Timed Quizzes.

Timed Quizzes.

de John Bristor -
Número de respuestas: 25

I downloaded the the Moddle 1.1 around Sep 11th.

I had the need for timed exams to be used for providing online Certification for areas of expertise. Each test needed to be timed.. some 90 minutes, some 60 minutes, or any variation from the time the test actually started.  The test also needed to be secured to prevent copying, printing, or sharing of the items, or at least make it extremely difficult to do so.  I also had the need that the exams could be available for a person directly from a link on the front screen and bypassing  all the course, news, and other features of Moodle yet reserving the need to expand into courses and practice quizzes using the standard moddle features.

Basically, a person wants to be certified, they pay $ XXX bucks and they have two chances in 2 months to pass the exam to get a certificate.

Each certification exam  is 100 questions long ( single answer multiple choice only) and they have 60 or 90 minutes from test inception to completion and the 100 questions are derived from a database of 500 split over 500 categories.  Moodel was great for the backend and couldn't have done it without this product.

Another site exists for general information and ordering.  Once they purchase they are provided an enrollment key.   I had come up with a different way of doing enrollment keys than the "one per Moodle course" mechanism.  I added an enrollmetn key tied to a combination of the course/test and the username/password combo.

1) A user comes to the testing site, choose their appropriate test. 

2) A new re-sizeable full screen browser window pops-up that does not allow right clicks, no browser headers or tool bars,  no means of doing a ctrl-P for printing..  This screen asks for them to log in (username/password), then they get a screen that asks for their enrollment key and a warning that they only hav "XX" minutes to complete the exam.  And once they start, its official.

3)  The 100 question test appears and further cuts off any key stroke from the keyboard.  Only the left mouse key is active for answering questions and pressing the submit (Grade my test) button

4)  The timer uses the one that came with moodle but reads the start time from a new field in the quiz database as opposed to being based on the "start-Stop" quiz date/time range from Moodle

5)  Using the same moodle code, the 10 minute warning is still in effect.

6)  When the time limit is hit, (or they hit submit) all answers are saved and the screen shows a thank-you message and that they will be notified, and contact info + blah, blah.

7)  After 15 seconds this screen closes and they are back to the origianal browser window from the front page.

I did this without effecting Moodle in general, adding a module called exams that was an exact copy of the quiz module, copying and adding "quiz" terminology in the language files to be "Exam" instead of "Quiz".  Added a timer field to a database.   Then plunked in some new PHP and javascript code into general library modules and the new Exam module.

If anyone is interested in any of these capabilities, I'd like to return to the Moodle community something for this fine product. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Genner Cerna -

See URL below:

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=2425

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En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Martin Dougiamas -
Imagen de Core developers Imagen de Documentation writers Imagen de Moodle HQ Imagen de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagen de Plugin developers Imagen de Testers
Thanks, John - just watch the hands go up! sonrisa

It'd be great if you could package up the new module with any changed files as a zip and post it here as an attachment - I think many will have a use for it, and I'd like to have a look and see if it's worth starting a new module or whether the changes can be folded back into quiz.
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En respuesta a Martin Dougiamas

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de John Bristor -

No problem..  Some you things you can convert back to the Quiz module.  My intention was for a specific type handling a final or special exam.

Think about it,  I have a seperate window for the timed Exam.  I don't want the user to be able to anything but come straight to the exam, skipping other moodle stuff, answer the questions then be done on their own time or because of the time limit.

The links below the Moodle header:

Though I paid undo attention so that an admin is not effected, the user cannot have the ability to click on the "site-> course-> exam -> whatever portion at the top of the page below the Moodle theme header.

In the exam section, the footer is cut-off.  The purpose is a timed exam.  With a footer turned on, any body without thinking may have links in that page, that a user clicked could distrurb the test (as Moddle only allows one footer throughout the site). 

Various techniques like the timing and other stuff can be used in the "Quiz" module",  the seperate window, security stuff bypass rest of moodle does not lend itself well to coinciding with the quiz module and jeeping it unaffected for normal Moodle intended operations.  That's the purpose of making a seperate module that shares the same databases and is almost identical to maintain, yet reacts differently.

Here's what I'm gonna do.  I am going out of town for the weekend around noon EST on Friday until Tuesday.  I'm going to give access to my test server.  I'm going to change the "APM Certification Exam" to unlimited times instead of once.  Anyone has until now (11pm EST until noon tomorrow to take the test).

