Moodle

I have just chatted with our programmer, and we can start working on this improvement. The plan so far - is to grab patched 1.9 and apply the changes there. LSU patches should be easy to add too, since they will be just added as additional tabs for new reports. I would appreciate any feedback and suggestions to the last mock up that I have posted.

Elena, thanks for your offer of programming help, though as Martin mentioned in our tabs discussion, since Nicolas knows the code, it's easiest if he implements tabs. However, help in deciding the best content and wording would be much appreciated.

Please see http://test.moodle.org/1.9/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=2 (username teacher and password testm00dle) for my initial ideas of gradebook tabs, which Nicolas has kindly implemented.

Let's use http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=114165 to discuss how it could be improved.

Wow, that was quick, Well done Nicolas!

I think you've solved the problems of moving from a long drop down list to tabs with sub-tabs pretty well. Good idea to give Categories & items, letters and scales their own tabs. Save us some clicks...

I thought I was going to hate it but this is good...

I also like 'Switch to Full view' and 'Switch to simple view'.

By the way, is 'Overview Report' a student-only report now? Nice one!

Barry, thanks for your feedback

Regarding the overview report, please see http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=114165#p505599 for details of how I hid the link

This is essentially finished. Please go and test it at http://test.moodle.org/1.9/course/view.php?id=2 . Login as teacher, password testm00dle
Your feedback is greatly anticipated

This work is tremendous – in quite a short time a very major number of significant issues have been effectively addressed. When can we hope to see a patch?

In the 'Grader' view, it's not clear that 'Preferences' only affects the 'Grader Report' as it's right next to 'User Repot'. Where to put it? Maybe underneath 'Grader Report' as a button or sub-subtab.

Or, if the Grader and User Reports had there own tabs like Helen mentioned, then 'Preferences', being a subtab, would obviously be connected to the 'Grader Report'.

Note that when the suggestion was made to put in tabs to the 1.9 gradebook originally, this was rejected because of the need, in part, to support new plugins.

While I fully support this change (of course), we should make sure that we understand how it will affect custom plugins.

For my above comment, see mdl-12135

Gary,

I have taken particular care in improving the support for plugins. The display of the breadcrumbs, the headers, heading, navigation drop-down and tabs are all done through one function central to the gradebook. It detects plugins and lets them define custom HTML and page title as well as additional tabs (support for a "preferences" tab for each report).

In fact, it now supports plugins better than before!

Nicolas, thanks a lot for implementing tabs navigation

Some things we still need to resolve are:

• Grader report preferences and the option for similar settings in other gradebook plugins. My recommendation would be to have a tab for each gradebook plugin, with a settings link within the tab. An alternative option would be to have a report settings tab for all reports.

• Where to put course settings. Currently they're not accessible via tabs. My recommendation would be to move them to the course settings page.

• Whether to include the gradebook dropdown menu as well as / instead of tabs. I guess there should be an admin setting for this.

I strongly feel that Gradebok settings belong to the Gradebook area, not to the Course Administration > Settings.
I believe that having a separate Tab called "Settings" in the Gradebook , withsub-tabs for My Preferences (for all reports) plus Gradebook Settings will cover that.
Can we please vote somehow?

Attached a patch that addresses this for 1.9.5

Completed in HEAD.

OK here is another idea to address both course settings and report preferences:

Add a single top tab called "Settings". The first sub-tab is "Course", then one sub-tab for each report that has preferences

For example:

--------------

in HEAD, I've just implemented the solution described in my last comment.

Regarding an admin setting for including the gradebook dropdown menu as well as / instead of tabs, from chatting with Nicolas, we've come up with a Navigation method setting in Admin > Grades > General settings with three options - Dropdown menu, Tabs, Tabs and dropdown menu. Dropdown menu is the default setting.

How does that sound?

Admin Settings for tabs/dropdowns:
Good idea, Have options & preserve a little bit of legacy. The Categories and Items used to be at the bottom of the drop down list so was hard to find if you had to use the scroll bar. Now it's the second option so that's better. Only the extra 'Export' options now need to be scrolled to so this 'tabs' layout for the dropdown is better than before.

Settings Tab for 'Preferences':
Like it, will be less confusing than having 'preferences' as subtabs next to other reports.

