Assessments pausing

Steven Bailey

We are all in this COVID induced assessment online assessment mode.  However, many times while students are taking an online assessment it will "pause." Typically, (i believe) because of an internet instability (usually my overseas students have this issue the most but sometimes stateside students have it too). 


The dilemma is that the system tells me the assessment can't be graded until the student submits it.  However, the student can't submit it because it is paused.  I have tried extending it and allowing student to continue etc.  but to no avail.  I simply would like to be able to override (as the instructor) this condition and "submit" the assessment for the student so it could be graded.  Then I could give them a retake as necessary.


However, I'm just stuck midstream with no way to move forward or backwards...  


Does anyone know the solution to this?


Thanks

Steve Bailey

Nancy Kierstead

The "extension" button on assessments is not working.  I have a case open with Blackbaud.  The only workaround for allowing students to take an assessment (or resume a paused assessment) after the due date is to extend the due date itself.  This places the assignment on a different day from when most of the class has taken the exam, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It also opens up the exam for all students who have not taken the test, not just the one who may be taking it at a specific make-up time, which is, obviously, not good.  Hoping they fix this bug soon.

Susan Ott

Steven Bailey‍ the "Allow Continue" button that you would normally see is missing. I have an open ticket with support about this issue as well as the "Extend" and "Allow Resubmit" issues. I was told the issue was fixed last week but when I attempted to check, the results page would never load. I tried different browsers, cleared my cache, etc. to no avail and sent a video showing the problem to support. They are still looking into it. 

Megan Day

Steven Bailey‍  The student being "Paused" is a separate issue than the "Extend" option not working. We have this problem EVERY YEAR but it has been much more prevalent this fall. I've currently reached out to support about 4 different cases. A student says they've submitted their assessment but the teacher side says "Paused". There are no options available for the teacher to "Allow incomplete students to continue" and the student side just says "Completed". Every time we reach out to support a "script" has to be run to fix the problem which takes a couple days. Blackbaud support doesn't seem to think it's a bug since there is a "solution". You'll have to reach out to support, wait a couple days, and then you'll see the student's results.

Steven Bailey

Thanks Megan...I keep telling blackboard people that they are thinking like programmers too much..they have to think like teachers  more. Waiting two days is really unacceptable and not a solution...the system needs more real time solutions..sigh


Steve

Nancy Kierstead

Megan Day‍ ,The "paused" issue is different (for us) than what has happened in past years. I am familiar with the issue you are referencing and have cases open from previous years. 


With this new issue , the student and the teacher both see the assessment as "paused".  I just zoomed into a class to double check with a group of students.  The students view showed "paused". I opened up the exam again (by moving the due date since extend doesn't work) and asked them to try to submit again. They could click "Resume" to open the assessment and click submit, but it bounced back to "Resume" and did not submit.  The strange part is that, even though it shows as "paused" on the teacher's results screen,  it shows as submitted in the gradebook (the gray "s" icon") and the teacher can open it and grade it. Once graded, it switches to "graded".  So it's as if it is actually submitting, but the "paused" status remains. I chatted with support after this happened and they were able to grade the exams in our mirror database. 

Susan Ott‍ , I also had the issue with not being able to open the teacher's results screen for a student's paused assessment.  It doesn't open when I access the class via  the Group Finder.  It opens fine when I impersonate the teacher, however. I spoke with the teacher and it opens fine for him as well, so he can grade the paused assessment, thankfully.   

Megan Day

Nancy Kierstead‍ Oh wow, that "paused" issue IS different than what we've been experiencing (at least that I know of). Really wish these various issues with Assessments could get fixed once and for all. Many of my teachers are switching to just doing Google Form Quizzes and using a "password" that gets changed for each period to lock it down as much as possible. Manually adding the grades from the form into the gradebook is MUCH easier than a dealing with the built in Assessments at this point. 

Br. Michael Fugger

I have just started to see this same behavior. Is anyone at Blackbaud listening to these issues, or are they busy creating new features instead of fixing broken features that used to work? I guess they have to make us feel our support costs are a value, never mind stuff that gets broken and never fixed. I'm filing this with the broken Extend assignment feature. Well, it was nice while it worked. In the meantime, I'm left trying to explain to unhappy parents and students why the student can't get a grade for an assignment. Maybe I should give them the Blackbaud support email and phone number? To all dissatisfied Blackbaud users: Let's make this a squeaky wheel.

Steven Bailey

Assessment feature in general has many issues.  I really think Blackbaud needs to bring in some teachers and work with the programmers on assessments in general.  As a former Navy man I can most emphatically say "it ain't sailor proof."  I've sent several emails and try to get blackbaud moving but it seems to fall on deaf ears.  work arounds are NOT a solution... sigh.. thanks 

Josceline Reardon

Blackbaud support responded to me last week to me that there is a script that runs each night to boot out those in the stuck position.

After I responded that the student was stuck for more than 3 days, they sent the case back to the "internal resources". 

Our most recent issue was a student saved for later an assignment after they had added some of the content to be submitted. When they went back through the Assignment Center they were unable to access the assignment and therefore could not complete their work over the weekend. I found that if they went to the individual class and found the assignment that way, they were able to access the assignment links and continue.


As for the assessments, this is what I found and sent to our teacher that was having problems:

"I tested it on my test student and you can mark the assessment late, by adding an L in the grade book, but you would still have to extend the days and then remove the L for them to be able to take the assessment. Also if it is marked automatically late, you would have to remove the L before they could continue."


Here are two ideas to vote on. The first says implemented, but then someone commented that it is not working properly. Seems the having to remove the L is not how it was intended to work. 

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12CO-I-2749

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12OC-I-2437


Here are a bunch of other ideas regarding assessments that I've passed on to our power users to vote on.

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12CO-I-2759 ( I believe this one is to allow students to submit an assessment late without the teacher having to extend the time)

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12OC-I-2571

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12OC-I-2426

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12OC-I-169

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12OC-I-2354

https://blackbaudk12.ideas.aha.io/ideas/K12OC-I-1867


Also regarding assessments, please Vote here to make the assessment timer scroll with the student as they move down through their assessments in Blackbaud rather than staying at the top where they have to scroll back up to see how much time they have left.