Remote Tests & Assessments

[Rob Lucas]

Troy,

Unfortunately, I don’t know of another way to give a timed assessment in Sakai. Faculty are being encouraged to lean heavily on the Honor Code right now. You could set a more generous time limit and remind students that the Honor Code is in effect. In the Settings for each assessment, you can check a box called Honor Pledge that requires students to affirm the pledge when they begin taking the assessment.

You can also minimize the number of page transitions students will have to make by minimizing the number of Sections within the assessment. In other words, put all of the questions in a single, long section rather than multiple small sections.

-Rob

[Paul Wolff]

Troy,

Gradescope could be a potential solution for you (mentioned in this thread). You could create an assessment there and send it out to students via email. Students would then be able to complete the assessment and scan in their response. Alternately, you could just send out your assessment over email and have students return it to you. The downside with this option is that you’d be asking students to all take the exam at the same time if you wanted it to be timed (e.g. let them know you plan to send it on X day at X time and, after sending it, they have X amount of time to submit).

Generally, I’ve been leaning towards reducing student stress levels, relying on the honor code, and trusting them in this time of crisis. For that reason, I don’t know that making a test timed is worth the extra effort and complexity.

[Sudhanshu Handa]

I also have the same question as Troy.

Meanwhile, I wanted to confirm that the test availability dates and the time limit are two different things. So, I can set say a three hour window within which the test must be taken, while the test itself is 60 minutes–right? How is the time limit imposed? Are they cut off from access to the assessment after 60 minutes, automatically? Is there a timer that is shown, or a warning that is given? Does sakai begin counting the time as soon as the assessment is opened?

[Rob Lucas]

Sudhanshu,

You’re correct about test availability dates and the time limit.

Before the student starts the test, they see a message like this:

This assessment is due Sunday, 2020-Jan-26 12:00 PM.
Once you click “Begin Assessment,” you will have 10 minutes or until Sunday, 2020-Jan-26 12:00 PM whichever is shorter to complete this assessment. It will be submitted at that time, regardless of whether you have answered all the questions.
You can submit this assessment 1 time(s).

Then, once they start, they see a timer at the top of the page, as documented here.

-Rob

[Tyler Ritter]

Bring any questions you would like to discuss with instructional designers and experienced faculty to this week’s Learning Community Chats, Monday through Wednesday, twice daily Zoom sessions at 10 am and 2 pm. These are open discussions where all topics are welcome. Details and session links are on the Training/Consults page of this site.

[Tyler Ritter]

For those interested in GradeScope, here are some links to webinars and a pre-recorded session:
Gradescope Webinars & Help Sheets
Upcoming Webinars
Beginner User – March 24 @ 9:00 pm EDT, Registration Link
Beginner User – March 25 @ 11:00 am EDT, Registration Link
Existing User – March 25 @ 9:00 pm EDT, Registration Link
Existing User – March 30 @ 1:00 pm EDT, Registration Link
Beginner User – March 31 @ 1:00 pm EDT, Registration Link

Previously Recorded Session
Getting Started with Gradescope

[Ryan Thornburg]

Thanks for setting up this forum, Paul. It’s very helpful to see questions from others on campus and scan the conversation for related solutions or ideas.

My question is about “multiple correct, multiple selection” questions in Sakai. The grading behavior isn’t what I expect when I have these questions set to “right minus wrong”. For example, if I have five choices and one should be marked correct students are receiving one point for marking that correct answer… then being deducted points for each choice they incorrectly mark. But they are not give points for NOT marking answers that should NOT be marked.

I was expecting that students would be given points for correctly marking a choice that should be marked and they should also be given points for NOT marking a choice that should NOT be marked.

For now, I’m just avoiding setting up questions as multiple correct, multiple selection. But I’m wondering if I might have a setting wrong somewhere or am just not using that feature as it was intended.

Thanks again,
Ryan Thornburg

[Rob Lucas]

Hi Ryan,

Unfortunately, you’re not missing a setting. It just doesn’t function in quite the way you were hoping. Many instructors avoid using the point deduction feature because it adds unnecessary complications of this sort. But if you’re committed to point deductions, then I think it’s a good ideas to avoid that question type, or use the “all or nothing” grading option. In some cases, it might help to specify in the question text how many correct answers there are, like: “Select the three that apply.”

-Rob

[Ryan Thornburg]

These are good suggestions, Rob. Thank you. I especially like the “Select the *three* that apply” idea.

(Not for now, but wondering about the pedagogical pros & cons of using multi-choice, multi-selection questions vs. multi-choice, single-selection.)

[Rob Lucas]

I once worked for a company that wrote that type of question, and we often said, “Select the X that apply” because without it, students spent time thinking, “Well, this statement could arguably be correct, and that one could arguably be correct, depending what the teacher had in mind.” Including a number at least helps narrow down how many they are looking for.

I can think of uses for all of those scoring types, but I would be wary about mixing the more exotic ones. I think students might become confused about how each question worked, and you want them to spend their mental effort on the content, not the format.

-Rob

[Ryan Thornburg]

Thanks, Rob. Those are helpful suggestions.

[Gidi Shemer]

Hi guys. hope this is still a live thread. Giving my first sakai exam tomorrow. Question- if students save their answers during the exam and then they disconnect (e.g. internet disruption), can they go back to the exam and will their answered questions be saved?

thanks,
Gidi

[Thao Nghi Tu]

Hi Gidi,

Yes, the students’ answers should still be saved up until the point of the last save before the disconnection. Students can manually save their answers and Sakai also automatically saves every 5 minutes during a test. It’s extremely important to note that answers will be saved as long as students are in one active browser tab of Sakai. We highly recommend students remain in one browser tab/window of Sakai while taking tests as opening multiple windows of Sakai can potentially cause them to lose their answers due to the new window of Sakai now being the active session that is saved. We have this blog post with Sakai tips for students that you are welcome to share with your students.

Thanks,
Thao Nghi

[Kathleen Fitzgerald]

Hello – I have a question about quizzes in Sakai. For students who do not take a quiz, how can I record it as a zero? They did not do anything, so they are not submitting anything. I need their grade to be a zero.
Thanks,
Kathleen

[Paul Wolff]

@Kathleen – I believe you can go to the Tests and Quizzes section and go to the published version of the quiz in question. You can then select “Scores” from the dropdown menu for that quiz. From there you should be able to manually enter a grade – when you save/update after entering the grade manually, it should appear in the Gradebook.

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