How does Automatic Submission work in Tests & Quizzes?
You can use the Automatic Submission (Autosubmit) feature to retrieve a student's saved work in an untimed assessment when the student failed to submit it. You may enable Autosubmit to force the submission of tests or quizzes that remain In Progress after the assessment's latest submission date has passed.
Unlike a timed assessment, the Automatic Submission process will not automatically save work; rather, it will only automatically submit answers that have already been saved by the student.
For in-class assessments, it is recommended to set a time limit instead of using Autosubmit. For more information, see the Best Practices for Delivering Online Tests & Quizzes.
For detailed information and steps to enable Autosubmit, see below:
When should I use Autosubmit?
The Autosubmit feature is useful for untimed assessments that are available for students to take over a relatively long time period (e.g., 24 hours), and assessments that remain In Progress after their latest submission date has passed.
Important: Please note that Autosubmit does not save student work before submitting. If you are using Autosubmit, students should be advised to save their work often.
How does automatic submission work?
Every 5 minutes, behind the scenes of UVACollab, an automated process checks:
- Did the instructor select the Autosubmit setting on this assessment?
- Is it past the latest submission date for this assessment?
- Did this student select Begin Assessment, but fail to successfully submit the assessment via the Submit for Grading button on the Assessment Submission Warning screen?
- Is this the student's first submission attempt?
If all four conditions above are true, the system will automatically submit the student’s saved assessment. The submission data will be available to instructors on the Total Scores screen within 5 minutes after the latest submission date passes.
Any assessments that were submitted via the automatic submission feature will be flagged on the Total Scores screen with AUTO-SUBMIT. All answers that were saved will be included in the student's automatic submission.
Note: Timed assessments are automatically saved and submitted when the timer expires, so you do not need to enable Autosubmit for a timed assessment. For more information, see the section above: When should I use Autosubmit?
How do I enable Autosubmit on an assessment that students have not taken?
Go to Tests & Quizzes.
Select the Tests & Quizzes tool from the Tool Menu of your site.
Edit the settings.
- Go to the Working Copies tab if your assessment is not yet published. If your assessment is already published, go the Published Copies tab.
- Select Settings from the Action drop-down menu for the assessment.
Avoid modifying the settings of a published assessment while testing is in progress. Instead, wait until the latest submission date has passed.
Alternatively, access assessment settings from the edit assessment screen.
If you are currently editing an assessment, select the Settings link at the top of the Questions screen.
Verify dates and select the Autosubmit option.
By default, when you view an assessment's Settings, the Availability and Submissions section will display.
- Make sure that the due and/or late submissions accepted date fields have dates entered in them. If late submissions are not allowed, select No, not after due date. Assessments will be automatically submitted at the latest submission date.
If the dates are incorrect, make adjustments as needed. For more information about date formatting and entering dates, see the Help article Availability and Submissions: Availability Dates.
- Select the checkbox to Autosubmit saved student work after latest acceptance date, unless student has previously submitted.
Save settings and/or publish the assessment.
To save your changes:
- Working Copies: If your assessment is ready to be made available to students, select Save Settings and Publish. For more information, see How do I publish an assessment (i.e. test or quiz)? Alternatively, if you are not ready to publish the assessment, select Save to save your settings selections.
- Published Copies: Select Save.
How do I trigger Autosubmit on a completed assessment?
You can enable Autosubmit on a published assessment that students have taken. Doing so will complete submissions remaining In Progress.
Go to Tests & Quizzes.
Select the Tests & Quizzes tool from the Tool Menu of your site.
Select the Published Copies tab.
Edit the settings.
Select Settings from the Action drop-down menu for the assessment.
Avoid modifying the settings of a published assessment while testing is in progress. Instead, wait until the final submission date has passed.
If the latest submission date is in the past, verify dates and select Autosubmit.
By default, when you view an assessment's Settings, the Availability and Submissions section will display.
- Verify that the due and/or late submissions accepted date fields have dates entered in them. Assessments will be automatically submitted at the latest submission date. If the latest submission date is in the past, assessments will be automatically submitted the next time the Automatic Submission process runs; this occurs once every 5 minutes.
- Select the checkbox to Autosubmit saved student work after latest acceptance date, unless student has previously submitted.
Select Save.
At the bottom of the screen, select Save.
Or select the Autosubmit option, then Stop Accepting Now.
If the assessment's latest submission date is in the future, but you would like to prevent more students from submitting and automatically submit In Progress assessments, you can use the option Stop Accepting Now.
By default, when you view an assessment's Settings, the Availability and Submissions section will display.
- Select the checkbox to Autosubmit saved student work after latest acceptance date, unless student has previously submitted.
- Select Stop Accepting Now.
Warning: You should ONLY use this option if you are sure that students are not currently working on the assessments in progress. Stopping and automatically submitting an active assessment will submit it immediately without warning; the student will not be able to save their work before it submits.
Confirm to Stop Accepting.
You will be shown a warning indicating that the assessment will no longer be available for students to take. If you are sure you do not want to accept any more student submissions, select Stop Accepting to confirm.
Wait for submissions to become available.
The Automatic Submission process runs once every 5 minutes. If you have enabled Autosubmit and your assessment's latest submission date is in the past OR if you selected Stop Accepting Now, In Progress assessments will be automatically submitted the next time the Automatic Submission process runs.
After the In Progress assessments are automatically submitted, the students' saved responses will be available along with other students' submissions.
I enabled Autosubmit; why are some assessments still listed In Progress?
You might still see In Progress assessments after you enabled Autosubmit AND waited for 5-10 minutes after the latest submission date if:
- The assessment allowed multiple submissions, or a student was allowed a retake, and a student who already submitted the assessment started but did not complete a new submission. The Automatic Submission process will only submit a student's assessment if they do not have any previous submissions already recorded for that assessment. This prevents previous, already successful, submissions from being overwritten by an automatic submission.
- Very rarely, there have been instances where the Automatic Submission feature has not completed submitting an assessment. If your assessment should have been automatically submitted, but it has not, follow the steps above to trigger Autosubmit again on the completed assessment.
How do automatic submissions display?
Instructors access automatic submissions from the Total Scores screen just as they would any other assessment submission.
The examples below illustrate how automatic submissions display in a submission email notification sent by Tests & Quizzes and in an instructor's view of Tests & Quizzes.
Example of email notification for Automatic Submission
In the event of an automatic submission, the time stamp on the notification email sent to a student and/or instructor is when the actual submission occurred, while the Submitted Date in the email is the last time the student accessed the assessment.
The subject of the email for an automatic submission: Notification for assessment auto submission: [the title of the site where the assessment was taken] - [the assessment title]
The first line of the email notification includes: The following assessment auto submission was recorded.
For more information on Tests & Quizzes email notifications, see What information is in a Tests & Quizzes email notification?
Examples of automatic submissions on the Total Scores screen
- When an instructor accesses the Total Scores screen to grade the assessment, automatic submissions are flagged in the Submit Date column with the text AUTO-SUBMIT.
- The time stamp that appears in the Submit Date column for automatic submissions indicates when the student last saved content in the assessment, NOT when it was actually submitted by the Autosubmit feature.
For more information on accessing student submissions and grading, see How do I grade Tests & Quizzes?
Examples of automatic submissions in the Event Log
In the Tests & Quizzes Event Log:
- The Date Submitted column displays when the automatic submission occurred.
- The Duration column indicates how much time elapsed between when the student began taking the assessment and when it was actually submitted, NOT how much time the student actually spent working on the assessment.
- The Errors column indicates No Errors (Auto submit).
For more information on the Event Log, see What is the Tests & Quizzes Event Log?
