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Up / Down Voting for Forum Topics

1 Requirements

1.1 Use cases / Explanation:

Users should have the possibility to vote a topic in a forum up or down in order to underline the importance / redundance of a topic. This would be an asset for ILIAS both in terms of user support on the platform and in terms of pedagocical implementations and activating learning scenarios. Currentls this kind of feature pops up on many MOOC platforms, but I think that having this functionality benefits both classroom size groups and lecture theatre+ size groups.
 
Some use cases for this feature:

• this would make it much easier for tutors to deal with very active forums because the most pressing issues (technical or didicatically motivated)
• rather shy users / learners might not be confident enough to create a new topic, but might be willing to vote an existing issue up or down
• some users might have the same question that somebody else already had posted and would like to underline the importance of this question

1.2 Realisation:

A good exmaple of how this might work is the open source software questions2answer (http://www.question2answer.org/), although q2a is rather a notice board than a discussion forum.
 
If activated, the standard sorting order of this forum should be fristly the votes and secondly the date / time of the last modification or vote. Then a new column in the topic overview could be displayed in front of the topic title showing the number of votes for up / down (visualisation ideas: green thumb up, red thumb down, up / down arrows). Ideally the voting should be done by simply clicking on the visual representation for up / down.
 
Reagrding the number of votes per user, two scenarios are possible and should be configurable (I have ssen both scenarios in use both in MOOC platforms and in smaller settings with q2a at my university):

• every user has the chance to cast one vote per topic, either up or down
• users can cast as many votes per topic as they like

2 Status

• Scheduled for: Release 5.0
• Funding: Funded by Universität Freiburg
• Maintainer: Michael Jansen
• Implementation of the feature is done by Databay AG
• Contract settled: Yes
• Tested by / status: Marko Glaubitz (marko.glaubitz@rz.uni-freiburg.de), (OK)

2.1 Testing

I have tested the feature in the following way:

• activating the rating of threads on the settings page shows rating column on forum thread page
• deactivating the rating of threads on the settings page hides rating column on forum thread page

• activating / deactivating the rating preserves existing rating values
• rating of a thread by click on rating stars is set, displayed and saved correctly
• changing a rating (re-rating) works
• removing a given rating works

• multiple ratings (by multiple users are cumulated correctly (correctcalculation mean value)
• merging of rated threads preserves the higher rating value of both values
• click on rating column header changes sorting of threads correctly (increasing / decreasing sorting)
• sorting is refreshed (displayed correctly) directly after giving a rating for a thread wihtout extra page reload

3 Additional Information

Contact the following persons if you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding:

• Information about concept: (name, e-mail)
• Information about funding: (name, e-mail)
• Information about implementation: (name, e-mail)

4 Discussion

Michael Jansen, 11 Apr 2014: I support this request in general.
 
It would be nice if you would provide a mockup for the thread table containing this new user interface element to clarify your vision of the change.
 
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I worry about performance issues concerning the thread table view. There are currently many SQL joins required to

• a) Display all the information (new posts, read post, unread posts in different contexts (moderator, regular user))
• b) Respect sorting

Extending the query (to request voting points for sorting/display purposes) would slow down the thread table view even more.
 
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What do you expect after incrementing/decrementing points regarding the user interface? Should this be handled asynchronously (via AJAX)? Do you expect an asychronous re-sorting when points get changed?

Initial table sorting:

[...]
Thread 3: 5 Points
Thread 4: 5 Points
[...]

Do you expect a "on the fly" re-sorting when decrementing the points for thread 3? Or is it sufficient if the new sorting will be visible after a page reload? I would prefer the new ordering after a reload.

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Furthermore: Please keep in mind that there are sticky threads which have to be placed on top of all other threads.

Alex Killing, 27 Apr 2014: We should think twice before adding a second and different rating feature than the existing one (five star rating), as also suggested for forum threads/postings on the page Rating for Forum Posts and Threads.

JF 28 Apr 2014: We support the idea and schedule it for 4.5, but the existing fixe star rating should be used. Marco, would this be ok for you?

Marko Glaubitz, 08.05.2014: The five star riting would be a good first step. Personally, I think the thumbs up / down voting is the clearest and easiest to use option for students/teachers, since nothing has to be explained. However, I understadn that keeping complexity at a managable level is very important.
 
Regarding the sorting: it would be great, if live sorting was possible. But if there was a butto like "Sortierung aktualisieren" or something I could live with that as well as a compromise.

Marko Glaubitz, 14.05.2014, I support Michael's concept and the prototype.

JF 26 May 2014: We reject the additional button. The column header "Last Article" and "Rating" should be clickable/sortable instead. In both cases the sticky threads are put on top and their (manually configured) order "overwrite" the user selected order. AND it should be possible to (de-)activated the rating feature for each forum.

Marko Glaubitz, 27.05.2014: That sounds fine for me.

MG, 25.07.2014: Language Maintenance of texts above :)

5 Implementation

MJ 05.08.2014: Implemented (http://ilias.de/test45)