Checklist vs Content

Kelly.H.9199

My students and I find the checklist far more useful than the content area. The students can check off in the checklist when they have completed an assignment.
I know that manual check-off is available in content, but then conditional release does not work.

Any suggestions?

Matt.W.287

Hi Kelly

I think you will run into a conflict using Checklists as a way to track learner progress - specifically if you use Release Conditions in the Content Tool. The Checklist tool was designed to give learners a way of tracking their own TO-DO lists, but not so that their progress could be tracked.

Even though the current state of a checkbox item is retained in the database, and an Intelligent Agent can reliably determine the current completion status, Release Conditions in the Content tool do not. These are not re-evaluated as Checklist items are checked/unchecked.

What that means is this: If you have a checklist item for completing an Assignment and a subsequent content item in the Table of Contents which is only displayed once the Assignment is complete, then you might expect that content item to be visible only when the checkbox is checked. That is not the case. A learner in this scenario can check the item (which will expose the subsequent content topic) and then uncheck the item… leaving that content item exposed. An Intelligent Agent would say the checkbox item is "incomplete" when you run it again but nonetheless the content item remains released to that learner.

The recommendation is to use Completion Tracking in the course to determine if the Assignment is complete. In the past, any page in the Content tool was marked as "visited" once a learner had opened the page. However the Assignment remains incomplete until a submission is made. Then a "congratulatory" content topic won't be displayed until the Assignment is actually met.

I hope that's helpful.
Matt
Learning Administration Manager