> as long as you're using a relatively recent version of Moodle
We're stuck on v2.5 for at least the next year. Sorry, forgot to mention that.
> The standard assignment plugin should suit your need just fine
As explained, we have children's parents (who do not speak English well) looking at these notifications to try to work out what the homework is that the children haven't written in their diaries correctly, and the assignment page is too cluttered and confusing for them. I'm talking about this page, when you view an assignment:
All we need is the very top part (although it would be nice to get the date due up there too).
> but the date/time will be greyed out once the specified time has passed
Nope. It stays active, and every assignment shows the children a message that they have outstanding assignments pending. The teacher has to go into the course and manually hide the assignment. With up to 10 homework assignments to juggle each week, it is too much for them to remember to switch off the assignments manually. They need to be able to set-and-forget. Besides, some children may be absent for a week or two, so it is necessary that they are able to look at a few old notifications.
The calendar events sent to specific course 'groups' are actually almost perfect in the way the homework notification is set and displayed. Except it would be great to also have the homework note as a course activity like the assignment module. Also, there's a bug in that if you edit a calendar entry, you cannot change the group it was set for. Hence I'm wondering if there is an activity module for simply giving notifications?