Assessment Setup

Open edX

In Open edX, assessments take the form of graded subsections that contain the graded content. There are a few different forms of graded subsection, including:

• Regular graded subsections

• Timed exams

• Proctored exams

But fundamentally they are essentially variations on the same configuration. The basic way subsections are configured as graded is selecting the subsection and selecting which of the available grading criteria the subsection is assigned to.

Open

A due date can be assigned to that subsection if the course is set to instructor-led, whereas self-paced courses have no other options in this area:

Open

Regardless of pacing, the same assessment visibility options appear for graded subsections:

• Always show assessment results

  • When learners submit an answer to an assessment, they immediately see whether the answer is correct or incorrect, and the score received.

• Never show assessment results

  • Learners never see whether their answers to assessments are correct or incorrect, nor the score received.

• Show assessment results when subsection is past due

  • Learners do not see whether their answers to assessments were correct or incorrect, nor the score received, until after the due date for the subsection has passed. In a self paced course, graded subsections are assigned due dates based on each learner's Personalized Learner Schedule. If the subsection does not have a due date, learners always see their scores when they submit answers to assessments.

As mentioned in the last option, self-paced courses are able to provide due dates on graded content to the learner based on their enrollment date. This is not enabled by default, yet the copy that references this feature is present regardless. When enabled, each assessment can be assigned a relative due date in weeks from the start of the course.

Use of this feature requires using Publisher, which is only used on edX.org. Without Publisher, this feature is non-functional, yet this is not mentioned in Open edX documentation, which remains primarily edX.org-focused.

When a subsection is marked as being part of a graded subsection, it simply means that the gradable content present within a subsection counts towards the assigned grading criteria. Any content that can communicate a grade but is not assigned to the grading criteria is still given a grade, but is called “practice content”, and does not count towards the learner’s final grade.

A subsection assigned as a timed exam gains full quiz-like functionality - with a learner receiving preset instructions prior to starting their attempt, a confirmation that they would like to start the quiz, and a timer within the quiz. Once complete, a learner must submit their quiz attempt and end the exam. Timed exams must be enabled at the site level before they can be used in courses, though the advanced setting used to enable them at the course level still exists regardless of this.

A proctored exam uses the timed exam functionality, with an integration with a third-party proctoring company, which monitors the exam attempt. Proctoring requires a separate contract and specific integration with one of the two supported proctoring providers is also needed, with site level configuration being necessary to enable the feature. Regardless of this, the advanced setting used to enable proctored exams still exists at the site level, even if no such functionality is available on that site, it simply does nothing, much like the timed exam setting.