Lesson idea

[James Adams]

Sorry if this has already been posted or is already a feature but after quite some time searching, I couldn't find anything like it.

What I want is something that is personal to your account (it could be linked to all of "your" accounts like OOC stuff (i hope u understand what I mean)so that lessons can be kept track of) that notifies you when a lesson that applies to you is posted. What I mean is something that searches the board every time you log on (or perhaps on request) to search for things which apply to you like "first year", "lesson 1", "Gryffindor" etc etc. This could be useful for helping people to post in lessons, making classes more fun for both professors and other pupils. An alternative would be to have one classroom for each year group so you know to check all places where a class could be posted, this is less convenient though.

 

[Nicolas King]

Hi James,

This is something that I've actually thought about - but the problem (as always) in implementation. Adding something to the gradebook where Professors could link to and identify when they've posted what classes would be possible but it would be more work for professors, and something extra for them to remember to do.

How it would likely work is that professors would post their lessons, then load the gradebook and click on a certain area (let's say "Lesson Updates" or something) then see a list of all their classes with all the lesson numbers/exams. They could then click "Posted" beside the one they've just posted and it would automatically send notifications to all students enrolled in the course that Lesson X of Class Y is now available.

It's certainly possible, and not an idea I'm opposed to, but we try not to add extra work for professors - the gradebook came about to simplify professor's workloads dramatically: but it's still a lot of work, and adding another thing for them to do and remember to update is something I would like to try to avoid.

Maybe we'll prod the professors to see how they feel about a little bit of extra work and consider implementing something like this. We know it'd certainly be helpful for students.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Nicolas King]

Hi again James,

Following up on this - professors had a conversation shortly after your suggestion about what would work for them and what was fair to ask of them and, in the end, we ended up deciding to implement something that would allow them to notify students enrolled in their courses with a link to their lessons as they post them.

The change went live today, and professor's have just been given the details of it (professors - if you haven't seen this, check out the professor's forum!). With that said, some students may already have noticed notifications on their accounts for certain lessons that have been posted - and should be seeing a lot more in the coming days.