Quizzes – Quiz Timing Improvements featuring Synchronous Quiz | Updated

 

The September release includes updates to the Quiz Creation experience for instructors and learners by adding a new synchronous quiz option.

With this release, instructors can facilitate quizzes where learners take their attempts simultaneously, which is convenient for in-class sessions. The new addition of synchronous quizzes enables instructors to set up a quiz where the quiz timer starts on the start date for all learners rather than when the learner launches the quiz (asynchronous). The quiz timer then ends for all learners at the same time.

To set up a synchronous quiz:

        

1. From a quiz page, expand the Availability Dates & Conditions area.
2. Set start date and time.
3. Set the end date and time if desired. 
4. Expand the Timing & Display area.
5. Click Timer Settings.                                                      
6. In the Timing dialog, under Quiz Start, select Synchronous: Timer starts on the start date and ends on the end date if completed.
7. Click OK.

Note: If no start date and time is set for the synchronous quiz, the No Start date set alert appears under the selected option, and you cannot save the quiz. The Due Date option is disabled for synchronous quizzes.

To ensure that learners are aware of upcoming synchronous quizzes, instructors should create instructional or manual solutions:

• Make a synchronous quiz visible in the calendar:
  • Instructors can select Add availability dates to Calendar or set up an event showing the whole time.
  • Instructors should use the Start Date parameter when setting up a synchronous quiz and leave the End Date field empty.
  • Learners must have the Allows Out of Date Quizzes to be Viewed in the User Quiz List permission to open the quiz from their calendar and check the Quiz Information page.
• Create an announcement with information about the synchronous quiz.
• Set up an event and give a link to the quiz to provide more context.

Instructors must modify or review quizzes one by one to avoid accidentally modifying quiz availability dates for synchronous quizzes.

A synchronous quiz starts at the Start Date and ends when the time limit has lapsed, regardless of any action taken by the learner. For example, if a learner clicks Start Quiz! 15 minutes after the start date on a 1-hour quiz, they only have 45 minutes left to complete it. To indicate when a quiz becomes available, learners have a countdown timer on the Quiz Information and Start Quiz pages. The Start Quiz! button becomes available when the start date and time is reached.

Figure: A countdown timer on the Start Quiz page.

Instructors can provide learners with information about a synchronous quiz before it starts. Learners can access this information in the Quiz Information page if they have the Allows Out of Date Quizzes to be Viewed in the User Quiz List permission.

New Assignments Date Feature - Updated Date Availability, Visibility, And Access Options

 

Introduction

In late summer 2021, we released a new feature in Discussions to consolidate availability dates and started on a journey of consistency with Brightspace dates, behavior of activity visibility, and access around dates and calendar event control. We’re at the next phase of that journey.

This blog post details the exciting changes available to you in the December release. You’ll have the option to enable a new feature in Assignments that lets faculty have greater control over the behaviour of availability dates for their students.

With the new availability date settings, teachers will be able to:

• Stop late submissions
• Let students view assignment information and submissions after it ends
• Schedule when an assignment becomes visible
• Prevent students from attempting an assignment while still viewing details
• Post the start and end of an assignment to the Calendar

Highlights of Upcoming Key Changes

After enabling the new feature, users can expect the following to happen:

1. New options for availability dates that allow for flexibility in visibility and access

   • This will apply to the Assignments edit page, Classic Content, Lessons, and Manage Dates. When an assignment is set up with availability dates, the instructor will be able to choose whether learners can see and access assignments outside of those availability dates. The new options will be Hidden, Visible with access restricted, and Visible with submission restricted.

2. An option to display availability dates in Calendar.

   • The new option will apply to both Availability Start Date and Availability End Date. Tools where an assignment could be modified will no longer decide which calendar event should be added.
   • Note: when the feature is enabled, additional Calendar events for Availability Start and Availability End dates may appear.

3. Default date properties can be set for the course.

   • Instructors will have the option to change the default date settings for new assignments and new discussions in their course from a new Availability Date Defaults page under Course Admin. An admin will also be able to set defaults for their organization via config variables.

4. Assignment list pages – removal of Due Date column and display of all assignment dates.

   • On the instructor and student assignment list pages, all dates (due, start, end) will appear below the name of the assignment to be consistent with all activity list pages in Brightspace.
   • The Due Date column within the table will be removed since Due Date is moving to below the assignment name.

Enabling the New Consistent Dates Feature

Admins can enable the new consistent dates feature for Assignments via the following configuration variable:

d2l.Tools.Dropbox.ConsistentDatesEnabled (OrgUnit)

Options: On and Off

Default: On (in the June release of Brightspace)

Additional details for setting defaults for a course and entire organization can be found in the section Configuring Default Date Properties.