Seeing as the 'Settings' tab will also be an option of the dropdown list, what order would be best (first/last/middle etc)?

Barry, thanks for your feedback.

Regarding the position of the settings in the dropdown menu, we need to keep it in the same position as for the tabs, otherwise it will be confusing for sites which enable both the dropdown menu and tabs.

Yes, that's what I'm pointing out. If you put Settings as the last tab it will be the last option of the dropdown menu. So where would the best place be for both tabs and dropdown menu?

The grader report is throwing errors on the test site. Maybe because of Nicolas working on something?

Barry, please test on the HEAD test server (http://test.moodle.org/head/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=2) for now.

Regarding the order, these are my thoughts:

1. The pages that will be used the least often should be at the bottom of the list (export, import, settings). I argue that "settings" will be used less often because, once you have set things up, you are likely to stick with it for a while
2. It's really not that difficult to find, even if it's at the bottom.
3. I will put a quick link to each "Preferences" page on each report view page. Likewise, when a preferences form is saved, it will redirect the user to the associated report view. This way, there is less need to search for these pages. The course settings page is even less likely to be used often.

I liked:

--------------

But can it be not just "Course", please? " Course Gradebook" or similar will work

Also, using the current language, Course is related to this gradebook in this course only. Grader report, etc have settings based on the user, correct?
I think choice of words should reflect that.

Hi Nicolas,
re your #3: "I will put a quick link to each "Preferences" page on each report view page."
I think this will be confusing, especially it will look like here: http://test.moodle.org/1.9/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=2.
I also do no think that forcing person to be navigated to a report itself on Save is needed.

For the last part , if you believe it it's beneficial, may be we can do 2 buttons then, like in adding Resources?

• Save
• Save and go to <the corresponding> report

Thanks Nicolas,

Sorry, I didn't check the 2.0 site so I didn't see you already had a place for 'Settings'. Your arguments for putting it last makes sense. The quick links are also good.

I also find the preferences of the 'Course' option of the Settings tab a bit confusing. Here is why it confuses me:

When you lick on 'View' you see sub tab options for it (Grader, User, Stats, Visual, Outcomes etc). When you click on 'Settings' you get similar options to 'View' but User, and Overview preferences are set under 'Course' whereas |Grader report|Stats report| Visual Report have their own subtabs.

I agree with Barry

Sorry guys, I don't understand Barry's last comment

Ohhh I get it

A green message at the top or a popup saying something like 'Your Grader Report settings have been saved' would be handy once Save is clicked.

I like Elena's idea of choosing where to go to next. If you were changing the settings for each option there would be a bit of moving between different screens.

In any case, maybe the 'Save' option should tell us what will happen e.g. 'Save and view report'

The sentence explaining the course settings in http://test.moodle.org/head/grade/edit/settings/index.php?id=2 looks good to me.

'Course settings determine how the gradebook appears for all participants in the course.'

Nicolas, please could this be added to http://test.moodle.org/1.9/ too.

Should we have a sentence explaining My preferences too?

Looking at the dropdown menu, I'm just wondering whether we can find a solution to the words 'Scales' and 'Settings' being repeated?

just fixed duplicated dropdown entries (thanks Sam!) and added explanatory sentence on 1.9 test site. All these fixes are on the test sites.

Nicolas, thanks for solving the repeated scales and settings. The dropdown menu looks great now

hi
I have noticed that clicking on Save Changes button in My Preferences forces a person to navigate to a report itself. Can we please do not do that? Or have 2 buttons per my previous suggestion?
I think that it is not intuitive to be forced to go somewhere in this particular situation/interface. I would prefer to get a confirmation "changes saved" message, stay on the screen, and double-check what changes I've just saved. What do others think about this?

By the way, Settings seem to be misbehaving a little.

• go to Settings, change anything there, click Save button.
• you will be forced to either Grader OR User report depending on what you have saved before.
  E.g. If you have previously modified My Preferences > Visual report, then you will be forced togo the Visual report from Settings page.

p.s. I really like the idea of adding explanatory sentences everywhere! It helps a lot.

Elena, thanks for your comments.

Regarding saving changes to My preferences or Settings redirecting to different gradebook reports, this seems to me to be standard behaviour elsewhere in moodle, for example saving changes to the course settings redirects you to the course homepage.

