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numbas / Numbas

A completely browser-based e-assessment/e-learning system, with an emphasis on mathematics
http://www.numbas.org.uk
Apache License 2.0
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Blackboard and Numbas #290

Closed ghost closed 11 years ago

ghost commented 11 years ago

Hello,

We have a Numbas package deployed in Blackboard LMS SP12, with the Rustici Scorm engine 2013.0.1002957.

The Students completed the assessment and were returned scores on screen however the scores are not being returned to the Blackboard Grade Centre - the attempts are being listed as "Attempt in progress".

When we inspect the attempts (in Blackboard) they are listed as incomplete:

Learning Object Name Total Time Status Scaled Score Learner Response Result SOEE5154M NUMBAS Exam 14/10/2013 0 seconds incomplete 0% N/A N/A Exam 0 seconds incomplete 0% N/A N/A

The Academic previously deployed a Numbas package in September which did appear to work correctly and grades can be seen in the Blackboard Grade Centre - the only difference in the two deployments (that I can see) was that the package showing the problem was set to one attempt only in the SCORM player.

I tried modifying that setting on the item in Blackboard ex post facto however as I suspected, it made no difference.

Stuart Robinson University of Leeds

christianp commented 11 years ago

Hi Stuart, That's very bad! I've just received an email from a lecturer at Nottingham Trent reporting the same problem, so clearly something has gone wrong. I'd like to blame Blackboard, but I did make a change to Numbas' SCORM code recently so I'll have to do some testing. Hopefully it's something simple.

I'll start looking at it tomorrow and try to find a solution as soon as possible.

Christian

ghost commented 11 years ago

Thankyou for looking at this Christian.

Stuart

christianp commented 11 years ago

I can reproduce the problem if I set the SCORM exam to open in a new window (the default) instead of in a frameset. Is this how your exam is configured? You can change it by doing the following:

If results are saved after you make this change, then we've pinpointed the problem. Note that you'll need to test with an account enrolled as a student in the course, not an instructor, because BB doesn't save data for instructors.

If this is the problem, it means BB has changed the way it presents the SCORM API in SP12, so that the generic SCORM wrapper I use can't find it. I'll try to work out where it's hiding.

christianp commented 11 years ago

It was a silly typo in my code! It should work now if you download the package again.

prowlett commented 11 years ago

Mine did not open in a new window, but I didn't change the default setting. Anyway, I will re-download and see if that fixes it.

ghost commented 11 years ago

Hi Christian,

I can confirm the SCO launch type was indeed set to Open in New Window.

I changed it back to Frameset, however we will still have the student results in limbo.

The Advanced launch options do have a setting for wrapping the sco window with API, perhaps that might provide a fix.

I'm not a developer so I'm flying blind here but do you know if the attempt data is held in blackboard after the attempt is started? I'm wondering if we can get at the results even if they are still listed as 'in progress'. I unfortunately also do not have the original SCORM package as the author is on leave in the Faculty but I'll try to get hold of it as soon as possible..

Stuart

ghost commented 11 years ago

btw Christian are you running on SP12 at Newcastle? If you need access to an SP12 instance let me know.

Stuart

christianp commented 11 years ago

It should work even when opened in a new window now, with the latest fix. Blackboard does keep data even for incomplete attempts, but the problem here was that absolutely no data was being sent back by Numbas, so there's nothing to keep. Was the SCORM package generated using http://numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk? If you search for the author's name there, you might be able to find it and download a new package.

christianp commented 11 years ago

It looks like we've upgraded to SP13. The problem was in my code, not Blackboard's, so I don't think the BB version matters. I'm sorry about your data - I think it's lost.

ghost commented 11 years ago

np Christian, I expected that. We'll get the faculty to download a new package and redeploy.

Stuart

plivermore commented 11 years ago

Hi, I am the faculty member using Numbas, and I this afternoon I downloaded a new package. The grades are not displayed in gradecentre (it still says the exam is in progress), although when clicking into the test-student example, I can actually see my marks breakdown.

Numbas opens in a new window, and I've tried both single attempt and unlimited attempts when deploying the package into the VLE. Same result for both. What am I doing wrong - or is there still a bug?

prowlett commented 11 years ago

Since I uploaded the new SCORM package yesterday morning the system notes two student attempts but both are listed as incomplete with zero time spent in the SCORM data.

ProgressStatus Score Attempts Time Spent Average Time Spent Last Accessed
Incomplete- 0 1 0:00:00 0:00:00 17/10/2013 4:07 PM
Incomplete - 0 4 0:00:00 0:00:00 16/10/2013 5:23 PM

However, the VLE (Desire2Learn) report records them as having accessed the learning object for greater than zero time spent (this is the page that tells me how many people have downloaded each file, viewed each SCORM object, etc.

Last Visited Number of Visits Total Time Spent Average Time Spent
16 October, 2013 4 0:33:39 0:08:24
17 October, 2013 1 0:41:44 0:41:44

N.B. the previous error (for me) prior to yesterday's update (here with Desire2Learn) was that the SCORM report contained no data at all. Now I am seeing them as "incomplete". So something has changed!

christianp commented 11 years ago

OK, this is embarrassing. I've just spotted a bug introduced on the 7th of October (by c708e22e9d3) which meant that pressing "end exam" didn't make Numbas report the attempt is complete back to the SCORM API. This is why you're getting incomplete attempts. I've just pushed a fix to the stable branch and I've tested it works on our Moodle server, so you should re-download any exams you've created since then.

Student response and score data should still have been saved, since that's saved whenever an answer is submitted. Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Time for me to be less hasty with pushing code to the stable branch!

plivermore commented 11 years ago

Thanks Christian - it all seems to be working. However, the gradecentre is only updated with the mark when the browser window (in which the exam is taken) is closed - and not when clicking the "end exam" button. Is this as it should be?

Is there anyway of preventing non-grade collection by a student who closes the window before clicking "end exam", even when it's already been marked?

plivermore commented 11 years ago

Still not working properly I'm afraid - this time I allowed the test to time out. Although the breakdown of the marks were reported correctly, it still showed the exam as "in progress".

plivermore commented 11 years ago

Hi Christian, just posted a comment - I think there's still a bug when the test "times out".

Phil

Still not working properly I'm afraid - this time I allowed the test to time out. Although the breakdown of the marks were reported correctly, it still showed the exam as "in progress".

On 18 Oct 2013, at 10:16, Christian Perfect notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

OK, this is embarrassing. I've just spotted a bug introduced on the 7th of October (by c708e22https://github.com/numbas/Numbas/commit/c708e22e9d3) which meant that pressing "end exam" didn't make Numbas report the attempt is complete back to the SCORM API. This is why you're getting incomplete attempts. I've just pushed a fix to the stable branch and I've tested it works on our Moodle server, so you should re-download any exams you've created since then.

Student response and score data should still have been saved, since that's saved whenever an answer is submitted. Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Time for me to be less hasty with pushing code to the stable branch!

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/numbas/Numbas/issues/290#issuecomment-26581988.

christianp commented 11 years ago

Ahh, sorry again! I did a search in the code for all other uses of the end-exam method, but must've missed the one triggered by a timeout. I've just pushed a fixed version, so hopefully all is well now.

christianp commented 11 years ago

Phil, is it all working OK now?

plivermore commented 11 years ago

All seems to be well - thanks.

Phil

On 22 Oct 2013, at 15:55, Christian Perfect notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

Phil, is it all working OK now?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/numbas/Numbas/issues/290#issuecomment-26810153.

christianp commented 11 years ago

Thanks. I'll close this issue now.