Quercus Quiz Troubleshooting for Faculty

Table of Contents

In light of some recent technical issues with Quercus Quizzes, make sure to never make edits to a live quiz (a quiz that students are currently taking).

What should I do if: 

The Entire Class can’t access the exam  #

  • Ensure that the Quiz is Published so it is visible to students 
  • On the Quizzes page, you can view the status of each quiz. Green icons indicate the quiz is published [1]. Gray icons indicate unpublished quizzes [2]. You can change the status of a Quiz by toggling the published and unpublished icons. 
  • In the Quiz Settings, ensure the Quiz “Available From” setting has the correct date and time of the Exam 
  • In Quiz settings, ensure that Everyone is assigned 

Individual Students can’t access the exam   #

  • In the Quiz setup, ensure that the “Assign To” field lists “Everyone” 
  • In the People menu, ensure that the student is enrolled and has the role of “student” 
  • Ask them to clear cookies and cache on their browser  
  • Ask them to try a different browser (Chrome and Firefox are preferred) 

Students can’t access the files required for the exam  #

  • Ensure the required files are Published. Click the Files tab on the navigation, ensure that the necessary files have the green Published icon 
  • If the file used in the quiz is part of an existing module and unpublished in a module, it is automatically unpublished in the Files menu and will be inaccessible throughout the course page. 
  • If it has a crossed out grey icon, click on the icon to publish it: 

Students can’t submit the exam  #

 Make sure that the student is using either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome as their browser.  

 If this is the case:

  1. Without closing the quiz, have the student open the quiz in the more compatible browser (Chrome or Firefox). Their answers should auto-save. 
  2. Then have the student submit their quiz through the compatible browser. Once they have submitted they can close the quiz on the original browser.

Individual student needs extra time or attempts?  #

  1. The quiz must be published.
  2. Click the name of the quiz.
  3. Click the Moderate This Quiz
  4. To moderate a quiz for one student, locate the student and click the Edit icon. You can also filter students in your course by using the Search People field
  5. If you want to select multiple students, click the checkbox [1] next to each of their names. If you want to select all students, click the top checkbox [2]. Click Change Extensions for [#] Selected Students button [3].

 To Add Extra Time on Attempt Before the Exam: 

  • Type the number of extra minutes in the Extra Time on Every Attempt field. Extra time can only be added in full-minute increments. 
  • If you are adding time for multiple students, the student extension box will apply the extra time for all selected students. 
  • If the student hasn’t taken the quiz, the extra time will be added to the student’s initial attempt and additional attempts 
  • If you need to add time while an exam is in progress, click “Moderate Quiz”, find the student, click the blue clock icon, and add additional minutes from the current time, or from the end of the exam. You have both options.

To Add Extra Attempts: 

  • Type the number of extra attempts you’d like to give to the student in the Extra Attempts field [1]. 
  • If your quiz is locked because of accessibility dates, you will need to unlock the quiz for the student by clicking the manually unlock the quiz for the next attempt checkbox [2]. 

To Add Extra Time on Attempt During the Exam:

For a more detailed explanation on how to do this, see the Extending Time on an Ongoing quiz page.

  1. 1. Click Moderate Quiz
  2. 2. Click the blue clock icon to add time to a student’s exam duration while they’re writing

To add additional time, click the clock icon and add additional time as per below

  • In the minutes field, enter the number of extra minutes you want to give the student as part of their current attempt. The maximum time you can extend a current attempt is 1440 minutes (24 hours).
  • In the time drop-down menu, choose whether you want to add those minutes to the current time or the current (scheduled) end time.
  • If you want to end the quiz in relation to the current time, select the now option in the drop-down menu.
  • As an example, a student started a 20-minute quiz at 11:30 am; the quiz is set to end at 11:50 am. You moderated this quiz at 11:40, meaning that 10 minutes have gone by. However, you want to have the quiz end at 11:45. Since the current time is 11:40, you need to end the quiz in 5 minutes. Enter the number 5 in the minutes field, and select the now option in the drop-down menu.
  • If you want to end the quiz in relation to the current end time of the quiz, select the current end time option in the drop-down menu.
    • As an example, a student started a 20-minute quiz at 11:30 am; the quiz is set to end at 11:50 am. You moderated this quiz at 11:30, meaning it was nearly the same time that the student started the quiz, and you want to extend the quiz to end at noon. If the current end time is 11:50 am and you want to extend it by 10 minutes, enter the number 10 in the minutes field, and select the current end time option in the drop-down menu.

Note: Quiz availability dates still apply when moderating a quiz. If the Until date passes when students are taking the quiz with extended time, the quiz auto-submits even if the student’s time extension has not expired.