Tested about a hundred people today with version 1.4.5 (just updated) and the clock/timer keeps running when time is up and the scoring turns up as zero for all the students who ran out of time. This is the first time I have experienced this. Isn't it strange? I can fix the scores by removing the timer and having Moodle re-score. But in the meantime the students are shocked to get an almost automatic zero displayed as their score.
I too had this yesterday on the first real run of v1.5, it appears some of the pcs clocks run a lot slower than the servers clock I found, previously in v1.4x it would simply close the quiz and grade it no problems, but now it grades as zero when it closes the quiz automatically... very rude.
Yes, the javascript timer should really come with a warning telling the student not to rely on it. The timer problem has been discussed before but there appears to be no solution to it.
One advice you could give your students is to use the "Save without submitting" button frequently during the quiz because each time they do that the javascript timer is synchronized with the server's time.
One thing that could be changed in the code is that when the student submits too late (because of the faulty timer or for some other reason) then at least those answers that the student saved before the expiry of the time limit will be marked. I will put a feature request into the bug tracker for that.
One advice you could give your students is to use the "Save without submitting" button frequently during the quiz because each time they do that the javascript timer is synchronized with the server's time.
One thing that could be changed in the code is that when the student submits too late (because of the faulty timer or for some other reason) then at least those answers that the student saved before the expiry of the time limit will be marked. I will put a feature request into the bug tracker for that.
Hi Gustav, I think we have a pretty good solution in lesson.
The time Mark coded up there doesn't force the student out of the quiz when the time is up for this very reason of javascript performance variations. Instead, the timer tells the student they are out of time, and then when the student submits the page they are on, lesson checks the database to see if the time is really up. If it is, then it sends the student to the end of lesson and inputs the ponts for the questions they answered before the lesson was up.
Of course this only works properly with one at a time questions--with multiple questions at a time the quiz is going to allow students to submit all the questions when the time is up or none of the questions.
It seems to me a similar solution should be workable for quiz: the timer could check the database to see if the time really is up before kicking the student out. If the time is not really up, it could recheck the db at some second intervals and then kick them out when the db shows the time taken is greater than the time allowed. Slow user clocks are more of a problem: students with slow or overloaded computers might get more time on a quiz: however if the timer periodically checks the database for the correct time, then it shouldn't be too much of a problem: it's probably better that students on slow computers get an extra 30 seconds than that they get kicked out of the quiz or we have to tell them to click the save button over and over again.
The time Mark coded up there doesn't force the student out of the quiz when the time is up for this very reason of javascript performance variations. Instead, the timer tells the student they are out of time, and then when the student submits the page they are on, lesson checks the database to see if the time is really up. If it is, then it sends the student to the end of lesson and inputs the ponts for the questions they answered before the lesson was up.
Of course this only works properly with one at a time questions--with multiple questions at a time the quiz is going to allow students to submit all the questions when the time is up or none of the questions.
It seems to me a similar solution should be workable for quiz: the timer could check the database to see if the time really is up before kicking the student out. If the time is not really up, it could recheck the db at some second intervals and then kick them out when the db shows the time taken is greater than the time allowed. Slow user clocks are more of a problem: students with slow or overloaded computers might get more time on a quiz: however if the timer periodically checks the database for the correct time, then it shouldn't be too much of a problem: it's probably better that students on slow computers get an extra 30 seconds than that they get kicked out of the quiz or we have to tell them to click the save button over and over again.
The timer problem is new to us and we are still using 1.4.5. We don't have a "save without submitting" button -- though personally I think this introduces a new complexity for those of us who do lots of testing with Moodle. However, back to the subject, the problem is pretty serious when you are testing hundreds of students; it becomes very difficult to explain why they are automatically getting a zero. If the timer problem is new, at least to us, why is there no solution? Some changes must have been introduced. Sorry if I sound a bit shrill about this, but try passing a entire day explaining to students that they haven't failed a test that the test says they have failed.