Skip to content

Tag: quiz

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #477: Quizzes – Quiz Results Displays

Quiz Results Displays (formerly known as Submission Views) can be created to allow students to go back and review a submitted quiz. Customizing the Quiz Results Displays allows instructors to choose what information the student sees upon completing the quiz, as well as what they can see when they go back to review a quiz. The default Quiz Results Display shows the overall score to the student (when they submit their quiz) and nothing else. To release more information to students (i.e. feedback, their submitted answers, the answers to each question, class averages and statistics, etc.) you need to either edit the default view or set up an additional view.

The Default View is what students see immediately upon submitting their quiz. The Default View typically does not allow students to see answers to a quiz, but does allow them to view their score on auto-graded items. You can adjust the Default View to allow students to see the answers to a quiz, keep in mind the Default View is what students see as soon as they submit their quiz. Thus, auto-publishing the attempt results and/or showing the answers in the Default View while the quiz is still in progress would reveal the score and/or answers to the quiz before ALL students have submitted the quiz.

Evaluation & Feedback accordion with Customize Quiz Results Displays highlighted

Additional Views can be created with a specified release date and time that allows instructors to release information, or answers, after a certain time. For example, an Additional View could be created for after all students have submitted the quiz (i.e., after the quiz is closed) to allow students to view their score and which questions they answered correctly and/or incorrectly, as well as answers to questions. Another Additional View could also be created to allow students to see the class statistics and could be set to release at the end of the semester. If a quiz has multiple attempts, you can also specify a score required on an attempt in order to release the submission view. You may want an Additional View to be available to the students for a short period of time. To make this happen, you would create another Additional View with the date/time you would like the system not to show any questions.

Customize Quiz Results Displays with the link to add an additional view highlighted

You may decide that you want the Additional View to be available to your students through the end of the semester. In this case, I suggest creating a “Shutdown View” with an end-of-semester date/time. Creating a “Shutdown View” with an end-of-semester date/time is good practice if you are planning to copy a course with quizzes that have Additional Views into another course. This ensures that a quiz with a Shutdown View will force you to update the settings in the course you are copying to. Thus reducing the possibility that you have a Additional View enabled before you want it to be.

Example of a shutdown view with a quiz results display that will not show any questions at the end of the semester

Important Notes:

  • Additional Views DO NOT take effect until the quiz scores have been published.
  • The Limited Duration option allows students to only be able to access the submission view for a short period immediately after completing the quiz. This option SHOULD NOT be used if you want students to review at a future date/time. In this case you should set up an additional view for the date/time you want the view to start AND set up a “Shutdown View”.
  • You should provide students with instructions on how to view a completed test submission.

Want more information?

Creating a Quiz Results Display
Customize the Quiz Results Display (video)
How to view a completed test submission (pdf)

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #469: Test/Quiz Question Generator

Do you want your students to take a quiz or test online? Do you have a test that you normally administer on paper and you don’t want to retype all the questions into Brightspace? Learning and Teaching Services at Algonquin College developed a Test/Quiz Question Generator that provides an easy way of creating a collection of questions that can be imported into Brightspace.

the word test written in chalk on a chalkboard

Quiz questions have to be in a special format in order to be imported into Brightspace. The Test/Quiz Question Generator allows you to reformat your questions and it will create a CSV file that can be imported into Brightspace.

Additionally, the Brightspace Community developed a Quiz Question Converter that you can use to add a bank of questions to the Quiz Question Library. One benefit of using the Quiz Question Converter is that you can add feedback and hints to the quiz questions you are importing into Brightspace. Therefore saving you time in importing quiz questions with feedback and hints into Brightspace.

Want more information?

