How does Automatic Submission work in Tests & Quizzes?

You can use the Automatic Submission (Auto-submit) feature to retrieve a student's saved work in an untimed assessment when the student failed to submit it.  You may enable Auto-submit to force the submission of tests or quizzes that remain In Progress after the assessment's Final Submission Deadline has passed.

Unlike a timed assessment, the Automatic Submission process will not automatically save work; rather, it will only automatically submit answers that have already been saved by the student.

For in-class assessments, it is recommended to set a time limit instead of using Auto-submit. For more information, see the Best Practices for Delivering Online Tests & Quizzes.

For detailed information and steps to enable Auto-submit, see below:

When should I use Auto-submit?

The Auto-submit feature is useful for untimed assessments that are available for students to take over a relatively long time period (e.g., 24 hours), and assessments that remain In Progress after their latest submission date has passed.

Important: Please note that Auto-submit does not save student work before submitting. If you are using Auto-submit, students should be advised to save their work often.

How does automatic submission work?

Every 5 minutes, behind the scenes of UVACollab, an automated process checks:

  1. Did the instructor select the Auto-submit setting on this assessment?
  2. Is it past the Final Submission Deadline for this assessment?
  3. Did this student select Begin Assessment, but fail to successfully submit the assessment via the Submit for Grading button on the Assessment Submission Warning screen?
  4. Is this the student's first submission attempt?

If all four conditions above are true, the system will automatically submit the student’s saved assessment. The submission data will be available to instructors on the Total Scores screen within 5 minutes after the latest submission date passes.

Assessments that were submitted via the automatic submission feature will be flagged on the Total Scores screen with AUTO-SUBMIT.  All answers that were saved will be included in the student's automatic submission.

Note: Timed assessments are automatically saved and submitted when the timer expires, so you do not need to enable Auto-submit for a timed assessment. For more information, see the section above: When should I use Auto-submit?

How do I enable Auto-submit on an assessment that students have not taken?

Go to Tests & Quizzes.

Select Tests & Quizzes from the tool menu in your site.

Edit the settings.

  1. Select the Actions menu for the assessment.
  2. Select Settings.

Alternatively, access assessment settings from the edit assessment screen.

If you are currently editing an assessment, select the Settings button near the top of the Questions screen.

Editing settings in Working or Published Copies

You can modify the settings of any assessment listed under Working Copies. When you publish an assessment, a copy is created and listed under Published Copies.

After you have published an assessment, modifying the settings in the unpublished version under Working Copies will NOT affect the settings in the published version under Published Copies.

Avoid modifying the settings of a published assessment while testing is in progress.

Verify dates and enable Auto-submit.

Select Availability and Submissions.

When you first access the Settings page, the Availability and Submissions options are expanded by default.  If they are not displaying:

  1. Select the section title on the assessment's Settings page.
  2. Or select the Expand All button to open all the sections on the Settings page.

Enable Auto-Submit.

Screenshot shows example dates and Auto-submit checkbox selected in Settings. Graphic link opens modal with larger image. Press Escape to exit modal.
  1. Make sure that the Due Date and/or Late Submission Deadline fields have dates entered in them.  If late submissions are not allowed, for the Final Submission Deadline, select The Due Date (No late submissions allowed).  Assessments will be automatically submitted at the Final Submission Deadline.

    If the dates are incorrect, make adjustments as needed. For more information about date formatting and entering dates, see the Help article Availability and Submissions: Availability Dates.
  2. Select the checkbox to Auto-submit after Final Submission Deadline.

Save settings and/or publish the assessment.

To save your changes:

  1. Working Copies: If your assessment is ready to be made available to students, scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save Settings and Publish.  For more information, see How do I publish an assessment (i.e. test or quiz)? Alternatively, if you are not ready to publish the assessment, select Save to save your settings selections.
  2. Published Copies: Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save.

How do I trigger Auto-submit on a completed assessment?

You can enable Auto-submit on a published assessment that students have taken. Doing so will complete submissions remaining In Progress.

Go to Tests & Quizzes.

Select Tests & Quizzes from the tool menu in your site.

Select the Published Copies tab.

Edit the settings.

  1. Select the Actions menu for the assessment.
  2. Select Settings.

Avoid modifying the settings of a published assessment while testing is in progress. Instead, wait until the Final Submission Deadline has passed.

If the Final Submission Deadline is in the past, verify dates and select Auto-submit.

Select Availability and Submissions.

When you first access the Settings page, the Availability and Submissions options are expanded by default.  If they are not displaying:

  1. Select the section title on the assessment's Settings page.
  2. Or select the Expand All button to open all the sections on the Settings page.

