Modules within Modules

(73)
As we move toward Personalized Learning we are beginning to feel boxed in by the linear design of Course Modules.  Many teachers would like the Course Modules to look more like the Course listing in the new UI (Tiles rather than lists) AND have the functionality to have Modules within Modules.  This would allow for MANY more options for student Voice, Choice and Pacing options!
 
Comments from Instructure
 
199 Comments
Eric70
Community Member

Dan,

Your extension provides the kind of functionality that I desire.

Thank you for creating it and passing it along!

It is going to solve a lot of navigation problems.

lglen2
Community Participant

All hail @dan_baeckstrom

 

Thank you so much! I wish I were so talented. It didn't even occur to me to make something myself. 

Of course we shouldn't have to, but that's a different story.

Do students have to employ the extension? Does it work outside Chrome?

Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@lglen2 

Yes students have to employ the extension.  

There is another forum thread with this in it and I asked the same thing over there.

 

lglen2
Community Participant

Well it's still a vast improvement.

Many, many thanks.

dan_baeckstrom
Community Explorer

@lglen2@Eric70 et al

Thanks for kind words. This extension needs to be installed individually on each browser for which this feature is desired.

I have also made a Firefox add-on version that will shortly be available. Other browsers will not be supported, at least not soon.

Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@dan_baeckstrom 

Dan -

I just noticed a possible bug with your extension.  It could be me, so I wanted to post it here to see if it is a bug or if you can tell me what I am doing wrong.

if a module is completely compacted (just the module title), then when I click on the green arrows to expand all, nothing happens.  I have to click on the little arrow on the module title name to expand it out.  Once it has been expanded, I can use the red triangles to collapse it all - which leaves the headers visible and then the green arrow to re-expand it.

Likewise, if there are no submodule areas (names of items with the little arrow next to them), then the red triangles for collapse does not work on the top level module.  This issue is less of a problem than the expansion of a completely collapsed module.

Or, of course that could be the functionality that you designed.  Thanks again for a great product.

dan_baeckstrom
Community Explorer

@Ron_Bowman :

Thank you very much for the feedback – all such observations are invaluable!

I had not given much thought to the issue you mention. To me, it is not a big deal if the extension's buttons are inactive on a fully hidden module. However, it can obviously be perceived as confusing, so I have now arranged for the buttons to go away if the module is completely compacted, and reappear once the module is revealed again. This functionality will be included in the next version, along with a separate "expand all content" button for the entire page, which was requested by @Steven_S in another thread.

Some issues that remain are:

- the item arrows do not re-adjust themselves if you change the positions or indentations of module items, so one has to reload the page to have the arrows arranged properly again after editing. This is obviously only an issue for teachers.

- as of now, only Canvas platforms hosted on *.instructure.com/* domains are compatible with the extension (along with my own University's canvas.gu.se). I will however arrange for inclusion of other domains upon requests sent to cmc.extension@gmail.com

dan_baeckstrom
Community Explorer

@lglen2 

There is now also a Firefox add-on version of the Canvas Modules Compactor available at this location.

Steven_S
Community Champion

@dan_baeckstrom   The next related idea I can think of for you is collapsing (and of course expanding) any list of fully collapsed modules.  My courses tend to have 18-30 modules but it is divided into thirds.  Once students finish the exam at the end of the first unit, they no longer need to reference the modules from the first third of the course.  The same applies to the second third after they take the second exam.  I would love to be able to set the unit introductions as title modules (maybe by entering a specific character at the beginning of the module title) so that students could expand and collapse the entire unit.  Alternatively, it would be a big improvement over the current view to give students a button that would collapse the list(s) of modules they have already individually collapsed.

dan_baeckstrom
Community Explorer

@Steven_S Your second idea sounds more readily feasible from an extension viewpoint – consecutive fully collapsed modules can of course be rolled into one by some method. Your first idea would require some agreed-upon tag that signals which modules belong together in a "superstructure". That is not so easy (although it could be done), as the platform does not provide any tools for that – something corresponding to the indentation levels, which constitute the basis for the extension's compaction of module items, would be needed. You have to recall that an extension can't change the server content, only the way it is presented locally on the computer where it is installed.

Steven_S
Community Champion

@dan_baeckstrom  for this history professor it is a fine line between "recalling" how app extensions work and learning to use them.  Thanks for the tip!  I did assume for the first idea that you would have to designate a character, and perhaps display a note about it in instructor view.  * would work, for example, because it would resemble a bulleted list in the module titles, and could possibly be tiered by *, **, *** 

The first idea gives instructors more control to organize where the collapse options are included, and then students would not need all sub-modules to be collapsed before collapsing them into the top module. 

But the second idea of a button to collapse all already collapsed modules (and then expand them) wouldn't need users to agree on a symbol to use, and so it would be usable by students even in courses where the instructor did not set up the modules specifically to work with the app extension.

Either way would be a nice next step in the module improvements 🙂

dan_baeckstrom
Community Explorer

@Steven_S I have been experimenting with the ideas you brought up. This is what I've come up with so far. Does it look like what you had in mind? The video is sharper if you adjust quality to 720p60 (under the gear wheel).

NOTE: this is not yet part of the published extension.

 

pmercier
Community Participant

No sound?

dan_baeckstrom
Community Explorer

@pmercier No sound. Good old-fashioned silent movie, speaks for itself 🙂

Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@dan_baeckstrom 

That is looking very interesting.  You must be having a lot of fun playing around with the ideas.  I have to watch myself with stuff like that - I work on it and my other work gets ignored.

Thanks again for your work.

pmercier
Community Participant

@dan  Sure would be nice to have this in Canvas!!

Steven_S
Community Champion

@dan_baeckstrom  Yes! That was exactly what I meant by collapsing the lists of already collapsed modules.  This would make the modules page much more user friendly.  I especially like that you thought to include a way to open any specific module in the group without reopening the entire group.  That is very thorough.

aboom
Community Participant

It would be very helpful if I could put Modules into groups.  They don't have to have any requirements or prerequisites like the modules themselves.  What I mean is I have each lesson as their own module because I need them to work through the material in that lesson in a specific order, but students can jump around and do lessons out of order if they wish.  However, I have lessons that are in different units and even different terms in the same course and it would be great to group those modules by unit and/or term.

 

Another possible work around is to allow submodules that would let me set requirements for a subset of assignments in the module.

dan_baeckstrom
Community Explorer

The Canvas Modules Compactor extension, which implements a version of the feature suggested by the OP, is now updated to version 0.5. This version supports grouping of modules.

If you wish to learn more about the new features, watch the new demo video from here.

If you are new to the extension, watch the video from the start.

The extension can be installed from Chrome Web Store.

The Firefox version will also be updated soon.

TashaSmith
Community Member

Has this idea gotten anywhere in the last 5 years? We are looking for modules within modules or sub-modules. 

With remote learning, we have gone to creating a Week at a Glance module. We'd like to organize them by months to keep the module neat and organized in case we have to go back to this next year. 

We are looking for this feature!