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August 2024 newsletter: new quiz modes, Dashboard features, and more!

Hello again, and welcome to the 2024-2025 school year! I haven’t sent out a newsletter for a while, so I wanted to update you on all of the new features that have been added to PhysQuiz.net:

  • *NEW* One-at-a-time question mode!
  • *NEW* Continuous questions mode for all quizzes!
  • Lots of other *NEW* features – dark mode, assignment tags, sig fig explanations
  • Site licenses for 2024-2025 school year
  • Bug fixes and other improvements

*NEW* One-at-a-time question mode!

Back in December, I received a great suggestion from Malcolm to create a new quiz mode that would only show one question at a time based on feedback he was getting from his students who felt stressed when they saw all of the questions at once. I’ve been teaching for 26 years and have also noticed an increase in anxiety triggers in my own students, so I figured out how to add a new “One question at a time” mode to all of the quizzes on the site!

When you’re creating an assignment, choose this option at the bottom of the form:

A screenshot of the new "One question at a time" modeThen, when students take the quiz, the questions will look something like this:

A screenshot of a question from the Linear Momentum & Collisions Quiz on PhysQuiz.net

The “Grade It!” button only appears on the last question to prevent students from clicking it too early (thanks, Matthew!), but if you activate the “Save progress” option, that button will still show up on every question (thanks, Yvonne!).

Currently, this option is only available to teachers and students at schools with active site licenses. Thanks again to all of the teachers who helped me figure out how to make this new feature happen! I’m hoping that it helps students focus on the problem in front of them instead of worrying about how many they still have left to complete.


*NEW* Continuous questions mode!

I’ve also added a new “Continuous” mode that will generate unlimited questions for your students, one at a time, and provide immediate feedback after each question. The Dashboard will keep track of their total score and append each question and response to their results so you can review them. Here’s an example from the Significant Figures Quiz that also demonstrates the new “Dark mode” feature:

A screenshot from the Coulomb's Law & Electric Fields Quiz shows the new Continuous Mode and Dark Mode options

One benefit of Continuous mode is that you can set a threshold on the assignment so that students will still have to answer enough questions correctly in order to complete the assignment but they get as many tries as they need in order to do it. I’m hoping that this decreases student anxiety and gives them more encouragement to try without worrying about getting questions wrong (shout-out to my fellow Phil Schlechty fans – you know who you are!) I plan on using this new feature in my own classes this upcoming school year for in-class practice and formative assessment.

Continuous mode can be activated on any assignment by selecting it under “Number of items” when you create or edit an assignment in the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard:

A screenshot from the Dashboard showing how to select Continuous Mode

It’s also available on all quizzes on ChemQuiz.net! I’ve activated Continuous mode on the Significant Figures Quiz for everyone who wants to try it out. Please note that Continuous mode disables a few assignment features such as limiting attempts and saving progress (since it already saves each question), and it’s not available for exams. Let me know what you think of the new feature, and thanks to Jason, Don and Malcolm for the suggestions and inspiration!


Lots of other *NEW* features!

I’ve also added a number of other new features to PhysQuiz.net that I hope you and your students will like! Here’s a quick rundown:

  • dark mode† available on all quizzes and the Dashboard (see above)
  • explanations for sig fig problems† (also see above)
  • assignment tags*† for better organization (see below)

A screenshot showing the new assignment tags feature in the Dashboard

A screenshot of the tags filter menu on the Assignments page of the Dashboard

  • view saved student progress*† on an assignment in the Dashboard before it’s submitted

FYI new features that are marked with an asterisk (*) are only available to schools with an active PhysQuiz.net Dashboard site license; new features that are marked with a dagger (†) are also available on ChemQuiz.net.


Bug fixes & other improvements

Besides Continuous mode, the biggest update this summer was invisible, because I spent a LOT of time preparing the site for a major upgrade of PHP, the web server software that powers everything on PhysQuiz.net and ChemQuiz.net! This should make the website run faster and more securely. Unfortunately, the upgrade broke a few Dashboard features when I performed the upgrade in early July, but I’ve tracked down a lot of them thanks to teachers who were using the site over the summer and reached out when something wasn’t working properly.

Everywhere

  • new feature: “Dark mode” (thanks to my son for the suggestion!)

