Quizzes not working for Students

Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Number of replies: 26

Hi Gordon and Everybody!

Oh no what's happened now??

Everything was working this morning but now, without me changing anything, Jmatches and jmixes are not working for students (cards shunted to bottom of page and un-movable - see screenshot) but are working fine for the administrator.  This has happened sitewide on my www.strivney.co.il site, but the Jmatches are working fine on my www.strivney.com site. 

As it seems to be role sensitive I have been playing with the permissions, thinking maybe I have left a loophole and an unauthorised person has changed the permissions, but the permissions are set to allow for "attempt a Hotpot quiz" and "attempt a Quizport".

This has me in a panic as new people are logging in all the time now and it's not working.

SOS.

Deborah

Attachment jintro.gif
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Hi Deborah,
this is very odd behavior. I will come and have a look later today.
Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Hi Deborah,
am I right in thinking that these two sites are hosted on the same server? Do they use the same scripts? Are you in charge of updating the Moodle (+QuizPort) scripts, or does the server administrator do that for you?

Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Hmm, well I went to have a look at the quizzes and they seem very healthy.

I switched my role to student and tried the QuizPort (id=1582) which you showed in your screenshot. I tried about 8 quizzes, including JQuiz, JMatch (JIntro), JMatch (Jmemory), and they all seemed to display OK to me, in both FF3 and IE8 (see screenshot).

So at the moment, I would say that there is no problem on your site.

If you would like me to investigate further, please give a link to a particular QuizPort, and the *name* of a quiz within that QuizPort that is not displaying as expected for you.

thanks
Gordon
Attachment quizport.1582.strivney.co.il.student.jpg
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Hi Gordon!

You are here! Thank goodness! I was worried I was going to have to deal with this problem on my own.
Thank you so much for looking into the problem.

Well, this is most mysterious. Indeed this morning the quizzes are behaving normally. But I didn't imagine the problem and in fact it was reported to me by a student. So I am extremely nervous about this. I am concerned that someone is messing about with my website as last week two courses were set as "closed to students" and I hadn't done that (though it is hard to believe that my suspected hacker has been busy in the five nighttime hours since I last looked at the site). I got up this morning thinking that maybe the problem was with the role of authenticated user. But that shouldn't affect the viewing of quizzes if the student permissions are OK, right?

One of your questions gave me pause for thought. Yes, both sites are hosted on the same server and I have taken over the updating of Quizport myself. In fact I updated the Quizport version on the .co.il site a couple of weeks ago. I was relieved to see that all seemed to be functioning normally, and certainly the problem I described didn't show up until yesterday. But I haven't yet updated Quizport myself on the .com site.


Can you tell me please, could it be a role issue if other quizzes were able to be attempted normally in the same role?

Any pointers you might think of on this mystery would be very gratefully received.

Thanks so much,

Deborah
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Deborah,

I'm afraid I don't know what caused the courses to become visible, or the JMatch quizzes to display strangely for a limited period of time. Certainly the permissions could allow access to courses, but they wouldn't also mess up the display of JMatches.

For the time-being, I suggest you change your admin passwords, and keep an eye on things. If you notice a problem please send me a link to a specific quiz/QuizPort/course, and we'll start investigating from there.

regards
Gordon 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
That sounds like good advice. Thank you.

Deborah
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
> But I didn't imagine the problem
> and in fact it was reported to me by a student.

Maybe this is an IE6 problem? Do we know the browser being used when the problem occurred?

Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
No not an IE6 problem. I had it in IE8 and Firefox. I feel extremely nervous about not having gotten to the bottom of it.

Deborah
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
I see.
  • Were you and the student both in the same physical location, e.g. same classroom?
  • Was there any maintenance or updating being done on the server around the time you noticed the problem?
  • About how long do you think the problem was evident?
  • Had you made any changes to the Site, Course, QuizPort, quizzes around the time of the problem?
  • After noticing the problem, did you, or someone working for you, change anything on the server that might have fixed it?
  • Did any other parts of Moodle display strangely, e.g. the course page?
As you may know, QuizPort uses a cache to store a browser ready version of the quiz. If QuizPort was not updated during the time of the problem, then the cache would not have changed. In other words, as far as QuizPort was concerned, it would have been sending out more or less the same content to the browser.

