Offering Timed Exams
Overview
You can set up a subsection of your course with a specific time limit for students to finish and submit all questions within that section.
While it's possible to add time constraints to ungraded subsections, it's more common to apply time limits to graded parts, such as midterms or final exams.
During a timed test, a countdown clock appears on the exam page, alerting students as the deadline approaches. Once time runs out, students can no longer access or submit answers to the exam. All completed questions are graded, but unanswered questions receive no points.
Course instructors can extend the time limit for individual students, but only if the request is made before the timed exam begins.
For a deeper understanding of how students experience timed exams, check out the relevant sections in the edX or Open edX Learner's Guide.
Enable Timed Exams
Timed exams are automatically enabled in your course. If you
want to disable timed exams, you should go to each subsection that is set to be
a “timed” exam, and set it to “none”.
Set a Subsection to be Timed
Ensure that you have enabled timed exams in the course. Then follow these steps.
1. Add and develop a subsection as you would any other subsection.
2. Select the
Configure icon for the subsection. The Settings dialog box opens to the Basic tab.
4. Select the Advanced tab.
5. In the Set as a Special Exam section, select Timed.
6. In the Time Allotted field, enter the length of time that you want learners to have to complete the problems in the subsection. Enter the time as HH:MM, where HH is hours and MM is minutes.
7. Select Save.
Grant Learners More Time for a Timed or Proctored Exam
The course grace period setting does not apply to timed or
proctored exams. For more information about the grace period setting, see Set
the Grace Period.
From the instructor dashboard, a course team member can grant learners extra time to complete a timed or proctored exam.
1. View the live version of your course.
2. Select Instructor, and then select Special Exams.
3. Expand Allowance Section.
4. Select Add Allowance.
The Add a New Allowance dialog box opens.
5. For Username or Email, enter all the learners’ emails/usernames seperated by a comma that you wish to add an exception for.
6. For Select Exam Type, select the type of exams you want to add extra time for, either proctored or timed exams.
7. For Select Exams, click on the desired exams you want extra time for.
8. For Allowance Type, select either Additional Time or Time Multiplier
9. If you selected Additional Time, enter the number of extra minutes that you want to grant to the learner.
Otherwise if you selected Time Multiplier, enter the multiplier for how much total time you want the learners to have. For example for an exam of 30 minutes, a multiplier of 1.5 will give 15 extra minutes to each learner.
You must enter a
number greater than 1.10. Select Create Allowance.
For proctored exams, the reviewer takes the special
allowance for extra time into account when the proctoring service reviews the
learner’s proctored exam results.
Resuming an Exam in an Error State
When a student experiences a technical problem during a timed or proctored exam, you can enable them to continue the exam, preserving their previous answers and remaining time.
To allow a learner to resume a timed or proctored exam attempt, follow these steps.
4. Use the search function to find the student's username and their exam attempts.
5. In the Exam Name column, identify the specific exam you want to restart.
6. In the Actions column, click the gear icon (⚙) and choose Resume. Confirm your decision to restart the student's exam attempt.
7. Click OK. The exam attempt status will update from Error to Ready to Resume, allowing the student to access the exam once more.
Allow Learners to Retake a Timed or Proctored Exam
If a student requires a second attempt at a timed exam, you can erase their initial try and permit a retake.
To erase a timed or proctored exam attempt, follow this process:
1. Access the live course version.
2. Navigate to Instructor, then Special Exam.
3. Open Student Special Exam Attempts to view a list of exam attempts.
4. Find the student's username and their exam attempts.
5. Locate the specific exam name you're clearing in the Exam Name column.
6. Click Reset in the Actions column. Confirm the removal of the student's attempt.
7. Click OK to remove the student's attempt from the list.
Hide a Timed Exam After Its Due Date
When an exam stays hidden post-deadline, students can't view its content, but their grades and scores remain unaffected and visible on the Progress page.
To hide a timed exam after its due date:
1. In Studio, click the Configure icon for the relevant timed exam subsection.
2. In the Settings dialog, go to the Visibility tab.
3. Under Subsection Visibility, choose "Hide content after due date".
4. Save your changes.
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