Sakai Guides and DocumentationRubrics, Assessments, and GradingAssessmentsHow can an instructor retrieve assessments that were saved but not submitted?

How can an instructor retrieve assessments that were saved but not submitted?

When a student clicks the Submit for Grading button on the last page of an assessment or the Table of Contents, they are taken to an Assessment Submission Warning screen to confirm their submission.  If they do not click the final Submit for Grading button to confirm, and the assessment is NOT timed, their responses may be saved, but the assessment will remain In Progress.

Instructors do not have access to the content of In Progress assessments.  On the Total Scores screen, students with incomplete submissions would be listed as having No Submission recorded.

However, if a student has not yet submitted a copy of an untimed assessment, an instructor will receive their submission using the Automatic Submission (Autosubmit) feature in Tests & Quizzes.

How does automatic submission work?

On Duke Sakai, the Autosubmit setting is enabled for all assessments in all sites.  For more information on how to enable automatic submission in an assessment's settings, see Availability and Submissions options: Automatic submission, or the steps below.

Behind the scenes, there is an automated process that will check:

  1. Did the instructor select the Autosubmit setting on this assessment?
  2. Did the latest acceptance date for this assessment pass yet?
  3. Did this student press the Begin Assessment button, save their work, 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 after an hour past the latest acceptance date.

Instructors can review all student submissions normally.  Any assessments that were submitted via the automatic submission feature will be flagged on the Total Scores screen with the text AUTO-SUBMIT.  All answers that were saved will be included in the student's automatic submission.

Note: Timed assessments are automatically submitted when the timer expires, so you do not need to enable Autosubmit for a timed assessment.

Why are some assessments still listed In Progress?

You might still see In Progress assessments after waiting until an hour after the latest acceptance date if:

  1. The assessment allowed multiple submissions, or a student was allowed to retake the assessment.  A student who already submitted the assessment started a new submission but did not complete it.  The Automatic Submission process will only submit a student's assessment if they do not have any previous submissions already recorded for that exam. 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.  However, automatic submissions display differently from manual or timer submissions as follows:

  1. When an automatic submission occurs, the email notification sent to students and/or instructors will contain Notification for assessment auto submission. The Submitted Date in the email notification indicates when the student last saved content in the assessment.  The time stamp on the email that was sent will indicate when the actual submission occurred.
  2. On the Total Scores screen, automatic submissions are flagged with the text AUTO-SUBMIT.  The time stamp 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 Automatic Submission feature.
  3. In the Tests & Quizzes Event Log, the Errors column will indicate No Errors (Auto submit).  The Date Submitted column will indicate when the actual submission occurred.  The Duration column will indicate how much time elapsed between when the student began taking the assessment and when it was actually submitted; it does NOT indicate how much time the student actually spent taking the assessment.

Below are examples displaying automatic submissions.

Example of email notification for Automatic Submission

In the event of an automatic submission, the time stamp on the notification email sent to a student and/or instructor is when the actual submission occurred, while the Submitted Date in the email is the last time the student accessed the assessment.

The subject of the email for an automatic submission will say: 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 will include the text: 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?

Examples of automatic submissions on the Total Scores screen

  1. When an instructor accesses the Total Scores screen to grade the assessment, automatic submissions are flagged with the text AUTO-SUBMIT.
  2. The time stamp 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 Automatic Submission feature.

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

Examples of automatic submissions in the Event Log

  1. In the Tests & Quizzes Event Log, the Errors column will indicate No Errors (Auto submit).
  2. The Date Submitted column will indicate when the actual submission occurred.

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