Quiz Results + Grade Sync Behaviour

Quiz Results + Grade Sync Behaviour

by Caleb Marfell -
Number of replies: 4

The University of Otago is utilising Moodle for STACK question types, and because Moodle is not our main LMS (this is Blackboard), we use the grade sync feature to send Moodle quiz results back to Blackboard. This mostly works without issues, however, we have noticed a few scenarios where the grade sync doesn't behave as we'd anticipate.

There are a couple of scenarios I have been able to test and rule out as to why the grades don't sync. However, there is one odd scenario that I hope someone can explain the behaviour(s) I'm seeing.

What I am testing:

A student who follows the LTI link from Blackboard to Moodle and then clicks 'Attempt Quiz' but does not provide any answers to the quiz. By clicking 'Attempt Quiz, ' they're added to the 'Results' section of the particular quiz (important for grade sync). The quiz then closes due to a due date passing. The student gave no answers.

Results:
1.    Before the due date, the grade sync was not sending a grade as the submission was still in progress. The grade sync for this states:
a.    Starting - Grade sync for shared tool '207' for the course '25'.
b.    Skipping - Invalid grade for the user '591' in the tool '207' for the course '25'.
c.    Completed - Synced grades for tool '207' in the course '25'. Processed 1 users; sent 0 grades.


2.    After the due date, the grade sync still has the same outcome, just a different reason (see line B)
a.    Starting - Grade sync for shared tool '207' for the course '25'.
b.    Not sent - The grade for the user '591' in the tool '207' for the course '25' was not sent as the grades are the same.
c.    Completed - Synced grades for tool '207' in the course '25'. Processed 1 users; sent 0 grades.

NOTE: at this point, if the student attempts to access the quiz again, they're shown a screen that states, 'Your final grade for this quiz is 0.00/2.00' and this 0.00 grade is also viewable in the 'grades' area of the course.


3.    I then manually overrode the 0.00 grade to… 0.00 and saved this. Yet still, the grade sync remains the same as point 2 above.


4.    I then overrode the grade to 1 (from 0.00). Sure enough, it worked:
a.    Starting - Grade sync for shared tool '207' for the course '25'.
b.    Success - The grade '0.5' for the user '591' in the tool '207' for the course '25' was sent.
c.    Completed - Synced grades for tool '207' in the course '25'. Processed 1 users; sent 1 grades.


5.    I then overrode the grade back to 0.00 (from 1, which was 0.5 based on scaling within Moodle), and again the grade sync was successful
a.    Starting - Grade sync for shared tool '207' for the course '25'.
b.    Success - The grade '0' for the user '591' in the tool '207' for the course '25' was sent.
c.    Completed - Synced grades for tool '207' in the course '25'. Processed 1 users; sent 1 grades.

So, I suppose I'm trying to understand why Moodle does not trigger the initial 0.00 grade (after the due date) to be sent in the first grade sync after the due date? Instead, Moodle continues to send the same grade as before to the due date (incomplete/in progress), yet the student can see their 0.00 mark in Moodle.

Any guidance surrounding this would be much appreciated!

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In reply to Caleb Marfell

Re: Quiz Results + Grade Sync Behaviour

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
I am just wondering if this is more of an issue with Grade sych than the quiz. I think I will move this to the LTI forum. (If that was wrong, it can be moved back.)
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In reply to Caleb Marfell

Re: Quiz Results + Grade Sync Behaviour

by Liam Moran -
Picture of Core developers
I hope I can help with this since I've gotten fairly familiar with grade_sync:

The message you see in 1b means that the grade for the quiz is NULL; the sync grades task won't send any data when the student hasn't made an attempt yet. (Since NULL !== round(0,5))
When the due date closes on the quiz, the grade for the quiz changes from NULL to 0, and you get the message in 2b since the lastgrade value it compares against to see if it needs to send a grade update is initialized to 0.00000, and they are now equal.

Changing it from 0.5 and then back to 0.0 does what you'd expect and what you've witnessed, since it's comparing the current grade against that lastgrade recorded, which you're changing to get the behavior you want.

If this is undesirable, and grades of 0 should be sent when the due date is arrived at but not before (if Blackboard isn't treating a failure to make an attempt as a 0 score), initializing lastgrade to NULL instead might be a good fix, but hard to write a database upgrade to accomplish to backfill existing lastgrade values that may be 0.00000 or may be NULL.
 
My follow-up questions are: what kind of problem does this cause, and is it specific to integrations with Blackboard as the LTI platform?
Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Liam Moran

Re: Quiz Results + Grade Sync Behaviour

by Caleb Marfell -
Morning Liam,

Thanks so much for the explanation, given we don't use Moodle as a main LMS rather just an intemediary for a particular question type my knowledge on the system is quite limited, so I appreciate your help!

The answer you've supplied makes complete sense, many thanks for this.

Adressing your follow up question: it doesn't particularly pose a problem perse as the 0 grade can be input manually in Blackboard grade centre. Our teachers would just prefer that quizzes that haven't been attempted by users are sent to Blackboard via grade sync as a zero once the due date arrives (saves a bit of manual work). It was also hoped that those who never follow the LTI link from Blackboard to the Moodle quiz would also be in the same boat. However, these users never populate in the results table of the Moodle quiz (due to not clicking the link) so aren't included in the grade sync log.
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