/
Spec: Assignment due date reminder notification

Spec: Assignment due date reminder notification

  • Rough draft

    • This spec is on hold until we get a better understanding of due dates in self paced courses and the status of Personalized Learner Schedules (PLS).

    In instructor paced (IP) courses, there are several due dates that can impact a learner’s journey:

    1. Course end date

    2. Assignment/Subsection due date

    3. ORA due date (ORA can be independent of subsection, see here)

    4. Course upgrade deadline

    In this document, we will analyze the feasibility of building tray and email notifications for assignment/subsection due date notifications.

    This document focuses on due date reminder notifications for Instructor paced courses ONLY. See this slack conversation for more context: https://openedx.slack.com/archives/C26T5JFDX/p1757565730448309

    Discovery

    For each subsection in a course, we can just send notifications to all enrolled learners, X days before its due date. There are, however, some questions:

    1. Only 1 reminder or periodic reminders every X days until due date?

      1. If periodic, when to start sent sending them?

      2. A limit on the number of reminders sent each subsection?

    2. What will be the default value of X?

    3. Will we allow X to be changed?

      1. By instance managers?

      2. By instructors?

      3. By learners?

    4. Do we also include subsections that are not marked as graded?

    Things to consider when dispatching the notification:

    1. Subsection is visible. A subsection is not visible to a learner if:

      1. It has NOT been released.

      2. It has been released but the parent section has NOT been released.

      3. Course has started.

      4. Course has not ended.

    2. Learner is yet to “complete” the subsection.

      1. How do measure completion of a subsection?

      2. Do we need to consider pass/fail grades? What if grades are pending?

    3. Learner has not passed/completed the course.

      1. If a leaner has already passed a course, then completing any remaining subsections is not necessary for a certificate (is this true?).

    4. How to account for units in the subsection whose content has been restricted based on enrollment tracks?

    5. Will there be a difference between audit and verified track?

    image-20250915-103140.png

    Known behaviors

    By default:

    • Section release date is set to course start date.

    • Subsection release date is set to section release date.

    • Subsection due date is not set.

    However, it is possible to:

    • Set section release date before course start date.

    • Set subsection release date before section release date or even course start date.

      • When subsection release date is before section release date, the subsection is NOT visible.

    • Set due date of subsection after course end date.