Hi,
We are facing the following problem. Some students are getting zero grade even when having some correct answers in a quiz.
We can find the following line in documentation:
4. If a student manages to cheat and spends more than 60 seconds over the allotted time then the quiz is automatically graded zero
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Adding/updating_a_quiz#Timing_section
Can you confirm me that moodle 1.9.5 has this feature?
If yes, in our case, what might be happening is that moodle system may take some time (more than 60s) to automatically submit the quiz after the time expires and the student gets stressed and clicks the submit button even after 60s the time limit.
Is this scenario possible?
Does anyone have this same problem?
Cheers,
susana
If you know how to interpret sever log files, you may be able to work out if your guess as to what is going on is correct.
Another thing that might be worth a try (I strongly suggest you make a backup before you start experimenting too much) is, after the quiz is over, edit the settings so the time limit and close date are later. Then regrade. That might get you to the right scores, but I am not sure.
Another thing that might be worth a try (I strongly suggest you make a backup before you start experimenting too much) is, after the quiz is over, edit the settings so the time limit and close date are later. Then regrade. That might get you to the right scores, but I am not sure.
Thank you for your reply.
Unfortunately I was not able to verify the problem reading logs...
But I was able to understand that the users with zero grade were the top 3 Time taken.
It was a 5min quiz and those 3 students took the following times to complete the quiz: 5min22sec, 5min17, 5min16
The student with 5min15sec already had a proper grade (different from zero).
It seems that if you take more than 15 sec more than the quiz time to complete the quiz then you will have zero(?)... maybe i am generalizing a bit
. Any comments?
Thank you,
susana
Unfortunately I was not able to verify the problem reading logs...
But I was able to understand that the users with zero grade were the top 3 Time taken.
It was a 5min quiz and those 3 students took the following times to complete the quiz: 5min22sec, 5min17, 5min16
The student with 5min15sec already had a proper grade (different from zero).
It seems that if you take more than 15 sec more than the quiz time to complete the quiz then you will have zero(?)... maybe i am generalizing a bit
Thank you,
susana
Yes, there is a 5% grace period for processing submissions, to allow for slow servers. 5% of 5 minutes is 15 seconds. So that all makes sense.
As I say, if you change the quiz time limit to 6 minutes retrospectively, and regrade, it should sort itself. I hope.
As I say, if you change the quiz time limit to 6 minutes retrospectively, and regrade, it should sort itself. I hope.
Worked for me. One submitted quiz received completion time 9 minutes after the quiz close time and only half of the answers were marked. I added 10 minutes to close time and regraded and it sorted itself.
Hi,
I confirm the 5% grace period. We also had problems with 10min quizes. All the answers submitted after 10m30s were graded zero.
I also confirm that changing the time limit and regrading will get it right!
Thanks for your precious help
I can't find much usefulness in this feature of grading zero after 5% of grace period...
How does this prevent students from cheating? When they reach the time limit the quiz automatically submit their answers, right? How can they cheat after that?
We are having teachers complaining about it and i'm afraid it may gradually make teachers loose confidence in moodle quiz corrections.
To avoid more incidents I would like to know if anyone was able to easily disable this feature...
Cheers,
susana
I confirm the 5% grace period. We also had problems with 10min quizes. All the answers submitted after 10m30s were graded zero.
I also confirm that changing the time limit and regrading will get it right!
Thanks for your precious help
I can't find much usefulness in this feature of grading zero after 5% of grace period...
How does this prevent students from cheating? When they reach the time limit the quiz automatically submit their answers, right? How can they cheat after that?
We are having teachers complaining about it and i'm afraid it may gradually make teachers loose confidence in moodle quiz corrections.
To avoid more incidents I would like to know if anyone was able to easily disable this feature...
Cheers,
susana
Well, if the student turns off JavaScript in their browser, then the quiz will not automatically be submitted, and they could then submit it whenever they like if it was not for this policy.
If you want to change 5% to something else, search for the number 63 (number of seconds in a minute + 5%) in lib/questionlib.php, and change it to something else. That assumes that you are happy hacking the code.
I is on line 1451 in the latest 1.9.7+
You could even change the $cmoptions->timelimit * 63 bit there to something like
max($cmoptions->timelimit + 60, $cmoptions->timelimit * 63)
which would be actual time limit + 60 seconds, or + 5%, whichever is greater.
If you want to change 5% to something else, search for the number 63 (number of seconds in a minute + 5%) in lib/questionlib.php, and change it to something else. That assumes that you are happy hacking the code.
I is on line 1451 in the latest 1.9.7+
You could even change the $cmoptions->timelimit * 63 bit there to something like
max($cmoptions->timelimit + 60, $cmoptions->timelimit * 63)
which would be actual time limit + 60 seconds, or + 5%, whichever is greater.
Excellent!!
Now I understand this feature. If time is controlled only by javascript it is absolutely needed to have some control.
Another approach could be to prevent students accessing a quiz with timelimit if javascript is disabled...
Your recommendation of max(..) is just perfect.
Thank you again for your help!
Now I understand this feature. If time is controlled only by javascript it is absolutely needed to have some control.
Another approach could be to prevent students accessing a quiz with timelimit if javascript is disabled...
Your recommendation of max(..) is just perfect.
Thank you again for your help!
Hi,
I would like to know if we'll still have the same issue on Moodle 2.1...
(can't find question_apply_penalty_and_timelimit on Moodle 2.1... :/)
Thank you for your attention,
susana
This issue should not occur on Moodle 2.1 and later.
I have a similar problem only that the student had submitted the answers well in time and the answers (if I look at them one by one) have been asnwered correctly. Still the marks for each of them are 0. How to solve this?
I have had some luck with clicking on regrade at the top of the view page.