Please help with testing MDL-3030

Please help with testing MDL-3030

by Tim Hunt -
Number of replies: 14
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This the most voted-for quiz feature request, and we very nearly have a solution. It is the problem of what to do if time expires when the student is offline.

I think  have finished the code, and I am hoping to submit it for integration at the end of the week, so there is not much time, but if anyone can do a bit of testing, that would be very helpful. (We will be doing some more testing at the OU.)

After these changes have been integrated, we will then move into the Moodle 2.3 beta-testing period, and that is a chance for you to do more testing before Moodle 2.3 is released at the start of June.

The only documentation at the moment is the design documentation I wrote before making the change: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Better_handling_of_overdue_quiz_attempts

If you want to test, you really need to get the code from git. Follow the link in MDL-3030, which I suppose might lead you to the Zip button on https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/MDL-3030 to download a zip file.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Please help with testing MDL-3030

by Tim Hunt -
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Just to add that

  1. We are finding (and fixing) bugs during testing.
  2. Therefore, you are strongly advised to test this using an installation that is a git checkout, so you can easily get the latest bug fixes.
  3. I am adding the bug fixes using git rebase, to keep the history clean. Therefore, when you do want to update, you need to do something like: git fetch; git reset --hard origin/MDL-3030.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Please help with testing MDL-3030

by Tim Hunt -
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It feels like I am talking to myself here ...

To help you understand what this is supposed to do

  1. There are now testing instructions on MDL-3030
  2. I started writing http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Quiz_time_controls_on_attempts, but then Helen Foster offered to finished the documentation in time for the 2.3 release, so that is all i wrote.

I will say that, in writing the docs and testing instructions, I found and fixed a number of bugs. So, if you did not test before, well done. You have avoided wasting your own time. I now have some confidence it is nearly working wink So it might be worth having a look at. We will go on testing at the OU tomorrow.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

A question about overdue attempt handling

by Tim Hunt -
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The only thing we found during testing that I have not done anthing about yet is this:

In the original proposal, and attempted that was never submitted went into an 'Abandoned' state. I was never very happy with that choice of word.

My colleague Phil suggested that 'Lapsed' might be a better word to use.

What do you think?

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Lesli Smith -

You're not talking to yourself.  wink  I've been paying attention, but I didn't think there was much I could do yet if testing required me to download code on my own.  If you need folks to test it on the qa site, I'd be happy to do that, but I'm not feeling that "brave" yet to try code on even a desktop installation.  (That was pretty funny, by the way, asking me in a different conversation if I felt brave enough to change lib.php.)  Someday, maybe, but today I still steer clear of anything that requires coding tweaks.

Now, asking an opinion on word choice, that I can do.  I think "lapsed" is getting closer.  I agree that abandoned does not quite fit.  If I think of something that works better, I'll post it here.

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In reply to Lesli Smith

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Tim Hunt -
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Thanks for answering smile

I should submit this for integration tomorrow, so hopefully it will be on qa.moodle.org by the end of next week, ready for Moodle 2.3 beta testing. No worries if you want to wait until then.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by ben reynolds -

Reading http://thesaurus.com/browse/abandon for synonyms is fun.

Something simple like "left" is probably too ambiguous. How about "unfinished" or "incomplete"?

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In reply to ben reynolds

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Tim Hunt -
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If something is unfinished then there is an implication you may be able to finish it, which is not applicable.

I am starting to think that abandoned is the best available word.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Lesli Smith -

Well, I had in mind a couple of students this year who had OS or browser or internet service provider crashes occur in the middle of the quiz.  They didn't "abandon" them per se, in the sense that they willfully got up and walked away (although I'm sure that happens).  They both freaked out at having zeros automatically assigned, and I explained that Moodle didn't know their system crashed and that they had "exceeded the time limit" on the quiz.  "Lapsed" to me seems to be the closest one-word solution to "exceeded the time limit."

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In reply to Lesli Smith

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Tim Hunt -
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Having just had an orchestra rehearsal to take my mind off the problem for an hour (Nice concert coming up, by the way, for anyone in striking distance of Milton Keynes http://www.open.ac.uk/wikis/ouocmc/Forthcoming_events) I think I am going to go for 'Never submitted'. I think that says what happened, or rather didn't.

For your scenario, with the browser crash, it looks like you would choose to set up the quiz with When time expires: the attempt is submitted automatically.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Rick Jerz -
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I like your term "Never submitted".

For reference, I am attached the dialog boxes for Blackboard and Desire2Learn so that everyone can see how these two products describe their quizzes.

D2L

Attachment Blackboard Test Options.jpg
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by ben reynolds -

"Never" is better than "not," which suffers from the same problem you pointed out in "unfinished" or "incomplete." So, joining Rick and voting for "Never submitted."

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In reply to ben reynolds

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Mary Cooch -
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I thought I'd follow Ben (wink) and agree with Never submitted too.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Tim Hunt -
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Phew! I implemented Never submitted on Friday, and submitted it for integration. The changes got integrated overnight (well, today NZ time) so assuming not terrible probelms are found during testing, this will be in 2.3.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: A question about overdue attempt handling

by Joseph Rézeau -
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@Tim, good to hear that your "Never submitted" fix was finally "submitted".big grin

Joseph

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