[New Quizzes] time remaining

[Steven_S]

When reopening a new quiz attempt, it is not clear how much time remains to a student.  I propose that the time that will be allowed to a student whose quiz is reopened be clearly displayed on the same menu as the reopen button.

Use Case 1:

Since transferring to new quizzes, I have had several students whose quiz needed to be reopened.  In these cases, something interrupted the student's progress and the quiz was auto submitted once the time ran out.  The main moderate screen displays that the student took the full time, whereas the log reveals how long they were actually working in the quiz. 

I can now tell you that it is the quiz log time that determines how much time remains, but the first time I reopened such a quiz, I added the difference between the quiz log and the moderate tab display to the attempt - just to make sure the student would be allowed that time.  The result was allowing the student double time.  A simple note on the menu would have cleared that up, "if reopened this student will be allowed __ minutes that remain on this attempt."  I would be happy with just: "time remaining: ____"

Use Case 2:

After I reopened a quiz, a student found that it would not work and I tried to help her troubleshoot.  The reopened quiz ran through the remaining time with only a loading screen displayed.  At the end of the time I waited on canvas support for hours, they diagnosed the problem (new quizzes is not backwards compatible after chrome updates), and so I could try again with the student.  However, even canvas support could not accurately tell me how much additional time to offer the student. 

Why?  I had already added time to the attempt (due to use case 1.) Canvas support did not think the additional time had been used up yet, and told me the student had zero time remaining and so the additional time would be automatically added (added again, since I had reopened with that time added already.)  Canvas support was wrong.  The quiz reopened, but the student was immediately told she was out of time, and the quiz submitted. 

Showing the time remaining on the same menu as an update-able field interacting with add time to this attempt would have clarified the answer to Use Case 2 easily.

[RobDitto]

Rated 5 stars! @Steven_S, if you have time, can you share more about the following:

>new quizzes is not backwards compatible after chrome updates

Our institution hasn't experienced this yet, but I'd love to understand what to expect.

[Steven_S]

A day or two after the most recent chrome update, some of my students still had old versions of chrome. They had taken a new quiz once with the old version of chrome, and then when I tried to reopen an attempt quiz would not load for them.  It literally just opened a never-ending loading spiny wheel.   Canvas support correctly diagnosed the problem as their version of chrome, although the subject of this idea remained an issue.  Updating chrome allowed new quizzes to run, but there was no indication to the student that was the problem.  With this information I was able to help several other students who reported the same problem with their new quiz loading.  For one student, he was using new quizzes without a problem, and ran into this issue later the same day.  The support ticket has not been closed yet, and so I hope they are addressing it with at least a suitable warning message.  That is really a separate issue from this idea, it just happened to overlap and compound problems for my students.

[RobDitto]

Thanks so much for sharing those details, @Steven_S. Glad to know that updating Chrome solved the problem.

[hiltruo]

I am also running into a similar issue. On a quiz with only one attempt, I tried to give a student an additional 5 minutes after the timer ran out. After clicking "reopen," I had the student try to access the same quiz but Canvas continued to tell her that time was up and directed her to the results page.

If I tried to give her an additional 5 minutes during the attempt, her timer would not reflect the added 5 minutes and continued to countdown like normal.

I know that in old quizzes, clicking on the timer would allow the instructor to manually add time but this does not seem to be functioning properly in new quizzes. Is this also an issue of an outdated Chrome browser? Or does something need to happen on Canvas's end?

[Steven_S]

@hiltruo  I agree that the adding time tool should allow time to be added during an ongoing quiz attempt.  That is a big flaw if that does not work, although I have not been able to test that myself, since I usually need to respond to student issues after their attempt has ended.  I tried to edit the idea to reference in-progress attempts, but I don't see the edit options...  If adding time does not work in live attempts, that needs to be fixed also.

It is still very unclear whether or not time needs to be added when reopening a quiz.  It is also unclear that the timer starts running when you click reopen (not when the student gets back to the quiz).  This could be the cause of your trouble with the student trying to reopen the quiz with an extra 5 minutes. New quizzes: reopen starting time when student begins suggests that teachers need a way to have the timer restart when the student resumes a reopened quiz.

Repeated attempts to reopen a quiz attempt (so that the student start exactly when you click reopen) make it more complicated to add time, because it becomes unclear whether the added time is being treated as "used up" or whether the time needs to be added again. In your case, if you added 5 minutes and reopened, but the student actually resumed 10 minutes later once the time was used up, you would want to reopen it again.  The 5 minutes you added previously would still be listed as additional time, but will the student actually be given that time, or should you increase the additional time to 10 minutes, since the first 5 minutes you added might already be "used." That is why this idea is about clearly communicating how much time will be allowed at the point that additional time is added to a quiz.  In the case of an in-progress attempt, the tool could show that the current countdown for the student's ongoing attempt, plus whatever time is added.  As it is, it really is not clear enough how the tool will calculate the current time remaining, before adding the additional time to it.

[maki1]

In Classic Quizzes, the Moderate page will display the "Start" and "End" time for quizzes (if they had a time limit/available until date), but the end time does not seem to be available in New Quizzes. It only displays the "start" time for a quiz and that it is "In Progress". Since several factors may be in play in determining the student's quiz end time, it is helpful to see the expected end time rather than have to cross-reference the time limit, available until date, and accommodations/extensions for each student. Would it be possible to display this information in New Quizzes?