Test/Quiz Question Generator (Algonquin College)
Quiz Question Converter (Brightspace Community)

About Quizzes
Quizzes, Surveys, and Question Libraries
Question Types and When to Use Them
Understanding Grading Options for Question Types
Use Quiz Results Displays to Show Quiz Results

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #468: Quizzes – Set Accommodations by Learner for All Quizzes

Instructors can grant quiz accommodations to learners through the Classlist tool. Instructors can assign accommodations to specific learners that apply across ALL quizzes instead of applying them on a quiz-by-quiz basis. The accommodations option allows the instructor to give the learner more time to complete quizzes at the course level.

The Edit Accommodations option in the Classlist
The Edit Accommodations option in the Classlist
The Edit Accommodations dialog box
The Edit Accommodations dialog box

Once granted, the accommodations apply to all quiz activities in a course for that learner. The additional time can be applied in terms of quiz time multipliers (for example, 1.5 x quiz time) or +minutes (for example, an additional 30 minutes) on every quiz in a course.

Accommodations for Instructors:

  • An icon appears next to the learner’s name in the Classlist to indicate that the learner has an accommodation.
  • Instructors can filter the Classlist by Accommodations.
  • Instructors can also Print or Email a list of users with accommodations by adding the filter to those pages.

Accommodations for learners:

  • An icon appears next to learners’ own names in the Classlist to indicate they have an accommodation. To view accommodation details, learners can click My Accommodations from their learner context menu.
  • When commencing a quiz, the accommodation icon appears next to a learner’s quiz time to indicate that their accommodation has been applied. If a learner’s time accommodation has been overridden by a quiz-specific special access, this icon does not appear.
Example of a Classlist page highlighting the Learner has Accommodations icon
Classlist page highlighting the Learner has Accommodations icon
Example of accommodations reflected in the quiz's time allowed.
Learners can see accommodations reflected in the time allowed when taking quiz

Quiz-specific special access can overwrite an accommodation for any user on a quiz-by-quiz basis. When you overwrite an accommodation and then click Save, a warning describing the impact of overwriting the accommodation appears. Accommodations set for learners in Classlist are displayed in the Special Access for the quiz.

Accommodations indicator in Special Access
An example of how Accommodations set for a learner in Classlist will show up in the Special Access for a quiz

Want more information?

Set Up Brightspace Accommodations by Learner for All Quizzes
Brightspace Tip #207: Quizzes – Special Access
Special Access in Quizzes
Quizzes FAQ: Hot tips and workarounds
Brightspace Tip #254: Tests and Quizzes
Resources for the Quizzes Tool

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #451: Quiz, Survey, or Self-Assessment?

man writing on paper

Brightspace has a variety of formative and summative assessment tools available for instructors to use in their courses. You may be wondering which tool you should use. This blog post explains the difference between the Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessments (SA) tools to help you determine which of the tools is the best tool to meet your needs.

  • A Quiz provides students with a score. Quizzes can be linked to the Grade Book to affect the final grade, but are not required to be linked to the Grade Book. This tool is commonly used for summative assessments (i.e., quizzes, tests, exams).
  • Surveys are not graded or scored, but do provide results to the instructor. Survey results can be viewed and downloaded as needed. Surveys can be anonymous.
  • Self-Assessments is a formative assessment tool that enables instructors to provide learners with a series of questions and give immediate feedback to their responses. A Self-Assessment is solely for the purpose of the learner to assess their understanding of the content. Instructors CANNOT view the results of a Self-Assessment, but they are able to see who has taken the Self-Assessment and the time spent on it. The omission of numeric evaluation enables learners to make reflective learning and course material comprehension their main priorities during a Self-Assessment.

The following table compares the feedback and reporting for each tool:

Quizzes Surveys Self-Assessments
Feedback for learner Feedback is released based on the options set by instructor. Feedback can be setup to be instant (upon submission) or delayed. Feedback is released after completion in the form of a report. Feedback is provided immediately after answering question.
Reporting for instructor Reporting for Instructors – yes, instructors can see summative feedback on scores and individual questions. Reporting for Instructors – yes, reports are generated, and can be done so anonymously. Reporting for Instructors – yes, but limited to who has taken SA and the time spent; instructors CANNOT view results of the SA.

