Conditions Release v8.3.0
User Guide March 11, 2008
Contents
What Release Conditions does Setting up release conditions Reusing conditions Removing conditions Special considerations Best practices Set up conditions before users access the course Avoid unnecessary conditions Avoid circular references Avoid impossible conditions Avoid contradictory conditions Scenarios Release content based on learning ability and course performance Release content in stages Customize content for groups within a course Use a checklist to organize activities Index
2008 by Desire2Learn, Inc. All rights reserved
Release Conditions v8.3.0 User Guide
What Release Conditions does
What Release Conditions does
Release conditions allow you to create a custom learning path through the materials in your course. When you attach a release condition to an item, user cannot see that item until they meet the associated condition. For example, you could attach a release condition to the second topic in your courses content area that would hide that topic until users viewed the topic before it. Or you create a condition that required users to view a content topic before gaining access to a quiz, or one that required them to post a message to a discussion topic before they could see a content module. If you attach multiple conditions to an item, users must meet all conditions before they can access the item. For example, you could require users to visit three content topics before gaining access to an associated quiz. You can put release conditions on the following items: Checklists Content modules and topics Custom widgets Discussion forums and topics Dropbox folders Grade items and categories LiveRoom rooms News items Quizzes Surveys
Note Once a user meets a release condition, the condition is cleared for that user and cannot be reset. For example, you attach a release condition to a discussion topic requiring user to achieve more than 60% on a quiz before they can access that topic. If a user receives 72% when he or she takes the quiz, then you later change the users score to 55%, the user can still access the discussion topic.
Setting up release conditions
You set up a release condition from the edit page of the item you want to restrict. For example, if you want to attach a condition to a content topic, you would go to the edit page for that content topic and create your condition from there. ! To attach a release condition 1 Go to the edit page for the item you want to attach the condition to and locate the release conditions area. (See the documentation for the appropriate tool for help editing items in that tool.) Click Create and Attach. Select the Condition Type and complete the Condition Details.
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2008 by Desire2Learn, Inc. All rights reserved
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Release Conditions v8.3.0 User Guide
Setting up release conditions
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Click Create. Click Save if applicable.
Reusing conditions
If youve already created a condition and want to apply the same condition to another item, you can quickly select the condition from a list of existing conditions in your course using the Attach Existing button. This saves you entering the criteria a second time. Note When you attach an existing condition from another item to a second item, the two conditions are not associated in any way. If you change the condition on either item or remove the condition from either item it has no affect on the other. ! To attach an existing condition 1 2 3 Go to the edit page for the item you want to attach the condition to and locate the release conditions area. Click Attach Existing. Select the condition. Tip To narrow the list of conditions, choose the tool the condition is based on from the View Conditions for list. 4 5 Click Attach. Click Save if applicable.
Removing conditions
1 2 3 Go to the edit page for the item you want to remove the condition from and locate the release conditions area. Click the Remove Condition icon for the condition you want to remove.
Click Save if applicable. Remove All Conditions icon at
To remove all the conditions from an item, click the the top of the list of conditions, then save.
2008 by Desire2Learn, Inc. All rights reserved
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Release Conditions v8.3.0 User Guide
Special considerations
Special considerations
Condition Content All Content Topics Visited Notes This condition requires users to visit all modules within your course. You cannot specify only a single module. If you want to create a condition that would make a tool available only after a user has completed a specific module, create a condition using the Content Topic Visited option and require that they visit the last topic within the applicable content module. If messages posted to the selected topic require approval, this condition is only satisfied once messages are approved.
Discussions Discussion Messages Authored in Topic
Best practices
Set up conditions before users access the course
Create all of your course materials and set up your release conditions before the course opens to users. This gives you a chance to check for mistakes in the conditions or for circular, contradictory, or unnecessary conditions. If you add new release conditions after users have accessed the course, users may be confused by resources disappearing. Since conditions cannot be reset, you also risk users having meet conditions before your resources are ready (e.g., accessing a content topic before it is finished).
Avoid unnecessary conditions
Each condition you associate with a tool takes additional time for the Learning Environment to process. Using as few conditions as possible to set up a learning path minimizes the amount of time that users spend waiting for pages to load. For example, say for your second week of class you have set up a content topic, a quiz, and a dropbox folder. You want to require users to read the topic before taking the quiz, and you want them to read the topic and attempt the quiz before submitting the weeks assignment to the dropbox folder. On the dropbox folder, you only need to attach the condition that users attempt the quiz; you know they will have to read the content topic before they can take the quiz, so theres no reason to add this condition to the dropbox folder as well.
2008 by Desire2Learn, Inc. All rights reserved
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Release Conditions v8.3.0 User Guide
Scenarios
Avoid circular references
A circular reference makes it impossible for users to satisfy a set of conditions. For example, if you set the condition that users must view a content topic before they can access a dropbox folder, and then set a condition that they must submit a file to the dropbox folder before they can access the content topic, you have a circular reference. Users cant satisfy either condition without satisfying the other one first, so they cant break into the circle. Circular references are more likely to occur with long chains of conditions. For example, a content topic that depends on a quiz that depends on a dropbox folder that depends on a checklist that depends on the content topic.
Avoid impossible conditions
Ensure that your conditions are not impossible for users to satisfy. For example, a condition that users must achieve greater than 100% on a grade item would be impossible (unless bonus marks are available for the item). If users are unable to satisfy a condition, they will be unable to access the content or tools to which the condition is attached.
Avoid contradictory conditions
Contradictory conditions occur when two or more conditions that cancel each other out are associated with an item. For example, the conditions User must achieve greater than 49.9% on Grade Item 1 and User must achieve less than 50% on Grade Item 1 are contradictory. Users could not satisfy both conditions at the same time, so they would not be able to see the item associated with these conditions.
Scenarios
Release content based on learning ability and course performance
You can include additional content in your course specifically for users who need extra help and release this content to users who score below a specified threshold on a quiz or grade item. Alternatively, you could release a special dropbox assignment to course users who attain a high score.
Release content in stages
To reveal content topics to users only after they have read prior content, attach release conditions on the later topics or modules that require users to view earlier topics. This can provide a clear path through the material and prevent users from bec...