Glitch in # of Student Views on Tests?

[dpentony]

We have a teacher in NJ, John Neyhart who contacted us regarding four students on a particular quiz, 2013-2014 Turfgrass and Pre & Post Test, these students: Matt, Anthony, Aldo and Jarreth had unusually high views, all over 15. He said that there was no way that they had time in class to open and close the quiz that many times.

Is there anything we can do to investigate if they really did open and view it this many times? He was very confident that this was a MYcaert glitch...

Contact Mindy of any clarifications are needed.

[bguerrettaz]

I looked at the data stored for student views on a test, there are three that are way above the others:

Anthony Gonzalez --> 19 Jarreth Martin -->16 Aldo Tlatelpa --> 17

From what I can see that count is increased by one once the student goes to the URL of the test. My guess would be they either timed out on the page hit, or were in a JavaScript loop. I would say these are anomalies, but these are really just guesses.

I can dig further into if you'd like, these are just my thoughts at a high-level.

Blake

[dpentony]

Lets' hold off on any further investigation for now. Mindy and I will monitor the issue and if it comes up again, we will need you to further research it.

[dpentony]

We had another occurrence of this issue with CR Sloan in Illinois. He has a student named Jacob Rubenacker and it involves the Business Operations test. The teacher originally set the number of views and submits to 2. After logging in once, the student exceeded the set parameters, so the teacher increased the views to 3. The student still could not get in. When Mindy checked, it showed the student had view the quiz 18 times. The teacher indicated this could not be accurate as he watch the student access the quiz each time. Mindy re-set the views so that the student could take the test. Please investigate this as we have lots of teachers giving final exams over the next week.

[bguerrettaz]

I'll look into this tonight.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 16, 2013, at 8:49 AM, dpentony notifications@github.com wrote:

We had another occurrence of this issue with CR Sloan in Illinois. He has a student named Jacob Rubenacker and it involves the Business Operations test. The teacher originally set the number of views and submits to 2. After logging in once, the student exceeded the set parameters, so the teacher increased the views to 3. The student still could not get in. When Mindy checked, it showed the student had view the quiz 18 times. The teacher indicated this could not be accurate as he watch the student access the quiz each time. Mindy re-set the views so that the student could take the test. Please investigate this as we have lots of teachers giving final exams over the next week.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[BrianPeterlin]

Blake, not sure what you found, but here are my thoughts.

This could be happening because of proxy servers trying to pull the page again to refresh it or some java script. Should we set a threshold of only up ticking the view count to 1 time per minute and also require a valid login. I think it currently authenticates off of a string in the URL.

[bguerrettaz]

Yes, I agree. I looked over that code the other night and it's very simple adding 1 to the current.

I agree, it's got to be something other than code increasing this count. Not exactly sure what though.

Let me know what you think.

Blake

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 20, 2013, at 9:08 AM, BrianPeterlin notifications@github.com wrote:

Blake, not sure what you found, but here are my thoughts.

This could be happening because of proxy servers trying to pull the page again to refresh it or some java script. Should we set a threshold of only up ticking the view count to 1 time per minute and also require a valid login. I think it currently authenticates off of a string in the URL.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[bguerrettaz]

@BrianPeterlin are you taking this one?

[BrianPeterlin]

have the student quiz page load only update the view if 30 seconds have passed since the last view, also confirm that going to the next page in a quiz once loaded does not increment the view count logic

[bguerrettaz]

Ok, I have added logic to not allow simoutenous updates to the table that holds the view counts for students taking quizzes. This involved updating and changing two stored procedures.

Please let me know if you see the view counts jump again, I tested successfully.

[dpentony]

We'll close for now and keep an eye on it.

[bguerrettaz]

Sounds good, thanks Dan.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 4, 2014, at 7:24 AM, dpentony notifications@github.com wrote:

We'll close for now and keep an eye on it.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[mnichols13]

We are continuing to have issues with the views and submits for quizzes. Tommy Harmon in SC had students who only submitted the quiz once, yet the website showed views were 14 and submits were 5 - sending the screenshot via email. We updated this student, so it no longer shows up, but another student: Brady Waits shows 10 submits but the maximum submits was 2. When we viewed the Current School Year report, he actually only submitted the quiz once.

[dpentony]

I believe when we worked on this issue before, the fix might have only addressed the views, but the problem might also exist with the number of submits being inaccurate as is the case with Zachary Price or Brady Waits in the screenshot below Their submits far exceed the parameter setting of 2. Also, I do not think the issue with the views is fixed - see Cody Russell in screenshot. His views far exceed the parameter setting of 2. The quiz in question is Sexual Plant Reproduction.

[dpentony]

What is the status on this item?

