I would like to know how to set the default sort order in WPLMS 4.0 for the various lists available to the admin, instructor, student, etc. For example, as you can see in the attached screen shot, when I go to "Manage Courses" the default sort order is "Recent" and "Descending". This isn't a very useful visualization, for any user. Therefore I want to change it to "Alphabetical" and "Ascending", by default. How can I do this?
The only useful situation where "Recent" and "Descending" makes sense is when visualizing user activity. In almost all other cases, the most useful visualization will be "Alphabetical" and "Ascending", and I believe this is how most views should be, by default.
Currently there is no control to set a default order. You can obviously set the order using the select dropdown.
As of now we can add this as a feature request and wait for more votes from our customers to be included in the todo list.
We are open to suggestions and ideas as well. The only useful case would be a user having many courses to manage, that he can use different sort orders to get more insights into which course he wants to see.
"The only useful case would be a user having many courses to manage, that he can use different sort orders to get more insights into which course he wants to see."
I'm speaking from an administrative perspective. I don't even want the course list to change for me, and I want it to be listed alphabetically (for the same reasons as the user list, below). The same goes for student/user lists (let's focus on these, for the moment).
Administrators need to deal with user lists in other systems, all sorted (of course!) alphabetically. I really can't conceive of why every student list produced by the system would not be alphabetical, by default. This is how student lists are produced by 99% of systems all around the world. It is how student lists are printed on paper. It is how we sort them in spreadsheets. It is an easily reproducible cross-platform order.
The admin/instructor should not have to sort the user list manually every time. The current order in which students are listed, when the admin accessed a course, provides no benefit to the instructor or to the admin (or to the user).
So you understand and you agree that the current method provides no benefit (since it is not consistent or ordered in any predictable way), but are happy to continue using the current method?
You clearly already use different sorting for different purposes: in the curriculum, the items are listed in order, courses seem to be listed according to creation date, descending, and so on.
Yes, please add the following feature requests:
All user lists should be sorted alphabetically by default.
If the system provides an option for a user to re-sort any data, then the admin must have a control over the default sorting for that data.
So while you're surprised at our request since it seems unique, we're surprised at the fact that what seems to be a common-sense and industry-wide way to list students isn't used by WPLMS. In our case, we have even adapted to the fact that WPLMS doesn't prioritize listing students by "last name, first name", and chooses to use user.displayname instead. That's fine, but at the very least, student lists should be alphabetical by default, using user.displayname.
Yes, I realize that the admin/instructor can re-sort the student list once it is rendered. Nevertheless, they would save time and system resources (!!!) if they did not have to request a resorted user list every time they are going to go through each user's progress or data (which is done in alphabetical order).
I believe that this (making them alphabetically sorted by default) is a simple change to make in the user lists which doesn't harm anyone, conforms (at least a bit more) to the way the industry displays student data, and will be beneficial to many administrators and teachers.
We are selling this product since 8 years .Based on this we find usually users want to check either popular or recent course they created , there are other constraints .
Im sorry to say but we are not going to add this provision imeediately ,maybe in future .
Alex, this is not about the order of the courses! At all times I have been speaking about the order of the user lists! You can order the courses in any way you want but it doesn't make sense to order the users according to the same logic.
By user list I mean a list of users. Please see the attached image. Currently in the admin/instructor's view the users seem to be listed alphabetically, descending. I am just asking for lists of users to be ascending, by default, so we don't have to fool around with re-sorting every time. This is why I provided you with all those examples of lists of users in other platforms. I really don't care how you sort the courses, even though I also think the most logical, for the admin, would be to see them alphabetically. But that is not the point, this is about lists of users.
You may have also been listing users in this manner for 8 years. But repetition and/or longevity does not necessarily equal correctness. Microsoft Word, for instance, has some features that have been horribly implemented since 1983.
I would like to know how to set the default sort order in WPLMS 4.0 for the various lists available to the admin, instructor, student, etc. For example, as you can see in the attached screen shot, when I go to "Manage Courses" the default sort order is "Recent" and "Descending". This isn't a very useful visualization, for any user. Therefore I want to change it to "Alphabetical" and "Ascending", by default. How can I do this?