My next message will have the dummy userid, password, and the enrollment key to get into the exam. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Promedio de valoraciones: -
En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de John Bristor -

www.tapn.com is our real site.  We serve the  Accounts Payable industry.   It's hard to believe, but it's roots are from PHP nuke,  PAfileDB3, and the core used for security came from Vbulletin starting Jan 1.  I made so many changes that no updates could ever be done from those respective parties.  It's a membership site but you can always sign up for the free trial if you want to rummage around.

http://www.apcertification.com explains the basis of a our certification endeavors in conjunction with another industry company.

http://test.apcertification.com  is the test site for what I did with Moodle  to meet our needs.  Though it doesn't look like it, the front page is moodle.  The two menus items (certification) on the left jump you straight to the certification exams.

As a test site, it is blocked and you'll get a windows login.  Just put 'taran' and 'taran'.  I've opened up the 'AP Specialist' Certification test (APS) to allow multiple test tries. Go to that one.  Username:  apstest1  password: orange    when you get to the enrollment screen it is : 99999 

I imagine you won't want to wait for the 90 minute timeout but fell free if you'd like. Or just save your test.  It's pretty simple and accomplishes it's purpose.  Try to steal the code or the questions or anything.  I'd like to know where I failed or stuff like blocking the crtl-p combo may not work for Netscape, etc..

Regretfully, I'll have to cut this off by noon EST on Friday before I go out of town, but when I get back, this code moves to a production site and  I'll be able to allow more testing of stuff I'm adding after next wednesday at this current address.  You'll be able to see the admin side and that I really haven't effected Moodle or its capabilities.  

At that point, if anyone is interested, I'll take the additional time to start package things up and submit to Moodle.  If it is little use to people, then I'll provide code snippets or help to the few that may desire some certain pieces.

 

 

 

 

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En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Martin Dougiamas -
Imagen de Core developers Imagen de Documentation writers Imagen de Moodle HQ Imagen de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagen de Plugin developers Imagen de Testers
OK, cool - that's a big mod - I see what you mean now! I love seeing Moodle getting twisted into new uses like this.

(Just a little thing - the login screen only seems to work on IE - must be a javascript thing.)
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En respuesta a Martin Dougiamas

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de John Bristor -

Sometimes you have to reverse the order of Javascript commands for Netscape and Mozilla.   When you try to control two screens  Redirect one, close one and some other additional  function all at the same time in one line the order can make a diiference and sometime just removing or changin quotes makes a difference.  It's a pain.

What version of netscape for my records?

 I didn't really have to twist too much..  Moodle is well written..  I wish Nuke  and PafileDB  I used earlier in this year had been so conducive to manipulation.

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En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de John Gone -
I got as far as the login with Mozilla 1.3.1
Excellent mod though, thanks for sharing this.
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En respuesta a John Gone

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de John Bristor -
My Mozilla, which is older than yours, is blocking keystrokes to even type in username/password..  Security too tight apparently in that area.  I'll fix on my return next Tuesday.   Thanks..  Did you try it with IE? 
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En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de John Gone -
Tried with IE6. Attached screenshot shows result. When this occurs the only action possible is ending the process with the Task Manager. Selecting anything including yes or no gives no resulting action. Can't even close IE.
Adjunto login.jpg
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En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Timothy Takemoto -

Wow this is awesome! I got in their fine after the three layers of password. And there was no way I could get out, copy anything, and control p (which I did not know about) just printed a blank page.

This is what I need, what I have been waiting for!  Thanks very much John, for a very valuable contribution. I look forward to module.

For my purposes, ideally, it would be nice to pass the time to Chris U's floating countdown timer, (at the link Genner mentioned above) just so that people can see how long they have to go. If the time is in the database, as it is apparently, the the time could be passed to his float.js, I guess. I will post to Chris's thread to let him know that this is here.

Ah, but I see now, there is a countdown on the tab in the start bar. Cool but the tab is too small to read unless you put your mouse pointer on it. If the word "Countdown" were removed, or abbreviated to "Timer" then there would be no need for Chris's float.js timer.

I think I failed the exam.

The lunchbox has landed.

Tim
Teaching at a University in Japan.

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En respuesta a Timothy Takemoto

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de John Bristor -
When I get back next week, I'll do some more debugging.  Then for anyone in a hurry,  I'll  make a document that lists file and code additions/changes.   AFter that I'll tackle making a nice little distribution package or whatever its called.
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En respuesta a John Bristor

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Timothy Takemoto -

Thanks very much John,
I am not particularly in a hurry, but I am looking forward to it very much.
Tim

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En respuesta a Timothy Takemoto

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Timothy Takemoto -

Dear John,

Bumb, I am really surprised that this thread is slipping. This has got to be the most Moodle quiz addition yet. Since the link has gone off line, I think that a lot of Moodle users do not know what it is. 