[bguerrettaz]

Brian and I talked about this today. I'm going to try and find why it would be doing this. Currently, there is no way to recreate and test the issue.

Just to be clear, this issue is with both views and submits, correct?

Blake

[dpentony]

Yes, it seems to be both in views and submits. Based on the screenshot above there are instances when both of these items seem out of whack and in excess of what is set in the test parameters.

[bguerrettaz]

I looked into this again and tested a quiz view and submission. This works correctly. I think the thing that might be missing is the fact that paging might be causing this. I've got an email out to Brian and am waiting to hear back from him on this.

More to come.

[BrianPeterlin]

I will discuss with John and Darrell

[BrianPeterlin]

Dan

We are proposing a re-write of the View and Submit functions. We will move them out of stored procedures and place it into the. Also search for any other locations where the data could be getting incremented. Blake quoted 6hrs, I will cut this down to 3hrs, because I am not sure what to say about this mess or why it is happening.

[dpentony]

Please proceed. I have one question though. When you click View under Edit quiz and it allows you to see how many times a kid has viewed and submitted a quiz, the teacher can change the number of times the student has viewed it. Will the change you describe change the ability of the teacher to change the number of times a kid has viewed the test? I do not think we want it to. Further, do we want to allow the teacher the ability to change the number of times a kid has submitted a quiz? Currently this cannot be changed. If a kid goes over the number of allowable submits, the only way to change it is to change the quiz parameters and this impacts the entire class. Maybe the change you propose will make this all moot...

[bguerrettaz]

@dpentony It will not change the ability of a teacher to change the view counts.

If you want the ability for the teacher to be able to change the number of submits, I can make those functionality changes, just let me know.

This is really just simplifying the way the view and submit counters are maintained.

Blake

[dpentony]

Yes, we want to give them the ability to change the submits as well unless you guys know a reason we moved away from this? We used to have that ability, but when we re-designed the "views" screen back in the fall, I believe we took away the ability for them to change the # of submits.

[bguerrettaz]

Brian, any reason not to do this that you know of?

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 12, 2014, at 8:31 AM, dpentony notifications@github.com wrote:

Yes, we want to give them the ability to change the submits as well unless you guys know a reason we moved away from this? We used to have that ability, but when we re-designed the "views" screen back in the fall, I believe we took away the ability for them to change the # of submits.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[bguerrettaz]

Brian mentioned that if we change the number of submits a student has done, then it could mess up the actual submissions. For example if a student takes the quiz 3 times (submits) there will be a structure for each submission. If we change the number of submits back to 2, so they can take it again, then we could see a problem.

We could test this theory with a student on your account if you would like. For example, just pick a quiz and one of the test students and take the quiz 1 time, then I can manually change the submission count to 0 in the database (simulating a teacher changing it) and see what the outcome is.

Any thoughts? Brian, any issues with that?

[dpentony]

I just went in as student Bo Diddly on my IL account and took the BlakeTestQuiz. The score now shows up. Feel free to change the submission count back to zero to see what happens.

[bguerrettaz]

@dpentony I have changed the submission count back to zero. Can you try to test around this? Meaning can you retake the test, make sure there is a new score and everything else around this quiz/student/teacher looks correct? I just want to make sure we cover our bases before putting in this functionality.

Thanks, Blake

[dpentony]

I logged in as student Bo Diddly. When I accessed the test, it showed he had taken it once even though you re-set the submit count back to zero. I took the test again and after it got scored, I accessed it again and it showed he had take it only once. I then took it a second time and it shows I took it twice.

The only question is when the test was first accessed, why did it show that I took it once even though you re-set the submit count to zero.

[bguerrettaz]

I was able to find why the count still said the number was 1 when reset it to 0.

This data is pulled from a table that stores the grades. That table holds all of the grades for each submission.

I think if we allow the user to change the submission for that student, that the grades for the other submissions will conflict with the new grades.

If this is something that you want, I can put together a design for how to change the current process to allow for the changing of submissions.

Please let me know.

Blake

[dpentony]

@Brian what are your thoughts?

[BrianPeterlin]

To delete a submission, you must go to

My Quizzes -> Edit Student Quiz Answers -> Edit Student Quiz Answers

Select Brian Peterlin Quiz for example

from there you can delete any instance of a submission

We can not simply create a field to allow the teacher to change the submission count like we do with the view count. The best we could do is give them a modal pop-up from the Web Enable or Disable Quiz screen which would allow them to delete select instances of quiz submits just like the Edit Student Quiz Answer page does.