Enable Auto-submit.

Screenshot shows example dates and Auto-submit checkbox selected in Settings. Graphic link opens modal with larger image. Press Escape to exit modal.

By default, when you view an assessment's Settings, the Availability and Submissions section will display.

  1. Verify that the Due Date and/or Late Submission Deadline fields have dates entered in them.  Assessments will be automatically submitted at the Final Submission Deadline. If the Final Submission Deadline is in the past, assessments will be automatically submitted the next time the Automatic Submission process runs; this occurs once every 5 minutes.
  2. Select the checkbox to Auto-submit after Final Submission Deadline.

Select Save.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save.

Or enable Auto-submit, then Stop Accepting Now.

Select Availability and Submissions.

When you first access the Settings page, the Availability and Submissions options are expanded by default.  If they are not displaying:

  1. Select the section title on the assessment's Settings page.
  2. Or select the Expand All button to open all the sections on the Settings page.

If the assessment's Final Submission Deadline is in the future, but you would like to prevent more students from submitting and automatically submit In Progress assessments, you can use the option Stop Accepting Now.

  1. Select the checkbox to Auto-submit after Final Submission Deadline.
  2. Select Stop Accepting Now.

Warning: You should ONLY use this option if you are sure that students are not currently working on the assessments in progress.  Stopping and automatically submitting an active assessment will submit it immediately without warning; the student will not be able to save their work before it submits.

Confirm to Stop Accepting.

You will be shown a warning indicating that the assessment will no longer be available for students to take.  If you are sure you do not want to accept any more student submissions, select Stop Accepting to confirm.

Wait for submissions to become available.

The Automatic Submission process runs once every 5 minutes.  If you have enabled Auto-submit and your assessment's Final Submission Deadline is in the past OR if you selected Stop Accepting Now, In Progress assessments will be automatically submitted the next time the Automatic Submission process runs.

After the In Progress assessments are automatically submitted, the students' saved responses will be available along with other students' submissions.

I enabled Auto-submit; why is an assessment still listed In Progress?

You might still see an In Progress assessment after you enabled Auto-submit AND waited for 5-10 minutes after the Final Submission Deadline if:

  1. The assessment allowed multiple submissions, or a student was allowed a retake, and a student who already submitted the assessment started but did not complete a new submission.  The Automatic Submission process will only submit a student's assessment if they do not have any previous submissions already recorded for that assessment. This prevents previous, already successful, submissions from being overwritten by an automatic submission.
  2. Very rarely, there have been instances where the Automatic Submission feature has not completed submitting an assessment.  If your assessment should have been automatically submitted, but it has not, follow the steps above to trigger Autosubmit again on the completed assessment.

How do automatic submissions display?

Instructors access automatic submissions from the Total Scores screen just as they would any other assessment submission.

The examples below illustrate how automatic submissions display in a submission email notification sent by Tests & Quizzes and in an instructor's view of Tests & Quizzes.

Important: The Submit Date for an auto-submitted assessment lists the last time the student saved work in the assessment, not the actual timestamp of the automatic submission. This is because the date when an automatic submission occurs may be significantly later than when the student actually completed the work that is included in their submission. You may find the timestamp of the automatic submission in the Tests & Quizzes Event Log.

Example of email notification for Automatic Submission

In the event of an automatic submission, the timestamp on the email is when the actual submission occurred, while the Last Saved Date in the email is the last time the student saved work in the assessment.

The subject of the email for an automatic submission: Notification for assessment auto submission: [the title of the site where the assessment was taken] - [the assessment title]

The first line of the email notification includes: The following assessment auto submission was recorded.

For more information on Tests & Quizzes email notifications, see What information is in a Tests & Quizzes email notification?

Example of an automatic submission on the Total Scores screen

  1. When an instructor accesses the Total Scores screen to grade the assessment, automatic submissions are flagged in the Submit Date column with the text AUTO-SUBMIT.
  2. The timestamp that appears in the Submit Date column for automatic submissions indicates when the student last saved content in the assessment, NOT when it was actually submitted by the Autosubmit feature.

For more information on accessing student submissions and grading, see How do I grade Tests & Quizzes?

Example of an automatic submission in the Event Log

Screenshot of example Event Log described below. Graphic link opens modal with larger image. Press Escape to exit modal.

In the Tests & Quizzes Event Log:

  1. The Date Submitted column displays when the automatic submission occurred.
  2. The Duration column indicates how much time elapsed between when the student began taking the assessment and when it was actually submitted, NOT how much time the student actually spent working on the assessment.
  3. The Errors column indicates No Errors (Auto submit).

For more information on the Event Log, see What is the Tests & Quizzes Event Log?