This table provides some use cases for Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessments:

Tool Use Case
Quizzes
  • Measuring knowledge acquisition: Assess factual recall, comprehension, and application of learned concepts. Assess skills for the purpose of determining whether instruction has been effective.
  • Evaluating critical thinking: Open ended questions requiring analysis, synthesis, or evaluation can assess higher-order thinking skills.
  • Standardized test: Deliver high-stakes tests with secure features like time limits, question randomization, paging, and integration with lockdown browsers.
  • Formative assessment: Create low-stakes quizzes for students to practice and receive immediate feedback. Assess skills for the purpose of identifying areas needing improvement.
Surveys
  • Gauging student understanding: Use anonymous surveys to assess student comprehension of course material before, during, or after a lesson.
  • Gathering opinions on teaching methods: Evaluate the success of specific teaching approaches or gather suggestions for improvement.
  • Course satisfaction surveys: Collect feedback on student experience with the course content, delivery, and overall effectiveness.
Self-Assessments
  • Promoting metacognition: Encourage students to reflect on their learning progress, strengths, and weaknesses through self-evaluation activities.
  • Identifying learning gaps: Allow students to assess their own understanding of key concepts before moving on to new material.
  • Personalized learning: Use self-assessment results to tailor learning experiences or provide targeted resources based on individual needs.

By understanding the strengths of each tool, instructors can select the most effective tool for the job.

A Note About the Question Library

The Question Library is a central repository that stores and archives questions which you can reuse within a course. You can create multiple sections within the Question Library to organize your questions by type and topic, making it easier for you to find, use, and reuse questions in your quizzes, surveys, and self-assessments.

As a better practice for storage, organization, and easy access, I recommend that you create all your questions using the Question Library. You can also consolidate questions created within the Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessments tools by importing them back into the Question Library.

Want more information?

Quizzes Tool
Surveys Tool
Self-Assessments Tool
Question Library

#LEX Advanced Topics:
Rethinking and Improving Online Tests in Brightspace
Allow Learners to Reflect on Their Learning

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by StockSnap from Pixabay (image cropped)

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #434: Synchronous Quizzes

Instructors can now set up quizzes that start and end at the same time for ALL learners with the new synchronous quizzing option. This feature was introduced with our September 2023 Continuous Delivery updates.

The 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. This facilitates quizzes where the instructor requires all learners to take the quiz at the same time similar to in classroom learning and supporting medium-high stakes quizzing.

Example of settings for a synchronous quiz
Example of settings for a synchronous quiz

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.

A countdown timer on the Start Quiz page
A countdown timer on the Start Quiz page

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 because students do not choose the time frame of when to take the synchronous quiz, therefore there is no need to set a due date.

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

  • Make a synchronous quiz visible in the calendar:
    • Instructors should use the Start Date parameter when setting up a synchronous quiz and leave the End Date field empty.
    • Instructors can select Add availability dates to Calendar or set up an event showing the whole time.
  • Create an announcement with information about the synchronous quiz.
  • Set up an event and give a link to the quiz to provide more context.

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

Instructors should provide learners with information about a synchronous quiz before it starts. Learners can also access information about synchronous quizzes in the Quiz Information page.

Follow these steps to do it

To set up a synchronous quiz:

  1. From a quiz page, expand the Availability Dates & Conditions accordion.
  2. Set Start Date and Time.
    NOTE: Leave the End Date field empty.
  3. Expand the Timing & Display accordion.
  4. Click Timer Settings.
  5. In the Timing dialog, under Quiz Start, select Synchronous: Timer starts on the start date.
  6. Click OK.

Want more information?

