Showing students feedback after each question

By default, students in an Assessment find out how they did once they submit the whole thing. Set Feedback timing to After each question and they check each answer as they go instead. They see straight away whether they were right, and that answer is locked in.

When to use it: Practice, revision and homework where finding out straight away, and why, is the point. Keep After submitting for anything closer to a test, where students should be able to go back and change answers before they hand in.

Feedback timing is only offered for Assessments. In a live quiz you already reveal each answer when you’re ready.

Turn it on

1. Start creating an Assessment.
2. Find the Feedback timing card. It sits under Personalised feedback and above the due date, so you don’t need to open Advanced settings.
3. Choose After each question. The default is After submitting.
4. If you want students to think before they’re shown the answer, switch on Feedback before the answer (see below).
5. Finish creating the session as usual.

The same card appears when you Edit an Assessment, Duplicate one, or use one saved in the Library. You can change it from Edit until the Assessment ends, but it is best decided before students start: any answer a student has already checked stays locked in whichever timing you choose.

Tip: Preview the Assessment as a student to try the flow for yourself. Nothing you answer in a preview is saved. See previewing a session as a student.

What students see

Students still work through the questions one at a time, and still can’t skip ahead. The difference is how each question ends.

1. They answer the question, including any reason you’ve asked for.
2. Instead of Next, they choose Check answer. It stays greyed out until the answer is complete.
3. The answer is locked in, and the feedback appears on the same screen.

For a quiz question they see:

• A Correct label if they got it right.
• Each option they picked tagged Your answer, and the right option or options tagged Correct answer.
• Your Answer explanation.
• Their personalised feedback, if Personalised feedback is on (Premium). It is written as soon as they check the answer. If it can’t be written, they see your explanation instead.

For an open answer, their writing is locked in and they see your model answer if you chose to show it to students. On Premium, it is also marked against your success criteria.

A poll has no right answer, so checking it simply locks in their vote.

The dots in the question stepper turn green, amber or red as they go. Students can step back with Previous to reread an answer they’ve checked, but they can’t change it.

Feedback before the answer

With Feedback before the answer switched on, a student who gets a question wrong, or only partly right, isn’t shown the correct answer straight away. Instead they see:

• Not quite (or Partly right), with a prompt to take a moment to think about why.
• Your explanation, or their personalised feedback if it’s on.
• A Show the answer button, which reveals the correct answer when they’re ready.

A correct answer shows its feedback as normal. On an open answer whose model answer you show to students, they see Think it over first, then choose Show the model answer. If a student reloads the page, they’re asked to think it over again.

Tip: Your explanation shows before the correct answer here. If it opens by naming the right option, it gives the answer away, so lead with the reasoning.

Finishing the Assessment

Checking every answer isn’t the end. Students still go to the last step in the stepper (Confidence, or Submit if you turned the confidence step off) and submit. That card tells them to submit to finish and review their feedback. After that, the reflection step and the score work exactly as they do in any Assessment.

Until they submit, they haven’t finished the Assessment, even if every answer has been checked.

Due dates

Once the due date passes, students can’t check any more answers unless you allowed late submissions.

Checked answers lock your questions

An Assessment’s questions lock as soon as any student has submitted an answer. With After each question, a checked answer counts, so the questions lock the moment the first student checks their first answer. From then on you can’t edit question text or answer options, add questions or delete them.

You can still update an explanation, and fix a question’s correct answer (see changing the correct answer after students have answered). Proofread the questions before you share the Assessment.

Seeing work in progress

This works in every Assessment, whichever feedback timing you choose.

What students see. When a student moves to another question with Previous, Next or the question stepper, Signal saves the answer they’re leaving and shows Progress saved for a moment. Answers save when they move between steps, not while they type.

If they come back on the same device and browser, their answers are still there. On a different device their answers don’t follow them: they start with blank answers, and anything they save there replaces what you could see.

What you see.

• In the list of students: a student who has saved answers but hasn’t submitted shows as In progress. Hover over the status icon beside their name to see, for example, In progress · 3/5 answered, not submitted. A student with nothing saved shows Pending submission.
• On each question: a link such as +3 partial answers not included sits under the results. Choose it to jump to the Not submitted yet list below the submitted responses. Each entry has a Partial badge and when it was saved (for example, Saved 4m ago), and shows what the student has picked or written so far, with their reason. Picked options still show whether they’re right or wrong.
• In the responded bar: expand the bar on a question (for example, 12/25 responded). A student still to respond who has a partial answer has a dashed outline, with Partial answer saved on hover.

The Not submitted yet list only shows under the All filter. Select a student to see just their work, partial answers included.

With After each question, a checked answer is a submitted answer and appears with all the others. Only answers a student hasn’t checked yet show as partial. A student whose answers are all checked, but who hasn’t submitted, shows Pending submission rather than In progress.

Partial work is never counted. It isn’t included in the numbers on a question, the recommendation, insights, the right and wrong grid or a student’s score.

It is never submitted for the student. When the due date passes, partial work stays visible and marked Partial, but it isn’t turned into a submission, and students can’t save any more unless you allowed late submissions. For their work to count, students need to submit it.

Partial answers aren’t shown on anonymous polls.

Good to know

• Every plan. Feedback timing, Feedback before the answer and saved progress are on every plan. Personalised feedback and marking open answers against success criteria are Premium.
• Students can’t change a checked answer. If a student checked an answer by mistake, it stays as it is.