Make the dashboard useful for teachers

Overview
One of the previous MUA projects improved how activities were dashboard.  This was done by displaying only tasks with due dates. This project aims to build on what has been done adding the following improvements:


• Allow activities that do not have due dates (like forums) to be displayed on the dashboard
• Improve the dashboard for teachers identifying tasks that need to be completed such as grading quizzes, approving glossary entries, or viewing new forum posts.

Summary

• Project size: medium
• Audience: primary schools, universities, work places
• Target users: teachers

Goals

• Improve how things are displayed on the dashboard for teachers, by listing items that need grading (quizzes, lessons, etc)
• Improve how items are displayed on the dashboard for items that have either a future due date or no due date. (eg forum posts, news posts, or items awaiting teacher interaction)
• Improve how assignments are displayed on the dashboard

Use cases (User Stories)


• As a teacher (who is also a site administrator) I do not want to be prompted to submit assignments, feedback activities, take quizzes etc on the dashboard (items related to the student role).
• As a teacher I want to see on the dashboard that there are new forum posts or responses I should be reviewing.
• As a teacher I want to see on the dashboard if there are quizzes that require manual grading regardless of the due date.
• As a teacher I want to see on the dashboard if there are lessons that require manual grading regardless of the due date.
• As a teacher I want to see on the dashboard if there are database entries that require approval regardless of the due date.
• As a teacher I want to see on the dashboard if there are glossary entries that require approval regardless of the due date.
• As a teacher I want to see on the dashboard if there are assignments that require grading regardless of the due date. (This includes assignments without due dates, or assignments submitted after the due date, but before the cut-off date)
  * As a teacher I want to configure a global threshold as to when I should be notified for items that require my attention, that do not have an immediate due date.  (For example, have the system automatically add the "remind me to grade by date X days after the student submitted work, where I as the teacher can configure the X days rather than have a specific date)
 Usage case: Assignment due date is September 1, remind me to grade by is set to September 15, cutoff date is at the end of the term December 1.  If a student submits the assignment October 15th, it will never appear on the teachers dashboard.

Links to existing tracker issues, forum discussions, contrib plugins

Tracker issues:


• Due dates for mod/forum (MDL-18299, MDL-31355, --MDL-15235--)
• Lesson module and dashboard (MDL-58252,MDL-49697,)
• Forum entries on dashboard(MDL-58913)
  * Display items without a due date (MDL-59028)


Further reading

• Collection of follow-up issues from the dashboard (MDL-58384)
• UX questions from the dashboard (MDL-59026)
• MUA discussion about due dates (https://moodleassociation.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=339)