Quiz Timing Improvements
Quizzes FAQ: Hot Tips and Workarounds
Brightspace Tip #254: Tests and Quizzes
Resources for the Quizzes Tool

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #433: Quizzes – Set Accommodations by Learner for All Quizzes

Instructors can grant quiz accommodations to learners through the Classlist tool. Instructors can assign accommodations to specific learners that apply across ALL quizzes instead of applying them on a quiz-by-quiz basis. The accommodations option allows the instructor to give the learner more time to complete quizzes at the course level.

The Edit Accommodations option in the Classlist
The Edit Accommodations option in the Classlist
The Edit Accommodations dialog box
The Edit Accommodations dialog box

Once granted, the accommodations apply to all quiz activities in a course for that learner. The additional time can be applied in terms of quiz time multipliers (for example, 1.5 x quiz time) or +minutes (for example, an additional 30 minutes) on every quiz in a course.

Accommodations for Instructors:

  • An icon appears next to the learner’s name in the Classlist to indicate that the learner has an accommodation.
  • Instructors can filter the Classlist by Accommodations.
  • Instructors can also Print or Email a list of users with accommodations by adding the filter to those pages.

Accommodations for learners:

  • An icon appears next to learners’ own names in the Classlist to indicate they have an accommodation. To view accommodation details, learners can click My Accommodations from their learner context menu.
  • When commencing a quiz, the accommodation icon appears next to a learner’s quiz time to indicate that their accommodation has been applied. If a learner’s time accommodation has been overridden by a quiz-specific special access, this icon does not appear.
Example of a Classlist page highlighting the Learner has Accommodations icon
Classlist page highlighting the Learner has Accommodations icon
Example of accommodations reflected in the quiz's time allowed.
Learners can see accommodations reflected in the time allowed when taking quiz

Quiz-specific special access can overwrite an accommodation for any user on a quiz-by-quiz basis. When you overwrite an accommodation and then click Save, a warning describing the impact of overwriting the accommodation appears. Accommodations set for learners in Classlist are displayed in the Special Access for the quiz.

Accommodations indicator in Special Access
An example of how Accommodations set for a learner in Classlist will show up in the Special Access for a quiz

Want more information?

Set Up Brightspace Accommodations by Learner for All Quizzes
Brightspace Tip #207: Quizzes – Special Access
Special Access in Quizzes
Quizzes FAQ: Hot tips and workarounds
Brightspace Tip #254: Tests and Quizzes
Resources for the Quizzes Tool

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #432: Quizzes – Bonus Questions

bonus red badge

Quizzes can include bonus/extra-credit questions. Bonus questions are questions that will not hurt the learner’s overall score if they do not answer them correctly, but can improve the learner’s overall score if answered correctly.

Questions randomly drawn from a question pool cannot be set as bonus questions.

Points for questions that are ‘bonus’ will not calculate into the total points for the quiz but are added on top of the overall points. For example, you have 11 questions in a quiz and each question is worth 1 point. One of the eleven questions in the quiz is a bonus question. The total point value for the quiz will be 10 points and not 11 points. This is because learners would be able to get 1 extra credit point for the bonus question if they answered it correctly and are not penalized if they skip or do not answer the bonus question correctly. In my example, a learner who answered all eleven questions correctly would have an overall score of 11/10. While a leaner who answers the 10 non-bonus questions correctly but skips or does not answer the bonus question correctly would have an overall score of 10/10.

Quizzes clearly mark bonus questions with the word "Bonus" so that learners understand that the question is a bonus question.

Learners completing a bonus question now see Bonus.
Note: Bonus questions are shown to learners with the word (Bonus) displayed.

When should you use "Can Exceed" for a grade item or grade category?

If your goal is to have the Bonus question replace a missed question in the quiz (in other words, the highest score that can be earned on the quiz is 100%), then you do not have to do anything else in your Grade Book for the overall score to calculate correctly. This assumes you have created a grade item in your Grade Book and have associated the quiz with the grade item already.

