Make 'This course' header menu more informative

[Alexander Goryntsev]

Recently I’ve been working with 3_bits on bcu theme customization for my learning project. Now, having started setting up the first course, I’d be happy to share some of my ideas about how to make the theme better.

I guess that the ultimate purpose of the header navigation bar is the same as of the navigation block but with more handy location on the page, so I expected the same functionality. However in “This course” drop-down menu I find listed TYPES OF ACTIVITIES (grades, feedback, forum, …) that makes little sense and doesn’t represent a meaningful content of the course. At the same time in the navigation block under the current course menu item I get a list of SECTIONS NAMES that is much more useful for navigation purposes.

Is it possible to change the activities for sections names in the header navigation “This course” drop-down menu?

[Jeremy Hopkins]

Hi Alex,

Any suggestions are welcome! There is already a Moodle block you can enable in course pages to do this, it is called the "Activities" block (see screen shot below). This theme actually uses functions of that block. You can disable the "this course" link in the theme and use that block instead.

[Alexander Goryntsev]

"Disable the 'this course' link" - it's exactly, what I did:( But the header navigation is a great feature so I'd be happy to enable this menu item one day with navigation function that I find more appropriate. If now the theme uses functions of one block maybe it could use functions of another? Anyway thank you guys for the great job you're doing with the theme!

[Jeremy Hopkins]

Hi Alex,

The purpose of that menu was to help students move around the activities they were in, manage forum subscriptions etc and was largely based on an existing Moodle block. We are looking at adding more to that list but not everything. Badges is not something I would add as it is not widely used and there is a badges link under the users profile already.

If there are specific links / features you want adding here it would be better to list them individually so we can consider each feature on its own merit.

[Alexander Goryntsev]

Recently I got a feedback from my students concerning this issue. They really need to have quick navigation among activities but the types of activities listed in this menu tell really nothing to them. For example I use a database activity to collect structured opinions; the database layout is changed with CSS in such a way that it's hard to recognize that you're working with just a database. I'm sure that if we got names of all activities here instead of their types it would make this menu much more informative and useful. This menu would nicely complement the navigation block, where we can find a way among modules.

[Alexander Goryntsev]

Let's take this example with a database. I use it in a course about organizational culture and students bring there their own cultural beliefs. The name of the activity is 'Our Cultural Beliefs'. But in the menu they see just its type - 'Database'. Feel the difference! So its fine to limit this menu items to activities only but let's display them with their names.

[Jeremy Hopkins]

The issues we had which lead to the addition of this were students finding lists of assignments, participants etc. If you have a large course, or one using course formats like Grid which do not show all the content on the course page (without clicking) it can be useful.

In terms of the name, if you have three database activities in a course all with different names, which name would you choose for that link? Currently if you click that then all database activities would be listed in the report page that opens.

I am open to improving this but it was never intended to show everything, but to show simpler summary pages. The problem with the Moodle Navigation block is that it shows too much information and you have to drill down to find anything, I would not want to replicate that.

[Alexander Goryntsev]

I realize the purpose of this menu and fully support it. It really adds a new dimension to a course navigation. That's why I don't disable it as you suggested earlier.

If I have several activities of the same type I'd expect to see all of them listed in the menu with their names. You are right that I can get to them in two steps now: first picking a type and then picking a name from the list. But this first step is a barrier as students seeing the list of types, which are unknown to them, get confused and don't make the second step.

Let's look at this challenge from another point of view. As a teacher I need a capability to create a custom menu within a course context. In this menu I should be able to collect links to any elements of the course: modules, activities, resources, ... It's kind of 'quick access' menu to the key course items. Does it make sense for you? Can I do it now with existing teacher tools?

[Alexander Goryntsev]

Not the high priority for the theme development - just distracts.