Therefore, what seems most likely to me at the moment is that there was a temporary problem with the css stylesheets of theme. The stylesheets are not part of the QuizPort cache, and the browser requests them form the server separately to the quiz content. Faulty stylesheets could well cause the quiz to display strangely.

But it could well be something else ... thoughtful
Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Hi Gordon,
Thanks for trying to do a detective job on this!

- The student and I were not in the same physical location.
- The problem was evident for at least 14 hours.
- I did make a change to the site - I uploaded and installed the contributed block "Contact Form" which is still functioning quite nicely on the Front Page. But no, the problem was reported before I did that....

- At the time of the problem I also realised that the course pages were not displaying to students properly because the student permission for "view block" had been set to prevent. But the problem persisted after I rectified this.

- I don't think I did anything that might have fixed the problem. I was mainly playing with the permissions but when I left the problem before retiring it still persisted. But on waking this morning it was gone!

I have asked my host if it could have been anything from their end but I will ask again about the possibility of the faulty stylesheets. But the problem was only in student view - could a faulty style sheet be role selective?

The problem was actually not only with JMatches but with Jmixes too. It seemed to be connected to the draggable "cards" in these quizzes.

Thanks again for your help with this.

Deborah
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Further information on investigation.

Quizzes which do not work in Student mode in Quizport DO work in Student mode in Hotpot Module.

Student permissions sitewide are set to default and to inherit at course and individual Quizport level.

If I, administrator, change my role to student, quizzes are OK. Problem only shows up when actual student tries.

This is such a bizarre problem. Why should these quizzes behave perfectly when viewed by administrator and break when viewed by student?

Help...........

Deborah

p.s. OK might be narrowing this down a bit - I have just discovered that the problem only occurs when being viewed by a student viewing in Hebrew - RTL language! Quizzes function OK when being viewed by student in LTR language.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -

Sorry to bombard.....

The problem has nothing to do with roles, as I had thought.  What had me confused was that I view the site in English and students viewing in Hebrew reported the problem.  Problem shows up when I view as Administrator in RTL so it's evidently an RTL problem.

I am now only seeing the problem in IE8.  Although I am certain it was evident in Firefox last time.

To overcome display problems in RTL all my quizzes have the following code in them:

h1, h2, h3, h4 { text-align: center; }
body, td, li, div { direction: ltr; }

Could it be that IE (and sometimes Firefox) is intermittently not liking this code?

Deborah

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
> so it's evidently an RTL problem

Yes, I agree. everything looks normal on my machine. Probably because I don't have any RTL languages installed.

I am not very experienced working with RTL languages. Furthermore, I don't have any machines set up for Hebrew, so I can't immediately come over and experience the problem first hand.

If I were you experiment with those styles. Maybe you could refine the CSS selectors a bit, so that instead of applying "direction: ltr;" to the whole "body" of the document, you just apply it to elements that need it.

I can recommend the Firebug addon for Firefox as an excellent tool for investigating which css styles are affecting which elements of the page.

please let me know how you get on
Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Hi Gordon,

Is it logical that it could be the coding causing a problem when the problem is intermittent? And when the quizzes have been working fine with this coding for over a year?

Assuming the answer is yes, I tried removing "body" from the following line:

body, td, li, div { direction: ltr; }

and adding "direction: ltr;" just to the exercise title and subtitles, but the problem persisted.

Then I removed the whole of the above line and the problem persisted but everything was shunted over to the right instead of the left. So I don't think it's that piece of code that is causing the problem.

Firebug tells me that the elements affected are div.CardStyle. But this element doesn't seem to have any problematic coding with it.

If the quizzes work OK in Hotpot does this indicate a compatibility problem with Quizport and RTL?

Deborah

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
I have just tested in IE6 and IE7 and the quizzes function fine. It is just IE8 which has a problem......

But I haven't upgraded my IE8 version recently.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Hi Deborah,
earlier on, you said:

> No not an IE6 problem. I had it in IE8 and Firefox.

Please could you confirm whether or not you still have this issue with Firefox?

> If the quizzes work OK in Hotpot does this indicate
> a compatibility problem with Quizport and RTL?

No, I don't think so. You are using html files, and as far as I can remember, the only difference between the two modules would be that QuizPort restricts all the Hot Potatoes specific CSS to the element that contains the quiz, namely the "middle-column" div. The HotPot module doesn't confine the Hot Potatoes styles, so they get mushed up with the Moodle styles.

thanks
Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Hi Gordon,

The quizzes are functioning OK in Firefox at the moment although I thought that last time the problem occurred in Firefox too.

