Building Assessments in Canvas

In Canvas there are many different ways to assess your students. Below are some suggestions for options for setting up assessments using tools available from within Canvas. There is no one way nor a right or wrong way. You will need to figure out what works best for you, for what skills and knowledge you are assessing and for the students in your course.

Table of Contents

This article will address the following information:

• Preparing Your Assessment
• What type of assessment should I create?
• Timing of Your Assessment
• Grade Posting Policy
• Best Practices Checklist
• Technology Concerns
• Common Assessment "Gotchas"
• Quizzes
  • Creating and Setting Up a Canvas Quiz
  • Advanced Quiz Features
  • Quiz Scheduling and Student Accommodations
  • Viewing student Quiz Results
  • Grading Canvas Quizzes
  • Canvas Quiz Resources for Students
  • Creating and Setting Up Canvas Assignments
  • Advanced Assignment Features
  • Assignment Scheduling and Accommodations
  • Viewing Student Assignment Submissions
  • Grading Canvas Assignments
  • Canvas Assignment Resources for Students

  If you don't already have one, request a Canvas Sandbox site. Your Canvas Sandbox site can be used to try out various Canvas and third-party integration tools before you decide which to implement.

  Anything you create in your Sandbox site can be imported into your official Canvas course site.

  1. Preparing Your Assessment

  Framing your assessment and considering the landscape of your students will help you easily navigate what types of assessments are best suited to your course and your students.

  Remember:

  • Be patient - especially if you are trying a new type of assessment. There could be a learning curve for both you and your students, but the outcome will be rewarding.
  • Be flexible - some students may have internet / bandwidth or other issues that may require you to provide an alternative assessment method.
  • Remote students may be in different time zones - although you should try your best to stay within the confines of your regularly scheduled class meeting times, for students with time zone differences greater than 5 hours you may want to consider offering alternative times for them to take restricted date quizzes.
  • Talk to your students - students may not always feel comfortable communicating their needs. Be sure to check in with students and make sure that they are okay with the parameters of your assessment and adjust accordingly.
  • Have a back-up plan - Life happens and it is always important to be ready for those cases when a student loses their internet connection or has a family emergency that prevents them from taking the assessment at the scheduled time. Being prepared for unforeseen circumstances will ensure that you are able to quickly adapt to the changing needs of your students.

  2. What type of assessment should I create?

  Start by thinking about the following:

  • What are your goals for this assessment?
  • What knowledge and / or skills are you assessing?
  • What types of questions / activities will help you assess your students?

  There are many types of assessments and many tools you could use to create your assessment. Most assessments can be configured to work with the Canvas Quizzes or Canvas Assignments tools. Below is a chart showing guidelines for when you might choose to use a Canvas Assignment versus a Canvas Quiz.

  Submission Details

  • Student will upload and submit just a file
  • Student will be completing primarily handwritten work
  • Student will submit multiple versions (draft and final versions)

  Configuration Details

  • Timer is not required
  • Turnitin will be used to analyze citations

  Grading

  • Instructor will include in-line feedback comments and annotations on a submitted file
  • All submissions require instructor input—no auto-scored question types (multiple choice)
  • Peer Review options

  Common Assessment Types

  • Essays / Papers
  • Submitting a URL (for a blog or other online work)
  • Video / Audio / Media Recording (can be done through assignment or uploaded to assignment)
  • Presentation files
  • Research articles, bibliography / citations

  Submission Details

  • Student will answer multiple questions of differing types
  • Student submissions are combination of online submission and minimal handwritten work
  • Student will submit once

  Configuration Details

  • Timer is required
  • Respondus LockDown Browser required to prevent web searches and using other software programs

  Grading

  • Contains auto-score question types (multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching, etc.)

  Common Assessment Types

  • Practice Quizzes / Surveys
  • Assessments with auto-scored question types
  • Knowledge retention assessments
  • Assessments with multiple short answer questions on varying topics
  • Assessments that are used year after year and need to prevent questions from being copied and shared after exam.

