Quiz submission email notification

It is possible for a message to be sent out to confirm that the user submitted the quiz.

There are two types of notification:

1. A confirmation to the user that their attempt has finished successfully
2. A notification to the instructor(s) that someone has submitted an attempt. Messages are never sent for preview attempts.

Note that although the capabilities are “emailnotifysubmission/emailconfirmsubmission” the notifications do NOT have to be via email. The notifications come via LMS’s messaging system. Admins can set the defaults from Settings > Plugins > Message outputs > Default message outputs to enable/disable email/pop up notification.

Quiz submission notification default settings

See Messaging settings for more details. (Notification messages in LMS quiz are disabled by default.)

 

Allow Quiz notification messages to instructors

To do this for an individual quiz, click into the quiz, click the gear icon top right and click Permissions or for other themes, click Permissions from the Quiz administration block.

This may also be done on the site level by the administrator in Settings > Users > Permissions > Define roles > Teacher

1. In the filter, type “email” to locate the capability “mod/quiz/emailnotifysubmission”
2. Click on the + for “Roles with permission”
3. On the next screen, select Teacher and click “Allow”

Messages in a specific quiz to a specific instructor(s)

The system administrator will need to create a new role, and allow them the capability mod/quiz:emailnotifysubmission for that role. Do not give the capability to the instructor’s role on the system or course level. The new role is similar to an instructor’s role and should be available on the activity level.

In the course, go to the quiz and the quiz administration>Locally assigned roles, assign the user(s) that should get emails/messages for a submitted quiz to the new role.

Allow confirmation messages to users/students

To do this for an individual quiz, go to:
Quiz Settings (gear icon) > Permissions

This may also be done on the site level by the administrator in Settings > Users > Permissions > Define roles > Student

1. In the Capability column under Activity: Quiz find the capability mod/quiz:emailconfirmsubmission
2. Click on the +
3. On the next screen, select Student and click “Allow”

1. Click the + to add a role

2. Select Student and click “Allow”

3. Students will now receive messages

Notes

Note that if the quiz is set to separate groups, then instructors will only get a notification if either

• the user is in the same group as the instructor, or
• the instructor has lms/site:accessallgroups.

How to configure the text of the messages

Settings > Site administration > Language > Language customization

This can only be done by a user that has permission to alter the language files. To reconfigure the way the email reads, you will need to understand string variables and how they work as part of another string. While not complicated, this will require attention to detail. This section assumes you also have read Language customization.

The subject and body of the emails are defined in the quiz.php language file that is in the “mod” group. The strings to edit are ’emailconfirmsubject’, ’emailconfirmbody’, ’emailnotifysubject’ and ’emailnotifybody’. The $a string passed in when these language strings are loaded contains all the following information:

The emailconfirmbody string

Dear {$a->username}, Thank you for submitting your answers to ‘{$a->quizname}’ in course ‘{$a->coursename}’ at {$a->submissiontime}. This message confirms that we have safely received your answers. You can access this quiz at {$a->quizurl}.

The emailnotifybody string

Dear {$a->username}, {$a->studentname} has completed the quiz ‘{$a->quizname}’ ({$a->quizurl}) in course ‘{$a->coursename}’ You can review this attempt at {$a->quizreviewurl}.

The emailnotifysmall

{$a->studentname} has completed {$a->quizname}

The emailnotifysubject string

Quiz submission confirmation: {$a->quizname}

Potential strings to use in an email

$a->coursename

The name of the course

$a->courseshortname

The shortname of the course

$a->quizname

The name of the quiz

$a->quizreporturl

The URL of the results overview for this quiz (…/mod/quiz/report.php?q=quizid)

$a->quizreportlink

The URL of the results overview URL and quiz name as a HTML link

$a->quizreviewurl

The URL of the review page for this attempt (…/mod/quiz/review.php?attempt=attemptid)

$a->quizreviewlink

The attempt review URL and quiz name as a HTML link

$a->quizurl

The URL of the main page of the quiz (…/mod/quiz/view.php?q=quizid)

$a->quizlink

The URL of the quiz and the quiz name as a HTML link

$a->attemptsubmissiontime

The time the attempt was submitted, formatted using userdate().

$a->timetaken

How long the quiz attempt lasted.

$a->studentname

The name of the person who submitted the quiz.

$a->studentidnumber

The idnumber of the person who submitted the quiz.

$a->studentusername

The username of the person who submitted the quiz.

$a->username

The name of the user the email is being sent to.

$a->useridnumber

The idnumber of the user the email is being sent to.

$a->userusername

The username of the user the email is being sent to.