Grouped Timed Tests

Problem: The instructor has made one test into 5 sections, each section being a separate test. They would like to group them all together to they are all under one time limit of two hours.

Solution: In all versions of Blackboard, tests are timed individually. If the instructor is concerned that having too many questions on a single test causes risk, the best thing to do is to use the "One At a Time"-presentation option for the test (see "Presentation Mode" on this page: http://goo.gl/4bNR8). If you use the one-at-a-time presentation mode, students are forced to save each question as they move from question to question. That way if anything happens such as a browser crash or network issue, the student can easily resume where she/he left off, and all previous answers are automatically saved. Using this mode, the best way to enforce a 2-hour limit on 5 tests is to make them 5 parts of a single test with a 2-hour time limit.

If the instructor doesn't want to combine the 5 parts into a single test, another way to approximate a 2 hour-time limit for 5 tests is to impose a time limit on each of the individual tests of some smaller number of minutes--30 minutes, for example, and then set a date restriction on the availability of the test links in the course so that they all only become available within a short window of 2 hours minus the smaller number of minutes, e.g. 1.5 hours in this example. That way all tests must be started within a specified 1.5 hour window, and no test can exceed more than 30 minutes, which results in the students being forced to take all 5 tests within a specific 2 hour window.

Note: Blackboard will record in the Grade Center the exact time that each of the tests is submitted, allowing the instructor to review manually if necessary.