Ranking block

I am exploring plugins like this one to try an gamify my Global Studies 8 course. One feature that would be very motivating for my junior high students is an individual rank. We often play a game called Kahoot (getkahoot.com) and after each question, the top 5 players are posted on main screen, but each student's screen shows their overall rank and who is 1 place above them (and possibly 1 place below them). It builds a competition amongst all the students, especially when the top is dominated by very strong students. Is this something that could be incorporated into this block? Show the top 5 and then "Your Rank:" and then show who is above them (and possibly below them). Students in a Kahoot game see how many points the student above them have to be able to say, "I need XXX points in order to pass Johnny."
It would also be great to possibly turn off the global ranking portion. While we can use that when playing a game, I am not sure how student privacy rights would play in if we posted the top XXX students publicly. When we post our grades in class, we do it by student id numbers so students can't see each other's grades. Successful students might not want their name on the a global scoreboard.
Thanks for listening!
Brian Rigwald
Global Studies 8
Century Junior High

Hey Ricardo, what SGBD are you using?

Prezado Willian,
Estou usando a versão 2.8.5+ e o cron está retornando a seguinte mensagem:
"Processing cron function for ranking....... used 12 dbqueries
... used 0.074506998062134 seconds
Task failed: Erro ao ler a base de dados"
Você teria ideia do que pode estar causando isto, uma vez que é só com ele que eu tenho este erro de leitura da base de dados?
Ricardo

Hi William,
I have two courses with activities marked as contributing to the ranking. Can I have separate ranking for each course or is the ranking only on a per student basis? I ask this because I have a ranking block in each course and all students have the same scores in both courses. Surely they have different completion criteria so should have different scores?
Otherwise a great plugin! My students love it!

rsrsrs. i'm on line right now. ;)
You can check the new version under the github: https://github.com/willianmano/moodle-block_ranking/tree/VERSION2
Now you only need mark the activities completion, don't need go to course completion and select the activities. Now the plugin get all activities with completion rules. I removed unecessary table and complexity and add the weekly, monthly and general ranking. xD
I'm right now creating an area with more detailed infos about the students and points received
I'm thinking in more ideas like levels and badges... ;)

Thanks for the quick reply, Willian, I'll be waiting for that new version!

Hartmut Scherer, I did not know about FERPA, i will read about it..

Hey Iñigo Zendegi Urzelai, Thanks for your reply. I've uploaded a new version without the subfolder. About the postgres, it is an issue, the block it's not compatible with that SGBD. I'm developing right now a new version of the plugin with new features and totally compatilble. I wish...

Hi,
I've installed the ranking block (version 2014022400) in Moodle 2.8.5 over PostgreSQL, and added the block to a course with activity completion tracking enabled and some activities marked to be completed to complete the course, but when a student completes some of those the block still shows "No students to show" message.
I've done a little research and I think that cron does not update the block status as long as:
- I don't see any scheduled tasks about this ranking block https://docs.moodle.org/28/en/Scheduled_tasks
- I don't see any trace on the cron log about this block
I am really interested on trying this plugin, if there is more tests I can do to help, please tell me.
[Off-topic]: Inside the plugin folder there is a copy of the plugin itself called 'moodle-block_ranking', I think it should be removed.

Hi all, I installed the ranking block (version 2014022400) in Moodle 2.8.3+ (Build: 20150205). Then, I logged in as a test student. After this I logged in again and could see the points for the test student. Success! Thanks a lot for your work, Willian.
I am in the process of gamifying an online class for fall 2015. Is the ranking block in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)? I am just asking as the full name of the student is revealed with the accumulated points (points for graded activity + points for completing an activity).

FYI...I installed the plugin from the forum here and it didn't work...it installed the 2.2 version on my 2.8 version. The 2.7+ version worked perfectly.

Thanks for the patience... I want to change some stuffs of the block... who want to contribute with it answering some questions?

Hi! I don't want to be annoying but did you already find some time for a 2.8 release?
Ranking block rocks! ;)

Yes, i will upload a new version tomorrow. ;)

Hi! Is there any chance to see this nice plugin updated for moodle 2.8?