Dashboard – these features and bug fixes also apply to ChemQuiz.net

  • new feature: added an expiring progress alert for students at the top of the Dashboard
  • new feature: added class and tag filter menus to improve assignment organization (thanks, Matthew!)
  • new feature: added ability to change the order in which assignments are displayed in the student Dashboard (thanks, Don!)
  • improvement: allow teachers to limit the number of attempts to a specific number (e.g., 3) instead of just “yes” or “no” (thanks, Yana!)
  • improvement: export results CSV in format for Canvas (thanks, John, Matthew and Malcolm!)
  • improvement: added link to renew site license on “Your School” page
  • improvement: added an alert about “require login” and “save progress” options (thanks, Nate!)
  • improvement: changed Dashboard page titles in web browsers for more accurate bookmarking
  • improvement: can now view student progress on an assignment even though it hasn’t been turned in yet (thanks, Vilma & Danielle!)
  • bug fix: assignments for “All Classes” weren’t showing up on the Assignments page for colleagues (thanks, Bill!)
  • bug fix: overriding a student answer that was marked as “incorrect” would sometimes count for multiple points (thanks, Jason!)
  • bug fix: PHP notices were showing up in the production version of the Dashboard (thanks again, Jason!)
  • bug fix: user accounts created with malformed usernames couldn’t see the Dashboard (thanks, Stephanie!)
  • bug fix: trying to create an exam led to a “Column ‘quizID’ cannot be null” error (thanks, John, Matthew and Nick!)
  • bug fix: using the bulk actions menu without selecting assignments first gave a MySQL error (thanks, Yvonne!)
  • bug fix: teachers could create student accounts that weren’t email addresses through CSV roster import (thanks, Stephanie!)
  • bug fix: CSV results export wasn’t working after PHP upgrade (thanks, Corey!)
  • bug fix: displaying student deletion confirmation form would cause Dashboard to crash due to incorrectly formatted count() function (thanks, Jason!)
  • bug fix: “Time to Complete” in student result details was off by 5 hours (thanks, Nick!)
  • bug fix: most recent results were not showing up due to a miscalculation in the number of Results pages
  • bug fix: student usernames would not show up across the Dashboard if student did not have a first & last name saved in the Dashboard
  • bug fix: an error in a mysql statement prevented teachers from changing a student’s password

Exams

  • improvement: updated exam page language for inactive exams
  • bug fix: an exam section would be inaccessible to students if they previously completed the assignment that section was based on and “Allow multiple attempts” was turned off (thanks, Cynthia!)
  • bug fix: “Save Progress” button was displaying in exams even when the setting was off (thanks, Yvonne!)

All Quizzes

  • new feature: option for students to see one question at a time (thanks, Malcolm!)
  • improvement: tweaked the design of answer pages on all quizzes so they have similar column widths
  • improvement: students were accidentally hitting the “Grade It!” button when they meant to go on to the next question in “one at a time” mode, so the button was moved to the last question (thanks, Matthew!)
  • improvement: Presentation mode is now available to everyone on all quizzes
  • improvement: custom assignment names are now displayed in web browser tab title
  • bug fix: students were sometimes being prompted to finish an assignment for “All Classes” that was from a different teacher at their school (thanks, Lauren and Maggie!)
  • bug fix: word wrap was not working in “one at a time” mode (thanks again, Matthew!)
  • bug fix: “Save Progress” button was not displaying in “one at a time” mode (thanks, Yvonne!)
  • bug fix: decimal values with multiple zeros after the decimal point sometimes had the distance from the decimal calculated incorrectly
  • bug fix: fixed color on answer button in presentation mode
  • bug fix: “Submit” button to start quizzes was missing for users who weren’t logged in (thanks, Pamela!)
  • bug fix: “0” answers were incorrectly being interpreted as “no answer” instead of zero

DC Circuits Quiz

  • bug fix: table cells for quiz questions were swapped
  • bug fix: values for an individual resistor in parallel resistor problems were being calculated incorrectly (thanks, Clare!)

Friction & Inclined Planes Quiz

  • bug fix: given value for applied force was missing in word problems when solving for acceleration (thanks, Rob!)

Linear Motion Quiz

  • bug fix: table cells for quiz questions were swapped

Nuclear Reactions Quiz

  • bug fix: reactions with double beta decay mode would cause the quiz to crash when generating multiple choice options
  • bug fix: test code was being displayed when it should have been removed (thanks, Matthew!)
  • bug fix: blank answers were being graded using the last values entered by the student instead of being automatically marked wrong

Physical Optics Quiz

  • bug fix: maxima and minima values in multiple choice options were not integers

Projectile Motion Quiz

  • bug fix: fixed wording on a problem involving a horizontally launched projectile (thanks, John!)

Significant Figures Quiz

  • new feature: added explanations (solutions) for counting and arithmetic problems
  • improvement: added parentheses around scientific notation values in math problems (thanks, Tony!)

