Test Options/Best Practices: Force Completion & Set Timer

FORCE COMPLETION “Students must complete the assessment the first time it is launched if Force Completion is selected. Students may not exit the assessment and continue working on it at a later date. The Save function is available for students to save the assessment as they work through it, but they may not exit and re-enter the assessment. If you enable the Force Completion option, it is noted and explained to students at the top of the assessment. If you do not enable Force Completion, students may save their progress and complete the assessment at another time.”   In theory, that sounds really good – if a student exits out of the test, they cannot go back in.   However, in reality, this also means that if a student’s internet connection changes, or there’s some sort of network problem between the computer and the server, they lose access to the test and cannot complete it. The biggest culprit is unstable wireless connections.   Some wireless network frequencies can be disrupted by microwave ovens. If someone’s heating something, there could be network interference and the wireless network crashes. We see this in campus buildings around lunch time.   From the student’s perspective, the page will still be in their web browser, but they will not be able to submit anything.   We do not recommend using Force Completion.   SET TIMER   “Select this check box to set a time limit for finishing the assessment. Enter the amount of time to allow for the test or survey in the hours and minutes boxes. The time elapsed appears to the student during the assessment.  A one-minute warning appears as students approach the time limit. Selecting this option also records completion time, available in the Test Information section when the attempt is complete. If students save and exit the assessment, the timer continues. For example, if they begin the test on Tuesday, save and exit it, then complete it on Thursday, the student’s completion time will be 48 hours. If you set a timer, turning on Auto-Submit will save and submit the assessment automatically when time expires. When set to off, students have the option to continue after time expires.”   This is my preference over “Force Completion”.   Scenario:

• The course instructor sets a 60 minute timer, with Auto-Submit.
• Student goes in, starts the test, works on it for 15 minutes, then disappears.
• Student re-enters the test 30 minutes later, so they only have 15 minutes to complete the test.
• When they hit that time-out period, the test is automatically submitted whether they are actually taking it or not.