[BrianPeterlin]

Dan has agreed to this option

• Create a link under the modal pop-up for managing student views which would allow the teacher to delete student submissions

Blake, please estimate the work involved

[bguerrettaz]

I was able to finish this request today. I have added a Delete Submits (Delete) link on the popup to view student attempts:

Please confirm this is the functionality that is desired or if any changes are wanted.

I also made the link auto-pick the quiz that the attempts are related to on the page the link goes to.

If for some reason this is not what is desired, I can pull out this change.

Blake

[dpentony]

I don't think this is quite right. I went to the quiz in the screenshot above and clicked on Bo Diddly to delete his submit. It took me to a page where I can only delete Bob Johnson's submits. It does not give me the ability to delete Bo Diddly's submits.

[bguerrettaz]

That's because I was testing with Bo Diddleys account and deleted his submissions.

I did see something a little weird, but thought maybe I made a mistake in the test. Did Bo Diddley show submissions on the popup still? If so, the count used on that popup is incorrect and will have to be fixed as well.

Please let me know if this is what you're seeing as well and I'll work to correct the count.

Blake

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 17, 2014, at 7:51 AM, dpentony notifications@github.com wrote:

I don't think this is quite right. I went to the quiz in the screenshot above and clicked on Bo Diddly to delete his submit. It took me to a page where I can only delete Bob Johnson's submits. It does not give me the ability to delete Bo Diddly's submits.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[dpentony]

Yes, Bo Diddly still is showing 2 submits on the popup. I am looking at the test called BlakeTestQuiz.

[bguerrettaz]

Ok, I'm glad I was imagining it.

I'll work on fixing the count tonight.

Besides that, do you like the new delete link to the delete submission page?

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 17, 2014, at 8:17 AM, dpentony notifications@github.com wrote:

Yes, Bo Diddly still is showing 2 submits on the popup. I am looking at the test called BlakeTestQuiz.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[dpentony]

I like it, but we'll have to see how the teachers use it.

[bguerrettaz]

I have fixed the query that produced the incorrect values for submission count in the popup. The query had to be changed quite a bit to support the needed changes.

@dpentony please confirm that the counts match, I did some light testing with a few different quizzes.

As far as the view counts, I started making changes that were suggested around the view count issue, but I think that the changes I will be making are similar to what is in place now. Since no one can reproduce it, I don't think the changes I put in will make a difference and I don't want to waste the work.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to recreate this, with different student accounts. The change I put in previously, wait 30 seconds before updating the count, works as desired. The ONLY way that the view count can be increasing is if the quiz is viewed after 30 seconds from the last time attempted.

I know this isn't a good explanation or answer for what is happening randomly, but that is what makes it so hard to pinpoint or explain.

Instead of trying to 'patch' or 'workaround', I suggest the next time something like this happens, we note the exact details:

-time of day -student -teacher -quiz -school

With more details, I'm hoping we can find a pattern, and therefore pinpoint the actual issue.

Again, the 30 second fix does not allow a count to be increased until after 30 seconds has elapsed, which would take out the looping possibility.

Please let me know your thoughts, I'm open to other ideas.

Blake

[dpentony]

The fixes you put in seem to be working. We will continue to monitor this issue to see if we can gather more info in order to determine the root cause.

[bguerrettaz]

Any more reports of this issue?

[dpentony]

I do not believe so. However, we are entering testing season. This will be a good indicator of if the problem has completely been resolved.

[bguerrettaz]

Sounds good, just wanted to follow up.

Thanks.

[dpentony]

We had a report today from Johnny Viebrock in MO who had a student named Shelbi Ashcroft who could not take the Ag. Science I -- Milk Test Update test. When we checked her views, it showed she had 9 even though the the parameter was set to 4. We cannot confirm that she actually viewed it 9 times. Even so, why would the number of views show 9 when the parameter was set to 4. It seems the number of views (9) should never exceed the parameter setting (4).

[dpentony]

Any thoughts on this?

[bguerrettaz]

Yes, I did look into this. It seems the way it is designed now, that when the max number of views have been met, it goes into 'Read only' mode. This means they no longer have access to submit the quiz.

I'm not sure if this is the desired design or not, but this is how it is constructed right now.

Thanks, Blake

[dpentony]

So are you saying that once they hit the max views, the counter keeps recording? In the case of the student who had 9 views, the reality is that she had 4 actual views + 5 attempted views? In essence, the views column records attempted views + actual views? That is OK. I just want to be sure we understand what is represented by the number in the views column.

[bguerrettaz]

Yes, in essence, that is the way it works today.

[dpentony]

I think it is OK as is. I just wanted to be sure we understood what the number in the Views column represented.

[bguerrettaz]

Just following up on this issue, any other reports or issues?

[dpentony]

No reports, but it is summer and usage is extremely low.