Converting Exams/Quizzes
Setting Up an Online Exam/Quiz
You may use the “Quizzes” feature in Canvas to create and administer online exams or quizzes for your students. Note that while this feature is called “Quizzes”, you may also create exams using this tool.
To begin, you can create an online exam/quiz by starting on the “Quizzes” page. Click on the blue “+ Quiz” button at the top right-hand corner of your page. A window will appear with two options. We recommend that you select the Classic Quizzes option as it allows you to use SpeedGrader to grade, and is much more user-friendly. Selecting the Classic Quizzes option will bring you to the quiz creation page.
First, add a title to your quiz in the “Title” field. This text will appear in the Quizzes page, and must be unique from other quiz titles (for example, you cannot have two “Chapter Quiz” titles. We recommend that you name it something distinguishable, like “Chapter 1 Quiz” and “Chapter 2 Quiz”).
Then, insert the content of your quiz instructions in the text editor below the “Title” field. You may include the instructions from your syllabus, as well as any other pertinent information. These instructions will be visible to students prior to beginning the quiz, so it is important that you include all information that students must know going into taking the quiz or exam (for example, if it is an open-book or closed-book quiz, if it is time-limited, etc.).
Once you have added your quiz instructions, there are a few quiz options available for your consideration.
[1] Decide what type of quiz you would like to create. You may create a graded quiz, ungraded quiz, graded survey, or ungraded survey. Surveys will be covered further down in this guide.
[2] "Assignment Group" allows you to create and sort quizzes into different groups. This may be helpful if you would like to organize your quizzes by module (unit or chapter), or if it is an exam and needs to be weighted as one.
[3] Select "Shuffle Answers" if you would like the answers to be shuffled when presented to students. The order of the answers will be different for each student, as well as each attempt of the quiz (if it is a multiple-attempt quiz).
[4] You may also limit the time allowed for the quiz. If so, the quiz will lock once the amount of time is reached. The time limit will be shown to your students before they start the quiz.
[5] You may also allow your students to attempt a quiz multiple times, decide which score to keep (Highest, Average, or Latest), and the number of attempts allowed.
[6] Select this option if you would like your students to view their responses, and/or the correct responses. There are various options for this feature, including when to show the correct responses, as well as setting the date and time for the students to be allowed to view the correct responses.
[1] "Show one question at a time" ensures that students will not be able to look at the quiz in its entirety. You may select this option if the answers to a question may be found in later questions, or if you would just like students to answer one question at a time. Locking a question after ensures that the student will not be able to go back to a previous question.
[2] "Require an access code" allows you to set an access code for further security that you may give out to students.
[3] "Filter IP Addresses" allows you to limit access to quizzes to computers in a specified IP range.
[4] "Assign" allows you to select who you would like to assign the quiz to. The default option is to assign it to everyone in the class, but you may also use this option to assign it to an individual (e.g. if they missed the due date and need to redo the quiz). From here, you may select the due date, as well as select the date and time of when you would like the quiz to be available and when you would like the quiz to close.
Surveys
[1] If you would like to create a survey, you may do so through the Quizzes feature. You may select which Assignment Group you would like this survey to be organized into.
[2] Creating a graded survey allows you to assign an amount of points to students following the completion of the survey. You will not have this option if you selected the ungraded survey option.
[3] You may keep the submissions anonymous by selecting this option, which you may use to receive student evaluations, feedback etc.
Once you have selected your desired options for the quiz, you may now move onto creating quiz questions. You can navigate to the question creation page by clicking on the "Questions" button near the top of the text box.
This will bring you to your questions landing page. Create a new question by clicking on the "New Question" button.
This will bring you to your questions creation page.
[1] Number your question here (Q1, Question 1, etc.).
[2] Insert your question text here.
[3] Insert the correct answer to your multiple choice question here.
[4] Insert other answer options under "Possible Answer". You may add more possible answers (incorrect answers) if you have more than the default 3 possible answers provided by Canvas.
There are various other question types that you may use through Quizzes. For example, you may create a True/False or Matching question. If the question type is complicated (for example, Fill in Multiple Blanks), Canvas will include short instructions that will guide you through the creation.
You may also add comments to your answer options. This means that when the student selects an answer option (whether correct or incorrect), your comment will appear. You may do so by clicking the "..." button under each answer option. It will be highlighted in green for correct answers, and red for possible answers.
Doing so will bring up a comment text box, where you may add your comment. Once you are done, select the "Done" button at the bottom right-hand corner of the text box.
Important note: when creating a new question or editing a question, note that you must select "Update Question" once you are done. Simply selecting "Save" at the very bottom of your page will cause all changes to your current questions or newly created questions to disappear if you do not first update your questions.
