Students are being blindsided by time limit

[arencambre]

I had a quiz today where in its Assign field, these subfields had this data:

• Due: Oct 27, 2022, 12:30 PM
• Available from: Oct 27, 2022, 12:20 PM
• Until: Oct 27, 2022, 12:30 PM

In the past, it has never been an issue to have a quiz with a start and end time. However, today, several students reported that:

• Canvas conveyed false information, telling them that the quiz is unlimited time.
• They were blindsided by a warning, at about 12:29:30 PM, that this "unlimited time" quiz has only 30 seconds left!

I reviewed this with a colleague. We now see there is an additional setting, accessed under the Settings tab if you're in the quiz-build view, that is titled Time limit. If checked, you may set a redundant another time limit.

I could understand the use of this Time limit field when I wish to constrain the time to a shorter period than the interval between what I specified for Available from and Until. However, the interval between Available from and Until is also my time limit, so use of the Time limit field is redundant. Furthermore, use of this field may cause confusion: if the student started the quiz at, say, 12:25 PM, it seems Canvas would advise of a 10 minute time limit for a quiz that disappears in 5 minutes!

So back to the original issue: if I specify Available from and Until fields, then this not an unlimited time quiz. Despite that, Canvas is lying to students and telling them otherwise. How do we get Canvas to stop misinforming my students?

[gnoack]

Hi @arencambre 

If you don't set a time limit, then it is in fact an unlimited time quiz. You are using the available/until to create a limited amount of time students have to access and complete the quiz. But that is not the same as a time limit in Canvas.  The 30 second warning your student received today is because they had 30 seconds left until the quiz closed. This is expected behavior. The quiz was warning them the until date/time was approaching and they should finish and submit the quiz.

I would recommend a better way:

Set a time limit for 10 minutes.  Set the quiz to open when your class period begins, but add a password to the quiz so you can control when students can begin the quiz.  If you need the quiz to end at a certain time, add an until date.  But consider setting a time after your class period ends.  That way if students get started late, they can finish the quiz.  

Note:  If you set a time limit, a countdown timer will be shown to students while they complete the quiz. 

[arencambre · Accepted solution]

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@gnoack wrote:

If you don't set a time limit, then it is in fact an unlimited time quiz. 

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If Canvas tells me the sky is pink, Canvas is lying. While it is possible a poor design decision causes Canvas to believe the sky is pink, that does not make the pink sky a reality.

Similarly, if I set an Available from time at time x, then set an Until at x + 10 minutes, then I created a quiz that is limited to 10 minutes. That is not an unlimited time quiz. The existence of a product design mistake does not change this.

In this case, Canvas's UX is:

1. lying to students: telling them the quiz is time-unlimited
2. misinforming instructors: declining to let me know that that even though I used the UX in a reasonable way (e.g., specifying a start and end time for the quiz), Canvas will lie to my students

The simple solution is that Canvas must stop lying! Don't tell students a quiz that a time-limited quiz is time-unlimited. This might just be a simple wording change to the time-unlimited notice or just removing it.

A possible band aid is that the UX advises instructors that if they set something in the Until field, Canvas will still lie to students about the quiz being time-unlimited. That would cause me to reconsider how I use the UX. Be advised: While an improvement, because it at least makes the lie transparent, it also makes the sloppiness of the UX more apparent, which makes Canvas look bad.

I can think of other solutions, but they may require a disruptive rethink of how the Assign to functionality works.

I understand there is that other time-limiting feature. In this case, it is redundant. I should never need to specify twice that my quiz is 10 minutes long, but that is what I am being forced to do. But he, let's suppose I use the redundant feature. Given Canvas's sloppy UX, I lack confidence in it. Let's suppose for that quiz, I set an Available from time at time x, set an Until at x + 10 minutes, then use that separate time-limit feature to limit the quiz to 10 minutes. If a student starts at x + 5 minutes, Canvas would then advise the student has 10 minutes to complete the quiz, which would be x + 15 minutes, when in fact, the quiz will disappear at x + 10 minutes, which is 5 minutes after the student starts the quiz.

I am going to mark this as the answer. Canvas simply has a deficient UX. If you specify an Available from and Until field, the instructor just has to accept that Canvas will lie to the students. The solution is to tell the student to ignore Canvas's lie.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello @arencambre ...

I agree with @gnoack on this.  I also did a bit of super-sleuthing.  You had said:

We now see there is an additional setting, accessed under the Settings tab if you're in the quiz-build view, that is titled Time limit. If checked, you may set a redundant another time limit.

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I'm not sure if you mean that the "Time limit" toggle appears to be new to you?  In looking through this Guide, How do I manage settings for a quiz in New Quizzes... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com), I have an option to look at past versions of this document.  (You may have this, too...I am not sure.  Do you have the three dot "kebab" icon somewhere on the right side of the screen in that Guide near the top ... about the heading "Related Guides"?  If so, there is a "View History" option I am using.)  I was able to go as far back as July 2020, and the "Time limit" toggle was part of the New Quizzes "Settings" screen back then...so it's not anything new or has been recently added to Canvas.

Again, though, I do think that Greg has some good feedback for you that will help answer your question.

[gnoack]

@arencambre and @Chris_Hofer 

I wanted to add, the available dates are typically used by online instructors who want to make an activity available to students for a limited amount of time, typically over several days or even weeks.  They might even set a close date after the due date so students can submit work late, but with a penalty.

It's my understanding that Canvas was initially designed for higher education distance education courses. This tool is used extensively as I described by college faculty teaching online.  As a former k-12 teacher, I can understand your desire to have the 10 minute exit quiz, I think the time limit tool with a password will better serve you.