Other improvements

  • improvement: tweaked site security settings so that a school is less likely to be accidentally blocked by the firewall (thanks, Debbie!)
  • bug fix: results database table hadn’t been updated with new columns, causing issues for recently created schools (thanks, Sharon!)
  • bug fix: creating users through CSV import wasn’t working due to a backend conflict with WooCommerce and an older version of PHP (thanks, Corey!)
  • bug fixes: many code updates and improvements necessitated by server software upgrade this summer

I keep track of every issue or suggestion that’s sent in, but some bugs take a while to track down and fix, and new features can be challenging to add, so I appreciate your patience and understanding. PhysQuiz.net has improved significantly thanks to all the teachers and students who have sent in reports, so please keep sending them in!


Site licenses for the 2024-2025 school year

Speaking of site licenses – thank you to everyone who has purchased or renewed their school’s site license for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard for the 2024-2025 school year! Site licenses help me pay for the web hosting and software I use to write the quizzes, and it keeps the website ad-free.

If you’d like to purchase a 12-month PhysQuiz.net site license or renew your existing license, you can pay in one of the following ways:

  • credit card through Square (the most popular option)
  • school purchase order (contact me for a sales quote – I’m also happy to fill out any paperwork required by your institution or state, and I’m now an officially registered business in New Jersey, too! 😂)
  • personal check

Additional schools in the same district can purchase an add-on license for 50% off at just US$35 per school. If you also teach chemistry or you have a colleague who does, you can bundle a site license for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard for just US$35 more! Please contact me if you have any questions about how to purchase a site license.

Site licenses also help me offer the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard for free to public schools across the United States with high rates of poverty. If you teach in a high poverty public school or school district (at least 50% of your students on free/reduced lunch or designated “economically disadvantaged”), please send me a link to the supporting documentation and you’ll get a free site license for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard forever (ChemQuiz.net, too!).


Help me share PhysQuiz.net with the world!

If you like using PhysQuiz.net, there are three quick and easy things that you can do to help me promote the site!

  • Add your school to the list of supporters on the About page! Simply go to the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard, click on “Your Info” in the top menu bar, activate the box next to “Display School on PhysQuiz.net“, and click the “Update Your Info” button.
  • Tell another Physics teacher about PhysQuiz.net and encourage them to try out the Dashboard!
  • Follow @PhysQuizDotNet on X (formerly Twitter) and share my updates with your fellow Physics teachers!

Thanks for supporting PhysQuiz.net! For those of you in North America, I hope that you have a great start to this school year. Please reach out to me via the Contact form or at chris@physquiz.net if you have any questions or concerns. Take care!

-Chris

Categories
News

February 2024 newsletter: multiple choice for all quizzes, Dashboard improvements and more!

Hello, everybody! The last newsletter was pretty long, so I’m going to try to keep this one more to the point. In this newsletter, I’ve included the following important updates about PhysQuiz.net:

  • *NEW* Multiple choice questions on all quizzes!
  • New Dashboard Results features
  • Lots of bug fixes and other improvements

*NEW* Multiple choice questions on all quizzes!

At long last, I’ve added multiple choice questions to all of the quizzes on PhysQuiz.net! Some of the quizzes already had multiple choice, but I’ve always wanted to add this feature to every quiz because I feel it lowers the barrier to learning just a bit, especially when students are just starting out on a topic and aren’t sure what a correct answer might look like.

To generate multiple choice questions on any quiz, simply select the “Multiple Choice” option when you generate a quiz or create an assignment:

 

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks testing out multiple choice questions on all of the quizzes, but like all new features, I recommend trying it out with a test account or a small group of your students first. If you come across any bugs or poor quality options, please let me know if you find any. I hope the new multiple choice feature is useful for you and your students!


New Dashboard results ease-of-use features

One of my big goals for PhysQuiz.net was to make life easier for my fellow Physics teachers by automating generation and grading of assignments. While the Dashboard has definitely helped with collecting scores from automatically graded assignments, the Results page has always been a little clunky and cumbersome to use. This sort of thing drives me nuts when I use other LMS’s, so I made some efficiency improvements to the Dashboard.

First, there were some serious issues with how the filter menus looked, so I made those a little more compact and modern. I also changed their behavior so that they should work much faster now. Also, if you click on a student result and return to the Results page, you won’t lose your filter settings like before, which should reduce the number of times you have to click.

Next, I added a “Save and Display Next” button when you’re viewing an individual student result and want to move on to the next one without going back to the Results page:

Finally, to make the Results page load faster, I added shortlinks above the table of student  scores if there are more than 500 results to display:

Thanks so much to Jennifer and Andrew for reaching with ideas on how to improve the Dashboard! Suggestions like theirs have helped me significantly improve PhysQuiz.net since it launched, so please keep giving me feedback and ideas.


