About Tasks

Tasks let you set a list of tracked objectives for students to achieve in a discussion, which is especially useful if you’re introducing a new class or group of students to Kialo Edu.

About the Tasks Feature

• If tasks are enabled, students in a discussion see a list of objectives to complete, such as creating claims, voting, and/or adding sources.
  
• For tasks to function correctly, teachers/educators should have Owner or Admin roles, and students should have the Writer role. With any permissions higher than Writer, students are able to move and delete other students’ contributions, which interferes with tracking task progress (see section below for details).
  
• Admins can view the progress made by users towards each of their tasks.
  
• Students can view their own task progress by clicking the tasks icon in the top-right of a discussion, or opening the Discussion Menu (by clicking the ≡ three horizontal lines button in the top-left of the discussion) and selecting My Tasks.

About Tasks and Task Progress

When enabling tasks, you can specify which tasks students should complete, as well as how many times.

• Write claims in total: Each time a student submits a claim in the discussion, this task will progress by one. If a student deletes their own claim, their progress will drop by one. If their claim is deleted by another user, such as a discussion Admin, that claim still counts towards this task. Claims which meet criteria for other tasks (such as writing claims below others’ claims) also count towards this task.
  
• Write claims below others’ claims: Each time a student submits a claim underneath a claim which is created by another user, this task will progress by one. You should enable this task to encourage students to contribute arguments under other students’ claims and work collaboratively (both pros and cons contribute to this task, so students may choose to support or argue against other students’ claims). If a student deletes their own claim, their progress will drop by one. If their claim is deleted by another user, such as a discussion Admin, that claim still counts towards this task.
  
• Write claims below your own claims: Each time a student submits a claim underneath a claim which they are also the author of, this task will progress by one. You should enable this task to encourage students to develop their own arguments. If a student deletes their own claim, their progress will drop by one. If their claim is deleted by another user, such as a discussion Admin, that claim still counts towards this task.
  
• Link to a source in your own claims: For each claim the student has created which contains an attached link, this task progresses by one. The link can either be attached when the claim is created or by editing an existing claim and adding one. If a student deletes their own claim containing the link, or edits their claim to remove the link, progress towards this task drops by one. If another user edits a students’ claim to remove the link, progress will drop by one, however if the claim is deleted, it will still count towards this task. (Note that task progress cannot verify the quality of sources, so educators may wish to verify appropriate links are used – see Viewing Student Progress).
  
• Vote claims: For each claim the student votes on, this task progresses by one. Students can vote on their own claims or other users’ claims. Progress towards this task is counted regardless of whether the claims a student has voted on have been deleted, including their own (for this reason educators may wish to verify claims have been voted on appropriately – see Viewing Student Progress). Enabling this task also enables voting in the discussion.

Once students have completed a set of tasks, you can reset task progress to assign students a new set of tasks.

Reminder: It is important to ensure students have the Writer role, as otherwise they may interfere with tracking task progress.

Enabling, Editing, and Resetting Tasks

Note: You must have Admin permissions or higher to configure tasks.

Enabling, Editing, and Disabling Tasks

To enable tasks:

1. Click the ≡ (three horizontal lines) button in the top-left of the discussion to open the Discussion Menu.
2. Select Discussion Settings.
3. Open the Tasks tab.
4. Check Enable Tasks.
5. Check each task you want to enable for students, and specify how many of each type of task students should complete in the discussion.
6. Click Save.

To edit tasks, open the Tasks tab using the steps above. You can adjust which tasks should be enabled, or edit the number of times each task should be completed. Any adjustments are updated for students dynamically.

To disable tasks for students, uncheck the Enable Tasks option.

Resetting the Tasks Counter

To reset student progress of tasks:

1. Click the ≡ (three horizontal lines) button in the top-left of the discussion to open the Discussion Menu.
2. Select Discussion Settings.
3. Open the Tasks tab.
4. Click the … (three dots icon) to the right of the search bar.
5. Select Reset Task Progress.
6. Click Confirm.

Viewing Student Task Progress

To view student progress on tasks:

1. Click the ≡ (three horizontal lines) button in the top-left of the discussion to open the Discussion Menu.
2. Select Tasks. An overview appears of all students in the discussion and their progress towards completing assigned tasks. 
3. To view a specific students’ progress, click their username to show a breakdown towards each task.
4. To view their relevant contributions for each task, click the downwards arrow to the right of the task.