⏲️NEW FEATURE: Timed Projects

#instructors #new-features

Instructors can now assign Projects that must be completed in a set time. Once the student begins an attempt of their assigned project, a countdown timer will begin. The student must submit that assignment before the timer has run down. This feature is available with all 2016 and 2019/365 projects.

IMPORTANT: Once the timer has reached 0:00 students will not be able to upload their project. This timer will continue to run once the student has begun their assignment and cannot be stopped. If an instructor would like to view a student attempt that has gone past the time allotted, the instructor will have to delete the current attempt or provide an additional attempt.

To assign a Timed Project, go to Projects on the Left navigation, select the desired project, and assign it to a class or student. In the Assignment Preferences section of the Project Assignment Details pane, select the Enable Timer check box.

Once the Enable Timer check box has been selected, two new options will appear. The Minutestext box and the Attempt drop-down menu. Set the number of minutes you would like the assignment to last in the Minutes text box. The number of minutes must be a whole number.

In the Attempt drop-down menu there are two options, Each Attempt and All Attempts. Selecting All Attempts creates a single timer that begins to run at the start of the first project attempt and continues to run until all attempts have been used, or the time has run out. If the student uses all of the time in any one attempt, they will not have time available for subsequent attempts. The timer in All Attemptsassignments continues to run from the beginning of the first attempt until there is no time remaining or no attempts remaining. The timer will continue to run even if the student is between attempts or is not logged in to SIMnet.

Selecting Each Attempt means that each single attempt will have the total amount of time in the Minutes text box. If they use all of the time on any one attempt, they will still have all of their minutes available on subsequent attempts.

All ADA multiplier settings are automatically applied to all students who are using timed projects.

When students select a timed assignment, they will receive a prompt to start the project. With an All Attempts timed project they will receive the following prompt:

With an Each Attempt assignment they will receive the following prompt:

Once the student clicks the Start Project button, their project will be automatically downloaded and their project timer will begin. The timer is visible at all times throughout the completion of the project. If the student cannot find their downloaded file, they may download it again by clicking the Start File link on the assignment page. If the project has Resource files, the student will need to click the link to download those files.

As the student reviews the project instructions on all 2019/365 projects, they will be able to see the timer indicating the amount of time remaining in the project.

With Each Attempttimed projects, the student will receive the timer prompt each time they visit the page and have attempts remaining.

With All Attempts timed projects, the timer begins to count down once the student begins their first attempt and will continue to run between attempts until the timer has run out. The timer will continue to run between attempts and students will not receive a new prompt upon starting another attempt.