Students in a number of classes cannot complete quizzes. When they hit submit, they are directed back to the login screen and their quiz attempt is not recorded. Help!
I tried signing in as one of the students to take the quiz, but the quiz wouldn't open for me (I don't know if it is supposed to be like that).
Actually, I have to amend this. In fact, the student's quiz attempt is there, but there are no answers. I went in as her to take the quiz, answered all "a" and scored better than she did (which was 0).
Why would her answers be cleared?
Why would her answers be cleared?
Tim, in this situation where one kid gets timed out and one fake kid doesn't, that means the real kid has to have not sent anything to the server, right?
So, my primary suspicion would be a pile of questions on one long page.
So, my primary suspicion would be a pile of questions on one long page.
I don't know what the session time-out is on the server.Where would I find that information? There is an hour time limit set on the quiz. I do know that she took the quiz twice: she went through and took the quiz, submitted and got booted. Then went through again, this time waited for the time to tick down to almost finished, then submitted. It sounds to me like she did not leave the quiz idle. I know we've run into that before and have just removed their quiz attempt and told them not to leave it idle.
(I am struggling to learn this stuff ASAP, and our main Moodle man is out for the week.) Thank you for your help.
(I am struggling to learn this stuff ASAP, and our main Moodle man is out for the week.) Thank you for your help.
I believe the default time out is 24 minutes. That's if she sends nothing to the server.
I can envision an essay question that might take 24+ minutes to write (some essay!).
Also, if all the questions are on one long page, and she takes a while with each question without hitting "Save without submitting" or "Submit all and finish," that might do it.
You need to be an administrator to set the Timeout for sessions.
Administration > Server > Session Handling
Ours is set to 2 hours.
But note also http://docs.moodle.org/en/Increasing_the_database_connection_lifetime
which may be intimidatingly techie.
I can envision an essay question that might take 24+ minutes to write (some essay!).
Also, if all the questions are on one long page, and she takes a while with each question without hitting "Save without submitting" or "Submit all and finish," that might do it.
You need to be an administrator to set the Timeout for sessions.
Administration > Server > Session Handling
Ours is set to 2 hours.
But note also http://docs.moodle.org/en/Increasing_the_database_connection_lifetime
which may be intimidatingly techie.
I found our server time-out setting to be set for 2 hrs. Is there any explanation for this other than the possibility that she just didn't answer any of the questions?
Suppose a student came to you and said "I was typing in a word document for an hour, and just before I saved, my computer crashed and I lost it all."
You would think "Well, any sensible person would have saved every few minutes while they were working."
When working on a quiz, the same applies. Students should be encouraged to save their work every few minutes.
Of course, it will be much better in Moodle 2.0, when the UI for multi-page quizzes is much better. Since moodle saves every time you go onto the next page, splitting the quiz into multiple pages (ideally one question per page) will be the best way to go. Then, the most data that can be lost is the answer to one question. However, the paging UI for quizzes in 1.9 is pretty bad, so I understand why people tend to put all the questions on one page.
Ben explained session timeout, so I won't explain it again. If you need more specific help, please ask.
You would think "Well, any sensible person would have saved every few minutes while they were working."
When working on a quiz, the same applies. Students should be encouraged to save their work every few minutes.
Of course, it will be much better in Moodle 2.0, when the UI for multi-page quizzes is much better. Since moodle saves every time you go onto the next page, splitting the quiz into multiple pages (ideally one question per page) will be the best way to go. Then, the most data that can be lost is the answer to one question. However, the paging UI for quizzes in 1.9 is pretty bad, so I understand why people tend to put all the questions on one page.
Ben explained session timeout, so I won't explain it again. If you need more specific help, please ask.
We are in a rural area and do have many students who are not very computer literate, so that sort of thing does happen quite frequently. I guess we do our best to help them learn as they go. But we also get the students who, I think, are taking advantage of our instructors' generosity.
I'm glad to hear that multi-page quizzes will be included in 2.0. In the meantime, I'll pass the advice along for our students to save their work frequently. Thanks for the help.
I'm glad to hear that multi-page quizzes will be included in 2.0. In the meantime, I'll pass the advice along for our students to save their work frequently. Thanks for the help.
Multi-page quizzes are included in Moodle 1.9. They just look a bit ugly.
Hi Heather,
we had that kind of problems here with new students and new teachers.
To circumvent these, we strongly suggest to teachers to create some simple multi-pages facultative auto-evaluation exercices with Moodle quiz module before making real evaluation activity.
That way teachers and students get chances to practice, to get some appropriation of the tools.
We use the option of multiples attempts in auto-evaluation exercices and specify clearly that there will be only one attempt in the real evaluation activity.
All that possible with an old 1.6.1 Moodle ! Imagine with your more recent version
I hope it may help,
Salutations from Québec,
Bernard
we had that kind of problems here with new students and new teachers.
To circumvent these, we strongly suggest to teachers to create some simple multi-pages facultative auto-evaluation exercices with Moodle quiz module before making real evaluation activity.
That way teachers and students get chances to practice, to get some appropriation of the tools.
We use the option of multiples attempts in auto-evaluation exercices and specify clearly that there will be only one attempt in the real evaluation activity.
All that possible with an old 1.6.1 Moodle ! Imagine with your more recent version
I hope it may help,
Salutations from Québec,
Bernard
We use the option of multiples attempts in auto-evaluation exercices and specify clearly that there will be only one attempt in the real evaluation activity.
Only one attempt in the real evaluation activity is not really necessary and a potential source of problems. Suppose a student in the real evaluation activity wants to save without submitting but inadvertently clicks the 'submit all and finish' button. 'One attempt only' will not allow the student to continue unless the instructor increases temporarily the number of attempts or deletes the student's existing attempt. The former approach is perhaps harmless but an unnecessary hassle for the instructor. The latter approach will erase the work the student has already done.
It is probably better to allow multiple attempts in the real evaluation activity but to set the review options to hide answers, feedback and score. Thus mistaken premature submissions could be easily remedied without compromising the assessment nature of the activity.
Only one attempt in the real evaluation activity is not really necessary and a potential source of problems. Suppose a student in the real evaluation activity wants to save without submitting but inadvertently clicks the 'submit all and finish' button. 'One attempt only' will not allow the student to continue unless the instructor increases temporarily the number of attempts or deletes the student's existing attempt. The former approach is perhaps harmless but an unnecessary hassle for the instructor. The latter approach will erase the work the student has already done.
It is probably better to allow multiple attempts in the real evaluation activity but to set the review options to hide answers, feedback and score. Thus mistaken premature submissions could be easily remedied without compromising the assessment nature of the activity.
Thanks for your help Itamar. I hadn't considered allowing for multiple attempts, and as long as I can explain how it works clearly enough to our instructors, I think it should work out well. Thanks!
Thanks Bernard. To give students practice, I am working on creating an orientation course which will allow the students to familiarize themselves with the different activities within Moodle. I hadn't considered doing the same for faculty, however, and I think it's something I will work in. Thanks!