A random reminder block for Moodle students
Recent years, we've had a rise in technology convergence - instead of tech being the province of pure academia, or of the corporate world, it has become part of our every day lives, especially in the rise of the 'wearables' category.
One of the things the wearables industry pitches as part of its paradigm is 'lifestyle' as a theme - automated, regular reminders to stand up instead of being sat down for the full day, reminders to drink more water and the like.
Unfortunately humans are not rigid and quickly fall into a pattern where reminders that are regular are expected and eventually ignored.
So we need a tool that reminds us not quite so regularly - not on the hour, or the half hour, but at some randomised period in between.
Enter the Random Reminder block.
We've long thought of a VLE as a strictly learning environment, but it really isn't any more. It's part of a learning programme, and there's no reason why we need to use it solely for content delivery but supporting all the additional activities that fit with a student's digital learning.
Initially, the plan is to have this support students who want to proactively set themselves reminders (like occasionally stopping to take a break during a cram session, or to drink more water alongside their studies), but eventually build this into a tool to support microlearning as well, if students want to use it that way - sending them periodic, not-entirely-predictable reminders of content.