add form field for templates

[Gordon McLeod]

Enhancement / New Functionality:
I was recently asked to look at online submission of tutor reports for our institution. I started by testing with Feedback form in Moodle - this works very well except that at some point the report needs to be shown to the individual student - not just sent from the tutor writing the report to Head of Department. I thought the more controllable views in Mahara would be ideal to enable this - in theory the student could even display the report as part of their resume if allowed. I therefore created a template of the form using text boxes - but that means the tutor needs to click to edit every single field in the report, making if far less user friendly. If there was an option to add Form Fields to a page (not just editabe text boxes) so that the person writing the report just types into the boxes (without having to edit each one) it would make Mahara the ideal solution to deliver this functionality. This could potentially be setup with other form functionality such as pre-populated dropdown lists of values.
Regards, Gordon.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Hello Gordon,

If I read it correctly, you wish the teacher to add information to a student's portfolio page.

Or would you like to see that functionality in the feedback area? This could also be useful for working with rubrics.

[Gordon McLeod (g-mcleod1)]

Hi Kristina,
I guess there are a couple of ways of achieving this, though original idea hadn't been to publish directly to student page. We currently use a manual paper report for every student each term, with the completed form being sent to the Head of Department or Module Leader for approval, then passed to the student. In thinking about the work process I saw this as a good use of online forms to add tutor comments on a number of specified fields quickly (probably in a staff only group page with the HoD as admin).

If the approved result could be shared online with the student in a way that they could then display the tutor report as part of their portfolio (while retaining granualar control over visibility) would enhance the use of an online form. The limiter here is that there isn't an existing 'form field' object type in Mahara - so every individual text box must be clicked to edit by the user to enter text. Might not seem a big deal but convincing tutors used to writing on paper that they need to click to edit 10 separate boxes instead of just writing/typing answers (or selecting from a dropdown) makes it a less user-friendly option if you've got to write 30+ of these every term. I guess the distinction between text box and form box would be that editing is defaulted to "on" in the form box so users just type straight into the box.

Cheers, Gordon.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Hello Gordon,

Thank you for the further explanations. Now I understand it a bit better. :-) So what we would need is a new artefact and block type that allows for the creation of a form in which you can at least define text fields (single lines) and text areas (multiple lines). The user who fills in the form needs to be able to edit it over time before making the final decision to publish it. Once it is published, it receives the timestamp of the publication time and also who published it (either a person if in a personal page or a group if its on a group page). These two pieces of information cannot be deleted when the page with the block is copied to someone's portfolio. Once the block has been published, it cannot be changed.

The block can be copied empty so that others can fill in the form or it can be copied published. When it is published, it is a read-only artefact that is also accessible under "Content" so that the user can re-use the forms in other pages and not just the original one. When an empty form is copied, it is also accessible under "Content" but can be edited.

Don't know how feasible the following would be, but wouldn't it be nice if a user could put such a form on their page and allow another person to fill it in? This goes already more into the direction of feedback and maybe it should be done in the feedback section, but I wonder if we should re-think the feedback on the details page of artefacts as that usually goes unnoticed and instead provide for more immediate feedback that is visible on a portfolio page but specific to an artefact. I filed a proposal under https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1037531 for that.

Cheers
Kristina

[Gordon McLeod (g-mcleod1)]

Hi Kristina,
Yes - your synopsis of how this might work as a new "form" artefact type is exactly what I had in mind - and thank you for taking the thought further about who would be able to amend the artefact and what metadata it would contain. The new proposal that you've outlined for immediate feedback is interesting - I can see how that might enhance feedback for artefacts while keeping it visible within the context of the page (I've added a comment there). Would I be right in thinking they're related but separate functions around providing feedback?
Thanks, Gordon.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

At the moment I regard the artefact feedback given directly on the page as the same feedback that you could provide if you go to the artefact page itself. It's just pretty much a quick view to avoid clicks and to make the feedback (at least short feedback / the latest feedback) more visible. Further discussion about that then on the other feature wish. :-)

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Forgot to mention that Gregor is working on a survey plugin from which it might be possible to use some code. I haven't tested the plugin yet and it seems that you need to know XML, but maybe some underlying infrastructure could be used.

[Gregor Anželj (gregor-anzelj)]

https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Plugins/Artefact/Survey

The above page contain links to Survey plugin (beta/test version - so use it in dev. environment!) and also contain some sample surveys. Probably you should check "E-portfolio feedback" survey...

After installation, surveys are accessed via Content > Survey tab. User click "Add Survey" button to display and response to particualr survey. When adding it, the user can also choose who will get feedback (e.g. user's tutor, etc.)

When user responds to all the question in the survey, than he/she saves it. Depending on survey setting the user sees the results and/or responses (these are all accessible also on later time...)

HTH.

[Gregor Anželj (gregor-anzelj)]

There are different question types: textbox, textarea, radio buttons, check buttons, drop-down selects, etc. I was playing also with the idea of creating combo-box element (which a sort of a union of textbox and drop-down select), but it proove to be to much right now...

Oh and I forgot to mention, that the users can add survey results to their pages...

[Gregor Anželj (gregor-anzelj)]

Survey plugin is installed as artefact (in htdocs/artefact/ folder). Thanks Kristina. Forgot that...

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Thanks for the info, Gregor. That helps to test it. :-)

[Gordon McLeod (g-mcleod1)]

Hi Gregor,
That sounds very promising and a great addition to Mahara functionality. New semester starts here in just a few weeks (eek) but if I can get a chance I'll download and test and give you some feedback. As you mentioned having to use xml would limit it to power-users, but it shouldn't be too difficult for site admin or other tech-friendly staff to create a couple of generic examples that can be shared to show other users how to edit to change the questions.
Regards, Gordon.