Finding a Pending Assessment

Faculty members have reported a few instances where students submitted assessments and receive an error message. Later, the instructor finds no record of that submission existing anywhere. In one instance, this occurred because the end time for the exam was reached while the student was still working on the exam (i.e., the student had an hour to complete the exam, but started 30 minutes before the exam was set to be disabled – the student took 45 minutes, hit submit, got an error message, and poof!).

In another case, a student hit the Backspace key while writing an essay, and ANGEL interpreted the keystroke the same as clicking the Back button in the browser (this is a common way in which a browser interprets pressing Backspace). When my staff tested using the Backspace key, they were able to get back into the exam and continue, but the student apparently could not, and her submission was nowhere.

Note: You may want to warn your students about using the Backspace key during an assessment or composing a submission online.

Anyway, we’ve found that under the Utilities link for each exam, there is a Pending link. Submissions that were interrupted by pressing the Backspace key or by an error (when submitting) will be found under the Pending link. You can view, delete, or submit any of the pending submissions. Our experience is that these pending submissions were not complete, so we suspect that answers are only retained until the error occurred.

Clarification – if you use the Backspace key during an assessment while writing an essay or short answer (anything in a text box), nothing bad happens. It only acts as a Back button if you are not within a text entry field. Even on an assessment, you can go back in and finish if the time has not expired. All answers seem to be retained until the interruption occurs.