Moodle question bank subplugin that hides multiple-choice answer options for a short, configurable delay on quiz attempt pages, encouraging students to read the question stem before making a selection. The delay is a pedagogical nudge, not an anti-cheat mechanism.

• Site default delay — Global default applied to every multichoice question across the site (Site administration → Plugins → Question bank → Delayed answer display).

• Per-quiz override — Tri-state dropdown on each quiz's edit form: Use site default / Enable for this quiz / Disable for this quiz.

• Resolution rule — Per-quiz override wins over the site default. Untouched quizzes follow the site default.

• Sensible default — Ships with a 4-second delay.

• Pure-CSS reveal — Uses a native @keyframes animation with animation-delay. No JavaScript on the student side.

• Waiting message — Optional message shown in place of the hidden answer options during the delay, fading out at the moment the options appear. Toggle from the plugin settings.

• Privacy API — Stores plugin configuration and per-quiz settings only; no personal user data.

• Recommended Moodle version: 5.2 LMS
• Recommended PHP version: 8.3
• Required Moodle version: 4.5 LMS
• Required PHP version: 8.1
• Required dependencies: qtype_multichoice
• Theme: tested against stock Boost

1. Copy the plugin directory to question/bank/delayedanswers/ on the Moodle server.
2. Navigate to Site administration → Notifications to trigger the database upgrade.
3. Configure the site default under Site administration → Plugins → Question bank → Delayed answer display.
4. (Optional) Override the delay per quiz via the quiz edit form.
5. Clear all caches.

The plugin has two configuration layers:

1. Site-wide default (admin) — Enable globally checkbox + Default delay (seconds).
2. Per-quiz override (teacher) — a Delayed answer display dropdown on the quiz edit form, with three options.

On each quiz's edit form, teachers pick one of:

• Use site default — this quiz follows the site-wide setting. If the administrator changes that setting later, this quiz follows the change.
• Enable for this quiz — the delay is applied on this quiz regardless of the site-wide setting. The Delay (seconds) field (1-60) controls the length; leave it blank to inherit the site default delay value.
• Disable for this quiz — no delay is applied on this quiz regardless of the site-wide setting.

The site-wide Enable globally setting applies ONLY to quizzes that have not been individually overridden. Once a teacher selects Enable for this quiz or Disable for this quiz, the choice is pinned to that quiz and the global toggle no longer affects it. To return a quiz to the global behaviour, change the dropdown back to Use site default.

To kill the delay site-wide, the admin can either uncheck Enable globally (untouched quizzes get no delay) or set Default delay (seconds) to 0 (untouched quizzes and quizzes that opted in with blank seconds get no delay). Quizzes that picked Enable for this quiz with an explicit seconds value continue to apply that value.

A short message can optionally be displayed in place of the hidden answer options while the delay runs. It fades out at the exact moment the options become visible, so the transition feels natural. Admins can switch the message on or off site-wide via the Show waiting message setting on the plugin's settings page.

• Site-wide default delay setting (Enable globally + Default delay (seconds)). Default applies to all multichoice questions in quizzes that have not been overridden per-quiz.
• Per-quiz override via a tri-state dropdown on the quiz edit form: Use site default / Enable for this quiz / Disable for this quiz. Row presence in qbank_delayedanswers_quiz encodes the teacher's intent: no row = follow site default; row exists = pinned override that survives global toggles.
• Per-quiz seconds validation: 1-60. Site-wide Default delay (seconds) allows 0, which disables the auto-applied delay site-wide while still letting teachers force a delay on individual quizzes.
• qtype_multichoice support.
• CSS-only reveal via the before_http_headers hook + per-request inline <style>. No JavaScript on the student side.
• visibility: hidden during delay (accessibility-safe; removes options from the keyboard tab order and assistive technology trees).
• Optional waiting message shown in place of the hidden options, fading out at reveal. Admin toggle on the plugin settings page.
• Event observer on \core\event\course_module_deleted cleans up per-quiz override rows when the parent quiz is deleted. Orphan cleanup is event-driven rather than enforced by a cross-plugin foreign key: rows can persist if a quiz is deleted via a path that does not fire the event (e.g., direct SQL). Orphan rows are inert (resolver returns null for unknown quizid).
• Stale-form guard in qbank_delayedanswers_coursemodule_edit_post_actions: a quiz settings form opened in another browser tab before an upgrade does not silently delete the row when submitted.
• Privacy API (null_provider).
• Plugin feature registration for question bank discovery.

If you discover any security vulnerabilities, please send an e-mail to Avetica via security@avetica.nl.

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. - https://www.gnu.org/licenses or see the LICENSE file.

Copyright © 2026 Avetica :: avetica.nl

• Nihaal Shaikh :: Ldesign Media - nihaal.shaikh@ldesignmedia.nl