Introduction
Modules enable faculty to organize (and students to access) GLOW course materials thematically, regardless of type. All types of digital object in a GLOW course can be included in a Module. Beyond simple presentation, Modules also enable faculty to easily set conditional access to course content, including date-release access or requirements and prerequisites.
While it is possible to simply use the default item-types for navigation (e.g. clicking Assignments to access assignments, clicking Files to access files, etc.), this approach limits faculty’s ability to express pedagogical connections between or beyond these basic categories. It also gives students a segmented (rather than a unified) structural perception of the course.
The item-type indices (Files, Discussions, etc.) will always provide a complete list of each item type in your GLOW course, regardless of whether you use them for navigation. Modules are manually-curated arrangements of some subset of these items. One potentially useful analogy is to think of the item-type indices as “warehouses”, from which you select and arrange materials, in your preferred sequence, in the student-facing “showroom” of the Modules index. If you choose to use Modules, you may consider hiding the item-type index links from the course navigation, to minimize student confusion. (You can continue using those links even if hidden from students.)
Building Modules
In the Modules index, use the +Module button to create a new (empty) Module, title it, then drag-and-drop files, or use the + icon in the Module’s title bar to add different types of content. In the Add Item to [Module] dialog box, you can select existing course items to add, or create new items “on the fly” by using the [Create Item] option. Use the Add Item button to insert the item into the Module. Once you see the item in the Module, be sure to publish it to make it visible to students, by toggling its grey slash icon to a green check icon.
Features: Date-Release, and Requirements & Prerequisites
You may wish to manage students’ access to certain materials, either by date or by setting prerequisites or requirements. Modules enable both approaches.
Date-Release: In the Module title bar, use the vertical ellipses icon and select Edit from the menu. In the Edit Module Settings dialog box, tick the Lock until box, and enter a date in the Unlock At field. Use the Update Module button to set the release date for the Module. When students try to view Module items, they will receive the message “This [item] is locked until [date]”.
Requirements & Prerequisites: You can use the Edit Module Settings dialog box to define requirements in a Module, by selecting Module items, and the actions required in relation to them. The available actions vary by item type.
For example: Module 1 in your course contains a Quiz and a Page. You can define requirements as follows: for the Quiz, students must score at least 8 of 10 points; and for the Page, students must mark it “done”. These 2 actions now define the Module requirements.
Further, once you have defined the requirements of Module 1, you can set its completion as a prerequisite for Module 2, such that students will only have access to Module 2 once they have completed the defined actions in Module 1.
Once requirements and/or prerequisites are defined for a Module, its title bar, as well as each individual item, will display context-appropriate cues reflecting a student’s progress to date. Faculty can use the View Progress button to review individual students’ progress through Modules.