Multiple Attempts
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Using Multiple Attempts in Inspera
Module teams can allow their students to take practice auto-marked Inspera exams repeatedly, either by unlimiting the access so a student can submit as many times as they wish, or by setting a defined number of retakes.
Important note: Multiple Attempts is a feature which supports formative auto-marked exams. There is no option to lock down an exam using Multiple Attempts.
Multiple Attempts can help students to learn rapidly and understand topics by allowing them to practice until answers are correct. This can also allow for a dynamic and effective learning experience.
Students can:
- Improve their understanding of the topic by practicing multiple times
- Increase their confidence by identifying and correcting mistakes
- Prepare more effectively for exams by identifying improvement areas.
Exams which can use Multiple Attempts
Multiple Attempts should only be used with exams which are using automatically marked questions.
The feature can be used with pre-defined feedback, which can be set so that students see the feedback immediately after the test submission. It would be recommended that if Module Teams enable Multiple Attempts, pre-defined feedback is used to allow students to improve their understanding of the exam content.
Check out the different expandables below to find out more about setting up and using Multiple Attempts.
Setting up Multiple Attempts
1. Within the Deliver Tab, you will need to edit the exam settings and click ‘Enable Multiple Attempts’.
2. You will then be prompted to set a maximum number of attempts. If wishing students to have an unlimited number of attempts, click ‘Unlimited Attempts’.
3. Under ‘Setting final result’, choose the most appropriate option for your exam which will be applicable as part of your student feedback. Options are:
- Highest: The highest score achieved among all attempts will be the final result.
- Average: The average score obtained across all attempts will be calculated and used as the final result.
- Latest: The most recent score from the student’s attempts will be the final result.
Important note: Multiple Attempts cannot be disabled after activation. It is highly recommended that the exam settings, including date/time, are correct before activation.
Setting the number of attempts
It is up to the Module Team how many attempts/retakes a student has at the exam
It is possible to change the maximum number of attempts until the exam start time. This would be possible by deactivating the exam and editing the maximum number of attempts, Deactivation is not possible once the exam is live and students have begun the exam.
Important note: if you are decreasing the maximum number of attempts, there is no need to deactivate the exam. Please note that the number of attempts cannot be lower than the number of attempts submitted by any student, i.e. if a student has submitted x5 times, the number of attempts could not be edited to be under 5.
Student feedback when using Multiple Attempts
When using Multiple Attempts, it’s recommended that feedback is set to be released to students immediately after each test attempt. In the below instructions, feedback is set so that students see full details of their attempt instantly.
Instructions
- Ensure the ‘Candidate report’ is enabled in the Deliver tab
- Navigate to the After test section of your exam
- Under Post-submission Review tick:
- Allow candidate post-submission review
- Include correct answers and results page
- Instant post delivery access - this enables the feedback to be available to students as soon as they have submitted
- Scroll to 'Final results' and tick 'Show Final Marks or Grades on Candidate dashboard’
Student view of Multiple Attempts
Before Attempt 1, students view within Inspera will reflect that this is their first attempt and may reflect information relevant to the options picked by the Module Team. For example, in the below demo, students are advised they have unlimited attempts and that their final result is calculated as an average.
As students complete attempts, the number of attempts is visible at the ‘start test’ screen:
Students (after each attempt is submitted) can review their attempt by clicking ‘view submission’.
Important note: To access their next attempt, students must access their exam from the Canvas assignment point. Reloading or refreshing in Inspera will not enable the next attempt.
Marker view of Multiple Attempts
Dissimilarly to summative Inspera exams, Multiple Attempts does not reflect student answers within the Grade tool prompting a mark. As all marking is automated for Multiple Attempts, Grading options are restricted. For example, the Marking view:
To finalise and reflect to students their final mark/ outcome, Markers should still confirm on Grade using the confirm option.
Important note: this will stop students submitting further attempts, even if the exam is set as unlimited attempts.
To allow students to review their final mark, please ensure the Canvas assignment until/end date is edited to allow indefinite review, this can be done by clearing the until/time data:
It is possible to download all data from the Multiple Attempts exam into CSV format. This can reflect an overall insight into students’ total marks. To do this within Inspera’s Grade tool:
- Go to options
- Under download, select ‘Download all data for multiple attempts as CSV’.
Important note: you are able to download the CSV at any time before and after Grading.
Students view of Multiple Attempts: Final Results
Once marks are confirmed, students will see information on both Canvas and Inspera. On Canvas, within the assignment area, the student view allows them to see their grade. For example:
On Inspera, students will be informed the test is completed and be able to view their final results. For example:
This particular example shows an averaged score for the Multiple Attempt.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Can Multiple Attempts be used with other features?
A: Randomisation & Random Pulling are features which are compatible with Multiple Attempts.
Locking down the exam using Safe Exam Browser is not compatible with Multiple Attempts and therefore allow listing is not possible.
Candidate selected questions are used for manually marked essay-based questions. Multiple Attempts are currently used for formative auto marked Inspera exams.
Q: Can I use Multiple Attempts with a summative exam?
A: As there’s no ability to securely lockdown an exam using Multiple Attempts it’s not recommended for us in summative exams, it’s only applicable for formative/practice exams.
Q: Can I use Grading Committees with Multiple Attempts?
A: While it is possible to create committees, this will not restrict access to results and submissions. When using Multiple Attempts all markers will have unrestricted access to all student submissions.