WeBWorK Problems

Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
Number of replies: 33
I apologize if this has been addressed before, but I could not find it via my searches.

To avoid repeated requests by students to change due date of a homework set, I would like to be able to set 2 due dates for the set:
  • If a problem is finished by the first date, then the student gets full credit for all correct answers.
  • If a problem is finished between the first date and 2 days (as an example) past the first due date, then the student gets something like 50% of the credit.
But I'd want the student to be able to retain any credit earned on problems and parts of problems prior to the first due (i.e., those problems or parts of problems on which the student earned 100% of the credit).

Is this done with a custom grader? Or with an additional grader after the standard (or other) grader?

I'm assuming that the official (according to Webwork) due date of the problem would probably be the second due date in my scheme. So the grader would have to check whether the time was before this second due date - 2 days to decide the percentages of credit to give.

I'm not sure how to implement this.

Also, could the variable having the value "2 days" be a stored variable for a particular class, so that the professor would just set this variable at the beginning of the course and have it apply to all homework sets in the course?
In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Patricia,

This is a request we have not seen before. I think doing this with a custom grader is the way to go. You can see a sample of a custom grader in the problem
.../Library/Rochester/setSampleGraders/sample_myown_grader.pg

(WeBworK/Demos/Grading from the Library Browser). Also look at webwork/pg/macros/PGgraders.pl. Finally do a "grep -r grader *" in the webwork2 and pg subdirectories and you will find other examples of custom graders.

After you get it working (which will probably take some effort) you can set it as the default grader to use in the course configuration file (look at how this is done in global.conf). If you complete this project, please post the example. It will be an example of a different kind of grader from those that we now have.

Arnie




In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Murray Eisenberg -
I'd very much like that capability, too. It's available and relatively easy to use in some other on-line homework systems; I and colleagues have found that capability extremely useful.

One of the things commonly done is to open all homework assignments again near the very end of the course and allow students to get more questions there completed correctly that they omitted or got wrong earlier -- all for only a fraction of the original credit. We've found this an excellent tools for students to review for the final exam, motivated by that additional credit (which often, in fact, makes little difference in their ultimate course grade).
In reply to Murray Eisenberg

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi,

WeBWorK now has a Reduced Scoring Period, that is a period before the due date during which all additional work done by the student counts at a reduced rate.

The above two requests resonated with me since they reminded me of one way I used WeBWorK way back in the fall of 1996. I taught a small class (the first class WeBWorK was ever used in) and instead of giving partial credit on exams, I used WeBWork for partial credit. The exams were standard paper exams but at the end I told the students the correct answers and gave them 24 hours to do whatever problems they missed on WeBWorK. The WeBWorK problems were the same as the exam problems except for constants. If they got the WeBWorK problem correct, the student was given 25% of whatever they missed on that problem. The average exam score went up from around 70 to 75 or so. Not a big difference but most students put a big effort into this. About 20% didn't bother, 60% did all the problems they missed on the exam and 20% did all the problems (even thought they didn't get any extra credit for the ones they got correct on the exam). They liked it and I liked it. I never tried this in a large class because to do it you would have to record and enter student exam scores on individual problems (which is too onerous for the professor) or require students to do the whole exam on WeBWorK (which is too onerous for the student).

Here is how the Reduced Scoring Period works. There are two parameters, the reducedScoringPeriod which is the length in minutes and the reducedScoringValue, a number in [0,1] which gives
the value of work done in Reduced Scoring Period. Suppose the reducedScoringPeriod = 60*24*2 (two days) and the reducedScoringValue = .5. On the page listing the problems, the student will see a message like:

This assignment has a Reduced Scoring Period that begins 11/08/2009 at 05:00am EST and ends on the due date, 11/10/2009 at 05:00am EST. During this period all additional work done counts 50% of the original.
(Note: if Reduced Scoring Period = 0, there is no message).

Before the Reduced Scoring Period everything is exactly like a normal problem. For example if a student does 6 parts of a 10 part question correctly, they see
You received a score of 60% for this attempt.
Your overall recorded score is 60%.

During the Reduced Scoring Period the student sees the message

Note: You can earn partial credit on this problem.
You are in the Reduced Scoring Period: All additional work done counts 50% of the original.

