D2L September 2023 Updates
Quizzes – Quiz Timing Improvements featuring Synchronous Quiz | Updated
With this release, instructors can facilitate quizzes where students 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 students rather than when the students launches the quiz (asynchronous). The quiz timer then ends for all students at the same time.
To set up a synchronous quiz:
- From a quiz page, expand the Availability Dates & Conditions area.
- Set start date and time.
- Expand the Timing & Display area.
- Click Timer Settings.
- In the Timing dialog, under Quiz Start, select Synchronous: Timer starts on the start date.
- 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.
A synchronous quiz starts at the Start Date and ends when the time limit has lapsed, regardless of any action taken by the students. For example, if a student 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, students 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.
Synchronous Quiz Etiquette
To ensure that Students 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.
- Students must have the Allows Out of Date Quizzes to be Viewed in the User Quiz List permission to open the quiz from their calendar and check the Quiz Information page.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.
