# Monitor
## Summary
Monitoring Assessment allows teachers to view in the progress of the students in the exam using a dashboard.
### Completion Chart
In this view, you can track the completion of all the students in real time as they progress through the exam.
It's split in three categories:
1. **Not started**, \
Students that are part of the lesson but have not yet started the assessment.
2. **In progress**,
Students that are in the middle of the assessment
3. **Completed**\
The number of students that have now completed the exam.
{% hint style="info" %}
**Exam Completion and managing exam time**\
\
Knowing how many students have completed can help you set up a time limit for the exam to speed things up and avoid students that have already completed not getting distracted.
{% endhint %}
### Students Progress Chart
The **`Students Progress`** chart, aggregates the number of questions answered by the students. This chart will tell you how many questions students have answered as they are progressing through the exam.
This is a bar chart so you will see how the bars "move" as the students advanced question by question, from the right to the left.
On the x-axis, are the number of answered questions. On the y-axis, it's the number of students. So as an example, let's assume that our exam has 10 questions. So when a student has answer 5 questions, it will show him/her in the 5th position on the x-axis. As he/she continues answer other questions, then we can see the progress until he/she completed all the exam questions.
Both of these charts (student progress and completion) are progressive, meaning that they are updated continuously as the students are advancing in the test.
### Students Choices
As students submit their answers on the exam, the `Students' Choices` table will display the students' answer distribution.
The rows represent each answer (in order of display) and the columns the available answers. Each cell shows the percentage distribution for the given answer choice.
If the cell is green, it means that this option/choice is the correct answer.
For example, in the table above, we can see that for **question #2**, **92.59%** of the students chose answer "**C**". And if this case, they were correct.
However, **less than 2%** of the students chose the correct answer from **Question #9**.
{% hint style="warning" %}
This table is very useful to **identify potential knowledge gaps** and can prepare you for the discussions ahead.
{% endhint %}
If you want to see the full text for each question, click on the question number and an overlay with all the details of the question will be displayed.
### Summary by Teams and Students
Sometimes we need to get specifics on a team or a students, for this you can use the Summary tab and dig down in each student.
### Report by question
You can also see the report by question rather than student. Just select the question you want to see the report by and get the full details.
### Exporting Results
At time, you might want to do your own research analysis using tools like [**R**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_\(programming_language\)) or [**SPSS**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPSS)**.** For this you can export ***all data*** from the exam to an **Excel file** that then you can manipulated and use as it better suits your needs.
The **Excel file** will contain a breakdown of the data by group, students and provide all timestamps for each answer or attempt.
## Advanced Settings
The advanced settings section shows the options that were enabled or disabled when creating the activity in author (see Advanced settings).
## Time Limits
The assessment tool allows you to apply very flexible time limits and restrictions. Three ways to set on-exam time restrictions:
### **1) Everyone gets the same amount of time to complete the exam**
When you set up a this time limit, then **each individual student get a pre-determined number of minutes to complete the exam from the moment they start** the exam (say 10 minutes). The time starts to countdown from the moment that the student begins the exam, so in our example, everyone gets 10 minutes regardless which date they start. You can set this up when authoring the exam or in Monitor as follows:
{% hint style="info" %}
**This option is ideal if you are planning to run the exam asynchronously.**
{% endhint %}
### **2) Hard time limits**
When you are running a *synchronous* exam -when all the students are doing the exam *at the same time* -whether this is online or face-to-face in the classroom, you might want to set a hard deadline for it (ie: ‘Let’s get everyone to finish the assessment in 2 minutes’).
Unlike the relative time limit before, now you are able to set a hard deadline in minutes.
{% hint style="info" %}
🤔Tip: To better know how much time left the student might need, you can take a look at the [students’ progression in the assessment](https://lamslearning.medium.com/tracking-students-answers-in-exams-in-real-time-fcc9da238f64). *If about half of the students have already completed the assessment, you might want to add just two more minutes for the rest to complete it.*
{% endhint %}
Once the time expires, all student responses will be saved up until the point when the time expires and the assessment will automatically be completed.
However, sometimes a student might have arrived late, so you might need to grant exceptions…
### **3) Time extension**
In these cases, you can grant a particular student or team (in the case the assessment is to be performed as a team).
These extensions are additions to the previous two time limits.
For instance if you are have given all students 10 minutes from their relative start of the exam, you can grant a single student (or group) an extra 10 minutes (adding a total of 20 minutes) to finish the exam.
If you have set up a hard time limit, then you can grant a student an extra number of minutes for him/her to complete the exam.
These time extensions provide a very powerful tool to manage time limits for students with special needs that might require extra time to complete an assessment.
{% hint style="info" %}
More info on LAMS' [time management for assessments](https://lamslearning.medium.com/managing-assessments-time-limits-in-lams-3af40fda1457).
{% endhint %}
## Allow students to re-take an assessment
This feature allows you to **reset an individual student’s assessment attempt and optionally grant them additional time**. You can use it to support re-takes, handle technical issues, or provide fair accommodations when needed.
