Normally, when an assessment is completed, students’ answers are only stored in the system at the end of the assessment, when they are sent (i.e., when the student presses the SUBMIT button). Only in special cases are they automatically submitted and saved earlier: for example, when the time expires (if a maximum time has been set) or when the student exits the assessment page (if the computer lock option has been set).
However, certain critical events may occur while completing an assessment, such as loss of Internet connection, accidental shutdown of the computer, or accidental closure of the browser. To overcome this, PanQuiz introduces the new Save and secure responses in real-time feature, available in the assessment settings. When this feature is enabled, students’ answers are automatically saved every few seconds so that, in the event of an interruption, the student can resume the assessment and continue exactly where they left off. PanQuiz saves personal data, answers given, and the remaining time (if set).
1. Activating automatic saving
To enable automatic saving of responses in real time, you can follow these steps:
- In your question list page, click the icon in the top-right and the Assessment Settings pane will be displayed
- Choose the Options tab
- Select the Security pane
- Enable the option Save and secure responses in real-time
The assessment is now protected, and all assessment responses will be automatically saved in real time.
2. Resuming a response
If a student is interrupted while completing the assessment (e.g., due to loss of Internet connection, computer shutdown, browser closure, etc.), as a teacher you must generate a personal PIN specific to that student, which the student can use only once to resume the assessment. If they need to resume it again, you must generate a new, different PIN. In other words, the PINs generated are single-use and each one expires after approximately 2 hours. The PIN allows you to identify the student.
To generate an assessment resume PIN, you can follow these steps:
- In your question list page, click the icon in the top-right to display the Responses list
- By default, the list of responses does not show responses that are still in progress (but only those that have been completed, passed, or failed). Of course, if a student has been interrupted, you will find their responses among those still in progress. To view them, click on the icon to display the Filter panel.
- Enable the Include unfinished responses option and click the APPLY button.
- At this point, the list also shows the responses in progress. Click on the icon next to the response you want to resume (you can identify it by the student’s first and last name) to display the Resume Response window.
- Click on the link Click here to generate your personal resume PIN and give it to the student. The student can connect to the PanQuiz website, enter the PIN, and resume from the same point where they left off.
Here is a short video illustrating the process of generating a PIN to resume completing an assessment:
NOTE
If a resume PIN is generated and the student resumes the assessment, the original assessment must no longer be used (if it is still in use), otherwise the two assessments will conflict.