[Modules] Hiding and Viewing Modules for Individual Sections

[GideonWilliams]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas LMS

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Parts of this have been mentioned in previous requests (Modules within Modules and others) and I wonder if this is more to do with the needs of K12 than beyond?

We run a model based on UK curriculum which may be different to other school models (10+ subjects in a timetable, classes selected by ability, external examinations in 2/3 year groups, different content taught depending on the class etc). Having begun our implementation of Canvas the last thing we wished to do is create individual courses for each class and teacher in a subject. With up to 9 classes in a subject this would be an administrative nightmare and would go against much of what I believe a VLE is for - forward facing, collaborative, personalised, sharing of resources etc.

The reality is at school level it is very very difficult to create a core course that is truly personalised without some form of conditions/restrictions especially as "content is king". We add our classes as separate sections which enables assignments to be posted to individual classes. We would dearly like Canvas to go further and enable this option for other content such as pages/links etc.

The idea being suggested though is for teachers to be able to hide/view modules for individual sections

This would allow content (pages, links etc) to be viewed by individual sections. It would give teachers and students the best of both worlds. Modules could be 'turned on' for all sections or individual sections. It would allow you to create differentiated blocks of content/resources eg for those students who are perhaps sitting the 'Higher Level' exam. It would also allow us to support subjects where they have banded/set ability groups. It would also support subjects where topics are done on rotation due to resourcing. It would also reduce the risk of common core subjects such as Maths/Science developing vast 'silos' of resources/modules and making navigation harder than it should be. Would it also be less messy than Conditional activities?

I know that some suggestions have talked about creating extra courses but with the majority of our students having up to 15 courses to manage, the last thing I wish to see is doubling up courses and reducing engagement.

I think this is more of a K12 issue and it would be nice to see a little bit of love sent their way...

UPDATE: APRIL 2018

I was at the Dutch Users Group consortium on Friday. This consortium represents a sizeable and growing number of universities, colleges and schools within the Netherlands. As a group, we identified a number of ideas we wished to take forward and the one above emerged as a clear favourite (without any prompting from me!)

This is now an idea that has support across multiple educational organisations and the benefits of this idea are seen as hugely positive and wide ranging.

As the last comment on this was 16 months ago and 2 years since the idea was published, it would be nice to know what progress, if any, has been made here.

[laura-harste]

It is open for voting again!   Please have those 1, 600 instructors vote!

[bstanley]

You can already see the trend is heavily in favor of this.  Let's get the vote out.  This is an important issue.

[laura-harste]

I emailed my faculty and asked them to vote and we have gained 13 votes so far since yesterday, a slow start, but movement.  I truly think this is important for accommodations as well as to help all our learners succeed.  It is likely also an easy fix!  Let's rock the vote on this one!

[michael-rotundo]

Hello Everyone,

I am voting in favor of unlocking the modules. The more pedagogical tools that we have to mold and shape the learning dynamic, the better. It is all about customizing the learning experience.

-michael-

[gary-weil]

I also vote in favor of unlocking modules at different times for different students, depending on need.

--Gary Weil

[helena-ross]

I also vote "yes," in favor of unlocking modules at different times for different students. Of course based on the need.

Helena Ross

[blangston]

This would be a great feature for the student who doesn't complete their work in module 1 and needs to move on to module 2 because module 1 has passed its due date. 

If Canvas is going to have a feature that allows teachers to set requirements there should also be a feature to manually override that requirement for a specific student. 

[ElizabethPruitt]

For K-12 members, this is a great feature to add especially for students that move into courses midyear.  Being able to keep your structure, but override requirements for a specific student would be ideal in a K-12 world. 

[timothy_maw]

Man have we needed this recently. This would really help us because of our competency based model. We use the models as a way to allow students to move one once they've proved competency and sometimes we need to allow a student to move on before they've reached all of the module requirements. 

[christopher_gil]

I have said it before and will say it again, while Canvas is a great product, we in K12 have different needs than Universities/higher learning. I believe Canvas sees this, but would like to see this in practice where there could be a few Feature Options specific to K12.