Moode Plugin-Auto Activate Quiz Attempt Button

Background and Need

1. In a quiz where the start time is crucial students tend to refresh the page every now and then just to make sure if the attempt is available.

2. This unnecessarily increases the server load, if there are too many such ‘unwanted’ requests.

Solution

The “Activate Attempt” plugin makes the “Attempt quiz now” button auto-appear at quiz open timing without requiring to refresh the page. This is done by a client side countdown timer (javascript) which is initiated when the page is rendered in the browser. The plugin is implemented as an access-rules plugin overriding the default page renderer.  The page, by default, displays the time remaining (in minutes) to start the quiz, and counts down to the last minute. We have deliberately avoided to display the remaining time in seconds as this too can increase the server load since several students will tend to send a server request the next second the button appears. Whereas, in when displayed in minutes, the requests are likely to be spread over several seconds to a minute.

Installation:

1. Download it into /mod/quiz/accessrule

2. Log in into Moodle

3.  A notification will appear stating “Plugins requiring attention”.

 

Usage

If you enable quiz open time in quiz settings, quiz students will no longer have to manually refresh the page in order to get “Attempt Quiz Now” button at the quiz open timing.

Fig. 3 - Enabling Quiz Open Time

Fig. 4 - Timer notification if you visit quiz page before quiz open time.

Fig. 5 - Attempt Quiz Now Button appears without refreshing the page