Modules within Modules

[kristi_levy]

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

Please refer to our comment from the product team. 

[ronmarx]

Yeah, it's me again.

If this issue didn't keep arising, I'd just shut up.

Modules within modules  (or nestable, discrete modules, as I've also referred to them) are absolutely necessary components in designing a course framework. Text headers are just cosmetic. Please, Instructure  @tiisupport ‌, push this from Product Radar into Under Development!!!

As always,

i_Ron

[molly_duggan]

@

 @tiisupport 

 @ronmarx ‌

YES!   PLEASE!  submodules within modules!

[braden_boss]

Man. This would be an amazing feature, especially if it included this:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/4361-prerequisites-or-requirements-for-individual-items-in-mod... 

[debra_russell]

Hi Molly. We have another home page within our modules to link to different parts of the module.

[molly_duggan]

 @debra_russell ‌, Do you then hide the rest of the module to keep it clean, requiring students to return to the module home page to access the module components?

thanks!

[debra_russell]

Hi Molly, we don't allow the students to access the Modules page by turning off Modules in their navigation.

I create a graphic home page within the module and use graphic buttons to link to various parts of the module. If there are parts of the module we don't want students to access yet we just publish them when we are ready.

[debra_russell]

Here is an example.

The buttons instead could say GROUP 1 and GROUP 2.

These could link to a number of linked module pages that only that group has been assigned. 

[molly_duggan]

 @debra_russell ‌

I am borrowing this for summer courses... Thank you!

[GideonWilliams]

This is a very nice touch. Would be even better if you had more control over the modules so that the link from each buttons is only directed to the actual Module rather than a location within the existing list (and showing all the other modules).

[debra_russell]

Hi Gideon I don't quite understand what you are saying there. Can you explain it a little further please.

[GideonWilliams]

Sorry!

When you make a link to a Module from the Links feature on the right of the page:

The link takes you "sort of" to the module but you also see all the other modules above and below this.

What would be great is if this Module appeared in isolation from the rest (or at least with the other Module settings collapsed). There is an idea about this with lots of votes - https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1278-modules-display-as-collapsed-by-default

[debra_russell]

Hi Gideon, I think I may have confused you with a screen shot of the Modules page. Our students don't see the Modules page at all. Modules is hidden in their navigation menu. We use the banner as a link on the Course Homepage to this Module Homepage. The lesson buttons links directly to each lesson (mostly created as an assignment page) within the module.

[rebecca_goldswo]

Just adding to this idea - I'd had an idea for making the text headers linkable in modules, but this "Modules within  modules" idea looks that it will work really well for my needs. What I'd also like to add is that it would be great if the submodules could be linked to from within the page edit mode in a dropdown structure such as this:

 

Hope this idea gets up! It's got a significant amount of support and many ways in which it might be used.

[debra_russell]

Just following up on that Rebecca, where do you see each of the drop down links linking to? Would it be the Home page within each module?

[rebecca_goldswo]

Hi Debra – I think this will depend on how the design of the modules within a modules interface looks like. If it remains similar to how the modules interface looks now (I like  @GideonWilliams ' mention above of how a redesign of this could look, at the very least collapsing the other non-linked to modules), but with the addition of a submodule layer, the link to the submodule from the page edit mode could link to that header in the modules list view, a little bit like an anchor. This might be helpful in the instances where links are made to submodules but the students haven't completed the requirements of the module yet, thus avoiding the unauthorised access page. In the institution I work, staff either hide the modules navigation or make use of it, so it would be good to have something that allows links to the modules navigation page, however that might look in the future. 

[ronmarx]

Great descriptive screen shots with your explanation. Thanks!

[kerri]

From a vocational education perspective this would be amazing to have. We deliver full courses that consist of units of competency (for example, there might be 12 units within a course). Each unit of competency has a number of elements within them (so sub-modules really). The ability to be able to break a module down even further into 'sub modules' (or modules within modules) would allow much more flexibility for instructional designers within vocational education in Australia.

[nhazelton]

Many of the courses I run have two parallel streams. One is the lecture component, and the other is the laboratory component. Sometimes there is a direct connection, between a specific lecture module and a specific lab, while in others there may be several lecture modules that connect to several labs. This is extremely common in engineering and scientific coursework.

I tend to have the two reasonably separate. Working with Blackboard for several years, it was simple to create a top-level item that covered each, and to arrange the equivalent of modules for each part of the course. This isn't so much a modules-within-modules issues (although that would be a significant improvement), but the ability to have two separate lines of modules that only connect by very targeted hyperlinks.

At present, it seems Canvas has a single and very linear arrangement for modules. If we consider the different designs of databases, this is a simple 'flat file' model, or perhaps a 'file on paper tape' model. If we had 'modules-within-modules,' a more hierarchical model could be implemented. If we had the ability to have more than one stream, we could model real courses better (I have had F2F courses with more than one track going through them, each distinct but running simultaneously, e.g., mixing statics, technical drawing theory, technical drawing practice, and elective components). Hyperlinks then allow something closer to a network model of a database, where you can track through material as needed. This would be closer to support for a JIT learning model, as used in some PBL models.

Being fairly new to Canvas (but not LMS), I am feeling its constraints, and this linear model at the fundamental level is a serious negative for me. It's the inflexibility that is the problem: the LMS assumes a single, very linear, approach to running a course. If I want to build something that has these capabilities, and have to create umpteen linked special pages to do it, i.e., do a lot of work to overcome the system, rather than have the system facilitate what I want to do, then I might as well sit down with Dreamweaver or a nice Joomla! template or an AJAX website creator and build it from scratch. Or buy a competing LMS.

[Renee_Carney]

The Radar‌ idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

[dspiel]

This would be awesome especially now that you can have different paths for students to take when completing a task now.  It would be nice tie it into the new feature that this new module can open and close based on the path being taken to complete the work.