[Modules] Hiding and Viewing Modules for Individual Sections

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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93 Comments
kona
Community Champion

I totally agree with this being a pedagogical benefit! Which is why it initially caught my eye! Overall we need more ability to differentiate who has access to/can view different modules and I'd even go as far as individual Module content. I think by section is a step in the right direction, but would also like to see it by group and by individual!

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Need to keep pushing!

corey_jeffers
Community Novice

I agree,  @kona ​! Allowing Modules and Content pages to have similar "Assign to" characteristics as individual assignments would be really helpful. I realize it could make the structure of a course somewhat confusing, but I think those who intend to design this way have a good idea of their instructional goals and could seriously benefit from this flexibility. Great idea,  @GideonWilliams ​!

ronmarx
Community Contributor

Just because this is related to the larger Module Tiles idea ( ), and part of the general development & presentation framework many of us think should be a UI centerpiece of Canvas, I'm posting this cross-referenced comment here, and I'm also voting for this segment of what I hope all of us acknowledge is a small part of a bigger idea.

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Thanks Ron. The personalisation of a platform is what takes the institutional VLE to an 'individual' PLE. Having worked with learning platforms for the last 12+yrs, the more we can do to support our learners on a personal basis then the more engaged they will be with the activities and tasks. Features like this, conditional activities and sub modules all play a key role. For our school this is a critical development.

lydia
Community Novice

Another HE use... we often have graduate students taking upper level undergraduate courses for various reasons. They need to complete more content and this would be a great way to make that happen.

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Thanks for commenting Lydia. Pleasing to see such interest across the board and so many people seeing the pedagogical importance of allowing personalised/differentiated approaches

rileyke
Community Novice

I was initially searching for this feature as a part of a PD course I am designing for K-5 teachers on how to implement Canvas in their classrooms. I teach many different PD courses, and may or may not want each course to see the same modules. It would be awesome if I could keep adding sections to my single PD course and publish/unpublish (hide/show, what have you) each module for each section.

This would also be very beneficial to my K-5 art, music, and PE teachers who have multiple sections per grade level. Each section may be working on different content at a different time. Teachers may want to release a module to their Monday class before their Tuesday class, for instance.

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Agree with all that you say and hope that this idea develops more. Can only be good for teaching and learning if we are sharing resources in one course but why not allow more flexibility for teachers and make things easier for students AT THE SAME TIME!!

repler
Community Novice

I completely agree!  I was just coming in to make this suggestion myself.  We are a 100% online model and we place honors and standard students in the same course, but differentiate the curriculum slightly for honors students.  I'd like to have a module only be available to students in the honors sections.  We also allow students to only take segment 1 or segment 2 of the course and we place them in a section accordingly.  Currently, I don't have a way of differentiating what segment of students can view what without going into each individual assignment.  This feature would be a life saver!