Proposal: Setting "Active" as the Default Filter in Course-Authoring MFE

Owned by Pooja Kulkarni
Sept 18, 2024
2 min read

1. Overview

We propose setting the "active" filter as the default on the home page of the course-authoring MFE. This ensures that course authors and instructors see only active courses by default when they first visit the page, reducing clutter and improving user efficiency.

2. Problem

Previously, active and archived courses were separated into different tabs, making it easy to differentiate between them. However, with the introduction of a unified view in the course-authoring MFE, both active and archived courses are shown in the same list. This can overwhelm users who are primarily interested in active courses, as they now have to manually apply the "active" filter to focus on current work.

3. Use cases

  • As a course author/instructor, I need to view only active courses by default, so that I can quickly manage the courses I am currently working on without filtering manually.

  • As a course admin, I need to access active courses first to focus on ongoing projects and avoid being distracted by archived courses.

4. Supporting market data

While there are no direct survey results or interviews for this particular feature, anecdotal feedback from instructors suggests that they typically interact with active courses far more frequently than archived ones. This behavior is consistent with standard usage patterns for course management tools.

5. Proposed solution

We will modify the initial course-fetching logic in the course-authoring MFE to set the "activeOnly: true" parameter as part of the default request. This change ensures that when a user first visits the course-authoring homepage, only active courses are shown by default. The user can still manually apply different filters (e.g., to view archived courses) if needed.

6. Other approaches considered

  • Dropdown-based approach: We initially considered tying the default filter logic directly to the dropdown actions. While feasible, this approach was deemed too tightly coupled with the UI behavior and potentially confusing for users expecting default state changes without interacting with the dropdown.

7. Implementation Plan

  • Who will drive the delivery: OpenCraft team will be responsible for implementing this feature.

  • Funding/resources: This is a small update to an existing feature and doesn’t require additional funding or external resources.

8. Plan for long-term ownership/maintainership

The course-authoring MFE team will continue to own and maintain this feature as part of the general maintenance of the course-authoring MFE.

9. Open questions for rollout/releases

TBD