Lots of bug fixes & new features

Trying to improve the Results page on the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard introduced several new bugs and revealed some others that were already there, so I apologize if you stumbled across any of those. Here’s a list of all the updates since the last newsletter:

Dashboard – these features and bug fixes also apply to ChemQuiz.net

  • new feature: added a “Save & Display Next” button which saves updates to that student result and then loads the next student (thanks, Jennifer!)
  • new feature: added individual page links to the top of the Results page when more than 500 results would be displayed
  • new feature: added an expiring progress alert for students at top of Dashboard
  • improvement: automatically whitelist the teacher’s IP address and so that the site security software doesn’t block their school (thanks, Debbie!)
  • bug fix: error was displaying after clearing notification at top of Dashboard
  • bug fix: most recent result for each student was not showing up due to an extra while loop (thanks, Kharma!)
  • bug fix: after updating a result, return the teacher to where they came from (gradebook or results, including filters) (thanks again, Jennifer!)
  • bug fix: filter menu on the Results page was preventing teachers from directly changing from one class to another (thanks, Andrew!)
  • bug fix: archived assignments weren’t hidden on the Results page (thanks again, Andrew!)
  • bug fix: creating a class from CSV input wouldn’t generate a join code for that class (thanks, Walt!)
  • bug fix: school student IDs weren’t showing up on the Students page (thanks again, Walt!)
  • bug fix: copying a school to PhysQuiz.net wasn’t creating the proper results table in the database (thanks again, Walt!)
  • bug fix: incorrect student answer overrides were doubling up on some lines (thanks, Jason!)

All Quizzes

  • new feature: added option for multiple choice questions to 23 quizzes (8 quizzes already had MC)
  • bug fix: prompt to take an assignment was incorrectly including assignments from a different teacher than their own (thanks, Lauren & Maggie!)

Gas Laws Quiz

  • bug fix: gas names weren’t displaying properly

Nuclear Reactions Quiz

  • bug fix: word problems were not displaying element names

Other improvements

  • improvement: purchased three additional CPUs for the web server to help the site run faster

I keep track of every issue or suggestion that’s sent in, but some bugs take a while to track down and fix, and new features can be challenging to add, so I appreciate your patience and understanding. PhysQuiz.net has improved significantly thanks to all the teachers and students who have sent in reports, so please keep sending them in!


Site licenses for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard

Site licenses for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard allow teachers to create assignments for their students and track their progress. Thanks so much to the many schools, colleges, universities and tutors who have renewed or purchased a site license for this school year! Site licenses are how I pay for web hosting and site security as well as the software I use to write and maintain the quizzes, and it keeps the website ad-free.

If you’d like to purchase a 12-month PhysQuiz.net site license or renew your existing license, you can pay in one of the following ways:

    • credit card through Square (the most popular option)
    • school purchase order (contact me for a sales quote – I’m also happy to fill out any paperwork required by your institution or state, and I’ve already completed student privacy paperwork for states such as CA, IL, WI, and the six state MA-ME-NH-NY-RI-VT Student Data Privacy Consortium)

Additional schools in the same district can purchase an add-on license for 50% off at just US$35 per school. If you also teach chemistry or you have a colleague who does, you can bundle a site license for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard for just US$35 more! Please contact me if you have any questions about how to purchase a site license.

Finally, if you teach in a high poverty public school or district (at least 50% of your students on free/reduced lunch or designated “economically disadvantaged”), please send me a link to the supporting documentation and you’ll get a free site license for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard forever (ChemQuiz.net, too!). I want PhysQuiz.net to continue to be a useful resource for as many students as possible.


Help me share PhysQuiz.net with the world!

If you like using PhysQuiz.net, there are three quick and easy things that you can do to help me promote the site!

  • Add your school to the list of supporters on the About page! Simply go to the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard, click on “Your Info” in the top menu bar, activate the box next to “Display School on PhysQuiz.net“, and click the “Update Your Info” button.
  • Tell another Physics teacher about PhysQuiz.net and encourage them to try out the Dashboard!
  • Follow @PhysQuizDotNet on X (formerly Twitter) and share my updates with your fellow Physics teachers!

A few weeks ago, I saw this post about a great bulletin board display for Black History Month called “Celebrating African-American champions of Science & Engineering“. Unfortunately, I don’t know who created this excellent resource, but I thought I’d share it in case you were looking for something to hang up in your classroom! Our science department put this up in our hallway display case at the start of the month and we had a lot of fun doing it.

