and E
• Practice Quiz 2
• Another assignment
• Rough draft assignment
• Rough draft review assignment (no submission -- this item provides instructions on how to schedule and participate in a live, online rough draft review and also provides a place for the instructor to enter points indicating that the student participated in the review)
• Final draft assignment

Using this order and the settings you indicated the students would only be able to do the rough draft and final draft assignments in order, but would be able to work on the rest of the module content in any order.

Does this help?

[eric_orton]

True. However, I'd really like to introduce the rough draft where it is currently, because I want them working on it at that point, then moving on to the other content after submitting it and while waiting for their live review to occur. I suppose I could move the final draft assignment to be last and split the rough draft review assignment into two items -- a content page for the scheduling instructions/link (which would be unlocked along with D, E, etc. after submitting the rough draft) and a "no submission" assignment for the instructor to put in participation points, located right before the final draft, which would unlock this final draft assignment. It is this last part that bugs me the most, because I don't like the idea of an assignment with no student-facing instructions or content other than "This is a place for your instructor to put your participation points." However, this may be the best I've got. Unless someone else sees a different possibility?

[kona]

 @eric_orton ‌, so I actually did have another idea, but it's more complicated than my first idea so I thought I'd lead with the easier idea to see if it would work for you or not. But... since you asked... I think the solution is mastery paths! 🙂

Using Mastery Path's you'd have it set-up so that the initial assignment in the path is the Rough draft assignment, which would then allow the student to access the Rough draft review assignment, which would then need to be completed before the student could access the Final Draft. Here's how it would work...

Step 1: Set up all of the assignments, pages, content in your Module in the exact order that you want it. When you do this set your Rough Draft Review and Final Draft to be "Assigned to" Mastery Paths.

Step 2: Go to the Rough Draft and using Mastery Path's create a path to the Rough Draft Review; each path would go to the review - How do I use MasteryPaths in course modules? - and would look similar to the screen shot I've got below. Ignore the MP - 2nd layer) part of the name. I did this for me so I'd remember which assignments I was using in my sandbox.

Step 3: Go to the Rough Draft Review and do the same thing as Step 2, but for the Final Draft.

You're now done setting this up and here is how it would look.

Here is how it would look to students; see image below. Notice that the Rough Draft Review and Final Draft don't show up. They won't show up until the student has done the Rough Draft (once graded will open the Rough Draft Review) and then the Rough Draft Review (once graded will open the Final Draft). Yet, the student will be able to work on any of the content that is currently visible, so Instructions Pages D and E and the Practice Quiz are both accessible to the student from the get-go.

I then tested how this set-up worked doing the following. Went in as a student and submitted something to the Rough Draft and then as the Instructor graded it. It didn't matter what grade I gave the student, the Rough Draft Review assignment then popped up in their Modules. Yet, I did have to give the Rough Draft a grade before the review showed up. Below is how it looked to the student after I graded the Rough Draft.

I then gave a grade for the Rough Draft Review. For this one you said they didn't submit anything, you just gave them a grade, and I did the same thing - the grade didn't matter, but I needed to provide some type of grade. Once I entered a grade for the Rough Draft Review, the student was then able to see the Final Draft assignment; see below.

So what do you think??? 🙂

[eric_orton]

I have been experimenting a bunch with mastery paths for differentiated instruction, but hadn't thought to use it here, where I want everyone to follow the same path, just being blocked from certain steps until others are completed. Thanks for pointing out that they might help.

I think I will try a combination of these approaches -- a module requirement for the rough draft to rough draft review transition, and then mastery paths for the rough draft review to final transition. The reason is that the mastery paths option requires the earlier item to be graded -- exactly what I want for review to final draft -- but I'd like students to be able to schedule their review as soon as they've submitted a rough draft, without having to wait for it to be graded. The teacher can the grade it before the scheduled review time, but the student can't schedule a time without already having something ready for said review.

I'll post here after trying this combination to let you know how it goes.

[kona]

Yes, please let us know how it goes!

[eric_orton]

So, I've implemented and tested the approach I described in my previous comment, as follows:

• Instruction Pages A, B, and C
• Practice Quiz 1
• Rough Draft Assignment (set as the only module requirement, with the "must complete in order" box checked)
• Rough Draft Review Assignment (no submission -- this item provides instructions on how to schedule and participate in a live, online rough draft review and also provides a place for the instructor to enter points indicating that the student participated in the review)
• Final Draft Assignment (set to be made available by mastery paths once any number of points is entered for the rough draft review assignment -- in other words, in all three paths)
• Instruction Pages D and E
• Practice Quiz 2
• Another Assignment

It seems to give the student access to all the various pieces in the way I want. Initially, the student sees Instruction Pages A, B, and C; Practice Quiz 1; and the Rough Draft Assignment available. The Rough Draft Review Assignment, Instruction Pages D and E, Practice Quiz 2, and Another Assignment are listed, but grayed out. The Final Draft Assignment is not listed at all; instead, a note right under the Rough Draft Assignment says "Locked until Rough Draft Assignment is graded." Submitting the Rough Draft Assignment enables the grayed-out pages, so students can access all these items while waiting for their review to occur. Once the instructor enters points on the Rough Draft Review Assignment, the "Locked until..." note disappears and the Final Draft Assignment is revealed.

My main concern now is that, until the points for the Rough Draft Review Assignment are entered, the Final Draft Assignment does not show up in the gradebook, making me think that the student is exempted from it as far as Canvas is concerned. If so, the student could potentially avoid having no final draft submitted count against them by not scheduling or participating in a rough draft review, if the teacher overlooks this and never enters 0 points. These classes do enroll a fair number, so such an oversight is possible. Is there a way, when using mastery paths, to set an assignment so that it is included in the final grade of all students, even those to whom it is never made available (giving them a 0 automatically), so that one cannot benefit from an oversight by the teacher in this way?

[kona]

Thank you for sharing your settings!

As to your question, "Is there a way, when using mastery paths, to set an assignment so that it is included in the final grade of all students, even those to whom it is never made available (giving them a 0 automatically), so that one cannot benefit from an oversight by the teacher in this way?" No, I don't believe so. The teacher would have to go in and set the default grade to zero (or just enter a zero) for the assignments in the path to make sure students received the correct grade. 

[Robbie_Grant]

 @eric_orton ,

We are giving the Instructional Designers area a little bit of love and just want to check in with you.  This will also bring this question new attention. 

Were you able to find an answer to your question? I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered because there hasn't been any more activity in a while so I assume that you have the information that you need. If you still have a question about this or if you have information that you would like to share with the community, by all means, please do come back and leave a comment.  Also, if this question has been answered by one of the previous replies, please feel free to mark that answer as correct.

Robbie