The only useful situation where "Recent" and "Descending" makes sense is when visualizing user activity. In almost all other cases, the most useful visualization will be "Alphabetical" and "Ascending", and I believe this is how most views should be, by default.
Currently there is no control to set a default order. You can obviously set the order using the select dropdown.
As of now we can add this as a feature request and wait for more votes from our customers to be included in the todo list.
We are open to suggestions and ideas as well. The only useful case would be a user having many courses to manage, that he can use different sort orders to get more insights into which course he wants to see.
"The only useful case would be a user having many courses to manage, that he can use different sort orders to get more insights into which course he wants to see."
I'm speaking from an administrative perspective. I don't even want the course list to change for me, and I want it to be listed alphabetically (for the same reasons as the user list, below). The same goes for student/user lists (let's focus on these, for the moment).
Administrators need to deal with user lists in other systems, all sorted (of course!) alphabetically. I really can't conceive of why every student list produced by the system would not be alphabetical, by default. This is how student lists are produced by 99% of systems all around the world. It is how student lists are printed on paper. It is how we sort them in spreadsheets. It is an easily reproducible cross-platform order.
The admin/instructor should not have to sort the user list manually every time. The current order in which students are listed, when the admin accessed a course, provides no benefit to the instructor or to the admin (or to the user).
I understand but Im sorry currently this is not available.
So you understand and you agree that the current method provides no benefit (since it is not consistent or ordered in any predictable way), but are happy to continue using the current method?
You clearly already use different sorting for different purposes: in the curriculum, the items are listed in order, courses seem to be listed according to creation date, descending, and so on.
Yes, please add the following feature requests:
I dont agree with that , but yes I understand your point of view .
By default its sorted with newly created courses and also there is select dropdown to change sorting method .
This is the first ever request we got such request .
We will consider your request if we got another one asking for same sorting method .
Currently its not available .
Thanks for considering the request.
Here is the way some other LMS systems list students within a course, by default:
This alphabetical emphasis is also seen on most Student Information Systems:
So while you're surprised at our request since it seems unique, we're surprised at the fact that what seems to be a common-sense and industry-wide way to list students isn't used by WPLMS. In our case, we have even adapted to the fact that WPLMS doesn't prioritize listing students by "last name, first name", and chooses to use user.displayname instead. That's fine, but at the very least, student lists should be alphabetical by default, using user.displayname.
Yes, I realize that the admin/instructor can re-sort the student list once it is rendered. Nevertheless, they would save time and system resources (!!!) if they did not have to request a resorted user list every time they are going to go through each user's progress or data (which is done in alphabetical order).
I believe that this (making them alphabetically sorted by default) is a simple change to make in the user lists which doesn't harm anyone, conforms (at least a bit more) to the way the industry displays student data, and will be beneficial to many administrators and teachers.
- David
We are selling this product since 8 years .Based on this we find usually users want to check either popular or recent course they created , there are other constraints .
Im sorry to say but we are not going to add this provision imeediately ,maybe in future .
Right now its not available .
Alex, this is not about the order of the courses! At all times I have been speaking about the order of the user lists! You can order the courses in any way you want but it doesn't make sense to order the users according to the same logic.
- David
By user list I mean a list of users. Please see the attached image. Currently in the admin/instructor's view the users seem to be listed alphabetically, descending. I am just asking for lists of users to be ascending, by default, so we don't have to fool around with re-sorting every time. This is why I provided you with all those examples of lists of users in other platforms. I really don't care how you sort the courses, even though I also think the most logical, for the admin, would be to see them alphabetically. But that is not the point, this is about lists of users.
You may have also been listing users in this manner for 8 years. But repetition and/or longevity does not necessarily equal correctness. Microsoft Word, for instance, has some features that have been horribly implemented since 1983.
Im sorry we wont be doing this immediately , might consider later after three months .