Once again, thank you for your continued support of PhysQuiz.net! I hope that the year has started well for you and that you’re able to make it through these next few months until Spring (in North America, at least!). Please feel free to reach out to me via the Contact form or at chris@physquiz.net if you have any questions or concerns. Take care!

-Chris

Categories
News

January 2024 newsletter: new features, bug fixes, updated pricing and more!

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first PhysQuiz.net newsletter! I’ve included lots of important updates about PhysQuiz.net:

  • *NEW* Progress saving feature for students!
  • *NEW* Browser tab switch tracking!
  • *NEW* Exam assignment mode!
  • Lots of bug fixes & new features
  • Updated pricing for PhysQuiz.net Dashboard site licenses

Thanks for supporting PhysQuiz.net

I wanted to start out by thanking everyone for supporting PhysQuiz.net in its very first year of existence! I’ve been wanting to write online practice quizzes for my AP Physics 2 since I first launched ChemQuiz.net in 2020, so I finally set aside time this past summer to write twenty-three new physics practice quizzes to go with the eight from ChemQuiz.net that are commonly used in high school Physics classes. I like to think of these quizzes as “first editions” that I plan on improving on as I get feedback from teachers and students who use them, so please reach out and let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement!

I’ve made a number of improvements to the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard in the past several months that I wanted to highlight in this newsletter, so if you subscribe to the ChemQuiz.net newsletter, you may have already seen these!


*NEW* Progress saving feature

In addition to the new Exams feature that I added last month, a highly requested feature has been to allow students to save their progress while they’re working on an assignment so that they don’t lose their answers so far. Teachers can now activate the “Save progress” feature on any assignment they create on the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard by checking this box:

Once activated (it’s off by default), this feature will display a green “Save your progress” button at the bottom of each assignment:

Progress will then be saved for the next 30 days, after which it will be cleared out. Students must be logged in and working on an assignment in order to use this feature – it doesn’t work if they’re not logged in, and it only works on assignments where their teacher has activated the feature. There’s no limit to the number of times students can use this feature on an assignment, but due dates and “Lock after due date” settings still apply, so if a student doesn’t click the “Grade it!” button by the due date, their answers won’t be submitted. It’s like I tell my own students: if you don’t give me the paper, then I can’t grade it! 😁

I spent a lot of time testing out progress saving on each of the quizzes on PhysQuiz.net, but like all new features, I recommend trying it out with a test account or a small group of your students first. Despite my best efforts, there may be some bugs that I hadn’t anticipated, so please let me know if you find any!

This feature was suggested by several teachers who use ChemQuiz.net – Lan, Krisha, Andrew, and Marilyn – and I prioritize adding new features based on teacher requests and feedback, so if you have any suggestions to help me keep improving PhysQuiz.net, please let me know!


*NEW* Browser tab switch tracking

Back in early December, I received a request from a teacher to look into making quizzes work with a “secure browser” so that students can’t switch away from an assignment. I thought this was a great idea, but the annual licensing cost for one of the more popular products was wayyy out of my price range. Instead, I did a little research and I was able to add a new security feature instead: Tab switch tracking! Teachers can now activate this feature on any assignment or exam they create on the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard by checking this box:

The number of times a student switches tabs away from your assignment or exam will now show up on the Results page of the Dashboard when you hover over the score:

The number of tab switches will also show up on the result details page.

Please note two important aspects of this new feature: first, it does not prevent students from switching away during an assignment or exam. Without a “secure browser” or specialized testing software that’s designed specifically for that purpose, there’s no way to stop tab switches from happening. Second, when this feature is activated, it displays a notice at the top of the assignment to students telling them that their tab switches will be tracked and recorded.

Thanks so much to Delora for reaching out and making this suggestion!


*NEW* Exam assignment mode

One of the most commonly requested features for the Dashboard has been to allow teachers to build an assignment from multiple quizzes. You can now build an “Exam” assignment on the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard using your own existing assignments or pre-built exemplars by following these steps:

  1. Click on “Assignments” in the top menu of the Dashboard to go to the Assignments page.
  2. Click the green “Create an assignment” button:
  3. In the first row of the table, check the box next to “Create an exam from multiple assignments”.
  4. In the second row, enter a custom name for the exam – this is a required step for exams!
  5. Fill out the rest of the form just like you would for any other assignment.
  6. Uncheck the Activation box at the bottom of the form (recommended but not required).
  7. Click the green “Save and Select Additional Options” button.
  8. This will load the Options page where you’ll select the assignments that you’ll use for each section of your exam. Enter the following information for each section:
  • Section name (recommended but not required)
  • Assignment (required)
  • # of Questions (required)
  • Section instructions (recommended but not required)
  1. To add another section to the exam, click the green “Add another section” button. Exams can have up to 10 sections.
  2. Click the Activation checkbox to activate your exam.
  3. Click the green “Save Exam Options” button, and you’re done!