**With this feature, you can:**
* **Reset a student’s assessment attempt (allowing a fresh re-take)**
* Grant extra time to a specific student
* Apply time extensions even after the assessment timer has expired
This gives you full control to manage individual student situations without affecting the rest of the class.
When you reset a student’s assessment:
* All their **current answers and assesment progress are permanently deleted**
* The **student can start the assessment again** from the beginning
* This effectively creates a new attempt
Reset student attempt
Before the reset is applied, you will see a confirmation message to ensure you understand that the existing data will be lost.
## Manually assign marks or overwrite marks
You can manually assign or adjust marks for individual students directly from the Assessment monitoring interface. This allows you to correct grading issues, account for exceptional circumstances, or apply professional judgement where automated marking may not fully reflect a student’s performance.
**When you overwrite a mark:**
* You replace the automatically calculated score with a new value
* The updated mark is reflected in the results and any gradebook integrations
* The change is recorded for audit purposes, ensuring transparency and traceability
In addition to adjusting marks, you can also add comments to provide context or feedback. This allows you to explain why a mark was changed, highlight strengths or areas for improvement, or give personalised guidance to the student.
**You can use this feature to:**
* Adjust marks for partially correct answers not captured by auto-marking
* Apply moderation or scaling decisions
* Compensate for technical issues or disruptions
* Reward valid reasoning in open-ended or justification-based responses
* Provide meaningful feedback alongside the mark
This ensures that assessment remains fair, flexible, and aligned with your academic judgement, while maintaining a clear and transparent record of both mark changes and feedback.
Manually assign marks and comments
## Assessment Analytics
The Analytics section provides you with a visual and statistical overview of student performance in the assessment. You can use these insights to quickly understand how students or teams performed and identify patterns in the results.
### Performance Distribution (Chart)
Performance distribution (Chart)
The chart displays how marks are distributed across students or teams.
* Each bar represents a range of scores (e.g. 20%, 40%, 80%)
* Colours typically indicate performance levels (lower to higher scores)
* Individual teams or groups may be highlighted within the distribution
* You can filter results (e.g. by All teams) to focus on specific teams *(if teams are used)*
* Hoverover the bars will display the names of the students the percentual are within the range
What this helps you see:
* Whether performance is clustered or spread out
* If the assessment was too easy or too difficult
* How different teams compare against each other
### Summary Statistics
Below the chart, you can see key performance metrics:
* **Total number of submitted results**
The number of students or teams who completed the assessment.
* **Average mark**
The mean score across all submissions.
* **Lowest mark**
The lowest score achieved.
* **Highest mark**
The highest score achieved.
* **Median**
The middle value when all scores are ordered.
* **Mode**
The most frequently occurring score.
### Item Analysis
The Item Analysis section evaluates the effectiveness of each question in the assessment. It only includes students who have completed the activity and requires at least two participants.
### Question Overview
Each row represents a question and includes:
* **Question**
The question text or identifier.
* **Test participant count**
The number of students who answered that question.
#### Key Metrics
#### Difficulty Index
Indicates how easy or difficult a question was.
* Values closer to 1 → easier question
* Values closer to 0 → more difficult question
Use it to:
* Identify questions that are too easy or too hard
* Adjust question difficulty in future assessments
:square-info:Difficulty index definition
The Difficulty Index **measures how easy or difficult a question is** based on how many students answered it correctly.
It is calculated as the proportion of students who selected the correct answer:
* Values range from **0 to 1**
* A value close to **1** means the question is **easy** (most students answered correctly)
* A value close to **0** means the question is **difficult** (few students answered correctly)
In practice:
* High values (e.g. 0.8–1.0) → the question may be too easy
* Mid-range values (e.g. 0.4–0.7) → the question is well-balanced
* Low values (e.g. 0.0–0.3) → the question may be too difficult or unclear
**You can use the Difficulty Index to evaluate whether your questions are appropriately challenging and aligned with your learning objectives.**
#### Discrimination Index
Measures how well a question differentiates between high-performing and low-performing students.
* Higher values → better discrimination
* Values near 0 → poor discrimination
Use it to:
* Identify questions that effectively distinguish strong understanding
* Detect questions that may not be working well
:square-info:Discrimination index definition
The **Discrimination Index measures how well a question differentiates between high-performing and low-performing students**.
It indicates whether students who performed well overall were more likely to answer the question correctly compared to those who performed poorly.
* Values typically range from **-1 to 1**
* Higher positive values indicate better discrimination
* Values close to **0** indicate poor discrimination
* Negative values suggest a potential problem with the question
In practice:
* High values (e.g. 0.4–1.0) → the question effectively distinguishes stronger students from weaker ones
* Moderate values (e.g. 0.2–0.39) → acceptable but could be improved
* Low values (e.g. 0.0–0.19) → weak discrimination, question may not be effective
* Negative values → weaker students performed better than stronger ones, which may indicate ambiguity, miskeyed answers, or flawed question design
**You can use the Discrimination Index to identify which questions are most effective at assessing understanding and which may need revision.**
#### Point Biserial
Shows the correlation between getting the question correct and overall performance.
