U052 – How can I allow a student to restart a widget?

By default, BookWidgets will store the students' widget progress. This avoids situations where a student would have to start from scratch if they accidentally close the browser window, or in case of an internet or power blackout. Yet, there are also scenarios where you might not want that: e.g. perhaps you'd like to exceptionally let a student retry despite having configured the widget to only allow one submission per student, or if you have the exam mode enabled and the timer has expired. Repeating students shouldn't generally find their answers still filled in from the year before, either. What are your options?

Erasing activity is not the same as deleting a submission. To erase activity means: to erase the progress, i.e.: remove the answers filled in by the student, allowing them to restart the widget with a 'clean slate'. If a student has submitted a result for a widget, then erasing the activity will not delete nor otherwise influence this submission.

Automatic widget reset

Widget activity is regularly reset automatically. Go to Settings > Widget activity. By default, widget activity is reset annually on September 1^st. The settings can be customized. The automatic widget reset has the following benefits:

Taking student data privacy into account, data aren't stored longer than they have to be.
Repeating students that have to redo the same widgets they've done a year earlier, will start fresh rather than finding previous year's answers still filled in.

Manual widget reset

Through Live mode

This method logically requires the widget to support Live mode. Not all widgets do. More info on the topic: Which widgets support live mode?

Live tracking must also be enabled on your account. The option can be found here. Enabling the Live mode will not allow you to trace widget activity retroactively.

Open Live mode (its exact location may vary according to the LMS you work in).
In the list of widgets played, find the class and widget you're looking for.
Find the correct student, and click the trashcan icon next to their name. Confirm. You will not necessarily see the effect, but your student will be able to start over.

Live mode will only keep track of student activity for 30 days. In case your student repeats the year, you'll need to resort to the following method.

Reset Opened widgets

If the widget doesn't support Live mode or if the student's activity is older than 30 days (e.g. in case of repeating students), and if you use BookWidgets from within an LMS integration, you can find the activity under Review.

Open Review.
Select a course.
Select a class.
Click a student name to view their activities within the class and course.
Scroll to the Opened widget section.

Method 1 – one by one: click the cogwheel icon on the right-hand side of any widget in the list, and then click Reset.
Method 2 – multi-select: check the boxes for any number of widgets. Click the cogwheel above the list, and then click Reset selected widgets.

Alternatives

Students can also allow themselves to start over by clicking the trashcan icon in the top-right of their student view. The slate will be wiped clean. Make sure that in the widget editor, you have the option Reporting > Allow student to submit only once disabled. Otherwise, the bin icon won't be visible to your students. If the widget is password protected, they'll need to enter the password again.

A final possibility is to duplicate the widget altogether, sharing the new widget link with the student.