Additional Assign Settings

Define how to return scores and answers, allow or prevent edits after submission, randomize questions order, set a time limit, and more!

Neta Raz Studnitski avatar
Written by Neta Raz Studnitski
Updated over a week ago

What Are Assign Settings?

Different test environments require different settings. At times you may want to allow your students the option to edit their assignments after submission while at other times you'd prefer to keep them from having that option. You may decide returning scores and correct answers instantly or only after submission, or you might like to present your students with one item from the formative at a time. All of these are just a few of the optional, additional assign settings in Formative.

Defining Assign Settings on a Formative

To define assign settings when assigning to classes:

  1. Click on the "Assign" button at the top right of your screen

  2. Choose "Student-Paced"

  3. Check-mark the class(es) you would like to assign the formative to

  4. Click on Additional Settings to expand the list

If you choose "Teacher Pace Mode" to control your students progress pace on the formative, the process of defining additional assign settings will be different. Please visit the linked article to learn how to define and adjust assign settings with this mode.

Display each item as a separate page

Formative's traditional format allows for self-paced lessons and assessments that provide real-time data, so teachers can send immediate feedback. Scrolling through a screen filled with numerous questions can sometimes be overwhelming for students. To increase focus on individual questions and avoid confusion, teachers now have the ability to assign formatives to show one item** at a time. Students assigned these type of formatives will have control when to move on from one item to the next.

**Note: an item is any of the following:

  1. A stand-alone question or content item

  2. An enhanced PDF/Image/Doc/Google Doc with the questions and/or content items added to it

Student View

When students access a formative with this assign settings, they will see the first item on their screen. To move on to the next items, students will need to click the "Next" button located on the top right side of their screen.

Students also have the option to navigate back to former questions by clicking the "Previous" button located on the top left side of their screen.

The last page will show the "Submit" button at the top right side of the screen in stead of the "Next" button.

Want to guide students through a lesson or assessment so everyone can stay on the same page? Try Formative's Teacher-Paced Mode

Schedule Due Date

Teachers can schedule a due date on a formative for each class. This setting will present a notification for the students when they are expected to submit their work, and they will also see a clear notification once the formative is past due.

On your end, if a student submitted their work past the due date, you will see an indication of it on your end as well.

This setting can be toggled on separately from the automatic Open/Close times, meaning: You could set a specific Due Date but set the automatic Close date a few days later, giving students a grace period to submit prior to the formartive closing automatically. Having the indication of a late submission on your end will allow you to act upon the late submission per your discretion.

To set a Due Date:

  1. Find "Schedule due date" under the "Additional settings" section.

  2. Toggle on the button

  3. Choose the date and time from the calendar presented (this can be adjusted at any time)

Indication of late submissions will be displayed on the "Responses" tab, both with an icon next to the student name and with a written message within the side-panel when expanding the student's submission. Hovering over the icon next to the student's name will provide you with the date and time the student opened the formative, the due date/time, and the the date and time the student submitted.


After Submission Settings

The After Submission settings allow you to decide if students can edit their responses after submitting (useful for Free Response questions or just to keep learning happening), and whether or not students can still see a formative on their dashboard after they submit.

Clicking the carrot next to this setting will allow you to choose one of the following options:


"Allow Edits" - Students will be able to edit and re-submit the formative as long as this setting is enabled or the formative is open:

Note: When you enable this setting, there is no limit to the number of edits a student can make. Answers that have been changed after grading are labeled with a red exclamation mark.

"Make Hidden" - The formative will appear on the student's dashboard but the content of the formative will not be accessible after the student submits. Students attempting to access the formative after submitting will receive notification that the formative has been hidden by the teacher. When enabling "Make Hidden" you cannot set correct answers to return to students. You can only set scores to return.


"Keep visible (no edits allowed)" - Students will be able to see the formative on their dashboard and view the contents after they've submitted it, but they won't be able to edit it.

While it is true that students cannot edit their answers when the assign setting is "Keep visible no edits", teachers and students can still exchange feedback.

Note: If you are a Silver/Gold user, you can set default After Submission settings on your Settings page.

if you would like to return scores or correct answers to your students, you must choose "Keep visible" or "Allow edits" before you can adjust the settings for returning scores / correct answers.

Return Scores

You have many different options for returning scores to your students. Note that:

  • In order to return scores, you must select "Keep visible" or "Allow edits" in the After Submission setting first. If you do not do this, you will not be able to adjust the settings for scores or correct answers.

  • If you return scores, and you are a Silver plan subscriber or at one of our Gold schools, then your students will be able to track their progress against standards in their "Standards" tab.

Clicking the carrot next to Return Scores will allow you choose one of the following options:

"Instantly" - Scores will be returned to students as they are working to complete their work. If a question is auto-graded and does not require any keyboard entries (for example, multiple selection or multiple choice question types), students will have the option to reveal their score and check if their answer is correct as they are taking the formative by clicking the button "Check Answer".

Formative will record the amount of attempts made by the student and will display the number of attempts on the responses tiles on the teacher's end:

"When closed" - Students will get their scores back when you close a formative. These scores will appear on their dashboard, next to the "Closed" button:

If you re-open the formative, students will be unable to see their scores until you close it again or choose another option.

"After student submits" - Students will get their scores back immediately after they submit, even if the formative is still open to other students. These scores will appear on their dashboard, next to the "Submitted" button. If they've already submitted a formative once, their scores will continue to update.

