How to Set Up Timed Quizzes and Assessments in LearnDash

How to Set Up Timed Quizzes and Assessments in LearnDash

Struggling to keep your students engaged throughout online sessions? You’re not in this alone! Grabbing student’s attention is hard, more so keeping them focused on attaining the course objective. Many learners easily lose focus, leading to procrastination levels that reduce retention rates.

 

Here’s some good news! You can address this problem directly using a straightforward yet effective method — quizzes and assessments. These tools strengthen the content being studied and also push students to remember and use what they’ve learned. And if you really want to boost their effectiveness? Make them timed. 

Adding a time limit to your quizzes can work wonders as learners become more focused on completing their work. Increases in retention and conceptual understanding will occur because they’re very conscious of time.

In this post, we’re diving into how to set up timed quizzes and assessments in LearnDash and how this will completely change your students’ learning experience.

Why Timed Quizzes Are Important for Learner Retention

Timed quizzes can be very beneficial for both teachers and students. Here’s how:

  1. Focus Encouragement: Knowing that there is a time limit keeps a learner on task and minimizes procrastination or time-wasting time during a quiz.
  2. Efficient Learning: Time-bound assessment requires the learner to think quickly about what they have been taught, and this certainly improves their relative retention and recall of key points.
  3. Discouragement of Overthinking: The time limit reduces the likelihood of second-guessing by students and fosters decisiveness.
  4. Real-Life Situations: Many everyday scenarios require quick thinking and good time management. By including timed quizzes in your courses, you help students get ready for these situations.

How to Set Up Timed Quizzes in LearnDash

Setting up timed quizzes in LearnDash is a simple yet powerful way to test learners’ knowledge efficiently. Let’s walk through the process:

Steps to Set Timed Quizzes in LearnDash:

  • Log in to Your WordPress Dashboard: Go to the LearnDash-installed WordPress site on your dashboard.
  • Navigate to LearnDash LMS: From your dashboard, click on LearnDash LMS in the sidebar of your dashboard.
  • Create or Edit a Quiz: Choose whether you want to create a new quiz or edit an existing one. If creating a new one, click on “Quizzes” and then “Add New.” If you want to edit, simply click on the quiz you want to modify.
  • Set the Time Limit: Under the Settings tab, scroll down to the Quiz Options section. Next, find the “Time Limit “option, and set this time limit’s length in seconds, minutes, or hours. For instance, to give students 30 minutes, type in “1800” (because the time is in seconds). The “Allow Quiz Resume” option lets students start again if they run into problems during a quiz.
  • Save Your Changes: Now, after setting the time, hit “Save” or “Update” to apply the changes to your quiz.
  • Test the Quiz: It’s always a good idea to preview the quiz just to verify that the timer works properly: while learners progress through the quiz they will see the remaining time in the top corner.
  • Advanced Customization: For further personalization of quiz design and timing features, utilize the Quiz Customizer for LearnDash. It will allow you to customize the appearance of quizzes, and control question behavior, enhancing the learning experience further. 

How to Set Timed Assessments in LearnDash

Although LearnDash makes it remarkably easy to create assignments such as essays, case studies, or project submissions, it does not have the provision of setting deadlines for the same or enabling time limits on those submissions by default. However, you can use Assignment Deadlines Pro for LearnDash plugin for suitable deadline management and setting timelines for submissions.

Here’s how you can set up timed assessments using the Assignment Deadlines Pro for LearnDash plugin:

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Timed Assessments:

  1. Install and Activate the Assignment Deadlines Pro Plugin:
    • Navigate to WordPress > Plugins > Add New.
    • Upload the Assignment Deadlines Pro Plugin .zip file, click Install Now, and then Activate.
  2. License Activation:
    • Go to SaffireTech License in the admin menu.
    • Enter your license key (found in the purchase receipt) and click Activate.
  3. Create a Lesson or Topic:
    • Go to LearnDash LMS > Lessons/Topics > Add New.
    • Enable Assignment Uploads in the lesson/topic settings.
  4. Configure Deadlines Using the Plugin:
    • Scroll to the Assignment Deadline section and enable the deadline option.
    • Select either Manual (same deadline for all students) or Automatic (deadline based on individual enrollment dates).
    • For automatic, choose the due date: X days, weeks, or months after enrollment.
  5. Set Automatic Deadlines (Optional):
    • This plugin’s standout feature allows it to create automatic deadlines that adjust to each student’s sign-up date. This ensures all learners get enough time based on when they join the course.
    • To set this up, select the “Automatic Deadline” choice and select a period (like 7 days after sign-up).
  6. Enforce Submission Rules:
    • You can enable the “Stop Submission After Deadline” option, ensuring that no work is submitted after the deadline has passed.
    • This ensures fairness across your course and prepares learners for real-world deadlines.

By integrating Assignment Deadlines Pro for LearnDash, you can offer more structured and timely assessments that enhance the learning experience. If you need customizations beyond these features, you can always collaborate with a LearnDash developer to tailor your learning management system further.

Plugins to Enhance Timed Quizzes and Assessments

While LearnDash provides default timed quizzes, you may go a step further with the addition of plugins that improve the function and overall learning experience. These plugins can add more sophisticated timing options, provide better communication tools, and help you manage your assessments more effectively. Let’s a closer look at some of the learndash advanced quizzes plugins that can give super performance to LearnDash quizzes and assessments.

  • Simple Course Timer by Uncanny Owl

The Simple Course Timer plugin from Uncanny Owl adds an extra layer of control by tracking the total time learners spend on a course or specific lessons. It ensures that students aren’t just racing through the material to meet quiz deadlines but are actually engaging with the content.

  • You can use it to monitor time spent on various sections of your course, making sure students invest adequate time in learning before taking assessments.
  • You can also set maximum time limits for completing entire lessons or courses, pushing learners to stay focused and manage their study time more effectively.
  • LearnDash Advanced Quizzes

If you want to add more features to regular LearnDash quizzes, try the LearnDash Advanced Quizzes plugin. It offers great flexibility for the authoring of many complex and interesting quizzes for going much deeper in examining students.

  • This plugin can provide you features like conditional logic to be added to your quizzes, custom types of questions you want, and instant feedback as well.
  • It also allows multi-page quizzes; control over how quizzes are timed-studying can include adding specific instructions or warnings before the timer starts, plus many more features. 
  • Student Email Notifications for LearnDash

Setting up timed quizzes is essential, but just as important is maintaining constant communication with your learners to keep them engaged. This is where Student Email Notifications for LearnDash come into play. The plugin guarantees no missed deadlines by the students, be it quizzes, or assignments.

  • You can configure automated email notifications to remind students about upcoming quizzes, approaching deadlines, or incomplete assessments.
  • The plugin also creates a notification tab on the front end of your course, making it easy for students to see all updates in one place. This way, no quiz or assignment goes unnoticed, helping you retain your learners’ attention throughout the course.

By using Student Email Notifications for LearnDash, you can provide timely reminders, helping students stay on top of their tasks and reducing dropout rates. Notifications and reminders boost how well students remember things keeping them involved with your course content.

Conclusion

Timed tests and evaluations offer a great method to build an organized setting for learning that keeps students interested and driven. These assessments keep them focused, challenge their learning, and make them coherent about time management. Also, to truly maximize the effectiveness of quizzes, you can use learndash advanced quiz plugins like Simple Course Timer, LearnDash Advanced Quizzes, and Student Email Notifications for LearnDash. With timed quizzes and assessments, and with these plugins you can create a better learning experience, which translates to higher engagement and better retention rates for your learners.