[New Quizzes] reopen starting time when student begins

The "reopen" a current attempt option in moderate restarts students with the time they have remaining at the time when I click the button.  However, with remote teaching, coordinating that the quiz needs to be reopened, and the time that it should be reopened is very hit-and-miss.  A student tells me a message that justifies reopening the quiz, and when I see it an hour later, the student is no longer online.  I send a message requesting confirmation that the student is online, and they respond after I've gone to bed.  It just goes on and on. 

I propose a checkbox under the reopen button, to schedule (when checked) the time to restart when the student next accesses the quiz.

8 Comments
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Open
 
BradMoser
Community Coach
Community Coach

Recently, I had some teachers trying to use New Quizzes for more formative assessments. With the greater reliance on digital assessments, we leaned into Canvas. We have been grateful to have this tool. However, this moderate feature is a little misleading. You would think that you could extend the time for a student on-the-fly, since, as teachers, we don't always know at the beginning of any assessment exactly how much time we actually need to grant to students. And this becomes an issue for SPED and any student that needs extra time. While you can add extra time, it currently only applies to the next attempt. And if you have another attempt, that student has to start from the beginning and submit all answers to all questions again.

We hope this gets addressed with an update. @srodina might have additional insights. 

srodina
Community Member

Yes, Brad outlined this issue beautifully!  I would prefer that they take the option off until they make it work as it should as it is deceiving.  It "looks like" you give the student more time, but when the student "resumes" after you add time/reopen, it goes directly to Time is UP!  Very odd behavior.  Thanks for considering this change!

cbartolac
Community Explorer

Agree 100% with srodina and BradMoser.  They have documented the issue nicely.  Please consider correcting this. Thank you.

jpittman
Community Member

@BradMoser and @srodina have commented on a New Feature that is really deceiving. We have had several teachers try to use the Moderate, Moderate, Give Additional Time feature but it doesn't work the way teachers want it to work. Typically, teachers are interested in providing additional time to a student who is "in the moment" of the test. Time is running out, but the teacher wants to give certain students more time. This feature does not provide the additional time it seems it should. Clearly, we are thinking this feature acts one way when it acts differently than what we expect. 

This IS an issue with SpEd students for sure, but with student who also may experience technical issues. 

Please look into this as it could be a really nice feature, but it currently is more frustrating than it should be. 

Steven_S
Community Champion

@jpittman  I agree that giving additional time should function independently from the reopen function.  A student should not have to conclude the currently timed quiz and then have us reopen with the extra time.  Typically, I do not hear from students fast enough to respond on the spot while their attempt is still in progress, but I can absolutely appreciate the benefits of that function.  I have not had an opportunity to test how it works independent from the reopen feature. 

This idea is about the problem of reopening an already closed quiz remotely.  Specifically, the timer starts running again when you click reopen, which means that the student has to start right away.  You can't click reopen, and then send the student an email that they have a chance to finish.  I believe this is the source of what @srodina was describing, when she said that it goes directly to "time's up."  By the time the student gets the email and goes back to resume the quiz, the timer has run out again.  The coordination of reopening a closed quiz is unreasonable for remote teaching of students that are not logged into a live class during the quiz.  That is why this idea is for a way to have a reopened quiz start at the time when the student resumes the quiz, rather than at the time that we click the reopen button.

However, the function of adding time to the quiz should allow time to be added to an in-progress attempt as you note, and so I will mention that in New Quizzes: time remaining which focuses more on needing to know how much time will be allowed when adding time to a quiz attempt. 

The two ideas are related, because it is natural to consider whether to add time when reopening an attempt, and having to attempt reopening repeatedly compounds the question of exactly how much time the student will be allowed once the quiz is reopened.

 

Meneghini
Community Novice

When working with the quiz feature in Canvas, students have timed out due to things out of their control (we're using Canvas in a blended learning environment and I see some students in the traditional classroom setting). When that happens, I thought I could just give them extra time (say 30 minutes) and then reopen the test. However, it won't apply that extra time to an already submitted test. It would be great if this was made more clear OR if the reopen button would allow you to reopen AND add more time.

My role is as an instructor.

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Added to Theme