Amended after comments and questions from @James .
TL;DR
Instructors should be able to add a module progress bar
Amendment: Instructors should be able to add a module progress bar that includes the module title.
Why it's needed
Students benefit from web pages that are shorter rather than longer, and as a consequence Modules can have many links within. In one of my courses there are anywhere from 8 to 20 items in each of 12 modules. That's a lot of clicking Next and Previous for my students! Each begins with an overview and ends with a summary, but there is no progress report within each module unless I add one on each page. It would be great if one could be there automatically so when I reorder items or add or remove things the progress bar is updated without me needing to make edits there.
Amendment: While students are navigating through a module, the title of the module does not appear on the page with the exception of external links. For those module items it appears in the breadcrumbs, but the breadcrumbs for other module item include the name of the tool instead (Pages, Discussions, Quizzes, etc.). Since each module has an anchor link on the Modules page, it would also be great if the title of the module, hyperlinked to that module's anchor on the Modules page, appeared as part of the progress bar.
How it will work
Instructors will have the option to add an automatically generated progress bar at the bottom of each page that is part of a module, between the Previous and Next buttons. The option for a progress bar will be module by module, and it will appear on every published item within that module. (That's a bonus way to communicate the item's published status to instructors!)
Amendment: The progress bar will include the title of the module hyperlinked to the module's anchor on the Modules page.
The progress bar will show the count of published items within the module and the number of the current item (e.g., 1 out of 12, 2 out of 12, etc.). It might look like the heart rate tracker on my favorite elliptical trainer at my gym:
I propose numbers instead of words, but it might be neat if it ended with "PEAK LEARNING." :smileycool:
How this benefits students
Students benefit from knowing where they are within a module. This helps them plan their time on task, especially for those modules that are structured consistently. It is good for them to know how many times they have to select that Next link before they achieve peak learning.
Amendment: And as awesome as our module titles are, our students might forget which module they are in. Including the module title as part of the progress tracker will help them stay aware of their surroundings.
Added to Theme
Increase student visibility into course expectations Theme Status: Identified
Streamline the experience and reduce the cognitive load of modules Theme Status: Identified
