Inconsistency in the new Bulk Publish feature among tools

The new bulk publish option in Assignments, Announcements, and Tests & Quizzes is a very nice addition, but there is a lot of inconsistency in the way it works in the different tools. It would be a much better user experience if the tools behaved in a more consistent manner when using this feature.

For example, in Assignments, you can now select several items and choose the Publish button below. Note that the buttons for Remove, Publish, and Unpublish are all in dark blue once one or more check boxes are selected.

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After clicking Publish, you get a confirmation screen showing you a table that lists the assignments to be published along with the due date. It also includes the Status (Open, Due, Closed) and the number of Submissions. I can see where the Status might be useful, but I’m not entirely sure why Submissions are shown here. I assume that information is more applicable when Unpublishing an assignment? It just seems a bit odd to include in this screen.

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In the Announcements tool, you have a similar experience to Assignments, but there is an extra button. When you choose one or more draft Announcements, you get Remove, Publish, Unpublish, and Clear Selections buttons. Note that the Remove, Publish, and Unpublish buttons are dark blue, as they appear in Assignments. However, there is the extra Clear Selections buttons which does not appear in Assignments and which I think would be useful in other tools where this bulk feature appears.

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Announcements, like Assignments, also provides you with a confirmation screen showing a table with the announcement information.

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Now, in contrast, when you go to Test & Quizzes and use the Bulk Publish feature, you also get a Select check box to choose the items you want to Publish. Note that here, the buttons for Remove and Publish are not dark blue, they are the default gray color when enabled. These should be a consistent dark blue color in both tools for the Remove and Publish buttons. Also, there is no Unpublish or Clear Selections buttons shown here. I understand why the Unpublish button might be problematic, given the way that T&Q handles draft and published items as separate entities. However, it does present additional inconsistency in the UI. Perhaps a Retract button could be added in place of Unpublish? In any case, a Clear Selections button would be useful here.

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Upon clicking Publish in T&Q, instead of a table showing assessment information, as is shown in Assignments and Announcements, you just get a pop-up message asking for confirmation.

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This pop-up does not provide the same level of information as is displayed in the other two tools. In addition, the option to add assessment due dates to the Calendar is typically displayed to the instructor in the publish screen on an individual quiz. If you bulk publish, there is no way to check the box to add the due date to the Calendar. Unlike Assignments, you can’t go into the Settings to select that box after publishing, since it doesn’t appear there. (See the related Jira requesting that the publish to calendar check box be added to assessment Settings. https://sakaiproject.atlassian.net/issues/SAK-38306 )

It would be far more preferable for T&Q to display a table with the assessment information, and this would also provide the opportunity to include a column containing the option to send the due date to the Calendar. See mockup below.

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