Totara Learn Open Discussions

Course and activity completion tools for content migration efforts

 
??
Course and activity completion tools for content migration efforts
由 ?? 发表于 2018年03月6日 Tuesday 13:45
 

Description

In our site built on Totara Learn 2.7, we use programs to track user progress. In an initial effort to update the program content (i.e. courses & activities), we created new courses in an updated version of the program for newer clients.

The above essentially amounts to older programs that use the old content for the initial clients. This older content can be described as courses with similar activities that have been repurposed, reorganized & in many cases broken up in an effort to more effectively group related courses in program course sets.

The Problem to Solve

We have a goal to update the older programs so that:

  • Earlier clients can take the newer content
  • The update is seamless to the user with regards to course AND activity completion
  • The existing programs continue to be used to reduce administrative efforts (and reporting) related to Totara programs

Approaches Investigated

We have looked into the various out of the box tools in Totara, namely:

  • Course completion import
  • Course meta link
  • Course completion based on other courses (Something akin to "equivalent courses")
  • Course backup and restore
    • Not an option for this update as separate courses already exist, not to mention scaling issues on courses containing SCORM content w/user attempt data

Regarding the above (sans course backup and restore), we have noticed the following pitfalls:

  • Removing courses from programs removes the program enrollment from these courses
  • Relying on course completion mechanisms only causes end user confusion if they enter the course to see none of the activities complete
  • Users part way through larger courses expect to see equivalent activities marked as complete

Call to Arms

This may be a niche problem we've stumbled upon here, but any recommendations on existing (or plugin-able Moodle) tools or processes that could help would be greatly appreciated. Even relevant issues in the community that are similar in some ways could prove to be helpful.

 
永久链接 | 回复
Craig Eves
Re: Course and activity completion tools for content migration efforts
由 Eves (Totara Support)Craig 发表于 2018年03月6日 Tuesday 17:52
小组 Totara

Hi MIguel

There are a couple of points on what happens when you edit a program. 

  • If you edit a Program or Certification content then users who haven't completed the Program or Certification will need to complete this under the new structure.
  • If a user has completed a Course Set in a Program or Certification and the Course Set is edited the users won't need to complete the edited course set.

One suggestion is to have a structure

Course set 1 requires completion of

old course 1 OR new course 1 

Course set 2 requires completion of 

Old course 2 OR new course 2

This way the learner can complete either of the courses and old course completion will count.

Turn on Audience based visibility and make the old courses only visible to enrolled users only. This means existing enrolled users will be able to see the old courses and when they complete the course set and enrol in the next course in the program they will not see the old courses so will enrol in the new courses.

Also use the program completion editor that allows the editing and logging of any changes to records. Also the course completion editor will allow the editing of activity and course completion criteria.

regards

 
永久链接 | 显示父帖子 | 回复
??
Re: Course and activity completion tools for content migration efforts
由 ?? 发表于 2018年03月20日 Tuesday 08:56
 

Thanks for your time Craig,

I do not think audience based visibility is an option here since we have custom logic to track credit hours in a program. Doesn't audience based visibility also negate the core course visible setting?

From a course completion and activity editor standpoint, this gives flexibility on an individual user basis but what about bulk operations for hundreds of users? Is there a tool for bulk activity completions?

 
永久链接 | 显示父帖子 | 回复
Craig Eves
Re: Course and activity completion tools for content migration efforts
由 Eves (Totara Support)Craig 发表于 2018年03月20日 Tuesday 16:09
小组 Totara

Hi Miguel

Are you using the course score field in the program to calculate the minimum score to determine the course set completion criteria?

I don't see how making a course not visible would affect the calculation. The not visible course would not be able to be enrolled in but those who have already enrolled in the course would see this and course score field  counted.

Enabling audience visibility does mean that the viewhiddencourses doesn't apply but it is still able to set the audience visibility to No users if required. 

The course completion editor does have a bulk fix problems  for some types of problems identified otherwise records need individual editing as activity completion uploads are not possible . It is only possible to upload course completion records.

regards

 
永久链接 | 显示父帖子 | 回复