I recommend clicking the “Preview” link next to your new exam on the Assignments page so that you can see what an exam assignment looks like. When a student takes an exam, it will take them to a new Exam launch page that tells them how many questions and sections are on the exam.

After a student completes a section, instead of showing their results, it displays a message that their responses have been saved and asks them to move on to the next section of the exam. If a student stops working on an exam and comes back to it later, it’ll pick up from the last section they completed. Once they’ve completed the final section, they’ll be presented with a big green button that says “Submit Exam for Grading” that they must click in order to have their exam graded.

Thanks to the many teachers who’ve reached out and requested this new feature, including Barbara, Abby, Kelly, Helen and Susan! Teacher feedback makes it easier for me to prioritize which new quizzes and features I should work on, so if you have any suggestions to improve PhysQuiz.net, please contact me!


Lots of bug fixes & new features

Since PhysQuiz.net uses the same Dashboard as ChemQuiz.net, whenever a new feature is added or a bug is fixed, it applies to both sites immediately. Here’s a list of all of the new features and bug fixes since the site was launched this past summer:

Dashboard – these features and bug fixes also apply to ChemQuiz.net

  • new feature: allow teachers to track the number of times students switch between tabs (thanks, Delora!)
  • new feature: allow teachers to build exams from multiple quizzes (thanks to Barbara, Abby, Kelly, Helen and Susan!)
  • new feature: new dismissable “site announcements” box at the top of Dashboard
  • new feature: teachers can now create copies of assignments shared by colleagues (thanks, Bill and Sarah!)
  • new feature: added ability to set student password on CSV upload or when creating account (thanks, Chris!)
  • new feature: added a “last access” parameter in the Dashboard so teachers can see when students last used the site
  • improvement: added the ability for teachers to use preview, printable and presentation modes on exemplar assignments
  • improvement: added an “Export” top menu item and removed the redundant “All Quizzes” menu item
  • improvement: improved the Quiz Results filter menus
  • improvement: added printable mode for exams (thanks, Teri!)
  • improvement: cleaned up appearance on student “Current Assignments” page
  • improvement: cleaned up the student Dashboard interface to be easier to read
  • maintenance: removed option for email notifications due to past spam issues
  • bug fix: a large number of results at a school (>40,000) would generate a 503 “Unavailable” error, so I split up the results database table and it seems to be running much faster (thanks, Lan!)
  • bug fix: added links above the students results table on the Results page to support schools with more than 5,000 results (thanks, Dorothy, John and Katie!)
  • bug fix: assignments were still showing on the student “Current Assignments” page even if students had met the threshold (thanks, Jason!)
  • bug fix: assignments by colleagues for other classes were showing up even though those classes weren’t shared (thanks, Maggie!)
  • bug fix: some assignment information would not show up for colleagues on the result details pages
  • bug fix: when updating a student result without leaving a comment, it could crash Dashboard and not save the update due to an incorrect mysql statement
  • bug fix: “States of Matter” and “Types of Matter” exemplar assignments were swapped (thanks, Monique!)
  • bug fix: many, many bug fixes and coding improvements to prepare for upcoming server upgrade
  • bug fix: student results were not showing up for teachers if the assignment was created for a shared class by another teacher (thanks again, Bill and Sarah!)
  • bug fix: teachers couldn’t see filter menus or checkboxes when all their results had been archived (thanks, Andrew!)
  • bug fix: teachers could unintentionally create a duplicate student account with an already existing username, which could cause login issues (thanks, Lauren!)
  • bug fix: teachers couldn’t add a student to a class when directly editing their account (thanks, Dorothy!)
  • bug fix: quiz completion time was sometimes saved using local timezone instead of UTC (thanks, Racquel!)
  • bug fix: preview links were broken on the Assignments page
  • bug fix: sharing an assignment with a colleague would exclude specific quiz options (thanks, Helen!)
  • bug fix: custom assignment names, instructions to students and notes were truncated whenever apostrophes or quotation marks were used
  • bug fix: the chosen class was “forgotten” on the Grades page when clicking the “Next >>” button (thanks, Don!)
  • bug fix: class status (e.g. “Active” or “Inactive”) wasn’t showing up on the Classes page
  • bug fix: selecting “lock after close” for an assignment that had no closing date would prevent students from taking the assignment

Exam feature bug fixes:

  • bug fix: “Continue Exam” button wasn’t working properly for teacher previews (thanks, Scott!)
  • bug fix: when trying to create an assignment, the drop-down menu to select a quiz was disabled (thanks, Aaron!)
  • bug fix: some posted assignments were not showing up for students (thanks, Michele and Dawn!)
  • bug fix: inactive assignments were not loading properly in exams (thanks, Ann!)
  • bug fix: the open and close dates were not being loaded correctly for exams (thanks, Mike!)
  • bug fix: using apostrophes in the exam section instructions would break insertion into the database (thanks, Monique!)

