Forum Discussion

JonPlacebo's avatar
JonPlacebo
Community Member
24 days ago

Quiz timer in Articulate 360 - easily bypassed by learners?

Hi,

I have prepared many quizzes using Articulate 360 i.e., 1 quiz per presentation.

Each quiz has a time limit.

If a learner does not complete all of the questions in a quiz (possibly due to unforeseen interruptions at work or internet problems), I allow them to open the quiz at a later time and resume where they left off i.e., the "resume" option is set-up in Articulate 360.

Some learners seem to be abusing this option - for example:

  1. a learner opens a 30-question quiz with a 60-minute time limit;
  2. the learner answers Q.1 to Q.12 in 50 minutes, then closes the quiz;
  3. the learner then opens the quiz again, resumes at Q.13, answers Q.13 to Q.25 over the next 50 minutes, then closes the quiz;
  4. the learner then opens the quiz again, resumes at Q.26, answers Q.26 to Q.30 over the next 30 minutes, then closes the quiz

In the example, the learner has spent a total of 130 minutes (50 min + 50 min + 30 min) answering the 30 questions in a quiz that had a 60-minute limit. This defeats the objective of having a time limit.

Normally, I wouldn't be too concerned i.e., the emphasis is on answering the questions correctly - not making mistakes by answering questions too quickly. However, I'm finding that some learners are not doing any preparation before attempting quizzes and, in some extreme cases, are taking 4 or 5 hours to answer a 60-minute quiz by repeatedly opening, closing and reopening quizzes (over timeframes that can be as long as 2 or 3 days) and only answering a few questions during each visit.

I assumed (incorrectly) the software [Articulate 360] or the LMS (Reach360) would keep track of the cumulative amount of time spent and the leaner would be "timed-out" after the time limit was reached.

Please advise whether I'm misunderstanding the situation.

If I'm not misunderstanding the situation, does this mean the quiz-timer in Articulate quizzes is easily bypassed by learners and, if so, is there a way of dealing with the problem - apart from deactivating the "resume" option for quizzes? 

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Jon

 

Articulate 360
storyline 360

4 Replies

  • Dominik1's avatar
    Dominik1
    Community Member
    24 days ago

    Hi Jon,

    That is an interesting observation. I also have a timed quiz uploaded to our LMS and tested the behavior as well. In our case the users have 8 minutes to answer 5 questions. 

    Here is what I found in our case:

    • Progress appears to be saved after each question.
      • For example, if a user spends 1:20 minutes on the first question and submits it, that progress is saved.
      • If they exit and return, the timer resumes at 1:20 minutes on the second question.
    • However, if they spend 3:00 minutes on question 2 without answering or submitting anything, then exit, the timer resets to 1:20 minutes.
      • I assume this happens because no selection or submission was made, so the LMS doesn’t register any activity.

    This behavior could potentially be exploited by users to bypass the time limit—essentially creating an infinite time glitch.

    Best,
    Dominik

  • PhilMayor's avatar
    PhilMayor
    Super Hero
    24 days ago

    I believe the time is committed to resume only when the user completes an action. You can commit resume data yourself by showing a layer not sure if that will save the time on resume

  • EricSantos's avatar
    EricSantos
    Staff
    22 days ago

    Thanks for the detailed testing, JonPlacebo​ and Dominik1​, and for the great input from ThomasHadley-78​ and PhilMayor​!

    You’re right that the quiz timer currently only saves progress after a question is submitted, so total elapsed time isn’t enforced across sessions.

    Phil, your suggestion about using a layer to commit resume data is a really creative approach, and thank you for sharing that.

    Showing a layer or trigger can sometimes prompt Storyline to save progress more often, which may help reduce the impact of the issue.

    However, it doesn’t fully prevent it since the timer still only runs while the learner is actively in the course. If they exit before an interaction is recorded, that time isn’t captured, and the timer resumes from the last saved point.

    I’ve shared all your feedback and ideas with our product team as a feature request for a more reliable, continuous timer, and we’ll update this thread if we have any news.