Synchronous Quizzes

Owned by Stuart McCulley, created
Last updated: Oct 24, 2023 by Gareth Seymour
2 min read

Instructors can create quizzes in Brightspace that students must take synchronously. This can allow for remote, synchronous or in-person classes to take quizzes in “real time” (at the same time). This feature offers less flexibility and accommodation than standard quizzing, where students can take a quiz in their own time (asynchronous).

Default vs Synchronous Quizzing

The default process for quizzing in Brightspace normally involves an instructor setting a Due Date, Start Date, End Date, and Time limit, with the intention of having students take the quiz anytime between the start and end dates. This means that even if a student were to start a quiz a minute before the End Date, the student would still receive the full time limit.

Synchronous quizzes tie the time limit to the Start Date/time. The time limit begins when the start date does, so students only have a limited amount of time to complete the quiz. Should students want the full amount of time, they’ll need to start as close to the Start Date as possible. An End Date can be used to block students from joining the quiz late, as an End Date is what makes the Start button disappear once it has passed.

Creating a Synchronous Quiz

  1. In the Quizzes area, select New to create a quiz, or select the drop-down arrow next to an existing quiz and select Edit.

  2. In the quiz editor, select the Timing and Display sub-menu on the right side.

  3. Check the Set time limit checkbox, then select the Timer Settings link that appears.

Timing and Display sub-menu. Set time limit checkbox is checked, and Timer Settings button is highlighted

  1. Set the Quiz Start option to Synchronous: Timer starts on start date.

The quiz is now synchronized to the start date and timer. This means it will open at the start date, and the timer will immediately begin to countdown. If a student joins after the start date has passed, the timer will show the remaining time left to complete the quiz, with the timer ending at the same time for all students, regardless of when they entered.

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