Lesson settings

Note for Contributors
This page should explain what can be seen on the moodlesite.com/course/mod/lesson.php page
(the page where you add a lesson to a course)

In the lesson page, you will have to decide the following: the name of the lesson; the maximum grade a student can get for doing the lesson; the maximum number of branches a student will be required to give in the lesson(also called the maximum number of branches (you can have 20 branches maximum). You will also have to decide the following: if the lesson is timed (if you choose to time the lesson, you need to decide how much time students will have for the lesson);if students can retake the lesson or not (if you allow students to retake the lesson, you can choose one the two scoring methods: mean - average - or the max grade; AND between what dates the lesson is available to students. Also, you can make your lesson a practice lesson, which means that the lesson will not show up in the Gradebook.

Timed

This puts a time limit on the lesson. Students are shown a JavaScript counter and the time is recorded in the database. Due to the inconsistent nature of JavaScript, the timer does not evict a student from the lesson when the time is up, however a question answered after the time limit is not counted. The time in the database is checked each time a student submits a question.

The Maximum Number of Answers in a Lesson This value determines the maximum number of answers the teacher can use. The default value is 4. If the lesson uses only, say, TRUE or FALSE questions throughout then it is sensible to set this value to 2.

This parameter also sets the maximum number of Branches that can be used in a Branch Table.

It is safe to change the value of this parameter in a lesson with existing content. In fact if you want to add a question with many choices or a long Branch table changing this parameter will be necessary. After the (unusual) question or BranchTable has been added this parameter can be reduced to a more "standard" value.

Custom Scoring This will allow you to put a numerical point value on each answer. Answers may have negative values or positive values. Imported questions will automatically be assigned 1 point for correct answers and 0 for incorrect, though you may change this after the import.

The Grade of the Lesson This value determines the maximum grade which can be awarded in the lesson. The range is 0 to 100%. This value can be changed at any time during the lesson. Any change has an immediate effect in the Grades page and on the grades shown to the students in various lists. If the grade is set to 0 the Lesson does not appear in any of the Grades pages.

Allowing the Students to Re-take the Lesson This setting determines whether the students can take the lesson more than once or only once. The teacher may decide that the lesson contains material which the students ought to know thoroughly. In which case repeated viewing of the lesson should be allowed. If, however, the material is used more like an exam then the students should not be allowed to re-take the lesson.

When the students are allowed to re-take the lesson, the grades shown in the Grades page are either their average grade over the re-takes or their best grade for the lesson. The next parameter determines which of these two grading alternatives is used.

Note that the Question Analysis always uses the answers from the first tries of the lesson, subsequent re-takes by students are ignored.

By default this option is Yes, meaning that students are allowed to re-take the lesson. It is expected that only in exceptional circumstances will this option be set to No.

Handling of Re-takes When students are allowed to re-take the lesson, this option allows the teacher to show the grade for the lesson in, for example, the Grades page, as either the mean, this is average, of the grades over the first and subsequent tries or as the grade from the students' best tries.

This option can be changed at any time.

Display ongoing score under construction

Allow Student Review This will let the student navigate back through the lesson to change their answers.

Display Review Button This will display a button after an incorrectly answered question, allowing a student to re-attempt it. It is not compatible with essay questions, so leave this off if you are using essay questions.

The Maximum Number of Attempts (by a Student) This value determines the maximum number of attempts a Student has in answering any of the questions in the lesson. In the case of questions which do not provide the answer, for example Short Answer and Numerical questions, this value provides a necessary escape routine to the next page in the lesson.

The default value is 5. Smaller values may discourage the student from thinking about the questions. Larger values may lead to more frustration.

Setting this value to one gives the students just one chance to answer each question. This gives a similar type of assignment to the Quiz module except that the questions are presented on individual pages.

Note that this value is global parameter and that it applies to all the questions in the lesson regardless of their type.

Note that this parameter does not apply to teachers checking of questions or navigating through the lesson. Checking the number of attempts relies on values stored in the database and question attempts by teachers are not recorded. The teacher should after all know the answers!

The Minimum Number of Questions in a Lesson When a lesson contains one or more Branch Tables the teacher should normally set this parameter. Its value sets a lower limit on the number of questions seen when a grade is calculated. It does not force students to answer that many questions in the lesson

For example, setting this parameter to, say, 20, will ensure that grades are given as though the students have seen at least this number of questions. Take the case of a student who only looks at a single branch in a lesson with, say, 5 pages and answers all the associated questions correctly. They then choose to end the lesson (assuming there is that option in the "top level"Branch Table, a reasonable enough assumption). If this parameter were left unset their grade would be 5 out of 5, that is 100%. However, with it set to 20 their grade would be reduced to 5 out of 20, that is 25%. In the case of another student who goes through all the branches and sees, say, 25 pages and answers all but two of the questions correctly, then their grade would be 23 out of 25, that is 92%.

If this parameter is used, then the opening page of the lesson should say something like:

In this lesson you are expected to attempt at least n questions. You can attempt more if you wish. However, if you attempt less than n questions your grade will be calculated as though you attempted n.

Where obviously "n" is replaced by the actual value this parameter has been given.

When this parameter is set students are told how many questions they have attempted and how many they are expected to attempt.