Setting Deadlines
IMPORTANT: DO NOT change deadlines on flows created for central examinations under any circumstances. This includes individual deadlines for students with a RAA. Instead, contact the Examinations Team (examinations@ucl.ac.uk) and explain the issue.
The only exception to this is if a student encounters technical difficulty during the examination and requires extra time to be added.
Global Submission/ Marking Deadlines
Tip: It is best practice to make sure the global submission and marking deadlines are correct before a flow is activated. Changes to these deadlines after a flow has gone live will send automated email updates to the relevant staff and students.
The main submission and marking deadlines for all or the majority of students can be viewed on the Deadlines panel on the main flow page. When a flow is created, the system automatically sets the dates for the following day.
Start date for participants: the earliest date/ time that a student can access the assignment and submit their work.
End date for participants: the student submission deadline. Students cannot submit their work beyond this date/ time unless late submission has been permitted on the flow.
Start of marking period: the earliest date/ time that Markers and Reviewers can access the student submissions and begin delivering grades and feedback, unless the “early access for assessors” setting has been enabled.
End of marking period: the deadline by which marking and moderation must be completed. Markers and Reviewers cannot complete rubrics or submit and finalise grades beyond this date/ time. They are still able to add or amend feedback which is not inside a rubric (i.e. via annotations or common/ submission feedback).
Tip: If you are working with a FLOWmulti type flow that uses rubric-based marking, leaving a 24 hour gap between the end of the participation period and the start of the marking period will give you time to retrieve the flow statistics without the risk of affecting any marking progress.
Changing a Global Deadline
Note: If you amend the global deadline on a live/ active flow, the relevant parties will receive an automatic email from WISEflow to inform them of the change (e.g. students will be emailed if the submission period is changed).
Be aware that the start date for participants cannot be amended on a live flow if this is a date/ time more than 24 hours in the past.
Access the flow as a Manager. In the Deadlines panel, click on on the Manage dates button.
This brings you to the Dates subpage. Click on the Edit overall flow dates button.
A side panel will appear. The dates and times for the participation and marking period can be changed either by clicking on the calendar symbol or clicking directly on the dates and times and overwriting them. It will not be possible to change the start date for the participation when the flow has started. Amend the date and time as needed, then click Save dates to finish.
If the end date/ time for participants and the start date/ time of the marking period are set very close together, you may receive a warning message:
This is not a cause for alarm; however, it does point out that some information such as FLOWassign similarity report scores or FLOWmulti statistics may not be immediately available for markers.
This is ultimately a matter of department practice: if the markers are happy to have instant access to submissions and wait for the additional information to feed through a few hours later, you can leave the deadlines as they are. If markers would prefer to have everything in place before they get started, you may choose to set the start of the marking period 24 hours after the global submission deadline has passed.
Important: Changes to global deadlines will not affect students with individual submission deadlines or individual marking deadlines.
Changing the global submission deadline will not work on flows that have been created via a script for centrally managed exams!
Individual Submission/ Marking Deadlines
Individual submission deadlines
Note: Remember that if a student has been given an individual submission deadline, changes to the global submission deadline will not affect them.
Individual submission deadlines can be set for specific students if needed (e.g. because the student has a RAA or ECs, or because the nature of the assessment requires different submission deadlines).
Access the flow as a Manager. In the Deadlines panel, click on on the Manage dates button.
Scroll down to the Participants period overview panel.
Click on the pencil icon in the Actions column to change the participation period for individual participants.
Edit the participation period by clicking on the dates or the calendar symbol. Any dates changes will be indicated and need to be saved manually by clicking on Set deadlines. It is possible to reset all changes so that the dates for the participant will revert back to the general flow dates. The student will automatically be notified of the change to their deadline via an email from WISEflow. In the Dispensation note section, notes can be added, e.g. to indicate a reason for the extension.
To bulk edit, select several or all participants from the Participants period overview, click on Bulk Edit Participants and select what dates you would like to change.
Add dates by clicking on dd/mm/yyyy or using the calendar symbol. Any changes made need to be saved by clicking on Set deadlines. It is possible to Reset all changes to revert back to the general flow dates.
Individual marking deadlines
Marking deadlines can be extended for individual students where it is not possible to complete this by the main marking deadline. This allows the rest of the cohort to receive their grades and feedback without delays.
Note: Remember that if an individual marking deadline has been set for a student, changes to the global marking deadline will not affect them. If a marker is not able to complete a rubric or enter and submit a grade for a student, check that they do not have an individual marking deadline set to a date/ time in the past.
Access the flow as a Manager. In the Deadlines panel, click on on the Manage dates button.
Scroll down to the Participants period overview panel.
Click on the pencil icon in the Actions column to change the marking deadline for individual participants.
Edit the marking period by clicking on the dates or the calendar symbol. Any dates changes will be indicated and need to be saved manually by clicking on Set deadlines. It is possible to reset all changes so that the dates for the participant will revert back to the general flow dates. Markers do not receive an automated email from WISEflow for this change, but it is immediately visible to them on their version of the main flow page. In the Dispensation note section, notes can be added, e.g. to indicate a reason for the extension.
Timeboxing (Floating Deadlines)
Timeboxing allows a student to start their assessment at any time between the start and end date/ time of the participation period you have defined and then gives them a limited duration to complete the assessment. E.g. a student can start their assessment between 01/03/2025 at 09:00 and 05/03/2025 at 17:00, but once they begin they will have 2 hours to finish.
Note: The timeboxing duration will take priority over the end date/ time of the participation period. Using the example above, if a student started the assessment at 17:00, they would be allowed the full duration of their 2 hour window and would be expected to finish and submit their work by 19:00.
Timeboxing is not compatible with late submission settings! If the participation period has ended, students will not be able to start a timeboxed assessment - even if this is still within any late submission window that was set.
Timeboxing can be enabled on the following flow types:
FLOWassign
FLOWhandin
FLOWlock
FLOWmulti
If timeboxing has been enabled on a flow, this will be noted by a label in the Deadlines panel:
Important: Extending a student’s individual submission deadline will not give them more time to complete the assessment if they have already started and timeboxing is in use! Instead, follow the process described in guidance for Setting up or switching on/ off Individual Timeboxing.
Setting up Global Timeboxing
FLOWassign/ FLOWhandin:
Access the flow as a Manager and scroll down to the Participation panel. Click the Pencil button on the Timeboxing setting and tick the box to enable timeboxing:
Once the setting has been ticked, you will be able to use the input fields to define the duration of the timeboxing in days, hours and minutes. The total time will be displayed underneath these fields. Click Save to finish.
FLOWlock/ FLOWmulti:
Access the flow as a Manager and scroll down to the Participation panel. Click the All participation settings:
Find the Timeboxing setting, click the Pencil button and tick the box to enable timeboxing. Once the setting has been ticked, you will be able to use the input fields to define the duration of the timeboxing in days, hours and minutes. The total time will be displayed underneath these fields. Click Save to finish.
Setting up or switching on/ off Individual Timeboxing
Access the flow as a Manager and scroll down to the Participation panel. Click the All participation settings:
Scroll down to the Participant settings list and click the pencil button to edit settings for a specific student:
On the menu that appears, timeboxing can be enabled or disabled for the specific individual, or you can use the input fields to define an individual timebox duration. If setting an individual duration, the menu will change colour to reflect that this is different from any global timeboxing that is in place. Click Save to finish.