1. Custom Forum Activity Reports
Sarah Ashley, M.S., M.Ed.
Instructional Designer
Rutgers Biomedical & Health Sciences (RBHS)
New Jersey, USA
2016

2. Background Currently Resides in Moodle 1.9
Lost detail forum reporting in migration from ANGEL to Moodle
Developed Report Plugin for Moodle 1.9
Rewriting for Moodle 2.8+
Moodle Core? Someday…??
Currently Resides in Moodle 1.9
Quantitative Metrics  Qualitative Feedback

3. Grading Capability based on Qualitative Data

4. Report #1 using Configurable Report plugin
Forum by Forum Report with per user statistics

5. Report #2 Full Course Forum Activity Summary
Numbers link to student’s posts for that forum

6. Sample Student’s Post Page
Teacher can grade the post right on this page

7. Sample Non-SQL Report List of my courses & Completion Tracking status

8. What You Will Need: The Configurable Report block plugin
Admin rights to install

9. Why Your Admin Might Refuse
EFFECTS OF A POORLY WRITTEN QUERY
slow down DB
take away resources
inaccurate result set

10. Location of Config Report block
On Front Page of Moodle Site
All users can see the block
Control access with report permissions
Control access with visibility (hide/show)
Configure block  Where this block appears
Show global reports?
Inside a Course
On course home page

11. General Set Up Add block to course Manage Reports Add Report
Select Type of Report

12. Non-SQL Reports Select report type Add desired columns Add conditions1 2
Select report type Add desired columns
Select TYPE OF REPORT
ADD desired COLUMNS for the Report
SET Conditions (helpful to avoid long query time processing huge amounts of data) 3
Add conditions

13. SQL Query Window Here is where you enter your SQL Query
Take note of link to Moodle Community’s Library of contributed Queries you can use as a starting point for your own reports
Other TABS lead to many other features of the plugin, like filters, graphs, calculations and a template.

14. Downloadable Goodies Queries for each forum report
Step-by-Step “How-To” Guide
Basic introduction to MySQL

15. What should the report show?
Student
Initial Post
Time Posted
Replies TO Peers
Total Posts
Sample Student 1
3/25/16 4:15 pm 4 5
Student
Initial Post
Time Posted
Replies TO Peers
Total Posts
Replies BY Peers
Replies BY Instructor
Sample Student 1
3/25/16 4:15 pm 4 5 10 3
Information needed  database table(s) containing that information
Students’ Names  User, Role Assignment
Number of Initial Posts  COUNT, Forum Discussions
Time Posted  Forum Discussions
Number of Replies  COUNT, Forum Posts
Total Number of Posts  SUM
Student
UNIT 1
UNIT 2
UNIT 3
UNIT 4
UNIT 5
UNIT 6
Sample Student 3 5 7 2 1

16. Information for Forum Reports
Which forums?
Which users/roles?
You will need to write down these values to customize the Forum Reports for your courses, forums, and user roles in the Queries I have provided

17. Customize!

18. Explore Tabs for more Features
Template control the look
Calculations Sum, Avg, Max
Plot Graphs Pie, Line, Bar
Permissions control access
Filters display only parts of the data

19. Example of Template Report
Colored background, Hyperlinked column

20. Who has permission to view it?
Careful with the conditions!

21. Copy a Report Copy retains previous Query
Change variables to create new forum reports
DUPLICATE, change title of report, and insert the FORUM ID of the next desired forum into the Query
WHERE fd.forum= 1083
SUM(IF(fd.forum=7021,1,0))

22. Thank You! Questions? Sarah Ashley @adjoshley
Copy of presentation and queries for the reports are available on the Moodle Moot US 2016 site