Changing Sort Order of Various Elements: Feature Request/Discussion

(1) For Resources, I'd like to see more flexibility as well. You can make a case they should all be at the top, all at the bottom, or scattered individually among the activities, depending on the specific course. For example, some of our courses have PDF forms that should be completed only after finishing the course. As a Resource, this would be much better suited placed after the activities. As a workaround, we uploaded the form to Google Drive and used the External URL activity instead of the Resources section.

(2) I'd like to see this as well. I posed a similar question a few months ago (http://www.learnercommunity.com/communities/insight/questions/193/sort-order-of-courses-in-a-catalog) and based on the feedback from the LS team we implemented a workaround solution. Works fine for the specific use case, but particularly for larger catalogs a true sort order option would be beneficial. I'd also like the option to change the default pagination from 10 courses per page to 25.

The intent for Resources is to provide a spot for material generally related to a lesson--stuff that doesn't apply to just one activity. The positioning at the top of the lesson makes sense in that context ("you're gonna refer to these materials throughout this lesson, so use them each time they're applicable"). The consistent positioning is a small bonus for learners taking different courses (rather than "moving their cheese" from one course to the next, if there are resources for a lesson, they'll always be at the top of that lesson).

If a file doesn't apply "throughout" the lesson, our thought was that it would be delivered via an activity within the flow of the course. For example, a Content HTML activity that says, "Now it's time to complete this PDF: [attached PDF file]".

Help us understand the use cases for/benefits of "post-lesson resources" versus "general lesson resources or inline activities"...

I experimented with linking to a PDF from within a Content HTML activity. The PDF came up nicely in the pop-up window; however, there is no way to navigate back to the HTML content without closing the pop-up and re-opening it. Similarly in full-screen mode you need to click the activity again to go back to the HTML content.

I personally like the resources ahead of the activities - participants are more likely to pull the resources at the beginning. In regards to David's comment, I have noticed the same thing.

I don't have any issues with the location of the Resources section, but I would DEFINITELY be interested in a better sort option for the catalog. Our catalog has over 150 products in it - and growing - and alphabetical is just not what we're looking for. We did a workaround as well - ours was to choose 3 products that we want to really market that month, and we created flashy images for them, and put them at the top of the page above the catalog, with links to purchase. See it at http://elearning.ashp.org/catalog. @Matt, what was your workaround?

Similar but different....what about the Sort in the Enrollments widget? I love the thought behind the newest/title/recent etc., but the "Recent" sort is almost useless for me because unopened products are at the top. I must have 50+ enrollments that were given to me that I never opened, and yet they are sorted to the top, OVER something that I just opened 2 minutes ago. IMO, if I am looking for a new enrollment that I've never opened, I'll sort by Newest. Recent should be the stuff I was just working in. Anyone else agree?

@Kirby - Specific sort ordering for a catalog. Matt's link above does touch on the same issue you brought up (and Colette too) and it does seem to keep coming up. The "catalog widget" is dynamically loaded with products based on the configuration of the widget (meaning you don't have to manually place items in a catalog). We've been operating with the expectation that if you have too many products in the catalog, and you want to control the ordering of the items within the catalog in a more manual fashion that perhaps the catalog needs to be subdivided up to make them smaller and easier to manage. However, as our clients have grown and the number of products they are offering is growing into the hundreds, I think it is time we revisited this idea...

... I think we can get away with adding a *catalog boosting* number to each product and a new configuration option to the catalog to support *boosting*. We'd still leverage the existing sorting that is there today, but if *boosting* is enabled, we'd first order by the *catalog boosting* number on the product and then by whatever sorting option is configured on the catalog (alphabetical, published date, etc). Higher boosting numbers would be shown first.

It sounds like that would accomplish these wishes for "sort order" in a catalog while still maintaining a dynamically loaded catalog widget. :)

Does anyone else have an opinion on the question that Colette brought up around the sorting of the "Recent" items in the enrollments widget?

Today the "Recent" sort includes any enrollments that have not been started followed by those the ones last accessed. What she is proposing is that we swap that so that "Recent" always shows last accessed enrollments first with those that have not been started last.

Instead of essentially creating 2 groups ("not viewed yet" and "viewed") how about sorting enrollments using a SINGLE "relevant datetime" (the "viewed" datetime if it's been viewed, OR the "enrolled" datetime if it hasn't been viewed)? That would sort all enrollments in a "last touched" order--a new enrollment would still appear at the top of the list, but viewing any enrollment would ALWAYS move it to the very top of the list (causing any "new enrollment not yet viewed" to sink naturally down the list).