Roadmap/Forum activity redevelopment

1. I'm interested in the ForumNG aspect to the Moodle v 2.4 development, and I've listed some some features/comments below, in no particular order, just to clear my mind a little.
2. I just the other day noticed a comment on the Tracker item for ForumNG from Dan http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-21538 I was unsure if this ment "Evaluate to see if we implement" or "Start to Implement".
3. I guess I think the OU's interests here are relevant. Need to try to avoid them having to work with a Moodleised version of NG that still needs them to hack it later to meet their needs.
4. Please feel free to intersperse comments here with the usual name/date/time.
5. We are in Moodle using the term discussion. I've kept this, I presume it is not up for debate (ie replacing it with the term thread). In many comments I've explicitly hypothesised functionality at both the forum and discussion level. I guess (at this point in time) I see both as needed.
   1. Scenario, topic choice: you start a discussion, Please indicate your topic for Assignment one. A relevant question soon will be "Who has not posted in the discussion?" This is a the discussion level.
   2. Scenario, post a question you start several questions on the themes for an exam, and say Please make up one question each on any theme and post it in the forum. Here the question is "Who has not posted anywhere on the forum?" ie the forum level.
6. I know the forum is a complex activity. The decision and option combinations are quite difficult. But in my opinion, it is worth the effort. I know someone willneed to sort a real developers spec sometime.
7. Some relevant discussions:

I'll come back and list a few links to the relevant discussions later, maybe, unless if someone does it sooner. I know I have missed out a few significant aspects in these discussions, but I can't remember them at the moment. (One person's vital is another persons trivial) --Derek Chirnside 17:26, 19 August 2012 (WST)

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POSSIBLE FEATURES FOR A MOODLISED FORUMNG IN VERSION 2.4

Ability to list attatchments

And have the attatchment styled a little more noticable than at present

New forum type "Personal Channel

Provides a forum for everyone in a course/group which is personal to just the student and the tutor(s).

Rationale Moodle has lacked a way to effectively manage long term dialogue with individual students. That's the basis behind

• The dialogue plugin
• Some functionality in the ForumNG (like the study plan I believe) (More detail could help here)

Messaging has no file attachments option, it's a clutzy option. There are other worse cludges (like setting up groups of one)

Social aspects

Lets face it: Moodle is unlikely to really compete with the social tools like elgg, edmodo etc. But there are a few simple aspects that may help.

Administration aspects

Freeze discussion

Shut off to further replies.

View all posts by Student X in forum/discussion

Rationale:

Export option

More detail needed

An option for a teacher to click a "Post to all" link

ie an over-ride to individual settings, just for this one post.

Reports

• Show all non-posters in forum/discussion
• Corollary: message all non-posters
• See who has posted and how often in forum/discussion

Could be a report much like the participant's report: Name | Last access | First post | Number of posts

• Statistics for forum/discussion

Grading/record keeping inprovements

At present grading is difficult. If you really do need to grade for any reason . . .

User interface

Better location of 'post to forum' button

With the new drag and drop box, there is even more scrolling needed. Suggest several locations for the 'Post to Forum' button.

• Above Editor
• Below Editor
• At bottom of page

Ajax used to enable post without loosing the view of the whole thread.

Kite flying, and more debatable than other stuff

A 'postlet link'

Not a full blown reply, but a twitter length comment option that is not e-mailed out as per usual. This could cause real problems.  :-)