Managing test settings
When setting up your assessment, you will want to consider some of the following questions:
When do you want students to be able to access the assessment?
When do you want them to complete the assessment?
Do you want the test to be timed?
Do you want students to have multiple attempts?
Do you have individual students requiring more time or a different time to write the test?
This page explains how the follow settings (and the interaction between settings) will impact the students ability to access and complete their test: Due dates, Time limits, Release conditions, Accommodations, and Exceptions.
Due dates and preventing late attempts/submissions
Due dates show students when an assessment is due (in gradebook, calendar, & activity stream).
Students who submit late, see a red ‘late' note under the item in the gradebook.
Instructors may use due dates to prohibit submissions after a specific time. If prohibit late submissions is checked, students who have not completed it before the due date cannot access it at all.
When a due date is created, but no other selections are checked, students can access/complete the assessment after date, the test shows as ‘late’.
Due date with no further selections
When ‘Prohibit late submissions’ is selected, in progress attempts are automatically submitted and students cannot access/complete the assessment after date has passed
Due date prohibit late submissions
When “Prohibit new attempts after due date” is selected, students can complete in-progress attempts, but cannot start a new attempt.
Due date prohibit new attempts
Prohibit late submissions does not work in combination with:
Peer review
Group submissions
Offline submissions
If students have submitted attempts, the instructor cannot change the due date to a date in the past.
If the due date has passed, the instructor will not be able to select the "prohibit late submission" setting.
Prohibit new attempts after due date setting enabled on its own does not work with:
Peer review
Offline submissions
What do students see?
Scenario 1 – Prohibit late submissions enabled:
In this scenario, the Due date is at 6:00 PM.
Students starting an attempt before 5:00 PM today (1 hour before the due date expires) will have the full 1-hour time limit available.
Students starting an attempt after 5:00 PM today will not have the full 1-hour time limit available to them. For example, a student who starts the test at 5:15 PM will only have 45 minutes available.
Attempts not submitted before the 6:00 PM deadline will auto-submit at the due date.
No new attempts can begin after the 6:00 PM deadline.
Students with accommodations can continue working past the due date. Their attempt will not be auto-submitted.
When starting a 1-hour timed test with less time before the due date, students will see the following visual indicators:
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Scenario 2 – "Prohibit new attempts after due date" enabled (no restriction on late submissions) submissions" enabled:
In this scenario, the Due date is at 6:00 PM.
Students starting an attempt before 5:59 PM today will have the full 1-hour time limit available.
Students who submit an attempt after 6:00 PM today will have their submission marked as late.
No new attempts can begin after the 6:00 PM.
Students with accommodations can continue working past the due date. Their attempt will not be auto-submitted.
When starting a 1-hour timed test with less time before the due date, students will see the following visual indicators:
Time limit
Instructors can set a time limit for completion of a test (e.g., 60 minutes). Students can exit and re-enter the test within the time limit. Instructors can choose to have the test submit at the time limit or allow additional time (with a notice that they may receive partial credit).
The time limit cannot be altered once a student has started an attempt.
The default setting will automatically submit the test when the time limit is reached.
Time limit with auto submit
Instructors can choose to provide additional time after it has expired.
Time limit allowing late submissions
Instructors will be prompted to manually grade the test (even if it is auto graded questions) as instructors may manually add a penalty for taking more time.
Prohibiting late submissions and setting up timed tests
When instructors have selected Prohibit Late Submission (due date) and added a time limit, the due date overrides the time limit. For example, a 10 min timed test has an 11:10 am due date (see screenshot)
Due date & Time limit settings
Attempts will submit automatically at the due date, regardless of the time limit that has been added to test. If the student accesses the test 11:03 AM, they will only have 7 minutes to complete their test (see screen shot).
Student accesses test late
When a student has a time limit accommodation, and accesses the test before the due date, the prohibit late submission is overridden.
For example, if a student has an accommodation for extra 50%, they will get 15 minutes (instead of 10) and they start the test at 11:03 AM, the timer will still show a full 15 minutes (see screen shot). However, a student with a due date accommodation cannot start a test after the due date.
Student with Time limit accommodation starts late
A student with a due date accommodation will be able to submit any time, but will still have a 10-minute time limit.
Student with due date accommodation
Accommodations, Exceptions, and Exemptions
Please see the related pages below to learn more about setting up accommodations, exceptions, and exemptions and how they interact with each other.
Release conditions and other settings
The Show on date/time must occur BEFORE due date if set.
With the Hide after date:
It must occur AFTER the due date is set.
After the date/time, students will see their grade, but will not be able to access the submission or any feedback, regardless of the ‘view submissions’ settings you have applied.
Tests in progress do not automatically disappear, nor do students' submissions get automatically submitted.
The due date cannot be accessed when you are editing your release conditions.
While a test in progress will not automatically disappear when the ‘hide after’ condition is met, there is a high chance of a glitch/screen refresh that will give students an error and potentially lose their work
It is possible that students who have accessed the test prior to the hide-after conditions being met may re-enter the test to ‘continue attempt’ (if they have hit save & close or if they have not closed the side window). We recommend that the “Hide After” date considers the entire duration of the test to accommodate for these possibilities.
Adjusting settings during a live assessment
Release conditions and due dates can be adjusted while a submission is in progress. However, the student MUST refresh their browser to see changes.
If you have release conditions set to hide the item, and want to extend the due date beyond the hide-on date, you must FIRST extend the release condition as you cannot have a due date after the release conditions hide the item.
Timed assessments cannot be adjusted after a student has accessed the test.
Test content cannot be altered after a student has accessed the test.
Please see our page on Release Conditions for more information.