Popup activities course format

The Pop up activities course format displays resources and simple activities embedded in modals instead of redirecting from the course page. Otherwise it behaves as the Topics format.

If you are not using heavy server side assessment, but mostly resources and client side activities (SCORM, H5P), this format may help provide more interactive courses by opening the activities in popup modals instead of separate web pages. When students finish an activity or resource, they return to the course page by closing the modal without waiting for the course page to load again. The course page updates activity completion and availability when the modal is closed.

This plugin uses javascript to add AJAX functionality to the standard topics format. Otherwise the format is the same as the Topics format. Currently Book, Choice, Custom certificate , File resource, Folder, H5P activity, Page, Poster, SCORM, and URL activities are supported and can be displayed in modals. Other activities will open normally.

Developers should be able to add similar functionality to other formats by copying the AMD call in format.php and adding this format as a dependency.

Capability

Users will only see the popups for he supported activities if they have the capability 'format/popups:view' in the modules context. By default students have this capability. It can be given to other roles or removed at course or activity level.

Configuration

When editing course settings select Popup activities under Course format. Other options are the same as Topics format. Teachers by default will not see popups, but students will.

Demo Course

A demonstration course is available on the developer's site https://openlearner.org/popups.