Usability issues - Tabs

Identification of the tabs

In the followint table the tab line of each activity is described.

Tab line of the different activities

ID	Activity	Tab line (default tab in bold)	Justification
1	Quiz	Info, Results, Preview, Edit(with subtabs Quiz, Questions, Categories, Import, Export), Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions
2	Forum	Edit, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions	Edit would contain the information of "add a discussion topic".
3	Glossary	Edit (with subtabs Add entry, Import, Export), Search, Browse (with subtabs Browse by alphabet, Browse by category, Browse by date, Browse by Author), View, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions	Edit would contain the information of "add a new entry" in Add entry. The print option will be accessible from View.
4	Chat	Enter to the chat (with subtabs Normal mode and without frames and Javascript), chat history, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions	I would replace "View past chat sessions" by chat history (it must be taken into account that it has been used the concept "message history" previously at Moodle).
5	Choice	Edit, View responses, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions
6	Assignments	Edit, View attempts, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions
7	Database	View list, view single, search, add entry, export, templates, fields, presets, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions
8	Lesson	Preview, Edit (with subtabs collapsed, expanded), Reports, Grade essays, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions
9	Survey	Edit, View responses (with subtabs Questions, students, download), Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions
10	Wiki	View, Edit, Links, History, Search wiki, Choose wiki links, Administration, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions	The "reload this page" button must be maintained in all pages.

Next of this classification, an analysis of the name of the tabs and their order have been done:

• The world "history" will be used both for the chat and the wiki history. So the tab will be only called "History"
• The order of the tabs will be followed by this logic: info, preview, edit/enter, links, view, search, add entry, export, templates, fields, presets, results, Reports, Grade essays, history, Choose wiki links, Administration, settings, Assign roles, Override permissions. Depending on if an activity has or not this tabs will be ordered in a determined way.
• Another option will be to group in Update tabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions, so the order of tabs will be less (because this three tabs previously mentioned would be subtabs). This would be a good idea to reduce the number of tabs and because this actions won't be done with frequency.
• It must be taken into account that by default it would be displayed the tab and subtab that is used more frequently in the activity and the one that describes more its content.

Conclusion

Final Tab line after the study

ID	Activity	Tab line (default tab in bold)
1	Quiz	Info, Preview, Edit(with subtabs Quiz, Questions, Categories, Import, Export), Results, Update quiz (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
2	Forum	Edit, Update Forum (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
3	Glossary	Edit (with subtabs Add entry, Import, Export), View, Search, Browse (with subtabs Browse by alphabet, Browse by category, Browse by date, Browse by Author), Update Glossary (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
4	Chat	Enter to the chat (with subtabs Normal mode and without frames and Javascript), history, Update chat (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
5	Choice	Edit, View responses, Update Choice (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
6	Assignments	Edit, View attempts, Update assignments (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
7	Database	View list, view single, search, add entry, export, templates, fields, presets, Update database (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
8	Lesson	Preview, Edit (with subtabs collapsed, expanded), Reports, Grade essays, Update lesson (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
9	Survey	Edit, View responses (with subtabs Questions, students, download), Update survey (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)
10	Wiki	Edit, View, Search wiki, History, Links, Choose wiki links, Administration, Update wiki (with subtabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions)

Screenshots

Quiz

Glossary

Chat

Choice

Forum

Assignments

Database

Lesson

Survey

Wiki

Possibility of moving tabs using javascript mentioned in the Fluid project (Javascript vs. AJAX)

This is related to support tab layout widgets. I think I might prefer javascript to AJAX as my impression has been that AJAX generally slows the page down especially for large courses. Again, some research on comparing these appoaches could be useful to the developers as we try to figure out how best to implement the tabs.

Circumstances would tabs cause more confusion or not be recommended

It would be recommended to add this tabs and delete the update activity button because the information of the activity is displayed in the same page and accessing with that button increments too much the number of clicks to update.