Sakai Community DocumentationUVA Articles ContribTests & QuizzesWhat are the Availability and Submissions options for an assessment?

What are the Availability and Submissions options for an assessment?

In Availability and Submissions, you can set who should take the assessment, availability dates, and how many submissions are allowed.

For information on editing additional settings, see:

Access the assessment's settings.

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For steps to access the Settings page, see How do I inspect and adjust the settings of an assessment?

Select Availability and Submissions.

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When you access the Settings page, the Availability and Submissions options are expanded by default.  If they are not displaying:

  1. Select the section title on the assessment's Settings page.
  2. Or select the Expand All link to open all the sections on the Settings page.

Assessment Released to

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By default, the assessment will be released to the Entire Site.

Alternatively, you can release the assessment to Anonymous Users or Selected Group(s) within your site.  Select one of these options from the drop-down menu.

Note: You cannot change the Assessment Released To option on any published assessment.

Selected Group(s)

If groups exist in your site, you can release an assessment to selected groups.

Tip: Use groups to release assessments to specific site participants, for example students who need extra time on a timed assessment.  For more information, see How do I give specific students an assessment with different settings (e.g., extra time)?

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After choosing Selected Group(s), the groups in your site will display.  Select the groups who should submit the assessment.

Anonymous Users

You can use the Anonymous Users option to create anonymous surveys.  An example of an anonymous survey is the Electronic Teaching Analysis Poll (eTAP), which can be used to collect mid-semester feedback from your students for your course.

Additional considerations:

  • If you release an assessment to Anonymous Users, you must distribute its URL to participants; it will not be accessible from within your site's Tests & Quizzes tool.  The URL will be presented when you publish the assessment.
  • You can make anonymous surveys available to anyone. Login access to UVACollab is not required.
  • Anyone to whom you provide the link to an anonymous survey can submit it as many times as they like.

Note: No information identifying who submitted the assessment is recorded in an anonymous survey.

Number of submissions allowed

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By default, only 1 submission is allowed.  Enter the number of times students are allowed to submit the assessment, or choose Unlimited to let them submit as many times as they like.  

Tip: Unlimited submissions can be used for self-assessment, practice tests, or drills.

Note: When multiple submissions are allowed, each submission is a unique, new copy of the assessment with its own time limit (if it is timed).

Availability Dates

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The availability dates let you specify when your assessment can be accessed by students.  By default, all the dates are blank.  

You may enter the dates into the fields provided, or use the date-picker (calendar window) to select a date and time.  If you enter a date manually, it will need to be in the following format: month/day/year hours:minutes am or pm.  For example, to make an assessment available on May 22, 2017 at 12:00 PM, you would enter 05/22/2017 12:00 pm into the available date field.

  1. The available date is the start date of the exam window.  Students will not be able to see the assessment before this date.  Publishing an assessment with a blank available date will make it available immediately upon publishing.
  2. The due date is the end date for the exam window.  Students will not be able to submit after this date unless you accept late submissions (see below for accepting late submissions).  If late submissions are allowed, any submissions after the due date will be marked as LATE.
  3. When you select any date field, the date-picker will display.  You can choose a date by clicking on it in the calendar, or by clicking Now.  Select a time using the Hour and Minute sliders.  When your date is selected, click Done.
  4. If, after selecting a date, you decide that you would like to leave any of the date fields blank (e.g. have no due date for the assessment), select the red X icon next to the corresponding date field to delete the date.

Late submissions accepted?

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  1. Under Late submissions accepted? you can accept late submissions by selecting Yes, until, then entering a late submission date in the adjacent date field.  By default, late submissions are not accepted.  You may enter the dates into the fields provided, or use the date-picker (calendar window) to select a date and time.  If you enter a date manually, it will need to be in the following format: month/day/year hours:minutes am or pm.  For example, to allow late submissions until July 27, 2018, 1:04 PM, you would enter 07/27/2018 01:04 pm into the late submission date field.
  2. If you do allow late submissions, submissions that come in after the due date will be marked LATE in capitalized red letters after their Submit Date.

Note: Even if you allow multiple submissions, only ONE late submission is allowed after the due date, and it only applies to students who have not submitted at all.

Timed assessment

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To make a timed assessment, select the has a time limit of check box and select a time limit in hours (hrs.) and minutes (min.) from the respective drop-down menus.

Advantages of a time limit:

  • A bar indicating how much time remains displays to students during the test. The time remaining is restricted by the latest submission date allowed for the test (the due date, or if late submissions are allowed, the late submission date).
  • When the time is up, a student's work in progress will be automatically saved and submitted.

Important: If you are offering a test or quiz in class, setting a time limit ensures that students' work is saved and submitted when the time limit expires, or at the latest submission date, whichever comes first. For example, if your exam begins at 9:00 am and ends at 11:00 am, set a time limit equal to the amount of time between the available and due dates, i.e., 2 hrs. 00 min.

Note: When a student selects Begin Assessment to start taking a timed test, the timer begins counting down and cannot be paused.  Similarly, extending or removing a time limit on an in-progress assessment will NOT extend the timer for students who have already begun taking the test; the assessment will be saved and submitted for them at the expiration of the original timer.

Automatic submission

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The Autosubmit setting forces the submission of saved assessments belonging to students who have started the assessment, but did not successfully submit their work before the latest submission date allowed.

Please note that Autosubmit does not save student work before submitting. Only work the student saved before the latest submission date will be included in an automatic submission.

To enable this option, check the box to Autosubmit saved student work after latest acceptance date.

For more information, see How does Automatic Submission work in Tests & Quizzes?

Email Notification

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By default, the notification option is No - I do not want to receive any emails.  To receive email notifications when students submit the assessment, select Yes - Send me an email for every submission or Yes - Send me one email digest each day.

Question Scores

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By default, the option Show question point value during assessment is selected.  Select Hide question point value during assessment to prevent students from seeing the questions' point values while they take the assessment.

Tip: If you have assigned any multiple choice, multiple selection questions a point value equal to the number of correct answers, hiding the questions' point values will prevent students from guessing how many answers are correct.

Exam security by password (Optional)

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You may create a Secondary Password for added security on your assessment.  The password is typically provided by a proctor in a classroom or testing center, so students must be present to enter the assessment.

  1. Select Ensure students take exams from specific location to expand that section.
  2. Enter the desired password in the Assessment Password field.

Note:

  • The Assessment Password is for this specific assessment, NOT the instructor's or the student's login information.
  • If you have accidentally added a Secondary Password in the Assessment Password field, and your students cannot access the assessment, you can remove it by going to the Published Copies tab in Tests & Quizzes, selecting Settings for the assessment, deleting the erroneous password, and selecting Save.

Submission message (Optional)

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To enter a message that will display to a student once they submit the assessment, select Add message that students will see after submission.

  1. Enter the Submission Message in the field provided.
  2. You may also enter a Final Page URL to be displayed after submission.  Select Validate URL to confirm adding the URL.