Conditional activities in my LMS, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
By using the conditional display of content, educators can
- Automatically display messages alerting students to activities and/or resources that must be completed before tutorials. These messages will then disappear when students complete the work.
- Automatically display messages when students have completed work congratulating them on work completed and letting them know what they should bring to a class or tutorial.
- Scaffold content and/or activities by not allowing access to more advanced/complex activities and resources until work has been completed on foundation tasks.
- Allow for different levels of ability within a course. A student can tick a box if they feel they need more supports (more in-depth explanations of complex concepts or terms) and those will appear. For students who don’t need them, these extra foundation resources can remain hidden, allowing students to focus on what’s relevant to them.
- Gamify some of their online course. Conditionally displayed labels and resources can be used to reward effort with access to special/fun content and messages or provide clues that can be put together to solve a problem or puzzle or provide the next instalment of a narrative.
- Perhaps even branch some learning? Click next to this statement if you think X or this one if Y and the content and activities you see will reflect your choice.