Subject: Deactivating Online Test

11/17/2009

Jeanne Pazehoski
ELITE Professional Development Program Associate Activity Coordinator
Academic Information Systems Coordinator
GriffinGate/Griffin’s Lair
Seton Hill University
Phone: 724-830-1095

Question to ListServ:

Does anyone know if there is a way to deactivate an online test once it is activated? A professor had to activate an online test to make it active for two students to take early and now wants to deactivate it for the rest of his class until Thursday. Also – does anyone know if that will mess up the scores of the two students who already took the test?

Responses from ListServ:

from Spataro, Mary

spataro@setonhill.edu

• Coursework, click on hyperlinked test name of test to deactivate, click on GO TO TESTBUILDER link, click the DEACTIVATE button

from  Black, Ken

kblack@dom.edu

• I tried this out on a test server that IT has here, and based on that the answer is no. In fact, once ANY student takes the test, there is no “deactivate” button anymore at all on the Test Builder screen (which you’ve probably already seen for yourself.)  Even if one recorded the grade manually, and then cleared the student’s attempt by clicking the “allow retake” button so that he/she (in theory) could retake it, there STILL is no “deactivate” button. I’d be curious to hear a workaround on this one myself….

from Carol Mills

cmills@smail.anc.edu

• I think you could change the due date on the Edit Assignment screen to indicate it's over and then when you want to reopen it, change the due date so the correct end date is showing. The problem with this workaround is that some students will say Incomplete when you change the due date back and some will have received a grade of 0. I have some ideas on why this occurs but basically, for the students that have been graded 0 you will need to manually give them another try (reopen/retake).  That's my workaround. Hope there's a better one out there.

from Kent Barclay

kbarclay@endicott.edu

• Have you tried changing the date of the test, by moving it back so it closes the test out. I think this might work, even after the students have taken it.

from Peggy Johnson

peggy.johnson@tm.edu

• What I have done when I’ve had a problem with an active test is saved the test to the file cabinet and then added the test as a new test under a slightly different name. Then I have transferred the points from the old test to the new test for those students who have already taken it and then have deleted the old test. I’ve done this a few times when I have discovered errors in a test because you cannot edit a test that is active. However, by creating a new test, I have been able to edit the questions before I have activated it.

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