Four ideas for effective use of activity completion

A visual representation of student progress in a course is possible using Activity completion settings. A dynamic set of criteria based on the Moodle™ Activity or Resource that is being created is used to determine when the completion conditions have been met. Completion conditions may be as broad as the activity being viewed or as detailed as posting/replying a specific number of times to a forum. Once the requirements for the Activity completion settings have been met the checkbox to the right of the activity name will automatically be checked. Activity Completion also allows for manually marking of this checkbox allowing users to identify its completion status. The following tips will assist you to use the Activity completion functionality in your Moodle™ course.

1. Use Activity completion settings to track student progress. There are three options for tracking progress using the completion settings.

• Do not indicate activity completion
• Students can manually mark the activity as completed
• Show activity as complete when conditions are met

If the third option Show activity as complete when conditions are met is selected then the instructor is able to choose from a set of conditions that are associated with the resource or activity to determine when the module is considered complete.

2. Use Activity completion settings as an alternative assessment. This can be done by determining completion settings that show participation in the activity in lieu of giving a grade. For example in the Forum Activity completion settings it is possible to specify that the students must post and reply a specific number of times for the Forum to be considered complete. This reduces the number of items that need to be graded by the instructor but still tells the student that it is important to be an active participant in the course.

3. Use Activity completion settings in conjunction with Restrict access and Personalized Learning Designer to customize the learning experience for each student. Both of these Moodle™ and Joule features allow the instructor to determine if an action will occur based on whether or not the completion conditions of an activity or resource have been met by the student. For example with Restrict access settings the student may be required to meet the completion tracking for all modules in topic one before they can begin to work on topic two; or with the Personalized Learning Designer the student could be required to have the pre-test marked as one of the conditions before the student is moved into a group to work on the next activity. These automated actions assist the instructor in having a course that is differentiated based on the students’ needs.

4. Use the Activity completion Report as a visual representation of student progression. The report can be sorted by First Name or Surname and also filtered by groups. At a quick glance the instructor is able to see which students have met the completion requirements for each activity in the course. If a student has completed an activity a check mark will appear. By hovering over the checkmark the instructor is able to see what date the completion requirements were met. By using the setting Expect completed on an instructor can set a date where by students will have completed the activity. This date is only visible to the instructor inside of the Activity completion Report as a visual reference for the instructor.

To learn more about using Activity Completion check out Rebecca’s Blog Best Practices: Creating a Moodle™ Course To-Do List or enroll in our Moodle™/Joule Course Building for New Users Course.

~Janelle Gieseke, Senior Corporate Trainer