What's the expiration date mean?

QUESTION

What does the expiration date mean?

ANSWER

The expiration date and time defines the moment at which students will no longer be allowed to start a test. Students who load the test before the expiration time can begin testing. Students who load the test after the expiration time are denied the opportunity to test.

Important: The expiration time only affects whether a student can begin testing or not. It does not force a student to finish testing. If the expiration time is 12:00 today, and I start testing at 11:59, I am free to continue working on the test after 12:00. There's nothing to stop me from leaving the test open and finishing it later that afternoon or even the next day, unless a time limit has been set.

Most teachers use expiration dates with time limits defined. The expiration date sets a cutoff date after which students are no longer allowed to begin testing. The time limit makes sure the student finishes the test within a given amount of time.

If you have a fifteen minute test which you need all students to complete by 12:00 try this strategy:

1. Set the expiration time for 11:45.

2. Set the time limit at 15 minutes.

3. If you have autosave on (recommended in order to save the work as students progress) also choose the option "Clock never pauses". This means that if a student leaves the test and comes back to it later, the clock continues running while the student is away. However, if the test has expired in the meantime, they won't be able to reload the abandoned test.

Time zone of an assigned quiz

QUESTION

What time zone is used on the website for the quizzes?

ANSWER

The time zone currently set on the teacher's computer when the teacher sets a quiz's "assigned" date/time is used to determine the exact starting time, or expiration time, of a quiz.

For example:

If a teacher is in Hawaii, and the teacher's clock is set for the Hawaiian time zone at the time the teacher defines a quiz date and time, for example 8:00 AM on November 1, then that date and time is interpreted to be 8:00 AM on November 1 in Hawaii. Thus students in other time zones, such as the US East or Europe would not be able to begin testing until it was 8:00 AM in Hawaii. A student who is in London does not have access to the quiz at 8:00 AM in London, but must wait for the time to be 8:00 AM in Hawaii.

The same is true for quiz expiration times. If a teacher's computer clock indicates the teacher's time zone to be "Los Angeles" when setting an expiration time of 23:59 on December 31, the quiz expires when the time is 23:59 on December 31 in Los Angeles. A student in London would still be able to complete the quiz on the early morning of January 1, since the time in Los Angeles is used to determine the date.

WHAT TEACHERS SEE

All users see a quiz's assignment and expiration dates according to the time zone reported by the browser wherever they are currently using their computer or phone. If a teacher working in New York defines a quiz's expiration to be 9:00 PM on January 1, but then travels to Paris, the expiration date the teacher sees will change to 3:00 AM on January 2 (provided that the teacher's device's time zone has been adjusted to Paris). Nevertheless, students in New York will continue to see an expiration date of 9:00 PM on January 1. That's because 9:00 PM in New York is the same moment in time as 3:00 AM in Paris.

WHAT IF A STUDENT COMPUTER'S CLOCK OR TIME ZONE IS WRONG?

ThatQuiz ignores student computer clocks and time zones. The only data point which affects an assignment or expiration date and time is the time zone of the teacher's computer at the moment the date is set.

WHAT IF A TEACHER'S COMPUTER CLOCK IS WRONG?

ThatQuiz generally trusts its own clock over any clock on a user device. Nevertheless it is recommended to maintain a reasonably correct time on your device. Most computers and phones do this automatically.

WHAT IF A TEACHER'S TIME ZONE IS WRONG?

ThatQuiz trusts the time zone reported by the teacher's device regardless of whether it is right or wrong. If a teacher's computer or phone has an incorrect time zone configuration, for example reporting Tokyo when in fact the teacher and the teacher's students are in San Francisco, then the assignment and expiration times of quizzes will be incorrect for San Francisco.

WHAT IF I'M STILL WORRIED ABOUT QUIZZES APPEARING AT THE CORRECT TIME?

You can always manually control a quiz's appearance. Set a quiz's assignment date to "Not yet". It will be hidden from students. Then, at whatever moment you want to begin testing, set its assignment date to "Today". This makes the test immediately available to everyone regardless of any time zone or clock inaccuracies.

WHAT IF I'M STILL WORRIED ABOUT QUIZZES EXPIRING AT THE CORRECT TIME?

You can always manually expire a quiz. When you want a quiz to expire, set its expiration date to "Yesterday". This means that no new students will be allowed to load and begin the quiz, regardless of inaccuracies with any computer's time zone or clock. Students who have already begun the quiz are allowed to continue the quiz even though it is now expired.

Number of student attempts

 QUESTION

I was wondering does ThatQuiz show the number of attempts each students does on an assessment if I set a grade requirement?

ANSWER

Yes. These are called discarded grades and are visible on the grade report.