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We have instructors already asking to be able to Copy a Quiz, since they are setting up a series of quizzes that have almost all the same settings. would be a big time-saver! Has this been prioritized at all?
I suggest the typical task is to copy activity settings, but not content - i.e. you need to copy only settings for the quiz, not the quiz itself (i.e. using questions).
I also strongly support this request, but even more useful was a linking settings from one activity to another (execept name, descriptions and time): sometimes you need to change settings in 10 alike quizzes. Now that groupings allow us to target resources and activites to specific groups, mulitple copies (targeted to different groups) will be even more useful!
I think the "save as a new resource" button (like in quizzes) would be good. but... I would prefer an icon simular to the move icon in editing mode. You would just drag and drop using the icon with the resulting resource being suffixed with copy1 etc.. This is a consistent request every year (together with ZIP downloading of submissions). I think that it ought to receive major priority with an upwards arrow since it's a major enhancement to functionality.
This is much much needed, definitely, long overdue function for any LMS. I also like the idea of being able to apply a setting change to all activities of a certain type - so, for example, if I want to change all web page resources to open in a new window I could do that all at once instead of editing each one. Could have an interface like the "backup" interface where you can check off content and then "apply setting" or "copy/duplicate" etc. etc..
This function (cloning an activity) is now implemented for 1.9 with the release of the Project Course Format and Sharing Cart. The Project format provides section level backup and import. The Sharing Cart is a block that follows a teacher wherever she/he is in a site. The Sharing Cart can pick up any individual activity or resource, place it in a personal library or "cart", and insert the activity into any other location in other courses. See discussion here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=87044
Actually, we are beginning to touch core and go beyond our capabilities, so I hope this can evolve into a standard feature of Moodle 2.0. Cheers, Don @Don
I read through the discussion thread you refer to and it seems as though the Sharing Cart only works with the Project Course Format. As much as I think both of the projects are excellent the functionality that I'm looking for is much simpler and should be possible to implement for standard course types. Simple duplication of an Activity should not be that difficult to implement – there used to be a hack workaround whereby one could rename 'move' item to 'copy' in the address bar, but that has now been closed off. +1. We've just had a request from a faculty member for exactly this sort of thing.
This is something so rudimentary and yet something that as a Moodle trainer I've been gunned down in flames about in the past - is there some way of making this a bit more than a 'minor' priority?
@Mark
I agree that the Sharing Cart block needs to work for Topic and Weekly course formats as well. Then it will be extremely simple to add to a site. It is a matter of getting funds to make that happen. It would take about US$3000. It is possible that we will get that by early winter 2009, but actually I think this block has so much promise, it deserves to be included in core. You may want to promote that, or if you have resources available now, you may want to proceed with making it compatible. Tim - I think import is a bit cumbersome and I don't think folks think about import from the same course. I had done some work on this back in Moodle 1.6. I think what is wanted is a one-click solution. I'm not sure how many clicks import requires. But from a functionality perspective I think your question is a good one, import works just fine. So I think it would really be more of an improvement than a new feature. Peace - Anthony
The import feature can do many things, but we abandonned it for cloning quizzes for several reasons:
For these reasons, we are creating the sharing cart block, which will easily clone activities. I hope to pass this on to you in December so you can see if it handles these problems. At the moment we are trying to fix an issue with handling system categories of questions. Also we need to make it widely compatible with various course formats. @Tim – Unless I'm grossly mistaken, Import is designed to import course backups into an existing course. It's a real stretch to require teaching faculty to use this as the means of duplicating activities.
Surely 28 votes must propel this from a minor to a major issue? @Don – If your 'sharing cart block' operates with the standard Weekly and Topic course outlines it will indeed be useful. But more useful still would be a core component that has similar functionality. If User Interface is a priority for version 2.0 then this issue must surely be of importance to the core developers. I would envision a little icon next to the other edit icons that allows you to copy an activity. I agree that Import would work, but there are too many steps involved and it's not intuitive to use import to import into the same course. Generally that is used for importing into a different course.