Suppose during the Reduced Scoring Period they attempt the problem again and get 9 of the 10 parts correct. They see

You received a score of 90% for this attempt.
Your overall recorded score is 75%.

Finally if they go back to the problem and get all 10 parts correct they see

You received a score of 100% for this attempt.
Your overall recorded score is 80%.

I think this is exactly what Patricia was requesting. As for Murray's request, all you have to do is toward the end of the semester, change all the due dates to reopen all the assignments and set the reducedScoringPeriod to some large number (e.g. 60*24*30 = 30 days).

The way I implemented this it applies course wide, i.e. to all open assignments in a course. It wouldn't be too hard to turn it on and off for specific assignments, but first let's see if anybody finds this useful.

Since this involved a lot of mostly small changes to a lot of files (ten in fact), I put this in the head distribution and did not port it back to the curreent rel-2-4-patches distribution. It will be included in the next release of WeBWorK.


If you want to use this now you have to update ten files to the head version instead of the rel-2-4-patches version. I recommend doing this as follows where I'll use the example PGanswermacros.pl.

cd /opt/webwork/pg/macros/
mv PGanswermacros.pl PGanswermacros.pl.save
cvs update -A PGanswermacros.pl

This way you have saved the original file and since the original file has been moved (NOT copied) the is no chance the cvs upgrade will corrupt the file. cvs will report that the original was lost and download the new copy. The -A flag (don't forget this) removes sticky tags (i.e. the rel-2-4-patches tag) and downloads the head version. If you want to go back to the original file you can just move the saved version back or, after removing or moving the current file, run the command cvs update -r rel-2-4-patches PGanswermacros.pl

Here are the ten files that need updating

/opt/webwork/pg/macros/PGanswermacros.pl
/opt/webwork/webwork2/conf/global.conf.dist
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/Constants.pm
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/ContentGenerator/Problem.pm
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/ContentGenerator/ProblemSet.pm
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/PG/Local.pm
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/PG/Remote.pm
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/Utils/Tasks.pm
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/DB/Utils.pm
/opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/DB/Record/UserProblem.pm

After this do a diff between your global.conf and the new global.conf.dist and update your global.conf adding the two new items in $pg{ansEvalDefaults} near line 1000. If you want to set a Reduced Scoring Period for the entire system (which is doubtful) you can edit the default values. Remember you have to restart Apache for the changes to take effect. Otherwise to configure the Reduced Scoring Period for a specific course, goto "Course Configuration", select "PG - Problem Display/Answer Checking", and edit the last two items (the help icons give an extended explanation).

This will work out of the box for any new course you create. For a current course, you first have to update the database. Unfortunately there are still bugs in the head version of wwdb_upgrade so we have to update the database one course at a time. To do this log into the admin course, select "Archive Course", select your course and then hit the "archive Course" button. This first checks the database, finds that it is not upto date and gives you the option of bringing it up to date. Select that option and after it completes select the option "Don't archive" (archiving doesn't hurt).

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
To keep this thread current, Reduced Scoring now must be enabled or disabled for individual assignments. The default is disabled since having it enabled for gateway tests doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

Again these changes are only in the head version. As there are updated to 12 files, I won't list them here.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Alina Duca -

Is it possible to change the statement the student receives after an incorrect answer or during the reduced scoring period? Thanks.

In reply to Alina Duca

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Alina,

It is possible but it's not that easy. If you use a custom grader instead of the default grader (which is the avg_problem_grader) then you can put in your own message.

For example you can copy the sub avg_problem_grader which you will find in the file /opt/webwork/pg/macros/PGanswermacros.pl and then edit that copy. Near the end of that routine you will find the line:
$problem_state{state_summary_msg} = ''; # an HTML formatted message printed at the bottom of the problem page

You can put your own message there. You can use the same method to put your own message in any grader.

For examples of how in use custom graders, use the Library Browser and look under WeBWorK/Demos/Grading

Hope this helps.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Lars Jensen -
Hi Arnie,

This is a very useful feature. Thanks!