Re. the difference between the way Quizport and Hotpot treat RTL, over a year ago I had a display problem in Quizport, which was not occurring in the Hotpot module. Problem was with quiz titles in RTL and you advised me to insert the

h1, h2, h3, h4 { text-align: center; }
body, td, li, div { direction: ltr; }

Is it possible that RTL quizzes get along better with Hotpot's mashed up method?

I have pm'd James Aco, another RTL & Quizport user, and asked him if he can add to this at all.

Deborah
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Deborah,
I have been able to reproducethe problem if I switch the language of my profile on your Moodle site to Hebrew. Then in IE8, the JMatch (JIntro) displays as in the screenshot in your original post.

I will now try to reproduce the problem on my server, and then endeavor to fix it.

So far, I have not been able to reproduce the problem in FF.

regards
Gordon

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Deborah,
I have installed the Hebrew language pack on my Moodle site and downloaded a quiz - 1b Sounds (1b_int.htm and its associated files) that displayed unexpectedly in my IE8 when I viewed the same quiz on your site with my user profile language set to Hebrew.

However, on my Moodle site with my user profile language set to Hebrew, the quiz displays fine in IE8 - thoughtful

So now I think that there is a strong possibility that the Moodle theme that you are using also has a role to play in this puzzle. Could you possibly make it available to me so I can install it on my server and continue the investigation.

Your theme seems to be based on the Moodle "wood" theme, so I tried changing my site to that but still the quiz displays OK. Maybe we could try briefly switching the theme on your site to "Standard" to see if that affects the display of JMatch and JMix in IE8 with the user profile language set to Hebrew?

thanks
Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
I spent a while logging in and out of your site with IE8 and FF3, trying to search for differences between the quiz on your site and mine.

For a short time I enabled user themes (Site Administration -> Appearance -> Themes -> Theme settings), hoping to try the "1b_int.htm" quiz with a standard theme, but unfortunately I became unable to login at all with IE8. I could loging with FF, so I switched back the theme settings. I still can't login with IE8 on your site, so I will take a break from this.

Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Deborah,
working from two copies (English "en" and Hebrew "he") of the "1b_int.htm" quiz which I downloaded to my computer, I think I was able to piece together what is happening. For some reason, IE8 switches to "compatability mode" when the Moodle user's language is "he". As a result, the browser behaves like an old version of IE, but the QuizPort javascript did not detect this situation.

I think I have devised a fix, so please could you arrange for the new QuizPort scripts to be uploaded to your site, and then please be sure to initiate the upgrade procedure (Site Administration -> Notifications), as this is required to clear the QuizPort cache.

The latest version of the QuizPort module is available here:
As always, I will be following with interest how you get on smile

cheers
Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Hi Gordon,

I am relieved you were able to re-produce the error.

Oh, I just read your latest post. A FIX!!! Great!! I will go ahead and upload Quizport again and report back but have to dash out right now.

Thank you SO much for all your efforts on this.

Deborah
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Gordon Bateson -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Hi Deborah,
it seems you have installed the new QuizPort and at first glance the fix seems to have done the trick. That is to say, with my user profile set to Hebrew, I was able to view the "1b_int.htm" quiz (a JMatch JIntro quiz) on your site with my IE8. What didn't work before, is now working as it should approve

I am confident that this will fix related problems on your site. Please confirm when you are able.

cheers
Gordon
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Hi Gordon,

Sorry not to have got back sooner - I have been away.

I have been monitoring the problem and my Hot Potatoes are behaving as they should in RTL mode in IE8 so it seems you did indeed fix the problem. So well done and thank you for that.

Regards,

Deborah

p.s. I have tried to look at "Quizport - The Manual" a couple of times but the link doesn't seem to be working.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Deborah Delin

Re: Quizzes not working for Students

by Deborah Delin -
Hi again Gordon,

I updated my Quizport version and the quizzes are working now in IE8 in RTL mode.

It seems hopeful that your fix worked and that the problem hasn't just righted itself as it seemed to do last time.

I will keep checking over the next few days.

Thanks very much for your help.

Deborah
Average of ratings: -