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Schedule a Timed Assignment

Sometimes, you might want to give your students a specific amount of time to complete an assignment.

Prerequisites
Schedule an Assignment Based on Class Schedule
Schedule an Assignment Based on the Day of the Week

Timed assignments are indicated with an hourglass icon timed icon.

Timed assignments can be useful for:

  • Giving a reading assignment for which you do not want to give your students time to look up the answer.
  • Assigning a take-home quiz for which each student has a different set of short multiple-choice questions selected from a pool of questions.
  • Administering tests, usually with WebAssign LockDown Browser®.
  • Conducting placement tests to evaluate student proficiency in a subject area.
  • Preparing your students to take a timed standardized test.

While your students work on a timed assignment, a timer displays the remaining time in the top right corner.

Important When you assign timed work, make sure your students understand the following:
  • Once they start the assignment, the timer does not stop, even if they close the assignment or sign out of WebAssign. Your students should plan to complete the assignment in one session.
  • The actual due date for a timed assignment is either the date and time when the timer expires or the original assignment due date, whichever comes first. If a student starts a ten-minute timed assignment one minute before it is due, the student will have only one minute to complete the assignment.
  • If the time remaining until the assignment is due is less than the amount of time your student would otherwise have to complete the assignment, the timer displays only the remaining time until the assignment is due.

If your students are working on the assignment when the time expires, all of their responses are automatically submitted so they do not miss any points. After the time has expired, your students cannot do any more work on the assignment.

When assigning timed work, be sure to offer testing accommodations for your students with learning disabilities. You can give additional time to specific students for timed assignments. The extra time does not override the due date and time you set for the assignment.

Note Use the guideline provided by your school for providing additional time. If no guideline is available, a common testing accommodation practice is to allow 50% to 100% more time on timed tests.
  1. Schedule the assignment, if you have not already done so.
  2. Open the Schedule page and navigate to the assignment.

    From My Classes, click Class Schedule under Class Tools.

    Tip Click a scheduled assignment in the Assignments list to view the week for which it is scheduled.
  3. Beside the assignment, click Actions button > Edit Restrictions.
  4. On the Edit Restrictions page, select Timed Assignment.
  5. Select the number of minutes to allow for the assignment.

    If the number of minutes you want is not listed, select other and type the number of minutes you want. You must enter a whole number between 1 and 999.

  6. To give additional time to some of your students:
    1. Click Grant extra time for specific students.
    2. For each student who needs additional time, type the number of additional minutes to allow in Extra Time.
      Note If you previously granted extra time for the assignment, type a different number of minutes in Extra Time and click Save. To grant the same number of additional minutes that you previously granted, type 1 in Extra Time and click Save before granting the desired time.
    3. Optional: Type a positive or negative number in with adjustment to add or subtract points from the student's assignment score.
      Best Practice If a student requests additional time but does not offer a compelling reason, offer to grant the extra time with a penalty to the student's assignment score.
    4. Click Save, and then close the Grant extra time to selected students window.
  7. Optional: Select Drop Security and Time Restrictions after and select a date and time after which your students can access the assignment.

    Security restrictions (password, IP address, and LockDown Browser) are not automatically lifted from assignments after the due date. Students can't open timed assignments after the time has expired or due date has passed. Usually, these restrictions mean that your students can't see their scores and feedback for individual assignment questions.

    To allow this, either drop the assignment restrictions manually from the Schedule page or select Drop Security and Time Restrictions after and set the date and time to drop the restrictions automatically.

    Tip If you are using the same assignment for multiple sections, you might not want to drop security restrictions for any section until after the last due date for all your sections has passed.
  8. Click Save.

Hours to Minutes Table for Long Timed Assignments

You can set a timed assignment to allow up to 999 minutes (16 hours, 39 minutes). Use the following reference table if needed.

Hours Minutes
3 180
4 240
5 300
6 360
7 420
8 480
9 540
10 600
11 660
12 720
13 780
14 840
15 900
16 960