Creating Timed WebCT Tests/Quizzes with the SNAP Student in Mind

WebCT's quizzing features allow for the faculty member to create a timed quiz. While this timing is appropriate for most students, there will be times when it is not appropriate for all. There are three ways to deliver timed quizzes to meet the needs of all students. These options are not in any preferential order.

Option 1 - Creating a timed quiz but allowing submissions once time has elapsed

1. Create your quiz as usual.
2. From the Quiz Editor window choose Edit quiz settings from the right-hand Actions menu.
3. In the Basic Settings area, next to Quiz duration, type in the amount of time you wish to allow the majority of your students to take the test/quiz.
4. Also in the Quiz duration section make sure the box next to Disallow answer submission if time has expired is NOT checked. This will allow students who take longer than the allotted time to still work on the quiz and submit their answers after time has expired.

What the Student Experiences

• The student will login to WebCT and click on the quiz as usual. He/She will also be informed that the test is timed and how much time they have.
• He/She will also see the countdown clock in the upper right corner of the window counting down the actual time. Make sure to let the student know not to worry about this. They will not be penalized.
• The student will take the test as usual, however, when time expires they will see a pop-up that states Time has expired. Please submit your test now. Again, remember to inform them to ignore it and click the OK box.
• Unfortunately, every time a student saves an answer from that point forward the pop-up window will appear and they will need to click on the button to clear it.
• When they finish the test/quiz they can click Submit to submit their answers.

What the Professor Experiences

• Once the test has been taken and graded go to the quiz and click on Submissions.
• In the Time column you will see the time it took each student to take the test.
• In the Status column, the word Graded will appear in Blue if the student took over the allotted time to take the test. It will appear in Black if they submitted their test within the allotted time.

Pros to using this method

• Professor creates one test/quiz.
• The grades for the test/quiz all appear in one column in the gradebook within WebCT.
• SNAP students are not singled out by having their own test/quiz to take.

Cons to using this method

• The constant reappearance of the "time expired" message can break the concentration of some students while taking a test. It can get quite annoying and may affect their grade.
• The professor has to make sure only the SNAP students took more than the allotted time. Any non-SNAP students that take over the time must have their grades manually adjusted by the faculty member to reflect their real timed score.

Option 2 - Creating a copy of the test/quiz as untimed or with an extended time

1. Create your initial quiz as usual and set it up to be timed the way you want it (see Option 1, steps 2-3).
• You can choose to Disallow answer submission if time has expired by checking the box. This will allow the students to submit their test after time expires but any answers they saved after the expiration time will be omitted.
2. From the Quiz window choose Create quiz to create the second, untimed/extended time quiz.
3. From the Create Quiz window give the quiz a similar title then, next to Template, click the radio button next to Base this quiz on a template.
4. From the dropdown menu choose the name of your initial quiz.
5. Click Create. You will now see both quizzes listed.
6. Click on the time altered quiz name to take you to the Quiz Editor and then click on Edit quiz settings from the right-hand Actions menu.
7. In the Basic Settings area, next to Quiz duration make sure there is no amount or an extended time in the box. You can also make it a timed quiz with a longer time limit to accommodate your SNAP students.
8. In the Selective Release area next to Release to click the Select button.
9. From the list of students that appears, click the checkbox next to any student that needs to take the untimed/extended time test then click Update.
10. Now scroll down to the bottom of the window and click Update again.
11. This method requires nothing different for the student or the professor.

Pros to using this method

• No annoying "time expired" messages.

Cons to using this method

• The professor must create two quizzes
• The quiz scores will appear in two different columns in the gradebook
• Can be confusing because there are two similarly named quizzes and students can see both of the titles

Option 3 - Print the Quiz/Test and Send it to the SNAP Office

1. Click on the Quiz icon and switch to the View tab
2. Click on your quiz
3. From the quiz window, right-click (CNTRL-click on the Mac) on the question portion of the quiz window.
4. From the right-click menu choose This Frame > Show Only This Frame. This allows you to print without the Answer Status frame.
5. Now you can print this frame and send it to the SNAP office for the student to take.

Pros to using this method

• Easy for the student to take as it is more what they are use to.

Cons to using this method

• The professor must manually key the quiz grade into the WebCT gradebook.