All Quizzes

  • new feature: students can save their assignment progress and complete it at a later time (thanks Lan, Krisha, Andrew and Marilyn!)
  • new feature: added quiz option headers to some quiz forms so the options are better organized
  • new feature: teachers can now prevent students from seeing scores or correct answers after completing an assignment (thanks, Jennifer & Laura!)
  • new feature: option to use g = 10 (where applicable)
  • improvement: custom assignment title now shows on grading page for all quizzes
  • improvement: added “where applicable” notice to solution setup directions for some quizzes
  • maintenance: removed the outdated “Print Preview” notice
  • maintenance: cleaned up and removed a lot of vestigial code from various quizzes
  • maintenance: updated all quizzes to directly pass the generated question to the grading page; this was a first step in adding a feature for students to save a quiz so they can come back to it later
  • maintenance: updated server and all quizzes to PHP 8.2 for better speed and security
  • bug fix: sometimes when a student entered a number in scientific notation incorrectly, the quiz would show their entry as “1f x 10”, so now it shows what they entered without attempting to reformat it (thanks, Mary Ann!)
  • bug fix: teacher instructions in some assignments were incorrectly triggering a false positive in the site’s security software (thanks, Don!)
  • bug fix: “Load More Problems Like This” button resulted in solutions not being shown for subsequent sets of problems
  • bug fix: numerous quizzes would crash when calculating the correct answer due to math errors
  • bug fix: several quizzes would crash while generating word problems if a passed value was null

Circular Motion Quiz

  • bug fix: units for string length in some word problems were mass units instead of distance (thanks, Drew!)

Coulomb’s Law & Electric Fields Quiz

  • bug fix: html tags were showing in placeholder

Electric Potential & Capacitance Quiz

  • bug fix: permittivity of free space value was incorrect (thanks, Aidan!)

Friction & Inclined Planes Quiz

  • bug fix: word problems solving for net force referred to “constant velocity” and did not provide an angle when necessary (thanks, Andrew!)
  • bug fix: one type of word problem solving for kinetic friction while sliding incorrectly asked for static friction (thanks again, Andrew!)
  • bug fix: some word problems for µk were generating blank values due to an out of range error

Gas Laws Quiz

  • new feature: added option to only generate questions to solve for final values in problems involving change (e.g., Boyle’s, Charles’, Gay-Lussac’s & Combined Gas Laws)

Isotope Naming & Notation Quiz

  • improvement: replaced isotope notation SVG images with MathML for better readability and compatibility with screen readers
  • bug fix: quiz generated empty values for artificial elements and would sometimes crash due to lack of isotope data

Light & Energy Quiz

  • bug fix: c was only showing 1 sig fig in solution setups (thanks, Don!)

Linear Momentum & Collisions Quiz

  • bug fix: “causes an object’s velocity to change” word problems didn’t calculate the correct answer (thanks, Drew!)

Linear Motion Quiz

  • bug fix: Certain linear acceleration/kinematic problems are including a blank value for final velocity (thanks, Andrew!)
  • bug fix: some word problems involving downward initial velocity weren’t giving time (thanks again, Andrew!)

Magnetism Quiz

  • bug fix: rounded values generated values >1 that crashed the page when asin() was used

Motion Graphs Quiz

  • bug fix: interpreting answer of 0 as empty (thanks, Owen!)

Nuclear Reactions Quiz

  • improvement: replaced isotope notation SVG images with MathML for better readability and compatibility with screen readers
  • bug fix: positrons were showing up as protons (thanks, Van!)
  • bug fix: positron decays with additional products were generating too many nuclides
  • bug fix: exemplar assignments were not displaying selected options in the Dashboard

Physical Optics Quiz

  • bug fix: forgot to divide lambda by 1e9 when performing calculations while generating word problems

Projectile Motion Quiz

  • bug fix: solution for initial velocity was showing total time and not time to peak (thanks, Armin!)
  • bug fix: quiz would hang when only “cliff” problems were chosen and “theta” questions were selected

Rotational Motion Quiz

  • bug fix: calculating answers for acceleration problems with no T solving for wi sometimes resulted in taking square root of a negative value

Scientific Notation Quiz

  • bug fix: multiple choice options for sig fig questions weren’t valid due to the commas added to large numbers (thanks, Dorothy!)