Here is a screenshot of a beta version of the sharing cart block. The sharing cart block is on the right. A section of resources and activities is on the left (using the project course format). Notice the small cube-like icon with a small red arrow. That is a one-click cloning icon that can put the activity or resource into the sharing cart. Then as the teacher navigates around the site, the sharing cart always follows the teacher. By clicking on that same icon, the teacher can insert the item anywhere in any course she/he has access to.
@Mark – Actually you are describing the function of the Restore feature. The Import feature is different. It does not import course backups. Instead, it allows you pull individual activities or whole courses into your course, without any user data. It certainly can clone a single item, but as I explained, in a cumbersome manner with several other drawbacks. But first, try out "Import" and see if it meets your needs.
@Don – Thanks for the clarification of Import vs Restore.
I have just taken a look at your Sharing Cart screenshot and it is massively cool. I love the idea of being able to trundle the cart into any course you own and take items out of the cart. I will definitely try this out over the Christmas break. Through all the recent comments I ended up having to actually try out Tim's suggested alternative and found that in my version (Moodle 1.92 (build 20080711) the import function doesn't allow you to import from the existing course (not even as an Admin) – it simply doesn't list it on a search and doesn't list it under courses I've taught, if you happen to be logged in as something other than an admin.
@Bob, @Don,
I have just tried using the Import function with the normal Teacher role (version 1.9.2+) and I can confirm Bob's observation. Yes, you can import individual activities and so forth but from a different course. The source course is not listed. So I'm flummoxed as to how Import could possibly be used to duplicate activities. In older Moodle versions you could rt-click on an up/down arrow, select copy link location, paste it into the address bar of a new tab and and change the word 'copy' to 'duplicate'. Opening this would create a new activity which you could change settings, rename and relocate. So I'm not sure why this would be more difficult now. How many votes does it take to move a widely requested feature like this one with 28 votes from a minor to a major issue? One problem is that we do not know which files belong to each activity - we can not copy into different course,
second problem is that we are not adding new features into STABLE branches especially if there is a danger of regressions. I agree this would a nice to have feature I guess I'm suitably confused now... I'm certainly not looking for copying a resource or activity from course-to-course, just within the same course. I know I can link multiple course page links to the same file resource so not sure why that's a hindrance though I admit I may not understand your comment accurately, Petr. As far as STABLE branch, I think I'd be satisfied at this point if this feature were included in the ANY branch, being its been under constant discussion for as long as I've had Moodle installed (four years).
@Petr
I'm with Robert here. I don't think this is a "nice to have" feature. I think it's a basic core feature that has been requested since I've been using Moodle (1.3). Many teachers have assignments that they give every week or every day. Currently they have to create each one from scratch. Would you use a scheduler that didn't allow you to repeat an event every week/fortnight? Totally agree with Robert and Mark. I used export and import to copy one week's worth of files/activities, and then moved them down and edited them. I think it was faster than creating each one separately, but a copy feature is essential in course creation.
Would be nice to have a shortcut to activities such as forums, rather than always having to create a new forum for it to appear in a section. But that's another subject. I don't remember the source, but I thought I recently read about someone that had set up the ability to copy entire sections. Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of final exams, final papers, etc. for the semester and cannot recall who, when, where, or other useful particulars but this may be something worth searching on the forums (provided its not mentioned earlier in this tracker issue, which is possible considering my current state of mind). Peace - Anthony
Project Course Format: to copy entire sections
Sharing Cart: to copy individual activities/resources I just opened tracker requests on these two new features. Please go there to vote and watch. Anthony will set us up with CVS access within two weeks. Then you can download them and try. Sorry, both are needed together. We won't have the Sharing Cart compatible for Topic/Weekly course formats til January/February. Sharing Cart 1.9 version 2 just released. Now compatible with Topics and Weekly format, as well as Project format. Copy or clone individual activities easily. Teachers can move across site with their own "cart" of resources/activities.
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Sharing_Cart If by copying new activity you understand coping (with some editing) it's settings only (i.e. stuff that appears on add/update form), then consider voting for MDL-18093. It's relatively easy to write, but I need to convice moodle developers on it usefulness.
