Week 13 Quiz — Claude Cowork III: Scheduled Tasks, Dispatch & Automation

Course: Using Artificial Intelligence (AI 101) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Quinn
Covers: scheduled tasks · the awake-and-app-open constraint · /schedule · the Scheduled sidebar · dispatch · automation design · catching AI over-promises
Format: 10 auto-graded items (multiple-choice, multiple-answer, matching, true/false) · 10 points (1 each) · allowed attempts: 1 · No AI on this quiz.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and one-line feedback. Every Cowork feature described here is verified against official Anthropic documentation (sources listed in the Product-accuracy gate section below). The import-ready Classic QTI 1.2 is in F-quiz-week-13-qti.xml. Reminder: AI is not permitted on this quiz — it checks that you understand the Week 13 concepts.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). A student sets up a scheduled task in Claude Cowork to run every morning at 7 a.m. Under what conditions will the task actually run?
- A. Whenever the schedule says, regardless of whether the computer is on or the app is open
- B. Only when the computer is awake AND the Claude desktop app is open ✅
- C. Only on days the student is logged into the Claude website
- D. Automatically on Anthropic's servers, so the computer state doesn't matter
Feedback: The official Anthropic documentation is explicit: scheduled tasks run only while your computer is awake AND the Claude desktop app is open. The task is not cloud-hosted — it runs on your machine.

Q2 (True/False). In Claude Cowork, a scheduled task will run on time even if your computer is asleep and the Claude desktop app is closed.
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False — this is the classic misconception to avoid. If the computer is asleep or the app is closed when the task is scheduled, Cowork skips the task and runs it when the machine wakes up. Source: support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387

Q3 (Matching). Match each automation concept to its correct meaning.
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scheduled task | A Cowork task set to run automatically on a recurring or one-time basis |
| Dispatch | Kicking off Cowork work to run autonomously in the background |
| /schedule | The command you type in a Cowork task to create a scheduled task |
| Scheduled sidebar | The area in the Cowork left sidebar where you view, create, and manage scheduled tasks |
Feedback: These four concepts work together: you create tasks with /schedule or via the Scheduled sidebar, the task runs as a scheduled task, and dispatch is the broader background-work feature available across devices.

Q4 (MC). A student's Cowork scheduled task is set for 8 a.m. on Monday, but their computer is asleep at that time. According to official Cowork documentation, what happens?
- A. The task is permanently lost and must be re-created
- B. Cowork runs the task on Anthropic's cloud servers instead
- C. Cowork skips the task, then runs it automatically once the computer wakes up or the app opens, and notifies the student ✅
- D. The task runs the next day at the same scheduled time with no notification
Feedback: Cowork skips the run (it doesn't just hold until the next scheduled time), re-runs it when the machine wakes up, and notifies the student. The skipped run also appears in the task's history. Source: support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387

Q5 (MC). According to Anthropic's official documentation, scheduled tasks in Claude Cowork are available to which users?
- A. Anyone with a free Claude account
- B. All paid plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise) ✅
- C. Team and Enterprise plans only
- D. Max plan users only
Feedback: The official documentation states: "Scheduled tasks are available in Cowork on Claude Desktop for all paid plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise)." Free accounts do not have access.

Q6 (MC). A student is configuring a Cowork scheduled task. The AI assistant tells them: "Great news — once you set this up, it will run reliably every day even if you close your laptop or put it to sleep." What is wrong with this claim, and what should the student do?
- A. Nothing is wrong; the AI is accurately describing how Cowork cloud processing works
- B. The claim is false — scheduled tasks require the computer to be awake and the Claude desktop app to be open; the student should correct the plan and note this constraint ✅
- C. The claim is partially true — tasks run if the laptop lid is closed but not if the power is off
- D. The claim is false because scheduled tasks only run manually, never automatically
Feedback: This is the week's key scenario — catching an AI over-promise. The AI's claim is false; the correct behavior is clearly stated in the official docs. The student should cite support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387 and correct the plan.

Q7 (MC). In Claude Cowork, "dispatch" is best described as —
- A. A type of project folder you share with other users
- B. The feature for starting work to run autonomously in the background, reachable from your phone or desktop, with results sent to you when done ✅
- C. A one-time manual task you trigger and watch complete in real time
- D. A connector that links Cowork to external email and calendar apps
Feedback: Dispatch provides a persistent cross-device thread — you assign a task from your phone or desktop, step away, and receive the finished result via push notification. It is asynchronous (you're not watching); a regular Cowork task is synchronous (you watch it happen).

Q8 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following are common uses for Cowork scheduled tasks described in the official documentation? Select all that apply.
- A. A daily briefing summarizing emails, Slack messages, or calendar events from the past 24 hours ✅
- B. A weekly report compiling data from connected files or tools into a formatted summary ✅
- C. Automatically executing financial trades or purchases on your behalf
- D. Recurring research tracking topics or industry news on a regular cadence ✅
- E. Periodic file organization in a designated folder ✅
Feedback: All four A, B, D, E are listed as common uses in the official docs. C is a safe-use violation — never automate money movement, financial trades, or purchases on your behalf, regardless of how convenient automation makes it.

Q9 (MC). Which statement correctly distinguishes Dispatch from a regular Cowork task or chat?
- A. They are identical — both require you to watch every step as it happens
- B. Dispatch is only for scheduled recurring tasks; regular tasks are always manual
- C. Dispatch provides a persistent cross-device thread where you assign work that runs in the background on your desktop, then messages you the result when done; a regular chat is a single interactive session ✅
- D. Dispatch runs on Anthropic's servers so your computer can be off; a regular task requires the computer to be on
Feedback: C is the accurate description from the official docs. D is a common error — dispatch still runs on your desktop; your computer must be awake. The key difference is synchronous vs. asynchronous: you watch a regular task; you receive the dispatch result later. Source: support.claude.com/en/articles/13947068

Q10 (True/False). Once a Claude Cowork automation is set up, you can trust its outputs without ever reviewing them, since the AI runs reliably on a schedule.
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False — automated outputs inherit AI's failure modes: hallucinated details, missed files, unhelpful summaries. The automation handles execution; you handle judgment. Review the first several runs, check outputs against the source files, and iterate the prompt when something is off.

Answer key (quick reference)

Blueprint & item-bank note

All 10 items tagged course=AI101 · week=13 · objective=6. Distractors target the week's classic misconceptions: "scheduled tasks run even if the computer is off"; "dispatch runs on Anthropic's cloud so the computer state doesn't matter"; "dispatch and a normal chat are the same"; "automations never need review."

Quality gate (self-checked)

• Structure: 10 items, 1 point each; types = 6 multiple-choice + 2 true/false + 1 matching + 1 multiple-answer.
• Single-answer integrity: every MC and each true/false item has exactly one correct option; the matching item pairs one-to-one; the multiple-answer item keys A, B, D, E.
• ≥1 matching item: Q3 (automation concept → meaning). ✅
• ≥1 scenario item: Q6 (AI over-promise scenario). ✅

Product-accuracy gate: PASS

Every Cowork feature in this quiz is verified against official Anthropic documentation:
- Scheduled tasks (awake/app-open constraint, skip behavior, /schedule, Scheduled sidebar, plan availability): Schedule recurring tasks in Claude Cowork
- Dispatch (persistent thread, background work, plan requirements, desktop constraint): Assign tasks from anywhere in Claude Cowork

No features, menu paths, plan tiers, or behaviors are invented. The over-promise in Q6 is framed explicitly as an error to catch, not as correct information.

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