In eagre anticipation of cheat proof quizes.


Tim

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En respuesta a Timothy Takemoto

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Vicky Ohlson -

How could an online quiz ever be "cheat-proof"?  We don't know who is taking the quiz because we don't physically see them doing it.  Maybe when the technology is accessible to record the student's fingerprints as he/she types we will be able to prevent cheating on an online quiz.  I teach math and the way I encourage students not to cheat is to make them come on campus for a traditional paper-and-pencil midterm and final exam.  I weigh these heavily when figuring final averages, so they know it does them no good to cheat on quizzes and not learn the material.  If you don't have something similar that requires them to perform in person, you will always have cheating going on.  I've even had co-workers who were taking an online statistics course who tried to cheat by getting my assistance with their problems.  If professional educators will do it, can we really expect that the general population of students will not do it?  It's sad, but true:  Many students, online and otherwise, don't value actual learning.  They are simply taking the course because it leads to a degree that they hope will buy them a better job.  That's my sermon for the day...

Vicky Ohlson

Promedio de valoraciones:Useful (1)
En respuesta a Vicky Ohlson

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Martin Dougiamas -
Imagen de Core developers Imagen de Documentation writers Imagen de Moodle HQ Imagen de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagen de Plugin developers Imagen de Testers
I'm with you, Vicky - using very constrained online quizzes for serious assessment is a flawed concept, not only because they can never be cheat-proof (despite appearing that way) but also because of the rather bulimic mode of teaching it tends to encourage.

Still, it seems some want to do it anyway (as evidenced by a few vocal supporters and hackers in this forum) and as one tool in a big toolbox I can see some usefulness.
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En respuesta a Vicky Ohlson

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Rob Butner -
We are working on an specification for an authentication mode for testing called "e-proctor" This system will ask a student to build an initial profile, consisting of 20 personal information questions (ones that they would be not likely to give to others) like mother's maiden name, last 4 digits of Social Security Number, Phone number, etc. When the test is created, the "e-proctor" system can be selected for that test. As the student is taking the test---a pop-up will happen about every 10 minutes, asking one of the questions randomly from the profile. This along with the username and password more than satisfies the accreditation regs for remotely administered tests-----
 
Perhaps someone that is a Moodle God could help out with this project???
 
Rob
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En respuesta a Rob Butner

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Timothy Takemoto -

Nice idea Rob. It would merge well with John Bristors system. But when I suggested here in Japan I was told that it would not be on to ask personal information (even if it is only stored in the computer?) perhaps I could persuade them.

But perhaps if the information were not personal then the students could make a list of the 20 items and pass it to their friend! Perhaps we should ask really personal questions like "When was your fist xxx encounter?" with the answer being typed like a password, at age: "**"! 

Ip address monitoring (perhaps done already) and some sort of algorythm for assessing the similarity between quizes that are performed near to each other in time, perhaps one of which did not take much time, and have similar mistakes which would suggest collusion, or one person doing a test for another.

We don't have "accreditation regulations" to my knowledge, but we want to make sure that it is easier to do the homework than it is to get your friend to do it for you. I don't think that should be impossible. John's module combined with all the randomisation that Moodle already combines is probably enough for our purposes.

Back to marking emails to penpals.

Tim

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En respuesta a Martin Dougiamas

Timed Quizzes.

de German Arregui -

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering where I can find to download the new package for a timed quiz made by John Brostor.

Thanks in advance,

German Arregui

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En respuesta a German Arregui

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Timothy Takemoto -

Sadly John is no longer a member of this forum, so he will not recieve your mail. I have attempted to contact him via an Internet search, which yeilds one particularly computer savvy John Bristor, and through a private message to his account on the forum of his employer's website but I have recieved no response, alas. In any event, as far as I am aware there the "package" that John developed is not available for download.

Tim
Timothy Takemoto

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En respuesta a Timothy Takemoto

Re: Timed Quizzes.

de Timothy Takemoto -
It is possible to get in touch with John Bristor by obtaining a temporary username at The Accounts Payable Network, which he links above, and then going through all the forums until one finds his name as a thread creator. I sent him another private message at work todaby because John's hack is still the only one that includes back button disabling and all the features that I would need, I take the liberty of bumbing this thread once more, just in case he swings by.
Tim
Timothy Takemoto
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