Quizzes with multiple attempts should correctly calculate scores when combined with late policy

[ProfKate]

Here's an example: 

• A quiz is set to allow multiple attempts and keep only the highest score.
• The course has a late penalty of 25% for each day late.
• A student takes a quiz worth 10 points before the deadline and earns a 9/10
• The student then comes back to the quiz a day after the deadline to practice the questions and earns a 10/10
• What SHOULD happen is the late penalty gets applied to the second submission and the 10/10 becomes a 7.5/10, then the earlier 9/10 gets compared to the 7.5/10 and the 9/10 is the grade that shows up in the gradebook
• What CURRENTLY happens is the 10/10 gets compared to the 9/10 and the 10/10 is noted as the highest score. It then gets sent to the grade book where the late penalty gets applied and the student gets only a 7.5/10 on that quiz

This situation means that instructors have a few choices:

1. to manually reset the grades of every student who submits a quiz both before and after the deadline (completely impractical)
2. to not use both features (quizzes with multiple attempts and a late penalty)
3. to not allow late submissions of quizzes (also preventing students from returning to quizzes to practice)

This bug has been noted before in the Question Forum and as a Known Issue. However, under the Known Issue post it states "This change has been shelved by our product team. Multiple attempts and late policies are not compatible in correcting this behavior." As an instructor who is significantly impacted by this bug, I'm quite bummed to hear that the Canvas team is not looking further into this issue and investigating why quizzes and the grade book are not currently compatible. As Canvas has decided this is no longer an issue and has closed the ticket, I'm posting this idea again. I think the incompatibility of quizzes and the grade book should be a priority to be addressed, particularly as Canvas migrates over to New Quizzes. 

[DeletedUser]

Yes, please edit this behavior for the New Quiz.

[kjl5881]

I create short, unlimited attempt quizzes with a set due date and encourage students to use them after the due date as a study tool. 

When I set a late penalty in Grade Book, any quizzes attempted after their due date no longer takes the TRUE highest grade.  It takes the NEWEST RAW grade and applies the late grade penalty after.  Students then end up with a 0% grade due to taking the quiz to study. 

I would like to see the grade penalty considered as part of the grade prior to Canvas deciding which grade to post as the true highest grade.

If this also applies to quizzes taking the LATEST grade, then the latest grade taken should be the latest before the due date and not after.

[lbach]

Yes, this is a huge issue for multiple classes. If I have a quiz that allows 2 attempts and has a late penalty, some students will take their first attempt before the due date and save their second attempt to use as practice later. Except once they submit that second attempt, it overwrites their original score and gives them a zero for submitting the quiz late.

As some above have noted, changing the order of operations (ie, selecting the highest grade after the late penalty is applied rather than selecting the highest grade before applying any penalties) would be ideal. Having the gradebook ignore any late attempts if a prior attempt is recorded would also work, though that might penalize students who get a poor score before the deadline. 

[james_whalley]

Comments from Instructure

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