* Positive values → strong alignment with overall performance
* Negative values → potential issue with the question
Use it to:
* Validate whether a question aligns with overall assessment performance
* Detect misleading or poorly designed questions
:square-info:Point biserial definition
The Point Biserial **measures the correlation between answering a specific question correctly and the student’s overall performance** in the assessment.
It indicates how well a question aligns with overall achievement, helping you understand whether the question is contributing meaningfully to the assessment.
* Values typically range from **-1 to 1**
* Higher positive values indicate stronger alignment with overall performance
* Values close to **0** indicate little or no relationship
* Negative values suggest a potential issue with the question
In practice:
* High values (e.g. 0.3–1.0) → strong question, students who perform well overall are more likely to answer correctly
* Moderate values (e.g. 0.1–0.29) → acceptable but could be improved
* Low values (e.g. 0.0–0.09) → weak alignment, question may not contribute effectively to the assessment
* Negative values → students who performed poorly overall are more likely to answer correctly, indicating a possible problem such as ambiguity or incorrect answer key
**You can use the Point Biserial to validate whether your questions are consistent with overall student performance and to identify questions that may need revision.**
### How to Use These Analytics
You can use this data to:
* **Improve question quality and assessment design**
* **Identify misconceptions or difficult topics**
* Compare team or cohort performance
* Support evidence-based teaching decisions
## Restrict access to Assessment
Restrict access to the assessment
The **Deadline** setting allows you to **define a specific date and time after which students can no longer access the assessment**.
Once the deadline is reached, the activity becomes unavailable to all students, ensuring that submissions are completed within the intended timeframe. This is particularly useful for timed assessments, quizzes, or any activity where fairness and consistency in access are important.
**How it works:**
* You select a date and time using the calendar and time picker
* The system enforces this as a **hard cut-off point**
* After this moment, **students cannot enter or continue** the assessment
**Why use a Deadline:**
* Ensures all students complete the assessment within the same timeframe
* Prevent students to get access to the questions after the complete the assessment
* Supports fair and controlled assessment conditions
* Helps manage pacing in both synchronous and asynchronous lessons
* Reduces the need for manual intervention to close access
This feature gives you precise control over assessment availability, helping you maintain structure and integrity it.
## Assessment output
Assessment output
The Assessment Output setting allows you to define **which result from the assessment is used for grading and sent to the Gradebook.**
When students are allowed multiple attempts, this feature gives you control over how their performance is evaluated. Instead of being limited to a single score, you can choose the most appropriate outcome based on your assessment strategy.
**Available options:**
* **No score**
No result is sent to the Gradebook. This is useful for formative activities where grading is not required.
* **Last total score**
The score from the student’s most recent attempt is used. This encourages continuous improvement and reflects their latest level of understanding.
* **Best score**
The highest score achieved across all attempts is used. This supports mastery learning by rewarding the best performance.
* **First score**
The score from the first attempt is used. This is often used in more controlled or summative assessments where initial understanding is important.
* **Average score**
The average score across all attempts is used. This provides a balanced view of overall performance over time.
**Why this matters:**
* Aligns grading with your pedagogical approach, whether formative, summative, or mastery-based
* Provides flexibility when allowing multiple attempts
* Ensures that the most meaningful performance indicator is reflected in the Gradebook
The selected output is automatically passed to the Gradebook, streamlining the grading process and ensuring consistency across your course.
## List of Assessment Settings
Assessment settings
The **Advanced Settings** section provides a consolidated view of all the configuration options you have defined while creating the assessment.
Rather than introducing new controls, this section acts as a **summary and verification panel**, allowing you to review how the assessment has been set up.
## Editing "Live" Assessments
Editing "Live" Assessments
The **Editing “Live” Assessments** feature allows you to modify an assessment while it is already in progress and accessible to students.
This **capability is designed for exceptional situations**, such as correcting a critical error or clarifying a question. However, **it should be used with extreme caution**, as changes can directly impact student attempts and grading.
**Key behaviours and implications:**
* **Temporary student lockout**
While you are editing the assessment, students will be unable to access it. This ensures consistency while changes are being made.
* **Changes affect marking**
If you modify a question or alter a correct answer after students have already responded, marks will be automatically recalculated based on the updated configuration.
* **Impact on completed attempts**
If a question is added or significantly changed after students have completed the assessment:
* Existing responses to that question may be removed (wiped)
* Students may lose marks for that question
* :warning: **Save or cancel is critical** :warning:
After entering live editing mode, you must either Save or Cancel your changes.
If you do not complete this action, students will remain blocked from accessing the assessment.
**When should you use this**:
* To fix a clear error that would otherwise disadvantage students
* To make urgent corrections during a live session
**Best practice**
It is **always preferable to fully review and test your assessment before making it available to students**, to avoid unintended consequences.
{% hint style="info" %}
[**Printout Options**](/lams/tools/assessment/create.md#printout-options)
You can always get an instructor [**Printout Option**](/lams/tools/assessment/create.md#printout-options) of the questions to verify that the assessment is as it is expected.
{% endhint %}
That said, this feature provides you with the flexibility to intervene when necessary, ensuring that issues can still be addressed even after the assessment has started.
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