[Webct-users] Re: WebCT conditional release question - using assignment tool and/or quiz tool

[Jenny Edwards]

Hi Aliya (and everyone)

On 04/10/2006, at 4:48 pm, Aliya Steed wrote:
> ... I have a lecturer who wants to conduct a timed exam online -  
> involving essay style questions. The exam would involve a 24 hour  
> release and hand in time.
>
> The complicated part is that the lecturer wants the students to be  
> able to do this at anytime over the course of a week. So the exam  
> would be released on the Monday and closed off on the following  
> Monday.  During that interval - any individual student would have  
> 24 hours from the time they first accessed the exam to complete it...

Janette Lindesay did something similar to this last semester.  I  
think she said that it worked well, but that she would never do it  
this way again - so I'm not sure whether what follows is a good idea  
or not!  (Any comment, Janette?)

If I recall correctly, Janette set a timed quiz with just one  
multiple choice question.  The question gave the students their essay  
topic (randomly selected from a set of about 8), then allowed them to  
answer "I am finished". The time between the students first having  
access to the question and "finishing" is recorded by WebCT in the  
Quiz tool, and it keeps track correctly even if the student logs out  
in between times.

However, the quiz tool has no way of allowing submission of something  
like an essay.  It does have a "paragraph" answer, but this does not  
allow any formatting, and crams the whole answer up into one  
paragraph, making it very difficult to mark.

So the students were asked to submit their answer using the  
assignment tool, which also records the time of submission.  Janette  
could then (potentially) check that the time of submission was  
consistent with the time the student said they were finished.  (Just  
don't tell the students that this is an awkward process and might not  
actually be done unless there is some reason for suspicion!)  We  
considered setting conditional release on the assignment so it was  
not available until the quiz had been finished, but I think we  
decided there was no advantage in that - just further confusion.

Kaining cleverly suggests giving the students a practise version of  
this to test it out before they are under stressful exam conditions.

I look forward to hearing how you go!

Cheers

Jenny

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Jennifer Edwards
E-Learning Technologist
Scholarly Technology Services
Division of Information                ph: 61 2 612 54086
Hancock Building #122                 fax: 61 2 612 55526
The Australian National University  email: Jenny.Edwards at anu.edu.au
Canberra, ACT, 0200                mobile: 0428 268 926

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