New Properties of Availability Dates for Assignments

The availability dates for Assignments will have new properties as described below. These new properties align and behave the same way as the same properties available to Discussions topics and forums.

The Availability Start and End Dates will each have a set of three options. You will be able to select one option for each date. By choosing an option, you are deciding whether learners can see the assignment and access it. The options are:

1. Visible with access-restricted (before start/after end)

   • The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date, but they cannot click or open it.
   • This behavior is consistent with how Classic Content, Assignments, and User Progress treat assignments outside of availability dates currently.
   • With this setting, learners can see the name, dates, and restrictions. Learners cannot see the assignment description or attachments.

2. Visible with submission-restricted (before start/after end)

   • The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date and they can click or open it, but they cannot submit or mark it as complete.
   • With this setting, learners can see all details about the assignment including description, attachments, and rubrics, but they cannot upload files, enter comments, or mark the assignment as complete (for observed in person/on paper submission).

3. Hidden (before start/after end)

   • The assignment is hidden to learners until the start date is reached or after the end date passes.
   • Learners will not see the assignment anywhere across Brightspace, including corresponding Calendar events and Notifications.

The new availability date settings will let teachers setup assignments to achieve a few different workflows for students:

• To stop late submissions, set an end date that is submission-restricted. Learners will be able to see the assignment information after the end date, but will not be able to submit.
• To let learners access their submissions after the assignment has ended, set an end date that is submission-restricted.
• To prevent learners from attempting an assignment but still allow them to view details like instructions and attachments, set a start date that is submission-restricted.
• To schedule the visibility of an assignment you want students to see at a specific time, set a start date that is hidden to completely hide it from students; or set a start date that is access-restricted to let students see the name and dates of the assignment but no other details.
• To show the start and end of an assignment in the Calendar, include start and end availability dates on the assignment and select Add availability dates to Calendar.

Permissions Affecting Visibility and Access

Due to the limited set of permissions for the Assignments tool, any role with the permission See and Manage Assignment Submission Folders will be able to see and access any assignment outside of availability dates that is hidden, access-restricted, or submission-restricted.  

Calendar Events and “Display in Calendar” for Assignment Dates

Calendar events are created for assignments based on rules defined within Assignments. Currently, Assignments does not support a ‘Display in Calendar’ option; and there is only ever one calendar event even if three dates (due, start, end) are set on the assignment.

The current rules for when dates are added to Calendar:

• If Due is set (and regardless of Start and/or End being set), show a Due event in Calendar
• If Due is not set and End is set, show an Availability Ends event in Calendar
• If Start is the only date set, show an Availability Starts event in Calendar

The new rules for when dates are added to Calendar are as follows:

• If Due Date is set, show a Due event in Calendar

• When Display in Calendar is selected:

  • If Start date is set, show an Availability Starts event in the Calendar
  • If End date is set, show an Availability Ends event in the Calendar

When the new dates feature is enabled, learners may see additional Calendar events:

Editing Assignment Dates in the Assignments Tool

The following illustrates the changes to the Availability Dates and Conditions panel of an assignment before and after the new dates feature is enabled.

Before

Figure: Availability Dates & Conditions in the Assignments editing page before the new dates feature.

After

Users can now adjust whether Calendar events for the availability dates are created from Assignments. A Due Date Calendar event is always created. Previously, Assignments would create a single Calendar event depending on which of the three dates were set.

Figure: Availability: Start Date window in the Assignments editing page showing availability settings.

Editing Assignment Dates in Classic Content

Like in the Assignments tool, users can edit the availability date settings from within Classic Content.

When clicking a date, a link becomes available to launch a dialog where the start and end availability date settings can be updated.

Note: Users can now adjust whether Calendar events for the availability dates are created from Classic Content. A Due Date Calendar event is always created. Previously, Content would create a single Calendar event depending on which of the three dates were set.

Before

Figure: Assignment Start Date in Content under the Activity Details tab.

After

Figure: Availability: Start Date window in Content.

Assignment List Page Updates

From the instructor and learner Assignment lists, the following changes happen when the new date feature is enabled:

• The dates for an assignment will appear below its name. The update means all dates will be shown and the layout will be consistent with the Discussions and Quizzes list pages. Previously, only Due Date or End Date would be displayed.
• The Due Date column located at the far right of the table will be removed. With the addition of dates below the name, the Due Date column, which sometimes showed the End Date as the Due Date, would be redundant.

Before

Figure: Manage Assignments page displaying the Due Date column.

After

Figure: Manage Assignments page without the Due Date column. The start and end dates are now visible below the assignment name and the availability date description appears as a tool tip when hovering over the availability date.