Setting up an eClass Quiz

Step One

Review instructions and attend training

It is highly recommended to review the Quizzing information (Assessment & Evaluation) eClass instructions from the eClass Help Center.

Ensure you attend one of our Quiz group training sessions via zoom, for more information register from. For one to one custom training please fill out our support request form.

For quiz support settings and review, please fill out the online exam support request form.

Step Two

Prepare your students for quizzes

Supply the following information to your students to ensure they have the resources they need to succeed in their online quiz.

1. Browser settings
2. Best Practices for Students Taking an Online Quiz
3. FAQs Taking a Quiz
4. Student Accessibility Services

Step Three

Conduct a test-quiz to establish software compatibility and quiz familiarity

Create and open a mini "Technical Process Check" quiz 3 to 5 days ahead of your actual quiz. Use the same question format types as you would in the real quiz, and the same general settings. One exception however, is to allow multiple attempts on this quiz as students would be taking it over and over again prior to each quiz.

This "check" will ascertain software compatibility, quiz navigation and generally familiarize your students with the eClass quiz environment. Consider repeating this process before each quiz, as students are apt to upgrade their systems continuously.

Once students navigate the quiz successfully, please advise that they do not upgrade their computers/tablets/laptops until after the real quiz is completed.

If students do encounter issues, please ask them to immediately email esohelp@yorku.ca with a description of the issue they are encountering.

Step Four

Tips for deterring possible cheating

Maintaining academic integrity looks a little different online. These tips will help you to promote honest test taking on eClass.

• Strategically time your multiple choice (MC) questions so all students start the exam at the same time and have a relatively tight time limit. For example, short multiple choice questions can be set for 45 seconds per question to deter students from thoroughly searching for answers.
• Allow students to see their raw scores (marks) only or not at all during an open window period (available from the "Review" options of the "Edit Settings" page, After the quiz is closed). This setting prevents access to the full list of attempts of right and wrong answers immediately after completing quizzes so that this information cannot be shared until all students have taken the quiz.
• Select "shuffle" for the responses on creating individual MC questions when there is no "all of the above" or "none of the above" choices. If students decide to take the quiz together, their responses will be ordered differently.
  • You can also select the "Shuffle within questions" option globally in the "Question behaviour" section of the "Edit Settings" to shuffle answers on all questions of this type.
• Consider shuffling the order of actual questions under the "Edit Quiz" page.
• Add a pool of randomized questions to your base questions. eClass then randomly assigns a select number of questions from designated categories so that students get different questions.
• From the "Quiz Layout Settings", choose to display 1-4 questions per page, depending on the number of questions, as opposed to displaying all on one page. It is much easier to "capture" one page than several pages.
• For additional security, instructors may wish to impose a "Sequential" progression of the quiz by not allowing students to return to those questions already answered. Free navigation is the default setting. To change from free navigation to "Sequential" go to the "Layout" section of "Edit Settings" by selecting "Show More" and change the setting to "Sequential." It is recommended that warn your students ahead of time if you decide to use the "Sequential" setting.

Step Five (Optional)

Exam Security: Safe Exam Browser (SEB)

Safe Exam Browser (SEB) is an optional exam security tool available for eClass quizzes. When enabled, SEB creates a controlled testing environment by locking down and restricting the students’ access to other websites, applications and computer functions while completing an assessment.  

Benefits 

• Restricts access to other websites and applications during an exam that can help deter unauthorized use of online resources. 
• It is an option for large lecture in-person assessment with a controlled BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) method.  
• It integrates with eClass Quiz settings.  
• The LA&PS eServices team can support you for your set up and best practices. 

Considerations 

• SEB usage and requirements should be written on your course outline. 
• SEB is not meant for fully online exams/courses taken remotely as students can use other devices. 
• Provide students with SEB requirements and resources well in advance and encourage them to install and test SEB before the scheduled exam.
• A practice SEB quiz is recommended several weeks before the exam to identify potential issues. 
• Students must have a compatible device that meets the SEB minimum system requirements.
• Recent Windows and macOS updates may conflict with SEB and prevent exams from launching. Please pause automatic OS updates on your device until after your exams.
• Technical issues may affect a student's ability to access the exam, alternate plans should be in place.  
• All LA&PS computer labs in the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh (DB) Building have Safe Exam Browser (SEB) installed. Instructors may book a computer lab for students who may experience technical issues, with an invigilator available to oversee them. For smaller classes, instructors may also choose to book a DB computer lab and hold the entire in-person exam there.

SEB Resources 

• Instructors: Using Safe Exam Browser for your quiz 
• Students: How to take a quiz using Safe Exam Browser
• Safe Exam Browser Tip Sheet for Students
• SEB Demonstration Video 
• Known Issues with Safe Exam Browser

Step Six

Tips to ensure a good functional Quiz

• Review recent technology announcements on UIT Alerts.
• E-mail esohelp@yorku.ca in advance of a quiz period to determine whether there are any York University scheduled outages or upgrades during your chosen quiz window.
• Separate your automatically marked (MC) questions from the manually marked portion of your quiz such as essays into two parts, e.g. Part A & Part B. There is no need to delay the auto-marking process until manual marking is complete.
• Change the quiz settings to generate automatic submissions by selecting "Open attempts are submitted automatically" from the "When time expires" section. This is vital to ensure that students' responses are all captured by eClass at the time of expiration in case they miss the submission deadline.
• If large files are required for your essay-format quiz uploads, you may increase the allowable size by going to "Course" settings and increasing the "Maximum upload size" from the "Files and uploads" section.
• Add an additional 5 minutes to your quiz close time to allow for the possibility of slow loading times and/or internet speeds.
• Coordinate your quiz open and close times and your quiz duration limit. For example, if your quiz opens December 12th at 7 pm, it must to close at 8:30 pm or later in order to allow for a 90 minute quiz.
• Always include the time zone in your communication and explicitly caution online students located in different countries or time zones so that they don't miss a timed, scheduled quiz.
• Please let your students know that if they experience any technical difficulties, for example cannot submit a file that is required, to go ahead and email you this file either to the course email or through another method.
• When submitting images, instruct students to insert the image into Microsoft Word and then save it as a PDF. This step will secure the file with the properties information, in case you need to review when the file was created/last edited.

Step Seven

After the Quiz – Student Technical Issues

• If your students informs you that they experienced isolated technical glitches during the exam, we can review their eClass session to verify their experience.
• eClass tracks and logs student activity during the quiz. You can check these logs to review the full period of any student's interactions with the quiz.
• eClass logs cannot track the student's computer, thus if they were disconnected from their internet, or they had an other technical issue on their end, we will not be able to pull any records of these events from personal devices. Students should be advised to track and provide proof of these types of issues, and to contact you immediately as they occur.
• Generating and analyzing the logs should provide some understanding of the issue.  It is then up to the instructor to make a decision based on the logs, the students' current work and standing, and what the efforts the student made to communicate the issue and supply missing test responses immediately as the issue occurred.