Course Tags
| Warning: This page is no longer in use. The information contained on the page should NOT be seen as relevant or reliable. |
| Course tags | |
|---|---|
| Project state | Specification draft |
| Tracker issue | MDL-36648 |
| Discussion | |
| Assignee | Andrew Nicols |
Moodle 2.5
The existing course tagging system in Moodle is quite restrictive and is preventing use of course tags in more complex use cases. It would
be ideal if course tags could be used to inform other areas of Moodle as to which courses may be of particular interest to a user. As an
example, course tagging could be used to influence which courses are displayed in:
- block_course_overview - perhaps by use of course tag filters; and
- navigation - perhaps by using the same filters as in the block_course_overview or maybe looking at a users current context and showing them courses with similar tags to the course they are currently viewing.
Course tags should not be tied directly to a context and they should be an admin-configurable system-wide setting.
Course tags could also be linked closely with cohorts to allow restriction of /listing/ of courses based on cohorts. This is a widely requested feature in Moodle and would have a relatively small performance overhead.
User Stories
We have three users, Geoff, Jane, and Bob. They are all taking courses as Noodle University which has a number of Departments.
- Noodle University has been using Moodle as its VLE for several years and allows students to have access to the courses they have taken in previous years.
- All students in Noodle University are automatically enrolled onto courses using the Database Enrolment mechanism which also manages their cohort membership based upon various factors including their faculty, department, and major choices.
- Noodle has several departments including Modern Languages, Maths, and Physics:
- The Modern Language department offers courses in French, Italian, German, and Spanish; as well as a beginners TEFL course;
- The Math department offers a variety of courses most of which are available to any math student, but with some only available to those studying a particular field.
- The Physics department offers a variety of courses and requires its students to choose at least one math course in their first year.
The following tags have been set up at Noodle University (these are just a subset of them):
| Tag | Description | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| currentyear | Courses run in the academic year starting 2012 | None |
| year2011 | Courses run in the academic year starting 2011 | None |
| year2013 | Courses run in the academic year starting 2013 | None |
| languagemajor | Courses in the language department which are taken by Language majors | Membership of the 'languagemajor' cohort |
| languageminor | Courses in the language department which are taken by Language minors | Membership of the 'languageminor' cohort |
| language-french | French courses in the Language department | Membership of the 'language-french' cohort |
| language-german | German courses in the Language department | Membership of the 'language-german' cohort |
| language-spanish | Spanish courses in the Language department | Membership of the 'language-spanish' cohort |
| language-italian | Italian courses in the Language department | Membership of the 'language-italian' cohort |
| mathmajor | Courses in the math department which are taken by math majors | Membership of the 'mathmajor' cohort |
| mathminor | Courses in the math department which are taken by math minor | Membership of the 'mathminor' cohort |
| math-stats | Statistics courses offered by the Math department | Membership of the 'math-stats' cohort |
| math-trig | Trigonometry courses offered by the Math department | Membership of the 'math-trig' cohort |
Looking at some of Noodle's departments, staff have tagged all of the courses such that the courses have the following tags:
| Year | Course | tags |
|---|---|---|
| 2011-2012 | FREN200 | language-french, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | FREN201 | language-french, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | FREN202 | language-french, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | GERM200 | language-german, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | GERM201 | language-german, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | GERM202 | language-german, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | ITAL200 | language-italian, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | ITAL201 | language-italian, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | ITAL202 | language-italian, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | SPAN201 | language-spanish, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | SPAN202 | language-spanish, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | SPAN203 | language-spanish, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | MATH100 | math-major, math-minor, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | MATH110 | math-major, math-minor, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | MATH120 | math-major, math-minor, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | MATH130 | math-major, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | MATH140 | math-major, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | MATH210 | math-stats, year2011 |
| 2011-2012 | MATH220 | math-trig, year2011 |
| 2012-2013 | FREN300 | language-french, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | FREN301 | language-french, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | FREN302 | language-french, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | GERM300 | language-german, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | GERM301 | language-german, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | GERM302 | language-german, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | ITAL300 | language-italian, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | ITAL301 | language-italian, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | ITAL302 | language-italian, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | SPAN301 | language-spanish, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | SPAN302 | language-spanish, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | SPAN303 | language-spanish, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | TEFL350 | language-major, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | MATH100 | math-major, math-minor, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | MATH110 | math-major, math-minor, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | MATH120 | math-major, math-minor, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | MATH130 | math-major, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | MATH140 | math-major, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | MATH210 | math-stats, currentyear |
| 2012-2013 | MATH220 | math-trig, currentyear |
| 2013-2014 | FREN300 | language-french, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | FREN301 | language-french, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | FREN302 | language-french, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | GERM300 | language-german, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | GERM301 | language-german, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | GERM302 | language-german, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | ITAL300 | language-italian, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | ITAL301 | language-italian, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | ITAL302 | language-italian, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | SPAN301 | language-spanish, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | SPAN302 | language-spanish, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | SPAN303 | language-spanish, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | TEFL350 | language-major, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | MATH100 | math-major, math-minor, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | MATH110 | math-major, math-minor, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | MATH120 | math-major, math-minor, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | MATH130 | math-major, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | MATH140 | math-major, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | MATH210 | math-stats, year2013 |
| 2013-2014 | MATH220 | math-trig, year2013 |
Noodle University have enabled the /my course page and by default show several blocks including:
- block_course_overview - the standard Course Overview block listing courses you are currently enrolled on
- block_course_available - a custom block developed by Noodle listing all courses within a defined set of course categories
User Story 1 - Jane
Jane is a second-year Language student majoring in French and Italian. She is currently preparing for her third year and wishes to find out more about her courses for the year to come. She only wants to be presented with information on the courses which she can actually take part in.
