I am using Moodle for the first time this fall (a pilot program on my campus), and I plan to use the Quiz module for "reading quiz" type assignments for my class.
I put together a practice quiz so that everyone could get familiar with the system (only a few had used it before). For most students it went smoothly, but for a couple I had a problems I couldn't solve. These students attemped the quiz several times, but each time, when I looked at their responses, they were completely blank. I am pretty sure that they did not give blank responses on their end, because I had them attempt the quiz several times for exactly this reason.
Does anyone know what might be the problem? This is not a general feature of how I set up the quiz, because all but two students didn't have this trouble at all. What can I suggest to these students so that their future quiz attempts come through properly?
Thanks!
Did the students actually submit their responses for scoring or just save their quiz?
After their first unsuccessful try, I told them specifically to click the "submit all and finish" button when they were done. After their second unsuccessful try, I told them to click the intermediat "submit" buttons and the end of each question and then the "submit all and finish" button.
In both cases, their attempts come through to me as a completed attempt, but their answers are completely blank.
... have you put a time limit on the quiz? Because, if you exceed it, new answers will not be saved. Furthermore, are you sure that the closing date of the quiz has not been exceeded?
R(egard)S
Frank
R(egard)S
Frank
There wasn't a time limit on the quiz. The quiz did have a close date, but it was sufficiently far in the future that these students tried three different attempts each (all coming back blank) before the quiz closed.
Jennifer,
Have you tried looking in the Moodle DB (do you have access to it?). We had a problem a couple of weeks ago (now solved in Moodle 1.6.1+).
We had quizzes with essay questions. Students copied the questions from Moodle to a Microsoft Word document, and then they wrote theirs answers in Word. Once the answer was OK, they copied/pasted into Moodle. The problem?. Some HTML tags were added to student's answers and they crashed the instructor interface and they were unable to grade them.
Probably your students answers are stored in the DB but they are not being displayed. Could it be?
Have you tried looking in the Moodle DB (do you have access to it?). We had a problem a couple of weeks ago (now solved in Moodle 1.6.1+).
We had quizzes with essay questions. Students copied the questions from Moodle to a Microsoft Word document, and then they wrote theirs answers in Word. Once the answer was OK, they copied/pasted into Moodle. The problem?. Some HTML tags were added to student's answers and they crashed the instructor interface and they were unable to grade them.
Probably your students answers are stored in the DB but they are not being displayed. Could it be?
Hi Jennifer,
To help us understand your problem and suggest solutions, could you specify:
- which Moodle version you are using (1.5, 1.5.4, 1.6, 1.6.1...)
- which type of questions that quiz contained: MCQ, shortanswer, essay, etc.
Joseph
My quiz contained one multiple choice question (more than one answer allowed) and one essay question.
Regarding the other questions (version of Moodle, details about the database) I don't know the answers. So I will ask someone from our IT dept to come onto the forum and answer for me.
Thanks for everyone's responses to my problem so far!
Jenny
Regarding the other questions (version of Moodle, details about the database) I don't know the answers. So I will ask someone from our IT dept to come onto the forum and answer for me.
Thanks for everyone's responses to my problem so far!
Jenny
The version of Moodle that Jenny is using in her pilot course is version 1.6.1+ as of July 27, 2006.
Any other suggestions as to what this problem could be? I hope this can be resolved soon, because I plan to use the module for activities that count towards my students' grades.
One other symptom: One of the students told me that when she clicked the "submit all and finish" button, her her responses just disappeared from the quiz screen.
One other symptom: One of the students told me that when she clicked the "submit all and finish" button, her her responses just disappeared from the quiz screen.
I'm afraid yours is typically the kind of problem that is extremely difficult to solve, because it is not reproductible and seems to affect, as you said in your first post "some students" only, not everyone.
Unless you could have one observer per student, watching over their shoulder exactly what they are doing with the submit question, submit page and submit all buttons, it's hard to find out what happened.
Once more may I add that I find the present Quiz interface far too cluttered with all kind of buttons and links, and it is no wonder that the students don't know what to do, what they did, etc.
Hopefully when Tim comes back from his well-deserved holiday
he will think of a solution.
