...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
| Page Properties | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
View the Github ticket for proposal status updates. |
|---|
Overview
It should be possible to grade participation in discussions and factor this grading into a learner’s score for a course.
Problem
Currently, course teams and students use the Open edX Discussion Micro Frontend (MFE) to share ideas, views, and ask questions. However, there is no process for course admins to assign grades to student discussion responses.
...
Note: Course team members in Studio are not automatically granted discussion administration roles. Course Admins need to explicitly grant a team member a role in order to moderate or administer course discussions. |
|---|
Use Cases
As a course administrator, I want to be able to grant permissions to course staff in order for them to better manage graded discussions.
As an instructor, I want to make discussions gradable so that I can verify engagement.
As an instructor, I want to encourage students to participate regularly in thoughtful discussions.
As an instructor, I want to constrain graded discussions between date windows so that I can ensure learners are participating at the same time.
As a course staff member, I want a grading utility for discussions so that I can evaluate learners' contributions expeditiously.
As a learner, I want a rubric for graded discussions so that I know on which dimensions my contributions will be judged.
Proposed Solution
This document outlines a minimal but viable solution for graded discussions. Options for streamlining and automation are minimized, but can be added in subsequent updates.
Technical Approach
Currently, it is only possible to attach grades to XBlocks. We propose to extend grading to other features. This will require a significant reworking of the grading code. However, once completed, not only will graded discussions be possible, but other plugins will be able to leverage this capability to grade things outside of the normal course content paradigm.
Roles
The table below only takes graded discussion functionality in account. See the following links for a more extensive list of the team member discussion roles and permissions:
Administrators can:
Function | Admin | Discussion Admin* | Discussion Moderator* | TA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Manage graded discussion posts as per the existing discussion roles | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Create and manage graded discussion rubrics | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
Add / edit grades | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
Grant graded discussion permissions to existing team members | ✔ Can grant permissions to: Staff, Discussion Admins, Discussion Moderators, Group Community TAs & Community TAs | ✔ Can grant permissions to: Discussion Moderators, Group Community TAs & Community TAs | ✘ | ✘ |
Note:
|
|---|
Students can:
✔ View the discussion’s possible points | ||||
✔ View the grading rubric (how will points be awarded) | ||||
✔ View discussion description (how many posts, responses, word count etc) | ||||
✔ View the due date | ||||
✔ Add a post to a graded discussion |
...
Units
Course Wide Discussions
...
Graded Discussions in Studio
Once the Admin has installed the Discussions MFE and configured the “Discussion settings”, we suggest the following process in Studio:
...
If Enabled, the user has the option to add the following grading criteria:
(Note: for MVP, we’d like to leverage as much of the Open Response Assessment’s (ORA) UX and UI as possible)
Grading Description (ie. Prompt)
Schedule, eg:
Discussion start date and time
Discussion end date and time
Rubric
This will follow the current ORA rubric setup:
Criterion name (eg: Grammar and spelling)
Criterion prompt (ie. Description of how to evaluate a discussion post based on this criterion)
Options (eg. “Fair”, “Good”, or “Excellent”)
Each option has a Name, Explanation and Point value
...
Managing Discussions on the Instructor Dashboard
Each course has its own Instructor Dashboard. We need to ensure there is a suitable space for administrators to assess graded discussions. Discussions will be manually graded for MVP.
...
View submissions
Assign grades to each grading criteria
Add comments to each criterion
Override grades
Actions
Save as Draft
Cancel
Submit
...
Graded Discussions Student View
The Graded Discussions will leverage the current discussion UI in the LMS, but with subtle differences.
...
Discussions that are graded should show up as a line item in the “Grade Summary”.
...
...
Other approaches considered
A previous version of this product spec exists, but has been pared down considerably to this minimum viable plan.
...
The discussion block is deprecated in favor of topics being auto-created. We would have to bring back a discussion block to track graded discussions, which is counter to the authoring experience we’re trying to build.
We COULD create some kind of hidden XBlock that is abstracted away. But then we’d need to carve out some special casing for XBlocks to allow them to be hidden from course authors. This seems like a distasteful approach, especially since no other block is provided such a privilege and it is an open question when else such a feature would (or should) be used.
Opening up the grading code has a lot of potential for extending the platform’s grading capabilities. Discussions are only the start-- other outside plugins could allow for grading without tying grades back to a particular XBlock. This solution offers a lot of potential in the future while avoiding the special casing in item 2.
...
Competitive Research
Yellowdig
From their documentation: Different actions and responses to your posted content in Yellowdig can earn you Yellowdig points if they are activated for your community. The Community Owner or Facilitators can configure rules for earning points. The rules can be seen at any time by clicking on the "Show details" section below the main points display (shown below).
...
Populi
Populi “attaches” Graded Discussions to an assignment. From their documentation:
...
Users need to go to the Discussion’s page to adjust its settings and add grading requirements:
...
Canvas
How do you create a Graded Discussion on Canvas?
...
After that the user sets the following criteria:
[1] Enter the number of points possible
[2] Select the Grading Type
[3] Assignment Group
[4] Assign Peer Reviews
Finally the user assigns students and sets the due dates
Once published this is what the student sees:
Blackboard
How do you create a Graded Discussion on Blackboard?
Choose a grade unit
Choose a grade category
Assign a rubric (Add existing or Create new)
...
Plan for long-term ownership/maintainership
We expect several teams to need this functionality and several core contributors from OpenCraft will be working on it. Once live, these core contributors will continue assisting with maintenance. If needed, one or more point persons can be assigned who will be the main point of contact for this code upon release.
Open questions for rollout/releases
Is there any reason why these features should not be enabled by default once available in a named release?
Previous solutions for ‘graded discussions’ exist by integrating other discussion providers, such as Yellowdig. Do we need to do anything to better incorporate the data from these existing solutions, such as finding a way to count their scores toward discussion progress on the dashboard, or are these safe to ignore?