This really should be more than a minor issue. It is easy to share question banks between courses but it is nontrivial to share a test between sections of the same course and for that matter to share any module between different sections (courses). I have been playing with exporting question banks but that does not allow for all the other stuff - what questions are in a quiz/test, what the header information says, when it opens or closes, how it is graded, etc. It is quite reasonable to think that instructors may want to have the same or similar tests between courses. The backup and restore or the import from another course does not work as one might want because I have not found a way to limit it to just the contents of one topic or module or activity. Perhaps I'm just being dense but after working over 3 decades in IT, I can assure you that if it is possible it is certainly not intuitive.
Norman Norman - It is an issue that certainly has a number of votes. In part, I believe that it was going to be addressed with the work being done on Backup 2.0 (http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Backup_2.0
). One of the complaints that I have heard from folks is that the backup/restore process and thus the importing process requires too many clicks. I know that does not seem to address the who copying/duplicating an activity within a course. I forget what the perceived challenges of this were but I do believe that it could be useful. Peace - Anthony Anthony,
How many issues have more than 44 votes and 24 watchers, and yet are still minor priority? This feature has been needed and requested (by my faculty at least) since Moodle 1.3. In the past we worked around the problem by means of a kludge (editing the 'move' URL to duplicate) but this has been closed off (probably a security hole). To start with a simple activity duplicator would probably do the trick – one that merely makes an exact replicate / clone of an activity in situ. One then drags the copies to appropriate places on the Outline and modifies internal details according to need. Backup/Restore or Import does not address this issue and it confounds the backup process with activity replication which is really a totally separate process. Now that Don Hinkleman's Sharing Cart works with Topics and Weekly format I shall try this out but the question for me is whether it will be supported in future Moodle versions. The main problem here is that we do not know which file belongs to each activity, without this information it is not possible to implement any reliable solution for copy/pasting of activities between different courses - this is the reason why it was not implemented yet and will not be implemented in 1.9.x.
In 2.0dev we are finally working on a proper solution, it requires very many major changes in moodle code base. Thanks Petr, that's very helpful.
Speaking for myself the main issue is replicating activities within a single course which may be somewhat easier. But I do understand that this cannot happen in 1.9. Mark Mark - Just a quick answer to your question, the two top voted on issues (http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL?report=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.project%3Apopularissues-panel
) are both listed as having minor priority. I occasionally review http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/ShowConstantsHelp.jspa?decorator=popup#PriorityLevels to remind myself of the meaning of the priorities. Every issue is important and even one reported as having minor priority. The fact that it has so many votes will certainly keep it on the radar even if it has been a long time coming. I know that I had enabled this functionality when it was commented out in the code back in Moodle 1.6. Since then so much has changed but it is worth continuing to advocate for. Thanks for your encouragement and speaking up about this issue. It is good to hear that it is much desired. Peace - Anthony Thanks, Mark, for trying the Sharing Cart for copying and cloning activities. We will update it for Moodle 2.0 and I hope you vote for it
1. Click once to backup 2. Navigate to the new location 3. Click once to restore Anthony, thanks for the pointer about the priority levels. The "minor" makes a bit more sense now although I think it could be argued about whether an "easy workaround is present" in this case. It is certainly true both that workarounds do exist and the absence of this functionality does not make the system as a whole not functional but I maintain there is no easy workaround which provides this function in most cases.
Norman - Yep, you are right there is no easy workaround. I've added my vote to the issue. Peace - Anthony
One limitation of import is that it always imports to the same block the original is in - wish I could choose which section to drop the activities/resoruces. I have used import from a template I have, but then I have to move each item individually to the correct week or topic. Moving takes a long time. There's also a problem of importing the test banks, where it would be nice to choose "include only settings", not the questions.
What with all the clicks to import, and then the moving, I am not sure this is a time saver, but at least I know all the settings are the same on every quiz, every forum, etc. A related issue is the fact that for many use cases of Quiz, the fact that quizzes lock up when there are attempts is a serious issue. The only way to solve this seems to be making copies of the quiz without the attempts.
I made some mockups for this in the Autumn: Olli,
Have you created a tracker issue for this? Ray, hm I never got an email about your message. Did it now: MDL-20054
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New Feature
Open
Minor
Ability to copy (or clone) an activity
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Also I notice that this facility is already there for questions, which have a "Save as new question" button at the bottom. Perhaps add the same thing for activities and resources?