If learners can earn higher than 100% on the quiz, then you have to make sure your grade item in the Grade Book is configured to be able to receive a score greater than 100%. The same holds true for the category if the quiz’s grade item is in a category and the category can be greater than 100%.

Let’s assume for the example above, you want the learners to earn higher than 100% for the quiz and the quiz’s grade item is in a category in the Grade Book. When setting up the corresponding Grade Item in the Grade Book, you would enter 10 as the maximum points for the quiz and also check the “Can Exceed” checkbox for the grade item, because it is possible for a learner to earn more than 10 points on this quiz.

The Can Exceed option is checked for this grade item.
The "Can Exceed" option is checked for this grade item.

If your grade item is a category in the gradebook and you want any bonus points to replace missed points in that category (in other words, if the max score students can earn for that category is 100%), then you do not have to do anything else for the overall score in the category to calculate correctly. If you want students who earn higher than a 100% in that category to bump up their final grade, then you must edit the category and check the “Allow category grade to exceed category weight” checkbox for the category. Doing so will allow the category to exceed 100%.

Grade category is set to allow it to exceed the category weight.
Grade category is set to allow it to exceed the category weight.

Important:

the word important and an exclamation mark

Having ALL the questions in a quiz marked as a bonus creates a problem when the system calculates the overall score for the quiz. Therefore, if you have a quiz where the entire quiz will count as extra credit (i.e., all questions are bonus questions), then DO NOT set ANY of the questions as bonus in the quiz itself. Instead, you should identify the associated Grade Item in the Grade Book as a bonus grade item. When you set the quiz up with all the questions as non-bonus questions and the associated grade item in the Grade Book as a bonus, the system will calculate the overall score for the extra credit quiz correctly.

The Bonus option is checked for this grade item.
The "Bonus" option is checked for this Extra Credit Quiz grade item.

Follow these steps to do it.

To create bonus questions in a quiz:

  1. Select Activities and Quizzes from the NavBar.
  2. Edit the quiz you want to create bonus questions.
  3. Select the extra-credit (bonus) question(s).
  4. Click More Actions and select Toggle Bonus from the dropdown menu. The text “BONUS” appears under the point value of the question (far right).
  5. De-select the question(s) when done.
  6. Click Save.

Note: If you no longer want the question to be a bonus question, repeat steps 3-5 to remove the bonus setting. By clicking the Toggle Bonus option, you can add or remove the bonus setting.

Select Toggle Bonus from the More Actions drop-down menu.
Select Toggle Bonus from the More Actions drop-down menu.

Want More Information?

About Brightspace Quizzes
Manage Quiz Questions
How do I change a quiz question to a bonus question?
Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credits: bonus by DegenerSumon from pngtree and image by Pixaline from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #431: Quizzes – Deduction Option For Incorrect Answers

feedback scale

Our November Continuous Delivery Updates introduced a new negative grading option in Quizzes that allows instructors to deduct a percentage of a question's point value for incorrect answers submitted.

You may be wondering what is the rationale for using negative grading on a test. Deducting points for incorrect answers on a test is a common practice that serves several important purposes:

  • Encourage careful consideration and discourage guessing: When students know that incorrect answers will result in point deductions, they are more likely to carefully consider each question and only answer if they are confident in their response. This discourages guessing, which can lead to inaccurate assessment of students' true understanding of the material.
  • Accurately measure student knowledge and understanding: By deducting points for incorrect answers, tests can provide a more accurate assessment of students' knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. This is because it prevents students from getting credit for answers they do not actually know, which can artificially inflate their scores.
  • Promote deeper learning and discourage superficial memorization: When students know that simply memorizing facts or formulas will not guarantee them a good grade, they are more likely to engage in deeper learning strategies that promote understanding and application of concepts. This leads to more meaningful learning and better retention of information.
  • Identify areas for improvement: Incorrect answers can provide valuable information about students' misconceptions or gaps in knowledge. By analyzing incorrect responses, instructors can identify areas where students need additional support or instruction.
  • Promote accountability and encourage academic integrity: Deducting points for incorrect answers sends a message to students that they are accountable for their learning and that they need to demonstrate their understanding in order to succeed. This can foster a culture of academic integrity and discourage cheating or other dishonest practices.

