What is the purpose of "Lock questions after answering"

[asiddiq]

Hello. 

Does "Lock questions after answering" below "Show one question at a time" in Classic Quiz  allow students to skip questions they may need more time answering and only return to them after answering questions the ones they can answer in a short period of time. 

It seems like it should right?  Lock questions after answering so if the question isn't answered it's not locked and it could be returned to?

Thanks

[James · Accepted solution]

 @asiddiq  

No, it means the students cannot return to the question later to answer.

According to a lesson from the Canvas Instructor Guide, it says "Questions will be locked even if a student clicks the Next button without answering the question." See What options can I set in a quiz?  for the full lesson.

Another lesson, How can I create a quiz where students only see one question at a time?  explains "If you want to keep your students from returning to a previous question during the quiz, click the Lock questions after answering checkbox"

I also recommend Quiz Settings to Maximize Security 

[James · Accepted solution]

 @asiddiq  

No, it means the students cannot return to the question later to answer.

According to a lesson from the Canvas Instructor Guide, it says "Questions will be locked even if a student clicks the Next button without answering the question." See What options can I set in a quiz?  for the full lesson.

Another lesson, How can I create a quiz where students only see one question at a time?  explains "If you want to keep your students from returning to a previous question during the quiz, click the Lock questions after answering checkbox"

I also recommend Quiz Settings to Maximize Security 

[atreadwell]

We are currently weighing the pros and cons of trying to hide this option. The fact that students cannot return if they accidentally click next before answering is a bit worrisome, and we predict it may cause support some headaches. What is the reason an instructor would want this option? If anyone has used this option in the past, can you give me an example of the kind of tests/quizzes for which you found "Lock questions after answering" beneficial? Thanks!

[asiddiq · Accepted solution]

Firstly, the label "Lock questions after answering" is misleading. When I initially asked for help with how I wanted questions set (for students to see questions one at a time and only return to unanswered questions due to challenging questions) I was told to use this option. But this is not the case.

All questions using this option are locked, not just the answered ones and leaving a question blank should not be considered answering because as you said a student may mistakenly hit next or at least claim to do so.

The other option currently available is to allow students to return to any question since all questions are visible to the right of the screen. This can increase the chance of unwelcome student collaboration.

A third option should be created which is moderate. Canvas should offer the option for instructors to set questions visible one at a time and for students to only be permitted to return to the ones left blank.

Thanks.

[James]

atreadwell 

Students do not have an argument if they try to claim that they accidentally clicked Next and it moved on or that they didn't know they couldn't come back.

When they click "Take the Quiz" they get this message.

Canvas pops up a warning message if they try to skip a question without answering. You get the same message if you try to hit Submit on the last question without answering it.

If you try to hit submit before all of the questions are answered, you see a message similar to this.

I tested this in the browser and in the iOS student app.

I am using this both the one question at a time and the lock answers options for the first time with my final in statistics in a couple of days. It was an interactive classroom activity using one computer with Respondus StudyMate (old version that I can't get anymore that supported Flash) and another computer with QuestionPress to manage collecting the student responses. I had to move it online for COVID-19. I would have had to do something anyway, since Flash is being deprecated at the end of 2020. Students would pick a question from a Jeopardy style game and I would show it on the projected screen and then they would get 40 seconds to answer it on their computers. They cannot go back and change their answer after the question is over in an audience response system. I mixed formative and summative assessment and would explain the answer if students did poorly.  The idea being that when a similar question came up later on, that they would do better.

This final is linked to my student learning outcomes for the course, so I wanted to get as close to the experience as I could so the data is thrown off as little as possible. If Canvas would support a time limit per question rather than for the entire quiz, that would be even better. I want them to have studied, not just come in and try to wing it or look up every question as they encounter it. In class, they would get 40 seconds, but online they miss out on my explanations, so I tried giving them 45 seconds as a way of being nice. There are 50 questions and Canvas wouldn't accept 37.5 minutes as a time limit on quiz, so I made it 40 minutes and gave them 48 seconds. Having a synchronous final is not possible, we're not allowed to come on campus to use their reliable internet and since I don't have reliable internet (I regularly lose it for 5-15 minutes at random points on what seems like most days between 12 and 2) and so I don't assume my students will at a particular moment in time.

I do have a practice final with a limited number of questions. In the past, students wouldn't take advantage of it and I think I discovered the reason was that it wasn't showing up on the their To Do list since it was a practice quiz. It didn't matter that I mentioned it over and over in class and linked to it from multiple places in the content. If it's not on the To Do list, some students just won't do it. I found that many students really were coming into it with no preparation other than to bring the 1 page summary printout I gave them that covered a part of it. This semester, we went on shutdown before I had a chance to give them the printout. I really want them to have some sense of what's coming down the line, so I made the practice quiz a real quiz and said they had to score at least 50% on it before they could get to the final. The practice quiz has explanations of what the answers are, the final does not (threads in the Community make it seem that feedback isn't delivered until the end for a quiz delivered one question a time, so that's moot).

Seeing all of the questions at once does open it up to cheating (you can call it collaboration if you like). I do that on lower stakes quizzes, but even then it is sometimes confusing. I have some very similar questions that ask for different things.I might as for the point estimate of a confidence interval one time and the width of the confidence interval another; the story behind the problem is the same -- but the numbers are different because I'm using a formula question. I wonder if making them a question at a time would keep students from looking back at the wrong problem and getting confused. However, since it's a low-stakes quiz and is untimed and allows multiple attempts, I would allow them to go back and change things before turning it in. The final has some very similar questions (if the area to the left of the test statistic is 0.123, what is the right tail p-value? what is the two-tail p-value?) Their final is higher-stakes (only double a regular quiz), multiple choice so it's easier to guess, and is timed. That's also why I prepared multiple versions of the final and used differentiated assignments to split up the class, separating students I know work together into different versions, and then randomly assigning the rest.

[atreadwell]

I agree Aisha. It seems "Lock Questions after Viewing" or "Lock Questions after Proceeding" might be a more fitting name for the setting. And thank you James for the wealth of information! It's good to know we are protected by some "are you sure?" popups. Your statistics example makes perfect sense as well. In that scenario, I can see how future questions in a quiz may potentially provide clues or even answers to previous questions, and you might not want the student to be able to go back and take advantage of that information.