Suggested sentence explaining My preferences:

My preferences only affect how the gradebook appears for you.

But change in Settings should not forward the user to the Visual report in any case. This is a bug, as far as I am concerned.

I am all up to the standard behavior , but not in this particular interface.
Course Setting page is one single stand-alone page, thus once you change something there, you can simply move forward.
Gradebook interface on the other hand is much more complicated and includes several tabs/subtabs/sections under them. Therefore, it would be beneficial to allow the user to decide for himself on the further action. This, I think, can be resolved by having 2 buttons (which would be similar to the Adding a Resource interface )

(agree on My preferences sentence)

Elena, where should the user be redirected then? What are these 2 choices you mention?

heh, I believe that the user should not be redirected anywhere

In any case, here is how to replicate:

• Go to My Preferences > Visual report. Change whatever you want. Save changes. You will be forwarded to the Visual report.
• Now, go to Settings, change anything (e.g. set Overview report to hide the rank). Save. You will be again forwarded to the Visual report.

Why would you, if your changes were not about Visual report at all? I believe that you should stay on the refreshed page with "Changes Saved" confirmation message.

2 choices are from one of my messages above in this ticket.
I suggested to add 2 buttons for My Preferences and Settings pages, similar to the Adding a Resource interface

• Save Changes <and stay here>
• "Save and go to the report" /or "Save and return to the Gradebook"

I disagree. This is not how the course settings page works: you are not shown the same form again with a "Settings changed" message. In fact, this is not typicaly Moodle behaviour at all.

What I suggest is that the "Settings saved" message be displayed on the report page to which the user is redirected. There is no point whatsoever in staying on the settings page, it doesn't give any extra information, and requires another click to return to the reports, which are the core of the gradebook.

I think you are probably making this out to be more important than it really is. Users will quickly get used to being redirected to the last report they were viewing.

How about if the 'Save Changes' said something like 'Save and return to * report'?

I like the idea of having 'Settings Saved' on the report page as well

Nicolas, I just thought that it would be confusing for a user to be redirected to the previously modified via Preferences report (since they are referred to the last modified, and not to the last seen). Especially if it would happen after some period of time, logging out, etc.
Sorry, I am not trying to make a huge deal out of it at all. Just trying to be helpful.

please read as "..."to be redirected after changing Settings to the report that was previously some time ago modified via Preferences"

There is no way to track which report had its preferences last modified. It's especially irrelevant if the last modified date was several hours, days, or weeks ago. I think the argument is moot. So this is what I will implement:

1. As Barry suggested, the button will be called: "Save and return to [reportname]". This will still be the only button, but at least it will be informative.
2. On the report page a message will appear at the top "Preferences have been saved", or something to that effect.

I think this will address any issue of usability for this task, and we can finally close it and move on with this update.

Nicolas, please take a closer look at my original comment.
That is exactly what I was trying to avoid - I did NOT want the user to go back to the "last modified"; and this is what was happening.

I just did a test on the test server, Elena:
1. Edited the preferences of the visual report
2. Saved the preferences
3. Clicked on "View" -> This opened the Grader report view
4. Clicked the "Settings" tab
5. Changed the settings
6. Clicked the "Save" button

Result? I was redirected to the grader report. What is the problem??

I see, this happens because you chose to click on the Grader report in the middle of your steps. Which would not always happen.

1. Edit the preferences of the visual report
2. Save the preferences > This will redirect you to the Visual report
3. Now, do not click on Grader report, instead click Settings right away
4. Change the settings
5. Click the "Save" button
You will be forwarded to Visual.
Since Settings area does not have any options related to the Visual report, I found it a little confusing.

Just to stress, I do not want to make this a big deal. Frankly, it is whatever!
If would apply your last suggestion, it would be great. Thank you.

Resolved in 1.9.5, waiting for green light to put into CVS

Gradebook patch applied, resolving this issue.

Thanks Nicolas, the navigation method setting is now documented: http://docs.moodle.org/en/General_grade_settings

Removing 2.0 fix version as instructions state 'Do not include the current HEAD version unless it's the only one.'

Outcomes are no longer importing from csv in 1.9

Tabs work nicely. Not sure its even worth the overhead of retaining the old drop down box method of navigation. Anyway, closing.