While deducting points for incorrect answers can be effective in promoting accurate assessment and encouraging deeper learning, it is important to use this practice judiciously. In some cases, it may be more appropriate to provide partial credit for incorrect answers that demonstrate some understanding of the material. Additionally, it is important to provide students with clear feedback on their incorrect answers so that they can learn from their mistakes and improve their understanding.

About Quizzes With Negative Grading

Negative grading applies specifically to question types that can be auto-graded, for example, multiple-choice, multi-select, and true/false questions. The only question type that cannot be auto-graded is written response.

Under Evaluation & Feedback, instructors can select Deduct points for incorrect answers and enter a Deduction percentage.
Under Evaluation & Feedback, instructors can select Deduct points for incorrect answers and enter a Deduction percentage.

Instructors can also enter negative values when manually grading individual quiz questions or manually updating all quiz question attempts from the Quizzes tool.

Instructors can manually enter negative grades when grading quiz questions.
Instructors can manually enter negative grades when grading quiz questions.

To ensure that instructors can view accurate quiz statistics, Question Statistics are also updated to account for this new functionality. Therefore, if negative grading is enabled, Question Statistics may display the following differences in statistics:

  • Point Biserial results may be lower when negative grading is enabled.
  • Standard Deviation has a wider distribution to account for negative grading.
  • Questions with a negative average score appear below zero in the Grade Distribution graph.
Question Statistics displays updated values to account for negative grading, including a below zero average score.
Question Statistics displays updated values to account for negative grading, including a below zero average score.

To ensure that learners are fully aware that negative marking is enabled for a quiz, the Summary page of a quiz explicitly notifies the learner that for each question answered incorrectly, a percentage of that question's point value is deducted from the final attempt grade. Even though a notice about negative grading will be on the Summary page, we recommend that the instructor also include this information in their quiz instructions for the learners.

Quiz start summary page showing negative point values are deducted from final grade attempt
Before starting a quiz, learners are notified on the Summary page that point values are deducted from the final attempt grade for incorrect answers.

Also, learners are given the opportunity to explicitly clear previously-selected answers to auto-graded questions by clicking Clear Selection. This gives learners the opportunity to leave the question blank and receive a mark of zero (0), instead of forcing them to guess and enter an answer that could possibly incur a percent deduction. Also, see the note about Mandatory questions below.

Learners can select Clear Selection to remove their answer from a multiple-choice or true or false question.
Learners can select Clear Selection to remove their answer from a multiple-choice or true or false question.

Learners who are given the ability to view questions after submitting their quiz by their instructor can review questions that received negative score deductions for incorrect answers.

Learners can review incorrect questions with negative deduction grades when they submit a quiz.
Learners can review incorrect questions with negative deduction grades when they submit a quiz.

Note:

  • The overall quiz score cannot be negative and caps at zero.
  • We strongly recommend that you do not add Mandatory questions to quizzes with negative grading AND auto-submit enabled. This is because forcing learners to answer mandatory questions before submitting their quiz may also force learners to guess and incur an unfair point deduction.

Want More Information?

About Brightspace Quizzes
Create a quiz with negative grading
Manage Quiz Questions

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: Image by Sabine Kroschel/Pixaline from Pixabay (image cropped)

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #410: Quizzes – Quiz Results Displays

Quiz Results Displays (formerly known as Submission views) can be created to allow students to go back and review a submitted quiz. Customizing the Quiz Results Displays allows instructors to choose what information the student sees upon completing the quiz, as well as what they can see when they go back to review a quiz. The default Quiz Results Display shows the overall score to the student (when they submit their quiz) and nothing else. To release more information to students (i.e. feedback, their submitted answers, the answers to each question, class averages and statistics, etc.) you need to either edit the default view or set up an additional view.

