JF 8 Feb 2010: We highly appreciate this idea.

HL: See also: Exercise improvement - also for multiple assignments per exercise
It should be possible to choose:

• textarea
• upload documents
• textarea AND document

Alex, 24 Mar 2010: There are some open conceptual issues: How is the download done? Should it include these texts? It may be very confusing for tutors if solutions are only partly included in the downloads. They do not care how it has been handed in. If we include the texts in the downloads, which format? Should they be converted to PDF? This is error-prone and complicated, since we get HTML from TinyMCE.

HL, 29. März 2010: This functionality is part of the "Lernplan"-Feature of WebWeaver (lo-net.de or educanet2.ch). If you work as a teacher with this feature, he can download the uploaded files, but he can`t download the text-area-"document"s. The teacher must correct this texts online. I personally think this would be enough - also for the ILIAS-feature. But it would be surely nice, if teacher could download also this file. Maybe we don`t use Tiny, and then teacher can download this as txt-files?

JF 15 Apr 2013: We appreciate the feature and schedule it for 4.4. We would like to start with on new type "Text Area" and skip the combination of Download/Text Area, since it makes many things more complicated and the combination of other existing subtypes (blogs/portfolios) would make it even more complex. We currently prefer to use a simple version of the TinyMCE editor here.

Great feature.
HL, 17.7.2013. I suggest the following completings and streamlinings:
 
a) JF 15 April: "We currently prefer to use a simple version of the TinyMCE editor here.". Well, a simple version of the TinyMCE ist the Tiny-implementation from the ELBA-project, see Tiny in the forums: left-aligned, only one line, reduced functionalites.
b) The default-width of the text-field of the exercise-Tiny could be the same as the forum-Tiny uses.
c) The default fontsize could be bigger. It could be the same as the forum-Tiny uses.
d) There is a "Save" and a "Cancel"-Button. I suggest to implement the behavior from tests and surveys and ILIAS page-editor: "Save and Return", "Save", and "Cancel"
e) In the tab "Submissions an grades", the font-weight of the element "Last Submission: Today, 18:07" is sometimes normal (e.g. Upload), sometimes bold (e.g. Text).
f) It is possible to save a submission when the "Remain working time" is over. I think this is a good solution, but then in the the element "Last Submission: Today, 18:07" could be have the color red? and show the tutor that the Remain working time was over.
 
and a Usability-bug or Usability-feature:
g) the teacher or tutor can see the text-submission by clicking the "Show-text"-link. It would be gread if they can add Note, Comment for learner, Grading and Mark an this page. With this, they have the text of the student and the comments on one page.

Jour Fixe, 22 JUL 2013: Jörg will have a look at the ELBA-Tiny to see if it could be reused.

• a) to e) will be fixed.
• Concerning f): submitting a text when  "Remain working time" is over is considered as a bug in the current implementation and should not be supported. Text submissions should be handled in the same way as file uploads, meaning: if time is over, no submission is possible anymore.
• Concerning g): We see the advantage of a "one screen fits all" but need to evaluate what is currently possible. We will discuss this also with the client that ordered the feature (Uni Freiburg).

JL 23 Jul 2013:

• a)-c) I talked with mjansen about this and the forum TinyMCE is somewhat special with its own config and separate administration settings. We will have to decide how to go on about this in the next JF.
• d) "Save and Return" has been added.
• e) This is actually a feature: if the submission was done after the tutors last action it will be displayed bold.
• f) According to the decision of the JF saving of the assignment text is not possible after the deadline anymore.

JourFixe 5 Aug 2013: We should make the editor configurable, like on other components. And the image upload should be fixed.

JL 06 Aug 2013: There are now dedicated exercise assignment editing settings (the default settings are the same as for forums) and the image upload should work (incl. web access checker).

HL., 16.12.2013: We do miss the important functionality for Administrators to get a collection of all written texts, in one file, for additional treatment.
a) An Export-Functionality (csv, xls) with two rows (Name; Assignment Text) and/or
b) a Download-Functionality (rtf, pdf) and/or
c) A Online html-table-button with the same two rows.
We prefer csv as a first light implementation.

JF 6 Jan 2014: xls and csv are not suitable formats for HTML data. We prefer an overview screen of all answers (I think similar to your solution c)) which users can print out using the browser function. We would support this as a usability fix.

YS, 17.07.2014: Is there any possibility to get a PDF-Button (like in test or survey) to download his own text (as learner) and to download one or all textes from participants (as teacher/administrator)? Did you discuss this wish already? Would this be a new feature?

JL 17 Jul 2014: As already outlined above the text assignment submissions consist of html. If you add the optional peer reviews the resulting data is not that easy to convert into something suitable for PDF output. The JF agreed to add an overview table as a (quick and simple) usability fix, adding a PDF export is a new feature I believe.
Please add this to the JF agenda if you want to have it discussed again.