We recognized today that we have an error in the time reports that started on October 4th, 2016. This error relates to how a user logs out of a quiz or the LMS. If the user chooses to select the “Logout” function when they want to stop using a quiz, then the time captured is accurate. Moodle logs the time started and can then log the time completed. When however, the user selects to simply navigate away from a quiz or “X” out of the browser …which is the most common means of leaving a page of the internet, we are unable to capture that event. That kind of event is recorded very differently, if at all, by all the various internet browsers. Unfortunately we then return a value of 2:30 for each of those kind of interactions with the LMS.
This issue was found a year ago and through careful determination was resolved by adding a service to ping the users activity every 1:15. If they “X” out, we record the most recent returned ping. Therefore, we have a statement and an asterisk noting the accuracy to be within 1:15. Recent work we did caused the solution to be “turned off”. I am very sorry for this and processes have been implemented to avoid this happening in the future. We will be redeploying the service Tuesday morning, November 1st.
I am very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. It is understood how important reviewing accurate user data is for determining how you can best work with your students. These kinds of things are the backbone of the LMS as a tool for Blended Learning.