The Default View is what students see immediately upon submitting their quiz. The Default View typically does not allow students to see answers to a quiz, but does allow them to view their score on auto-graded items. You can adjust the Default View to allow students to see the answers to a quiz, keep in mind the Default View is what students see as soon as they submit their quiz. Thus, auto-publishing the attempt results and/or showing the answers in the Default View while the quiz is still in progress would reveal the score and/or answers to the quiz before ALL students have submitted the quiz.

Evaluation & Feedback accordion with Customize Quiz Results Displays highlighted

Additional Views can be created with a specified release date and time that allows instructors to release information, or answers, after a certain time. For example, an Additional View could be created for after all students have submitted the quiz (i.e., after the quiz is closed) to allow students to view their score and which questions they answered correctly and/or incorrectly, as well as answers to questions. Another Additional View could also be created to allow students to see the class statistics and could be set to release at the end of the semester. If a quiz has multiple attempts, you can also specify a score required on an attempt in order to release the submission view. You may want an Additional View to be available to the students for a short period of time. To make this happen, you would create another Additional View with the date/time you would like the system not to show any questions.

Customize Quiz Results Displays with the link to add an additional view highlighted

You may decide that you want the Additional View to be available to your students through the end of the semester. In this case, I suggest creating a “Shutdown View” with an end-of-semester date/time. Creating a “Shutdown View” with an end-of-semester date/time is good practice if you are planning to copy a course with quizzes that have Additional Views into another course. This ensures that a quiz with a Shutdown View will force you to update the settings in the course you are copying to. Thus reducing the possibility that you have a Additional View enabled before you want it to be.

Example of a shutdown view with a quiz results display that will not show any questions at the end of the semester

Important Notes:

  • Additional Views DO NOT take effect until the quiz scores have been published.
  • The Limited Duration option allows students to only be able to access the submission view for a short period immediately after completing the quiz. This option SHOULD NOT be used if you want students to review at a future date/time. In this case you should set up an additional view for the date/time you want the view to start AND set up a “Shutdown View”.
  • You should provide students with instructions on how to view a completed test submission.

Want more information?

Creating a Quiz Results Display
How to view a completed test submission (pdf)

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #409: Synchronous Quizzes

You asked for synchronous quizzes and D2L answered! Instructors can now set up quizzes that start and end at the same time for ALL learners with the new synchronous quizzing option. This feature was introduced with our September Continuous Delivery updates.

The 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. This facilitates quizzes where the instructor requires all learners to take the quiz at the same time similar to in classroom learning and supporting medium-high stakes quizzing.

Example of settings for a synchronous quiz
Example of settings for a synchronous quiz

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.

A countdown timer on the Start Quiz page
A countdown timer on the Start Quiz page

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 because students do not choose the time frame of when to take the synchronous quiz, therefore there is no need to set a due date.

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

  • Make a synchronous quiz visible in the calendar:
    • Instructors should use the Start Date parameter when setting up a synchronous quiz and leave the End Date field empty.
    • Instructors can select Add availability dates to Calendar or set up an event showing the whole time.
  • Create an announcement with information about the synchronous quiz.
  • Set up an event and give a link to the quiz to provide more context.

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

Instructors should provide learners with information about a synchronous quiz before it starts. Learners can also access information about synchronous quizzes in the Quiz Information page.

Follow these steps to do it

To set up a synchronous quiz:

  1. From a quiz page, expand the Availability Dates & Conditions accordion.
  2. Set Start Date and Time.
    NOTE: Leave the End Date field empty.
  3. Expand the Timing & Display accordion.
  4. Click Timer Settings.
  5. In the Timing dialog, under Quiz Start, select Synchronous: Timer starts on the start date.
  6. Click OK.

Want more information?

Quiz Timing Improvements
View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.