Currently, I am doing what Murray is proposing, so I reopen all my homework sets the last 2-3 weeks of the semester and reset the due date to allow students to complete the sets for full credit. Students seems to be quite interested in completing assignments.

Because I reopen the sets, I have to set the answer date to the very end of the semester, after the re-opened sets are due. This is the one drawback I see to reopening the sets. What I'd like to see added to webwork is an option to reset all parameters (e.g. to assign a new seed to problems) when the sets are reopened during the reduced scoring period. This would allow the instructor to set an answer day at the end of the normal open period also, instead of only at the end of the semester.

Lars.
In reply to Lars Jensen

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Lars,

If I understand you correctly (and I'm not at all sure that I do) you want to have two different answer dates for an assignment. This really would be a major change to WeBWorK. But you can accomplish almost the same thing --- see below.


As far as reopening assignment at the end of the semester, I was assuming people would only reopen assignments which were already closed. Since you have to select which assignments reduced scoring applies to, you can certainly exclude assignment(s) (e.g. the last assignment of the semester) which may still be open at the end of the semester.

As far as resettting seeds with a different due date, you could easily set up a new homework assignment which is a copy of the original. Then it would automatically have the same problems with different seeds. You would then have two assignments covering the same material and you could decide how to combine the grades from the two assignments.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Lars Jensen -
Hi Arnie,

The essence of my question is whether it would be simple to reset all seeds in a problem set (for all students in the class) without affecting the credit students have already received for the problems they have correct at the time reseeding occurs.

Lars.
In reply to Lars Jensen

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Michael Gage -
Hi Lars,

This wouldn't be that hard technically. Although it could require a significant amount of coding most of it could be closely modeled on existing code. I'd like some discussion on the user interface first however.

One could simply add a button to the Hmwk editor which simply replaces the seed for each problem. This would be relatively simple to implement, but if it's used by accident the damage might be hard to undo.

It would have some side effects:

Each student's grade would remain unchanged but the answers they had correctly entered in old problems would now register as incorrect. This could be educationally disconcerting.

One could instead make a version which cloned the current set and also retained student records but changed seed values. (A related project would make it easier to clone a set to a new set maintaining all records so that one could change the name of the set.) If the procedure were more intelligent it could only change the seed numbers on the incorrect answers -- but we are starting to get pretty specialized and other instructors might want different variations.

It would also be possible to directly access the database and make changes in the problem seeds using mysql queries. This could easily be done without affecting existing code so it might be a good way to experiment with what features are really desirable and which ones aren't.



We're looking for projects for a google summer of code -- this could be one.

-- Mike
In reply to Lars Jensen

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Lars,

Look Davide's macro http://webwork.maa.org/doc/cvs/pg_CURRENT/macros/problemRandomize.pl.html

and also the discussion

http://wwrk.maa.org/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1948

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Lars Jensen -
Hi Arnold,

Thanks for the link to Davide's macro. If I understand the macro right, it looks like the student is permitted to do the reseeding, right?

A similar macro giving the instructor the option to force a reseeding (for the whole class) would be nice to have.

Davide's macro allows an option to reseed either (a) all problems, or (b) correct problems. in the instructor version of the macro, it would be nice to have the additional option to reseed incorrect problems only.

Lars.
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
With the semester's end I'm just now finding the time to read the forums again after my initial posting on this subject. Many thanks for your work on this, Arnold! It's exactly what I had wanted. smile I will be making use of the Reduced Scoring Period next semester.
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Steve Plemmons -
In the last paragraph, you mention using the "Archive Course" method to update the existing class databases. I did this, but it never asked for the databases to get updated. This is the message from the professor trying to use these existing classes:

Unfortunately I now get an error message when trying to access all homework sets

Can't locate object method "enable_reduced_scoring" via package "WeBWorK::DB::Record::UserSet" at /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/ContentGenerator/ProblemSet.pm line 78.

The information below can help locate the source of the problem.

  • in WeBWorK::ContentGenerator::ProblemSet::initialize called at line 192 of /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/ContentGenerator.pm
  • in WeBWorK::ContentGenerator::go called at line 353 of /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK.pm


Any ideas?