SI Conversions Quiz

  • improvement: given values are now bold like in other quizzes

Work, Energy & Power Quiz

  • bug fix: vertical work problems weren’t displaying value for acceleration (thanks, Andrew!)

Other improvements

  • new feature: added ability for students to set password on registration form with join code
  • improvement: purchased an additional CPU to improve site speed
  • improvement: changed PHP-FPM configuration to prevent server lockups
  • bug fix: student registration form wasn’t interpreting school expiration dates correctly (thanks, Mary Ann!)
  • bug fix: school join codes weren’t being recognized properly (thanks, Blake!)
  • bug fix: creating a student account with join code for inactive class may create a user associated with a non-existent school
  • bug fix: Apache ModSecurity was preventing submission of URLs on the Teacher Interest form

I keep track of every issue or suggestion that’s sent in, but some bugs take a while to track down and fix, and new features can be challenging to add, so I appreciate your patience and understanding. PhysQuiz.net has improved significantly thanks to all the teachers and students who have sent in reports, so please keep sending them in!


Updated site license pricing for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard

When I first started ChemQuiz.net in the summer of 2020, there were only 10 quizzes and the Dashboard had very few features. I’d signed up 31 schools and a private tutor, and during that school year the site served about 1,000 students. I was using shared web hosting to keep costs down because I wasn’t charging for site licenses yet, and as a result the site would often run slowly or refuse to load entirely.

Fast forward to today, and by creating PhysQuiz.net, I’ve added an entirely new site of 31 physics practice quizzes on top of the significant increase in popularity of ChemQuiz.net. Because of all this growth, both sites take up pretty much all of my time outside of school, and I’ve had to invest in much more robust (and expensive) web hosting as well as purchasing additional security software to keep the site as safe as possible. In order to keep the site ad-free and financially sustainable, I’ve made the difficult decision to raise the price of an annual site license.

Going forward, a site license for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard will cost US$70 for 12 months. This is a change from the previous license term, which was based on the American school year (July 1st to June 30th). The 12-month term begins when payment or a purchase order number is received, or when the current site license expires, whichever is later. This means that, for example, if you renew your site license in April of this year, 12 months will be added on to your July 1st expiration date.

Site licenses will remain by building, so one license still applies to every teacher and student in your entire school. Additional schools in the same district can purchase an add-on license for 50% off at just US$35 per school. If you also teach chemistry or you have a colleague who does, you can bundle a site license for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard for just US$35 more.

If you’d like to purchase a 12-month PhysQuiz.net site license or renew your existing license, you can pay in one of the following ways:

    • credit card through Square (the most popular option)
    • school purchase order (contact me for a sales quote – I’m happy to fill out any paperwork required by your institution or state)

The new pricing will also allow me to continue offering free site licenses to high poverty public schools with at least 50% of their students on free/reduced lunch or designated “economically disadvantaged”. If you teach at a school that has these demographics, please send me a link to the supporting documentation and you’ll get a free site license for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard forever (ChemQuiz.net, too!). I want PhysQuiz.net to continue to be a useful resource for as many students as possible.


Help me share PhysQuiz.net with the world!

If you like using PhysQuiz.net, there are three quick and easy things that you can do to help me promote the site!

  • Add your school to the list of supporters on the About page! Simply go to the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard, click on “Your Info” in the top menu bar, activate the box next to “Display School on PhysQuiz.net“, and click the “Update Your Info” button.
  • Tell another Physics teacher about PhysQuiz.net and encourage them to try out the Dashboard!
  • Follow @PhysQuizDotNet on X (formerly Twitter) and share my updates with your fellow Physics teachers!

Now that I’ve added these new features and fixed some bugs, I’d like to get back to writing some new quizzes and adding some new options to existing quizzes, such as diagrams and multiple choice questions. I’m teaching six preps this semester 😱 because we’re bringing back the Climate Science elective that I haven’t taught for a year and a half, but my students have really enjoyed that class in the past, so I’m looking forward to teaching it again!

Once again, thank you for your support of PhysQuiz.net! I hope that 2024 goes well for you and your families, colleagues and students. Please reach out to me via the Contact form or at chris@physquiz.net if you have any questions or concerns. Take care and stay safe!

-Chris