Online Exercises & Tests: Settings Guide

Online exercises and tests are the auto-scored assessments you build inside a course. They share one setup screen. This article walks through every setting on that screen, including practice mode, and explains what learners see.

Exercises vs tests

	Online exercise	Test
Where it lives	A material inside a module section	The module's Tests tab, outside the sections
How to add it	Add a material and choose Exercise	Tests tab → Add Test
Practice mode	Available (Advanced type only)	Not available
Due dates, extensions and late penalty	Available	Not available

Everything else on this page applies to both. On the Tests tab, each test's menu also offers Preview, Free Preview and Delete.

The two setup steps

Setup has two steps:

1. Add Basic Test Data: all the settings below. Click Create and Continue (or Save and Continue when editing).

2. Add Question Bank: create sections and link question banks. This step is locked until step 1 has been saved. See Using Question Banks in Online Exercises.

1. Basic Exercise Details

• Exercise Name or Test Name: required, up to 100 characters.

• Exercise Type or Test Type:

  • Basic Exam Mode: a clean, minimal interface for quick assessments and practice quizzes. Learners see the questions as one scrolling list.

  • Advanced Exam Mode: the feature-rich interface. Learners answer one question at a time with a question palette and review flags. Advanced also unlocks Allow Sectional Timing, Strict Mode, Reference Sheet and practice mode.

Enable Practice Mode

This switch appears only for exercises set to Advanced Exam Mode. Practice mode turns the exercise into a low-pressure practice space: learners get instant feedback, can leave and resume at any time, and see their performance stats without being evaluated.

When you switch it on, these settings are removed because they do not apply to practice:

• Maximum Attempts (attempts become unlimited)

• Time Limit, Allow Sectional Timing and Strict Mode

• Passing Percentage

• Make this a prerequisite

• Result Declaration (results are always shown immediately)

• The Proctoring section

• In each section's settings: Max. number of questions allowed to attempt, Randomize Questions and Randomize Options

What learners experience in practice mode is described in What learners see below.

2. Proctoring

Shown when your plan includes online proctoring, and hidden for practice-mode exercises.

• Proctoring Enabled: monitors the attempt to protect exam integrity. Proctoring works only on the website, so proctored assessments cannot be taken in the mobile app or a mobile browser.

• Screen and Video Recording Enabled: adds a screen and audio recording of the attempt, which you receive with the proctoring PDF report. If your plan does not include recording, you will see a note with a link to contact support instead.

Proctoring results appear on the grading screen. See Grading Quizzes, Exercises & Programming Assignments.

3. Exercise Restrictions

• Maximum Attempts: Unlimited, or 1 to 10.

• Time Limit: switch on and enter hours (up to 24), minutes and seconds. With no time limit, learners see "No time limit".

• Passing Percentage: required, 0 to 100. An exercise only counts toward course progress once the learner passes it.

• Allow Calculator: None, Normal Calculator or Scientific Calculator.

• Allow Sectional Timing (Advanced type with a time limit): give each section its own time limit. You set the durations in each section's settings.

• Strict Mode (Advanced type with a time limit): learners cannot submit a timed test early. With sectional timing, they also cannot choose, submit or skip sections; each section moves on when its timer ends.

• Make this a prerequisite: learners cannot move on to the next lessons until they complete this assessment.

• Skip Declaration: learners start immediately instead of first accepting the test declaration (the "I agree not to cheat or use unfair means" statement).

• Partial Marking: for multiple-answer MCQs, learners get partial credit for each correct option they select. All correct options earn full marks; selecting any wrong option earns zero or negative marks.

4. Result Declaration

Hidden for practice-mode exercises. Choose when learners see their results:

• Auto-Declare upon evaluation (default): results are shown as soon as evaluation is complete.

• Hold results until manually approved: results stay hidden until an admin declares them.

Held results are declared from the batch's test submissions: use Declare Results for the whole batch, or select learners and declare for just them. Only evaluated attempts can be declared. Until then, learners see "You will be notified when the results are declared." and the leaderboard stays hidden.

5. Due Dates and Extensions (exercises only)

• Due Date: when on, learners can attempt the exercise only until the due date. Click Configure Due Dates to set a date for each batch. Filter by branch, and select two or more batches to apply one date with Bulk Action.

• Extend Due Date for Learners: give selected learners more time than their batch's due date. Click Configure Individual Extensions, choose a batch, and set a new due date per learner. The exercise must be saved first.

• Allow Late Submissions (when a due date is on): learners can still attempt after the due date, and late attempts are highlighted on the submissions tab.

• Exam Penalty: deduct marks for late attempts. Enter a value greater than 0, choose Marks or Percent, and choose how often it applies: once, each day or each hour past the learner's due date. A score never goes below 0, and learners see an explanation of the deduction on their result.

6. Attendance eligibility

• Require Minimum Attendance: learners can attempt only when their attendance in the relevant batch meets the threshold you enter (a whole number from 0 to 100).

• Configure Attendance Waivers: after saving, exempt individual learners from the threshold. Click Add Learner Waiver, pick the batch and learner, and add an optional reason. The waiver list shows each learner's current and required attendance.

Learners below the threshold see their current and required attendance and cannot start.

7. Advanced Settings

• General Instruction: rich text shown to learners before they start, where they can return to it during the attempt.

• Audio File: attach narration or audio instructions, and set Maximum plays to Unlimited or 1 to 4.

• Reference Sheet (Advanced type): material learners can open beside the questions, such as formulas. Give it a title (up to 25 characters) and content. Learners can search inside it during the attempt.

Section settings

On the Add Question Bank step, each section has Section Settings:

• Section Name: required, up to 100 characters. Learners see this on the question paper.

• Duration: shown when the exercise has a time limit. With sectional timing on, the window shows how much of the total time is left to allocate.

• Max. number of questions allowed to attempt: learners can answer only this many questions in the section. When they hit the limit, they must clear an answer to try another question.

• Randomize Questions and Randomize Options: shuffle question order and answer options for each learner.

• General Instruction and an audio file with Maximum plays, for this section only.

Each section header summarises its duration and randomization. Use Add New Section for more sections. How many questions each linked bank contributes is set in Question Bank Settings: Random or Manual.

Printing the paper

On the Add Question Bank step, Print lets you print the paper With Solution or Without Solution, in a One-Column Layout or Two-Column Layout.

What learners see

A regular exercise or test

1. The exercise card shows the duration, total marks, passing percentage, attempts left and any due date.

2. Learners click Start Assessment, read the general instructions, and accept the declaration (unless you turned on Skip Declaration).

3. During the attempt they can use Save and Next, Clear Response, the calculator and the reference sheet if enabled, and review flags in the Advanced type.

4. They finish with Submit Assessment. Leaving the page asks for confirmation, and exiting a regular attempt submits it automatically.

5. Afterwards they can review the attempt. Results and the leaderboard appear once results are declared.

If the due date has passed (without late submissions) or their attendance is too low, the card explains why they cannot start.

A practice-mode exercise

• The card is labelled PRACTICE MODE and shows Last Practice On, Total Correct and Total Incorrect from their practice so far.

• There is no timer, no score and no evaluation.

• After answering a question, learners can click View Correct Answer to check it. Once they have viewed the answer, that question is locked. Subjective questions have no automatic answer, so learners see the explanation instead, if you added one.

• Progress is saved automatically. Learners can leave at any time and Resume later from where they stopped.

• They finish with Complete the Practice.

What's next

Add questions to your exercise in Using Question Banks in Online Exercises, then review attempts in Grading Quizzes, Exercises & Programming Assignments.