Thanks,

Steve Plemmons

In reply to Steve Plemmons

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
Can anyone help with this message posted on 12/30, regarding the installation instructions given by Arnold Pizer for the Reduced Grading Period ? Our webwork is disabled until this problem is fixed, and the new semester is beginning soon. Thanks.

********************************************************************

In the last paragraph [of the instructions given by Arnold Pizer] , you mention using the "Archive Course" method to update the existing class databases. I did this, but it never asked for the databases to get updated. This is the message from the professor trying to use these existing classes:

Unfortunately I now get an error message when trying to access all homework sets

Can't locate object method "enable_reduced_scoring" via package "WeBWorK::DB::Record::UserSet" at /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/ContentGenerator/ProblemSet.pm line 78.

The information below can help locate the source of the problem.

  • in WeBWorK::ContentGenerator::ProblemSet::initialize called at line 192 of /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/ContentGenerator.pm
  • in WeBWorK::ContentGenerator::go called at line 353 of /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK.pm


Any ideas?

Thanks,

Steve Plemmons

In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Danny Glin -
This type of error usually does come from the database for the course being older than the current version of Webwork.
If you are not seeing the update database option, it's probably because you are running a slightly older version of Webwork. This feature was added relatively recently.
I have three different suggestions that could each make this work for you, depending on how brave you are:
1) You could create a new course, and just export your classlist and all assignments from the broken course, then import them into the new course (though I guess this depends on the old course being functional enough to do an export).
2) You could upgrade the rest of Webwork to the latest release version (2-4-patches I believe). Once this is done, Arnold's instructions for upgrading the individual courses should work, though you may need to update the ten files he mentioned again.
3) You can manually update the one table that has changed for each of your old courses. Since there is only one new column, this means issuing a single "Alter table" mysql statement on the server for each old course. It's just a matter of determining the name and type of the column to be added.
Hopefully one of these three gets you back up and running.
Danny

In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi,

I'm sorry if my directions above were confusing.

After I made the final changes (which require Reduced Scoring be enabled or disabled for individual assignments), in order to use Reduced Scoring, you have to upgrade to the head version of WeBWorK. This involves living on the edge but should be stable. We currently have 100 odd courses using the head version on servers at Rochester.

If you don't want to do this and followed the original instructions, you can just move the saved versions of the ten files back. If you didn't save the ten files, you can move or remove the files and then reinstall the patched version with e.g.
update -r rel-2-4-patches PGanswermacros.pl. See the instructions above which describe how to go back to the original configuration.

I would suggest trying the head version. To do this first move the webwork2 and pg directories.

mv webwork2 webwork2_save
mv pg pg_save

This means you can easily move your current installation back and also you have easy access to your global.conf file.

Then download the head version of webwork2 and pg

cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.webwork.rochester.edu:/webwork/cvs/system checkout webwork2 pg

Note the absence of "-r rel-2-4-patches". Then follow the installation directions for setting permissions and where to move the webwork2 and pg directories.

For the configuration files do the following:
cp database.conf.dist database.conf
and use that. For global.conf, do a diff between the new global.conf.dist (in .../webwork2/conf/) and the old one in your .../webwork2_save/conf/ directory). Then copy .../webwork2_save/conf/global.conf to ../webwork2/conf/global.conf and then edit it adding the missing lines the diff found.

After that is done restart apache2 and hopefully all should work. You don't need to do anything with MySQL.

This will work out of the box for any new course you create. For a current course, you first have to update the database. Unfortunately there are still bugs in the head version of wwdb_upgrade so we have to update the database one course at a time. To do this log into the admin course, select "Archive Course", select your course and then hit the "archive Course" button. This first checks the database, finds that it is not upto date and gives you the option of bringing it up to date. Select that option and after it completes select the option "Don't archive" (archiving doesn't hurt).

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Steve Plemmons -
Arnie,

I reinstalled and have the same problem. I think I might not be getting what you call the "head" version. I cannot use cvs since it is blocked at my University. I am downloading from sourceforge. Which version should I be downloading?