*Note: You can always decide later and come back at any time to pick an option to return scores!

Silver/Gold users can set a default return scores setting on your Settings page.

Return Correct Answers

Returning correct answers is very similar to returning scores. Similarly, note that:

  • In order to return correct answers, you must select "Keep visible" or "Allow edits" in the After Submission setting first. If you do not do this, you will not be able to adjust the settings for scores or correct answers.

  • If you return correct answers, and you are a Silver plan subscriber or at one of our Gold schools, then your students will be able to track their progress against standards in their

Clicking the carrot next to Return correct answers will allow you to choose from the following options:

"When closed" - Students will get the correct answers back when you close the formative. If you re-open it, they will be unable to see the correct answers until you close it again or choose another option.

"After student submits" - Students will get the correct answers back after they submit. If they've already submitted a formative once, the correct answers will continue to display.

*Note: You can always decide later and come back at any time to pick an option to return correct answers!

Silver/Gold users can set a default return correct answers setting on their Settings page.


The following additional settings are extended features available to Silver/Gold plan members only:

Restrict to Individual Students (Silver/Gold plans)

If you do not want to assign a formative to your entire class, you can select which students have access to it. This can be useful for re-takes, extra practice, to deter cheating, or any other reason you would like some students to take a different formative from other classmates.

  1. After selecting the classes, toggle on "Restrict to Individual Students".

  2. Checkmark the name(s) of the student (s) you'd like to assign your formative to.

  3. Click "Assign"

Note: You can always go back and edit your selection from the "Assign" tab.

Tips:

  • You can always make changes by returning to your "Assign" tab. By clicking on the Class Name you can toggle individual students on or off as needed (Great if someone is absent!)

  • You can clone a formative as many times as you need to, then edit the clones to make them differentiated for different groups. Then assign each clone to the relevant group!

Schedule Open/Closed Times (Silver/Gold plans)

As a Silver/Gold plan user, you can schedule your formative to open and close on designated days and at designated times.

Note: There is no need to close the formative before taking the actions below. By scheduling the open/close times via this method the formative will automatically close prior to the pre-scheduled open date and following the pre-scheduled close date.

  1. Click the toggle next to "Schedule open/closed times"

  2. Here you can select the date and time you would like your formative to open and close.

Your Formative assignment will appear as a draft assignment until the scheduled open time, at which point it will appear as an assignment on your Classwork page!

Please note: If you've assigned and posted to Google Classroom, it can take up to five minutes after the scheduled time for the assignment to appear in Google Classroom.

Time Limit (Silver/Gold plans)

Silver/Gold users can set a time limit on any Formative. This will limit the amount of time a student has to complete the Formative, and will automatically submit when the time runs out. This can be particularly useful when conducting an assessment.

Note: If you're a Gold user and students in your class have a Time Limit Accommodation set up, as soon as you define the Time Limit for the formative you will be able to see a list of those students and if needed adjust their accommodation for the specific formative from your assign tab.

To set a Time Limit:

  1. Find "Time Limit" under the "Additional settings" section.

  2. Select a time from the blue drop-down menu, or set a custom time.

  3. If you have students in the class with a Time Limit Extension Accommodation, you will be able to view and edit their accommodation at this time.

Your students will now have a time limit that will begin once they open the Formative!

Students will receive a warning screen before they begin the Formative letting them know that there will be a time limit.

Once students click "Start," they will be able to track how much time they have left in the menu at the top of the Formative.

Tip: You cannot add more time once a student's time has run out. However, you can always remove the time limit on an assignment by adjusting the time following the same steps above, or allowing them to make edits after submitting.

  • How can I reset the time limit for a student?

You can undo submission for students if there is a time limit set. When you undo submission, students will see the timer confirmation screen again, and the timer will restart for them. They will not lose any of their responses.

  • Can I allow a student to retake a timed formative?

If you remove a student's responses on a formative with a time limit, students will see the timer confirmation screen again, and the timer will restart for them. Their old responses will be cleared, and they can retake the formative.

  • How do I pause a formative with a time limit?

You can pause a timed formative for the entire class, or for individual students, from our "view responses" tab. Please see the article on pausing a formative for step-by-step instructions!

Display Questions in Random Order (Gold plan only)

As a Gold user you can randomize the question order for your students! This is a particularly useful feature when you assign a formative as a test/exam.

Select "Display questions in random order" and each student will see a different version.

Note: When randomizing questions, the randomization will appear only on the students' end. The teacher's version will remain in the original order, including within the Preview mode. The responses tab for the teacher will also present the questions in the original order.

💭 Troubleshooting

  • When I chose to put questions in random order, it rearranged everything in my formative. Why?

This feature will randomize text blocks and other content as well as questions! If you have an image (for example) that needs to be locked to a question, make sure that you upload the image directly in the question - not as a separate content block.

  • What happens if I randomize questions that I attached to an enhanced pdf?

You can randomize questions that are attached to a PDF, however, this will not move what is actually written on the document. Only the question numbers will change. We don't recommend using randomize for formatives that are made using uploaded and enhanced PDFs because this will be confusing to students.

Secure Exam Browser Mode (Gold plan Add-on)

Formative and Respondus have teamed up to provide you with the power to quickly and easily create secure testing environments with just a few clicks!

If your school has purchased this powerful add-on, you will be able to choose it on your screen. Please see the Respondus LockDown Browser help article to learn more!



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