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Start and End Date for Courses

Page Overview

1 Description
2 Additional Information
3 Discussion
4 Implementation

1 Description

Currently we only can define an activation period for courses.
This is fine with pure online courses. However, with blended learning courses, there are on-site events taking place on a specific day.

Therefore, we additionally need a period when an (on-site) course takes place (we are still looking for a good term for this period, something like "Execution Period"?).
This is important because, e.g., booking or cancellation deadlines are much more important with respect to on-site events:

Trainers, rooms, accomodation, materials (like print copies, devices, special clothing, food) have to be provided in time.
Courses might need to be cancelled if a minimum number of participants hasn't been completed.

Both the start and end date of the course should automatically become an appointment in the course calendar.

This article is only a part of an entire complex of features.
Immediately related topics are:

Seminar Management
Course Type: Online vs. On-Site
Central Management for:
- Material
- Seminar Providers
- Seminar Notification
- Trainers, incl. "Trainer Deployment Schedule"
Enhancements for Registration/Cancellation in Courses/Groups:

2 Additional Information

Idea / concept: Norbert Bromberger, Qualitus
Funding: Required
Maintainer: Stefan Meyer (and Björn Heyser for T&A settings, Jörg Lützenkirchen for Survey settings)
Development: Feature is to be developed by tbd
Testcases: tbd

3 Discussion

JF 24 Nov 2014: We appreciate this feature and schedule it for 5.1. We think the property should be called "Course Period, Course Begin, Course End"/"Kurszeitraum, Kursbeginn, Kursende". We think the properties are not only valuable for "on-site" courses. Recommended Location for the option: "Settings" > "Course Settings" > End of first "Edit Course" section. Two text input calendar fields should be used (no checkbox, no time). The start/end dates for courses, tests, surveys should all be migrated to text input versions of the calendar input element.

, 18 Aug 2015: The DateDurationInputGUI does not support the text input version yet. Should I switch to 2 separate DateTimeInputGUIs or keep the dropdowns?

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], August 31, 2015: We keep the DateDurationInputGUI until a general revision of DateInput fields is done (see DR 5.1 - Issue 06: Date/Time input fields on Small media Devices).

iLUB, Lauener, Hansjörg [lauener], 16.9.15.
The only functionality of this feature is, that the date and end time of of the course period will be displayed in the info-tab. It does not add calender entries in the course-calendar (as written in the Feature-wiki entry).

So we have some comments of the implementation of this feature:

1. This feature has a really prominent location in the settings of a course. It is just a information when does the course starts effectively. And this information for the user is displayed in the Info-tab, in the availability-section. We suggest: a) to change the location of this setting to the subtab "Course Information", or b) to change this setting to the Availability. For both cases a and b, an additional description is necessary: What is the aim of this setting? Why do I should use it?
2. It adds additional "clutter" to the Settings-form. Course-admins must distinguish four periods in the Settings: course period, limited availability, limited registration period, and Unsubscribe form course.

, 22 Sep 2015: Calendar entries are now added for the course period.

It definitely does not belong to "availability", as the course period has no consequence at all regarding (course/object) availability.
Why does it add clutter? The 4 periods you mentioned are all different in their meaning, so it would not be possible to get rid of any single one.

Jour Fixe, September 28, 2015: The setting "Veranstaltungszeitraum" stays at the current position but the byline will be changed: "Information zum Start und Ende der Veranstaltung, die mit dem Kurs unterstützt werden soll.". Additionally, this information (when enabled) shall be presented in the object list.

, 29 Sep 2015: Wording has been changed and the course period is now shown as object list property.

4 Implementation

, 29 Sep 2015: This feature has been implemented as proposed and discussed above. The period is shown as part of the object list GUI properties and the infoscreen properties. No further functionality is currently attached.