Thanks,

Steve
In reply to Steve Plemmons

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Steve,

Unfortunately you have to use cvs

cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.webwork.rochester.edu:/webwork/cvs/system checkout webwork2 pg

to install the head version. I have never heard of cvs being blocked (but there are many things I haven't heard of). Maybe cvs is not installed on your server. It should be very easy to install. For example see http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installation_Manual_for_2.4_on_Ubuntu_9.10#Ubuntu_Software_Packages
if you are using Ubuntu.

E.g. as root

aptitude install cvs
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
The reduced scoring period has been very useful for our large lecture classes (where the bottom quarter of the students can't ever seem to finish something on time).

However the way that due dates are now listed is causing a good bit of confusion. For example,

HW#1 now open, due 1/18/2010 at 09:00am EST
HW#2 now open, due 1/18/2010 at 09:00am EST

now occurs when
  • HW#1 has a 3-day reduced scoring period which follows the 100%-credit due date of 1/15/2010 at 09:00am EST
  • HW#2 has no reduced scoring period; the 100%-credit due date is 1/18/2010 EST.
When students click on each of the assignments they are given more information at the top of the page regarding reduced scoring periods, but often they look only at the list of all homework problems to see what is due when. [ We just passed the deadline for an assignment like HW#1 and, even though they were warned about this, instructors and students were taken off-guard. For this reason we extended the 100% due date for HW #1 (which is what we wanted to avoid with the use of the reduced scoring period). ]

Is it possible for me to change the wording that appears above on the main listing of homework? Better would be something like:

HW#1 now open, due 1/15/2010 at 09:00 EST, followed by a 3-day reduced-credit grace period
HW#2 now open, due 1/18/2010 at 09:00 EST

or, even something like this would be helpful (but not optimal) for the latter:

HW#2 now open, due 1/18/2010 at 09:00 EST, followed by a 0-day reduced-credit grace period


P.S. There is a real need to have assignments with no reduced scoring period, such as right before an exam. So there needs to be wording to handle both cases.

If there's a way for me to change the existing wording, I'd like to know how to do it. Thanks.

In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Patricia,

WeBWorK is open source so you can change whatever you want but maintaining your own custom version may not be that much fun after a few years.

With WeBWorK the due date is the latest (final) date and is proceeded by a reduced scoring period. Changing this logic would mess up a lot of other stuff.

When I have a chance I will look at putting some type of message warning about the reduced scoring period on the page that lists assignments. I would like a succinct remark that doesn't take up to much space. Any ideas?

HW#1 now open, due 1/15/2010 at 09:00 EST Reduced scoring starts 1/12/2010 at 09:00 EST

with the final phrase in red would do it I think but this may take it too much space.

If students look at this first page it takes only one click to get the full information on the reduced scoring period for the assignment so one only has to alert them.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
Arnie--

Your suggestion looks great:

HW#1 now open, due 1/15/2010 at 09:00 EST Reduced scoring starts 1/12/2010 at 09:00 EST

with the final phrase in red would do it I think but this may take it too much space.

Taking slightly less space would be:

HW#1 open, due 1/15/2010 at 09:00 EST, Reduced credit > 1/12/2010 at 09:00 EST

As far as my implementing something like this, is there an easy place to do it? Or do I end up rewriting basic code (not my idea of fun).

Thanks
In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Patricia,

In the past week or so I was actually thinking of using "reduced credit" instead or "reduced scoring". Interesting that you came up with the same word. I think it's better. Too bad I didn't think of it originally. Thanks for the suggestions.

To make the change yourself you would have to edit system code and search for the correct file (as I will when I make the change). It shouldn't be that difficult but you do have to be a little careful. E.g. you don't want the message after a set has closed and probably do not want it before a set opens since at that point we don't tell students the due date.

When I make the change I'll post something. It should be a change in only one file. If I change "scoring" to "credit" everywhere that change will be made in a number of files but there will be no real reason to make such a change in mid semester.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
Thanks, Arnie. Changing system code is not high on my wish list right now! I have put large red warnings about the disparity in due dates in the course_info.txt file, and by now most of the students and instructors are starting to catch on. But it's definitely confusing to them.

One other thing I noticed. After a homework set has closed, it still says "You're in the reduced scoring period..." at the bottom of every problem in that set. A couple of students thought that this meant they could still get reduced credit after the homework set was closed, but most have figured that out without needing explanation from me.

