Why do students have different numbers of questions?

 Sparx homework is personalised for each student. 

When you set homework, we’ll determine how many questions we need to give each student in order to fill the required amount of time. The number of questions will depend on both the student (some students work more quickly than others) and the questions set (some questions take longer to complete than others).

Working time is an estimate of how long a student has spent on their Compulsory homework

We show Working time on the Hand in Page next to each homework. this is an estimate of how long each student has spent answering questions and watching videos in their Compulsory homework in that week. 

We use a timer to calculate working time

In order to calculate this time, we start a timer whenever a student begins one of their questions and stop it once they leave. We pause the timer if it appears that the student has stopped working and left a question open. Only time spent on questions and watching videos is counted - other activity, such as playing minigames and checking XP isn't. For a 60 minute homework, we expect an average of 45-50 minutes of working time.

Some students take more or less time than expected to complete their homework

There are a few reasons why students may take more or less time than expected to complete their homework. If a student finds a topic particularly easy or challenging, this might impact how long it takes them to complete. If a student has struggled you can use the Answer History view for each student to identify any areas of difficulty which might require further support.

Homework is also set assuming that the student will be fully focussed while working, and if a student is distracted or not working in a focussed way then they may take longer than expected to complete.

 Sparx Homework automatically adjusts each week

Sparx Homework will automatically adjust each week based on the speed at which each student works and so even if there are fluctuations in homework length, over the course of the year all students should on average spend the expected amount of time on their homework. By visiting the Student Summary page for each student you will be able to see how long they have spent on their compulsory homework each week, and their average working time for the current academic year.