Jane has been placed into appropriate cohorts for her study including:
- language-major
- language-french
- language-german
- Jane opens her /my page and clicks the option on the block_course_available page to only show courses for the 2013-2014 academic year.
- She is only interested in courses which she is eligible to take and is presented with a list of French, and Italian courses. She is also offered the option to take the TEFL course as she is a language major.
- Jane is only able to view courses in which she is currently enrolled in, and those she is interested in:
- FREN300
- FREN301
- FREN302
- ITAL300
- ITAL301
- ITAL302
- TEFL350
User Story 2 - Geoff
Geoff is a first year physics student and needs to look at his options for his second term. He has to choose from a selection of Math modules in addition to the compulsory Physics modules he has already been enrolled on.
- Geoff opens his /my page and clicks the option on the block_course_available page to only show courses for the current academic year
- Geoff is presented with a list of modules that he is able to take:
- MATH100
- MATH110
- MATH120
User Story 3 - Bob
Bob is a third-year undergraduate Language student. He has taken 10-12 courses in each year of his degree and still has access to these courses for his studies. He wants to be able to limit the courses shown on his Course Overview block to just the courses he is actively studying and hide the courses he is not. He also wants the same courses to be shown on the 'My courses' section of his Navigation tree.
- Geoff opens Moodle and is directed to his /my page
- Geoff is presented with a list of modules that he is currently enrolled in and is taking this academic year:
- GERM301
- GERM302
- TEFL350
- SPAN301
- SPAN303
- /several more/
- Geoff wishes to view some of the courses he took last year, so he clicks from the drop-down list in the course overview block and selects pre-defined filter option for '2011-2012 Academic year'. The block updates to show:
- GERM204
- GERM205
- GERM206
- SPAN201
- /several more/
Database changes
New Tables:
coursetag
- id
- idnumber
- name
- description
- descriptionformat
- timecreated
- timemodified
coursetag_courses
- id
- coursetagid
- courseid
coursetag_cohorts
- id
- coursetagid
- cohortid
Sample queries
Select all courses with any of tags a, b, or c and any of tags d, e, or f and that user matches any cohort membership requirements
SELECT
c.*
FROM {course} c
INNER JOIN {coursetag_courses} ctc ON ctc.courseid = c.id
INNER JOIN {coursetags} ct ON ct.id = ctc.coursetagid
LEFT JOIN {coursetag_cohorts} ctch ON ctch.coursetagid = ct.id
LEFT JOIN {cohort_members} chm ON chm.id = ctch.cohortid
WHERE chm.userid = ? AND (
ct.id IN (a, b, c) AND
ct.id IN (d, e, f)
) AND
( ctch.id IS NULL OR ch.id IS NOT NULL )
Object model
Class course_tag
| method | type | description |
|---|---|---|
| create() | static | creates a new course tag |
| remove() | static | removes a tag and all associations |
| fetch_by_name() | Fetches a tag and it's details by its unique name | |
| fetch_by_id() | Fetches a tag and it's details by its unique id | |
| add_to_course() | Add a course to the current tag | |
| remove_from_course() | Remove the specified course from the current tag | |
| fetch_courses() | List all courses under the current tag |
Backwards compatibility
None - we should get rid of the old interface if possible
