Question

 A student says their computer crashed/locked them out/ failed during quiz submission ... What can I do?

Answer

Caution is urged. If it's not the perennial problem of ill-prepared students confusing a mental blank with a blank screen (always during a test!), then it may have been user error. Either way, it can result in a situation where a student is given a second bite at a now-familiar quiz, thereby gaining an unfair advantage.

The thing is, there has always been a large number of complaints from students alleging that everything from a computer crash to a serendipitous tornado has prevented them from completing a WebCT/Blackboard quiz. Examination of the logs using the WebCT/Blackboard tracking tools often indicates that these students have actually completed most of their test (often with astonishingly low scores), then failed to save, or attempted to check 'Who's Online' (I suspect to find a willing collaborator who might provide a little, er, 'assistance'), and then found to their horror that they were locked out of the test.

Some simple logfile detective work can usually ascertain which of these unfortunate events were due to Acts of God and which ones were opportunistic attempts to disguise unfortunate gaps in knowledge (somewhat reminiscent of my own Uni days).

For those students who, on the balance of probabilities, do have a legitimate gripe, you can either reset their quiz or recalculate their marks for the whole semester to exclude the purportedly dodgy ones. For students who are trying it on, many lecturers would be inclined to chastise them severely - however, your natural compassion might preclude this.

Given that online test marks form a necessary part of many units, it may be time for us to establish some assessment guidelines/procedures to be employed in cases where students have claimed that technical problems prevent them from completing mandatory tests. 

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