[samigo-team] Samigo-Schedule integration--due date to display by default?

Fri Aug 12 10:55:25 PDT 2011

One of the challenges that I ran into with my online class a couple of
years ago was the fact that students forgot where to look to find out when
a test or quiz was scheduled to open. Our legacy tool, like T&Q does not
show the title or link until the test is actually available, which can be
a problem in some situations.  So, I actually like the idea of being able
to add the Available Date to the calendar (as long is it actually shows up
immediately). That wouldn't necessarily preclude the option of posting an
announcement at the time the assessment actually does open (which is how
the feature is handled in A2), but having the info in the calendar
beforehand could be very useful to students, especially in cases where the
testing window is relatively brief.

In the longer term, it would be nice to have an option to display title
and schedule info to students for tests that open in the future in T&Q
itself.  

==========================

Lynn Ward, Principal Systems Analyst, Academic and Faculty Services
University Information Technology Services <http://uits.iu.edu/>
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Information Technology and Communications Complex (IT 225D)
535 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317-278-5713  E-mail: leward at iupui.edu

On 8/12/11 1:28 PM, "Henry, Roger James" <rjhenry at indiana.edu> wrote:

Hi all,

I'm wondering if we need to offer the option for the Available Date to
show in the schedule/calendar. I would think not, and I would recommend
changing the design.

Looking at Assignments as a template (and thus to maintain consistency
across the tools): it allows the option of pushing the Open Date
(analogous to the 'Available date' in Samigo) to *Announcements*, not the
calendar. This makes better sense to me. If the thing isn't actually *due*
we should not clutter the calendar, but it's good for an announcement to
be posted when the assessment becomes available.

I would agree that (with the Available Date pushing to Announcements and
Due Date pushing to Schedule/Calendar) it's a good option to have these
settings *checked* by default.

So, my design recommendation, based upon this discussion, would be:
a) Build the option for the Available Date to be pushed as an announcement
- when this date arrives, an announcement goes to the site members, as it
does with the Assignments tool.
b) Keep the option for the Due date to be pushed to the Schedule/Calendar.
c) Drop the option to post the retract date to the Schedule/Calendar.

Best,
Roger
===============================================
Roger J. Henry
Instructional Technologies Consultant
Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education /
University Information Technology Services
Indiana University Bloomington
Phone (812) 856-2617
===============================================

-----Original Message-----
From: samigo-team-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
[mailto:samigo-team-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Keli
Sato Amann
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 6:04 PM
To: Ward, Lynn E.
Cc: samigo-team at collab.sakaiproject.org
Subject: Re: [samigo-team] Samigo-Schedule integration--due date to
display by default?

Hi Lynn,
Re 2, yeah, which is why I wouldn't want retract date display option
checked by default, but Steve, the original requestor asked for it. I'll
ask Steve more about why he felt it was important--I know it's not even an
option in Assignments.
Re 3, I have a question out to Bryan @Longsight about that (along with
about a dozen other questions I won't bring up on this thread). I asked if
the student had their schedule tool on, but the course didn't, would the
student see it in My Workspace? If so, I think it may still be a good idea
to have the option there.

Keli
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn E. Ward" <leward at iupui.edu>
To: "Keli Amann" <kamann at stanford.edu>, samigo-team at collab.sakaiproject.org
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 1:01:36 PM
Subject: Re: Samigo-Schedule integration--due date to display by default?

A few comments/questions:

1. I agree with Keli that checked is probably a better default than
unchecked for the Available and Due dates, even though it doesn't follow
the pattern of the Assignments tool.

2. The Retract Date is not visible to the student within Tests & Quizzes
tool itself.  Seems a little odd to expose it to students in the Calendar
by default if we don't also show the date in the tool UI.  Also, the
Retract date is used for things other than scheduling test delivery (I.e.,
to rescind a published assessment).  So, perhaps the option o add the
Retract Date should start out unchecked or be omitted entirely.

3. Will these options display if the Calendar/Schedule tool has not been
added to the menubar of the site?  In Assignments and Assignments 2, I
believe they only show up if Calendar/Schedule is active, and I hiding the
options when makes sense when the Calendar is also hidden.

==========================

Lynn Ward, Principal Systems Analyst, Academic and Faculty Services
University Information Technology Services <http://uits.iu.edu/> Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis Information Technology and
Communications Complex (IT 225D)
535 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317-278-5713  E-mail: leward at iupui.edu

On 8/11/11 2:37 PM, "Keli Sato Amann" <kamann at stanford.edu> wrote:

Hello to the new community Samigo team,
I'm reviewing Longsight's welcome contribution of a schedule integration
(https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAM-1121). In short, the settings
for available, due, and retract dates will have checkboxes that allow
these dates to appear in the Schedule.

I'm making suggestions to the developer in the hopes that they might be
implemented before 2.9. My question to you all is whether the due date
checkbox should be checked by default. It seems that if one were to bother
to set a due date for a quiz or test, that this would naturally be
something one would want on the calendar now that the integration is
available, so why not save them the click? I can't think of even an edge
case as to why this shouldn't be displayed (and if there were an edge
case, they could certainly uncheck it).

The only thing that gives me pause is that Assignments does require an
active click on a checkbox to add an assignment to the calendar. However,
I think that because Assignments also includes everyday readings, and you
might not want to clutter the Calendar with things like that, just major
graded assignments that have to be turned in.

The answer is pretty clear to me but since we have this list now, what do
people think? Am I overlooking something, either from a user perspective
or a performance perspective, that would lead us to require user to
opt-in, rather than opt-out? Please respond by Monday.

Thanks,
Keli Amann
User Experience Specialist
Academic Computing Services, Stanford University

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