Digest Updates

ETUDES notification digest for Jan 15, 2007

1. New Feature: Assignments/Upload All Design Specs

2. New Feature: Model Answer for Assignments

1. New Feature: Assignments/Upload All Design Specs

From: "Vivie Sinou" Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:08:12 -0800To: Subject: New Feature: Assignments/Upload All Design Specs

Colleagues:

This is directed particularly to those of you who require students to submit

assignments as attachments.

Currently, instructors can use the "Download All" function to download a zip

file of folders containing student inline AND attachment submissions. The

zip file contains one folder of submission content per student. This is a

valuable feature that instructors like, as it allows them to grade off-line.

Instructors often add comments to the attached documents and upload them to

the student's submission as part of the grading process. For large classes,

it is tedious to have to visit each student's submission and upload the

document(s) - one at a time.

The University of Michigan is working on a new feature for the June release:

Upload All.

The "Upload All" function will give instructors a way to upload multiple

files into the appropriate student's submission. The "Upload All" function

will accept a zip file, and unpack it into the submission hierarchy putting

files back into the submissions from which they originated, including

grader's comments.

This functionality will be in place in the June 2007 release. If you are

interested in reviewing the design specifications and expected behavior of

this upcoming functionality, please review the attached document.

Comments and feedback are welcome! I've added a topic in the Users Group >>

Assignments forum.

Best,

Vivie

--

Vivie Sinou

Dean, Learning Technology

ETUDES Consortium Project

Foothill College

[see attachment: "assignments2.4-upload-all-design.doc", size: 154112 bytes]

Attachments:

assignments2.4-upload-all-design.doc

http://etudes-ng.fhda.edu/access/content/attachment/3e26dc6c-e9e9-4e41-0055-696edf83b35f/assignments2.4-upload-all-design.doc

2. New Feature: Model Answer for Assignments

From: "Vivie Sinou" Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:32:33 -0800To: Subject: New Feature: Model Answer for Assignments

Apologies for all the traffic, but it's planning time for future releases,

and as always, we want your input.

The feature described here is relevant to those of you who wish to include

"Model Answers" (or model solutions) to your assignments, to be revealed

AFTER you have graded and returned the submissions to your students. Please

see attached image for a proposed design that I am submitting to U of

Michigan for "Model Answers" to assignments. I am trying to keep this simple

- both for usability and implementation.

I had promised to U of Michigan to give them the design specs for this

feature (I had shared it with them a while back when several of you

requested it. U of Mich would like to see if it's feasible to add in the

June release.

I have posted this information in the Users Group Assignments forum, as

well, so please feel free to post your comments and feedback there. Thank

you in advance.

Best,

Vivie

Model Answer for Assignments

Summary of design specifications for model answers in assignments:

• Instructors should be able to add (optionally) a model answer in a

text box or as an attachment.

• Since this is optional and not all instructors use it, it should not

clutter the assignment screen. I am proposing an 'expand' icon (see

triangle) to expand the "add a model answer" section.

• Instructors can check the box to ensure that the model answer is

available to students. This will show the model answer to student(s), only

after the assignment has been graded and released.

• Instructors could choose to use the Release Grades link/option to

return the grade submissions (with solutions, if included) all at once, and

save submissions as drafts while grading, if they don't want to release the

model answers to some students earlier than others, by returning as they

grade.

• Students will see the model answer, if provided, on the same

'Assignment - returned' page where they currently see instructor comments,

their grade/points, and the assignment they submitted itself.

The implementation of this may be more complex than it appears at first

glance. A number of things need to be taken into consideration and business

rules defined, such as adding the ability to revise solutions, removing and

adding attachment solutions after the fact, checking the release model

answer box later in the process, etc. Furthermore, this feature touches on

other tools, such as 'import from site' which would also need to be revised

as well, so that your solutions transfer to future sites when you import

your assignments from term to term.

The goal here is to have a practical way for instructors to share model

answers with students without having to attach/write a solution to every

single student when you grade their work, but rather, do it only once when

you create the assignment, and check the box to release the model answer to

students after submissions are graded.

U of Michigan has a full plate of user requirements for the 2.4 June

release, but perhaps if we kept this simple, it will make it in. Otherwise,

I trust that they'll be able to integrate it in the 2.5 December 2007

release.

[see attachment: "model_answer_design.gif", size: 18258 bytes]

Attachments:

model_answer_design.gif

http://etudes-ng.fhda.edu/access/content/attachment/0ec793d8-9f29-4142-80d0-d792831e1a15/model_answer_design.gif

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