Thanks again.
In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Thanks Patrica.


Re: After a homework set has closed, it still says "You're in the reduced scoring period..."

I consider this a bug and will fix it.

Arnie
In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi,

I have now implemented a warning message on the page that lists all assignments.

This only involves updating one file so is pretty simple. If you want this, do the following.

cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WeBWorK/ContentGenerator/
mv ProblemSets.pm ProblemSets.pm.save
cvs update -A ProblemSets.pm

Note that in order to use Reduced Credit (my new name for Reduced Scoring) you have to be running the head version of webwork2. At some point I will remove the warning messages that still appear after the due date and systematically replace "Reduced Scoring" by "Reduced Credit" but these are minor annoyances.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
Thank you for your work on this, Arnie.

Another thing to put on your to-do list: Right now the reduced credit period must be implemented course-wide for a given homework. But if one student has a good, legitimate excuse to get extra time, generally the instructor asks for a new due date for that student with 100% credit until that time. We have handled this by making a clone of the original assignment for that student only, turning off the reduced credit option in the clone. Then after the due dates are over, we have to copy the student's scores on the clone over to the original assignment. (This happens surprisingly often.) All of this would be simpler if the reduced credit option could be changed on a student-by-student basis.

Thanks...






In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll probably hold off on this until after the next stable release so that any changes I make can be tested for awhile before being added to the stable release.

You are probably the major user of reduced credit in the beta code. I assume everything currently implemented has been working OK and that this should be added to the next stable release.

Arnie
In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Patricia,

Another take on this. If a student has a good reason to get extra time, why not just give him/her say an extra two days? That would give the student two extra days at full credit followed by the standard reduced credit period. It seems to me that this would cover most people's needs (it's what we do when not using reduced credit) and doesn't add any extra complication to WeBWorK.

This will not cover the case when you do not want to give a student any extra time but just don't want to penalize that particular student for doing work at the end of the standard period. But I would think this would be a rare occurrence and you have found away around that, albeit not a convenient one.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Patti Lamm -
Hi Arnie,

I'm actually not teaching the course this semester, but am working behind the scenes to get all sections of this course using webwork (5 instructors, 12 TAs, etc.).

I think the reasoning is as follows: The students are given 100% webwork credit up through Monday, and 50% webwork credit up through Wednesday. They have an exam on Thursday. So for whatever reason an instructor agrees a student can have a full-credit extension, but the instructor stil wants the student to complete the problems prior to the exam (or prior to the next homework set being assigned). This is the most typical request I get from instructors, to simply eliminate the reduced-credit period for one or more students so that they get 100% credit through Wednesday.

Does this make sense?

Thanks,
-Patricia Lamm
In reply to Patti Lamm

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi Patricia,

It does. I'll put it on my "to do" list. No promises as to when it gets done.

Arnie
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Paul Pearson -
Hi Arnie,

Another unforeseen problem occurs because due dates for an individual student (e.g., for homework extensions) are given precedence over due dates for the entire class. For example, at the end of the semester, a professor may decide to reopen multiple closed homework sets with the reduced scoring option enabled. If a student has received an individual extension on a homework set in the past, then they will be unable to submit answers for partial credit because their individual due date supersedes the class due date.

It is possible for the professor to manually reset the due date for the student, but sometimes that is a difficult task (especially for professors new to webwork or for very large classes).

Would it be possible to add an option to webwork's course configuration menu that would allow professors to choose whether they want

1. Individual due dates to always take precedence (current default)

2. The later of the two due dates to take precedence

3. Class due dates to always take precedence

4. The earlier of the two due dates to take precedence

The solution I am proposing would apply in general (for all homework sets, not just for reduced scoring). I am aware that choices 3 and 4 seem not to be useful, but I included them for completeness anyway.

Thanks!

Paul Pearson
In reply to Paul Pearson

Re: Two due dates, grade reduced for the second one?

by Arnold Pizer -
Good point Paul and one I hadn't considered.

I'll have to look at the code and see if it is easy to insert such an option. It seems like it should be but that's easy to say without looking at the code.

Arnie