Online testing: using locked attachments

Teacher: Post the exam as teacher-hidden

Of course the first step is to compose the exam. The exam can consist of any number of files and can even be expressed as an attached web site (see Attaching Web Sites). To demonstrate the basic idea, let's assume the exam questions are written in a Word file you've named Exam 1.doc. You expect your students to open the Word document, add their answers, and send it back to you within three hours. Start by posting a new assignment to Manhattan's Assignments module:

The most important thing to note in the above figure is that you should check the box "Mark this message as teacher- hidden" before you send the message. If you forget to do this, it's possible for a student to open the message before you've locked the attachments, as you'll see next.

The rest of the notes in the above figure fall into the "hints and tips" category. It's always a good idea to write the due date and time as part of the Assignment's subject line. Also, you should use the body of the message to explain the rules regarding this exam. In this case, the body of the message warns the student not to unlock the attachments unless they're ready to take the exam, that they're expected to return their work within three hours, and explains the penalties for late submissions.

Teacher: Lock the attachments and unhide the exam

After sending the message, your view of the Assignments module will look something like this:

If you remembered to check the "Mark this message as teacher-hidden" box before you sent the assignment containing the exam, it will appear as a "hidden" assignment. Students can't see it yet! The next step is to click the "Manage Topics" link, which leads to:

Clicking on the icon next to the assignment containing the exam locks the attachments, and the page changes to:

The attachments are now "locked". As you'll see, students must go through a few steps to unlock the attachments in order to view the files.

The assignment containing the exam is still hidden from your students. Your next step is to click on the to get to the page that allows you to make the assignment immediately available, or to schedule its release for a particular date and time. See Teacher hidden and scheduled topics for more information on how to do this.

Students: Opening the locked attachments

Once the assignment has been released by the teacher, it will appear as a normal assignment within each student's view of the Assignments module. Things start looking a little different, however, when a student opens the assignment:

As shown above, the student knows there's a file attached, named Exam 1.doc, but he can't open the attachment until he unlocks the attachments by clicking on the Unlock the Attachments Now button. The message also tells the student that the attachment "probably contains a timed exam" and advises him to read the teacher's message below before unlocking the attachments.

If the student backs out of this message now, without unlocking the attachments, he'll find that the assignment is still marked with a red star - it's as if he never opened the message. In fact, the message is marked as "opened" or "read" by the student only at the moment he unlocks the attachments.

Clicking on the Unlock the Attachments Now button yields a second warning, with more detailed information:

Hopefully, the message to the student is clear. If the student clicks the "Cancel" button, he'll be sent back to the teacher's message and he will not have access to the attachments. If he decides to continue by clicking on the "Unlock the Attachments NOW" button, he'll get still one more chance to change his mind:

After clicking on the OK button, he'll be back to the assignment and the attachments will be unlocked:

Once the attachments are unlocked, the message is considered "read" or "opened". The red star will no longer appear next to the assignment in the listing. The student should immediately open the attachment and begin the exam, since the official start time of the exam is the moment he unlocked the attachments.

From this point on there's really no difference between an "exam" delivered as a locked attachment and an ordinary assignment. The student can open the attachment(s), print them out, go offline, work on the assignment, then log back in and send his answers as a Reply to the original assignment.

Teacher: Interpreting student response times

When a student's reply is received by the teacher, it will look like this:

The information circled in red above actually appears on the teacher's view of every message sent by a student in the Assignments module. That is, the page lists the elapsed time between the time the student first opened the message, and the time the current message was sent. The key difference here is that the student had to go through the act of unlocking the attachments, as described above, to start this "timer". Again, the Assignment was recorded as being opened at the moment the student unlocked the attachment.

Overall, the process of locking the attachments to an assignment makes it possible to establish a definitive start time for an online exam stored in an attachment.

What can go wrong

If you are not careful, students can open an Assignment before you lock the attachments. This can't happen if you follow the steps detailed above:

1. Post the assignment as teacher-hidden.

2. Use the topic manager to lock the attachments.

3. Use the topic manager to release the assignment.

If a student has opened an assignment and the teacher later locks the attachments, the student will see:

That is, the student is warned that they opened the message before the teacher locked the attachments. Note that this does not mean the student opened the attachments to the message. The problem is, we just don't know.

As the teacher, it's your responsibility to do things in the correct order to prevent this from happening.