All the best,
Joseph
I was seeing a similar sort of problem (we are also using 1.6.1+) in the student view--it has a column for the highest score which was blank, although I watched students take quizzes several times yesterday in the computer lab. The teacher view shows me scores and all attempts, including all info, but the student view shows them nothing. I decided that maybe I needed to change something in the settings. Attached is a view of what I have checked in the settings and this worked. Students can now see their results. 
That an easy fix!
--Mary
That an easy fix!--Mary
I have a similar problem in moodle 1.6.1+. We have many different
reports of students who have taken the quizzes and have no recorded
scores. They have clicked the submit all and finish buttons and when I
log in as the student the score records just fine.
This problem seems to be only with quizzes taken in the past. not more recent ones. Other students who take the same quiz have no problem with thier scores. This happens in more than one course in moodle. At first we thought that the students were trying to pull a fast one on us but the problem is real. We have had too many accounts of the very same thing for it not to be.
They have recorded successful attempts on other quizzes. The quiz settings are set to close in the future and other quiz settings are checked to show all of the grades etc.
Most of our quizzes that this happens to have random short-answer matching questions.
This problem seems to be only with quizzes taken in the past. not more recent ones. Other students who take the same quiz have no problem with thier scores. This happens in more than one course in moodle. At first we thought that the students were trying to pull a fast one on us but the problem is real. We have had too many accounts of the very same thing for it not to be.
They have recorded successful attempts on other quizzes. The quiz settings are set to close in the future and other quiz settings are checked to show all of the grades etc.
Most of our quizzes that this happens to have random short-answer matching questions.
Greg > This problem seems
to be only with quizzes taken in the past. not more recent ones.
Does "in the past" mean before you upgraded from a former version of Moodle to your present 1.6.1+ ? It might explain things.
Joseph
I actually just recieved word that the quiz scores are missing from even recent quizzes taken long after our upgrade.
I am having the same exact problem. I upgraded the server during the summer and didn't notice it until a few days ago. The current quizzes are fine. Any quizzes with attempts before the upgrade are lost. It says that there are so many users with attempts, but when I click the link, nothing to display. Running PHP 4 with MYSQL5 and Moodle 1.6.2+
The trouble with a problem like this is that it is almost impossible to reproduce.
I suppose what I would need a someone who:
1. Experienced this problem; and
2. Took a backup of their database before doing the upgrade; and
3. Could send me a copy of that database backup, (and details of exactly which version of Moodle they were running before the upgrade), without breaking the data-protection laws in thier country, or thier students expectations of privacy.
Then I might be able to reproduce the bug, then I might be able to fix it.
I suppose what I would need a someone who:
1. Experienced this problem; and
2. Took a backup of their database before doing the upgrade; and
3. Could send me a copy of that database backup, (and details of exactly which version of Moodle they were running before the upgrade), without breaking the data-protection laws in thier country, or thier students expectations of privacy.
Then I might be able to reproduce the bug, then I might be able to fix it.
Well, it seems from what others are saying that this type of problem is more widespread than just a few of my students... In my case, the issues seem to be correlated to the use of a particular computer. However, I don't know enough about how the quiz interface works, or what might be on a particular student's computer, to decode what the specific problem is. My solution, for the moment, is to have those students with problems try again on a different computer (e.g. their roommate's or one in the library, etc). It's not a complete fix, but works in a pinch.
I also set up another test quiz which I plan to keep open for the entire semester, where any student who is worried about this issue can try it out and get feedback from me as to whether the answers were recorded.
I also set up another test quiz which I plan to keep open for the entire semester, where any student who is worried about this issue can try it out and get feedback from me as to whether the answers were recorded.
I am experiencing the same problem. It happened about a month ago with 2 students, and then just this week with 3 more. Their responses to the MCQ are being saved as blank. They each have saved their answers at the bottom of each page, and saved before submitting.
I haven't experienced an issue with essay questions yet.
Because the MC portion of the quiz grades automatically (we have many people taking these quizzes), people are being notified that they failed when in actuality it is a glitch or bug, and their answers are not being saved correctly.
Any help??