Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Niall Scully -
Number of replies: 11

Hi Guys,

Is there a settings/code to save the grades from the 1st attempt (Moodle quiz, essay questions)?


I would like the assessors feedback and marks to be carried over for the correct responses as it is causing double handling with our assessors having to mark the same correct answers twice as having either 'highest mark' or 'last attempt' as the marking criteria, results in a double up of having to mark the same questions twice, which is quite a burned when we have 50 questions and over 60 students to assess. 


If there is any code or setting that can remedy the issue I would greatly appreciate it as I can see this has been an ongoing issue since 2015 and I can only assume is a deterrent for most education organisations over the past 12 months with the transition to online learning,


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In reply to Niall Scully

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Joseph Rézeau -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Sorry but I do not understand your logic. If a quiz is set to multiple attempts and contains one or more essays, it's quite normal that each new attempt must be graded by the teacher.

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In reply to Niall Scully

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Dominique Bauer -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
If the quizz is set to "Each attempt builds on the previous one", the marks are kept, from one attempt to the next, for other question types but not for the essay question type, that is even if the student does retry the essay question. This is a major drawback if not a major bug. I don't know if there is a tracker for this issue, anyway imho this problem should be addressed seriously by the developers.

In short, you can't have a essay question among other types of questions in a quiz with 'Attempts build on previous one', which is quite deceiving.
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In reply to Dominique Bauer

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Dominique Bauer -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
The wording is "Each attempt builds on the last". If an essay question in a first attempt is marked, the mark is wiped out on the second attempt, no matter what. Ouch! sad
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In reply to Dominique Bauer

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Joseph Rézeau -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

@Dominique,

IMHO this is not a bug. If a quiz is set to multiple attempts and Each attempt builds on the last, it makes sense to NOT include Essays in that quiz.

Actually I think that the proper place for Essays is the Assignment activity, not Quiz.

Average of ratings: Useful (4)
In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Dominique Bauer -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
Hello Joseph and Marcus,

I don't see any reason why the mark of an essay question gets deleted on the following attempt. It does not make sense. Denying it simply makes it even more frustrating: "...this has been an ongoing issue since 2015 and I can only assume is a deterrent for most education organisations over the past 12 months with the transition to online learning..."

I am not responsible for fixing this problem, nor are you nor is Marcus. The OP is frustrated and there's only a bunch of geeks  to listen to him. There seems to be only one developer on this forum, and he only works on what He thinks is important not on what people need. Where are the  developers, the real developers? Where are they all gone?
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Dominique Bauer

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
It would be useful to have a link to a ticket reporting this as an issue if it exists. "

"the real developers? Where are they all gone"

I believe the number of experienced quiz/question developers is very small and I suspect they are all very, very busy. My key interest in Quiz is because the questions are automatically marked, so I have never taken an interest in the core Essay type
Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Joseph Rézeau -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Hi Marcus!

"It would be useful to have a link to a ticket reporting this as an issue if it exists. "

That's MDL-49133 Re-use previous manual grade if response not changes in each attempt builds on last quizzes.

Have a merry Xmas!

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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Thanks Joseph, in that ticket Tim says it could be done with a plugin, which in my view makes things much more doable. I would make a wild and uninformed guess that it would take an experienced developer 4 to 5 days work all up.
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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Two other possibilities for writing and evaluating essays are the Journal and Diary plugins. Since the Journal works with just one entry per journal activity, the Diary plugin would be much better as it allows for one activity to have multiple (rated) entries by each user. This allows you to keep and maintain all previous versions of the essay with their own feedback and rating. The possible ratings are all the standard ones offered in Moodle: No ratings, Average of ratings, Count of ratings, Maximum rating, Minimum of rating, and Sum of ratings.
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In reply to AL Rachels

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Niall Scully -
Thank you all for your feedback. As I mentioned, this issue had been raised a number of years ago and I'm just testing the waters to see if it's possible to alter the code parameters to carry over the loop like all other question types permit and hopefully create a plugin.

Hi AL, thank you for the response. Unfortunately the rigid question structure has a combination of multiple choice, short answer and matching questions that are unable to be split into separate activities as it has to replicate the original document.

An example of an essay type question is 'What is your responsibility following exposure to blood/body fluids or a needle stick injury?'
The student can undertake either scenario relating to due process/ recording of a OHS incident. The short answer type does not work, as it seems to relate to a short word response as opposed to a discussion that the essay type permits. So we have been left with Essay as the only choice to maintain the question with a Quiz format.

On a separate note, do you know if the Essay (auto-grade) has changed any parameters to carry over previous content/ assessor feedback?
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In reply to Niall Scully

Re: Moodle Quiz - Essay questions not carrying over in second attempt, even if correct in first attempt

by Michelle Doherty -
Hi Niall,

I totally understand your situation because we are in the same predicament. Your image with your post is fantastic and really shows what is needed.

It's great to see others agree that it needs to be addressed.
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