  3. Timing of Your Assessment

  All Canvas Assignments and Canvas Quizzes allow instructors to set 3 dates for each activity. These dates are:

  Due / Available / Until Dates

  1. Due Date - Date and time when you want students to submit the activity.Submissions can be submitted after this date, but will be marked as late both to the student when they submit and to the instructor in the Grades / SpeedGrader.
  2. Available Date - Date and time when the activity will become open for students to view and complete the activity.If a student clicks on the assignment prior to this date, they will see a message indicating that the activity is currently locked and will open on the Available Date.
  3. Until Date - Date and time after which students can no longer submit the activity.** Students who click on the assignment after the due date will see a message saying that the activity was locked on the Until Date. If a student is in a Quiz when the until date passes, their Quiz will auto-submit at the Until Date / Time.

  **The "Until" date set within a Quiz's settings will OVERRIDE a Quiz Time Limit. If a quiz has a 1 hour Time Limit and a student opens the quiz 5 minutes before the Until Date / Time, the student will only get 5 minutes to complete the Quiz.

  Recommendations:

  • Some remote students may have reduced internet / bandwidth. Consider adding buffer timing on your assessment dates to allow for unforeseen issues.
  • Some remote students may be in different time zones. For most students, maintaining the usual class time is ideal to avoid conflicts with other course work, but definitely talk to your students and consider setting up alternative assessment dates and times.

  Canvas Quizzes allow instructors to set a time limit on their assessment. Quiz timers will do the following:

  • The timer will not begin until the student sees the first question on the Quiz.
    • If using Respondus LockDown Browser, the timer will not start until the student has successfully loaded the quiz in the LockDown Browser and sees the first question on the Quiz.

    The "Until" date set within a Quiz's settings will OVERRIDE a Quiz Time Limit. If a quiz has a 1 hour Time Limit and a student opens the quiz 5 minutes before the Until Date / Time, the student will only get 5 minutes to complete the Quiz.

    4. Grade Posting Policy

    Canvas uses the Grade Posting Policy to control whether students see their scores immediately when entered (automatic) or whether instructors will need to manually post / release the grades (manual). You can refer to our help article on Using the Grade Posting Policy for full details. The links below will open the article to the specific topic listed:

    1. Setting a Gradebook Level Grade Posting Policy
    2. Setting an Assignment Level Grade Posting Policy
    3. Posting and Hiding Grades

    5. Best Practices Checklist

    General Best Practices for Preparing and Implementing Assessments Through Canvas

    • If you do not have one, request a Canvas Sandbox site.
    • Use your Canvas Sandbox site to try different types of assessments and activity types.
    • Build and test out your assessments in your Canvas Sandbox site—you can import the final version into your official course.
    • Use the Student View feature to take your assessments and see exactly what your students will see.
    • Try new tools and create different types of assessments.
    • Store files / images used in your graded quizzes and assignments in the Hidden Files folder in your course site's Files area.
    • Set up low-stakes assessments using your preferred Canvas tools so both you and your students can try it out before an official exam.
    • Communicate with your students frequently to let them know how you are assessing them and what tools you will be using.
    • Schedule time-restricted assessments to occur during your regularly scheduled class time—talk to remote students about concerns they may have if they are in a vastly different time zone.

    6. Technology Concerns

    With remote students, it is important to remember that students will be working on their private internet connections. Make sure that for your assessment you take into account that students who have limited internet / bandwidth may not be able to participate real-time with bandwidth-heavy interactions (videos, large downloads, etc.). Students might also be impacted if your assessment includes a timer.

    Consider padding your due date timed assessments to allow for students encountering technical difficulties.

    7. Common Assessment "Gotchas"

    Files:

    • Files / images stored in the files area are by default visible to students when they go to the Files button in your course. Use the Hidden Files Folder to store protected files that you do not want students to access early.
    • Canvas does not prevent downloading of files—if you want to prevent students from downloading your file, you can store the file in Box, EliApps (Google) Drive, or OneDrive (with download permissions turned off) and link to that file in your quiz / assignment.

    Quizzes:

    • Until Dates / Quiz Timers - Until date will supercede the students’ timer.
    • Until Dates are not timers - Quiz timers (as set in the settings of the individual quiz) should be used for this and can be moderated accordingly.
    • File Upload questions cannot be done with LockDown Browser.
    • File Upload question submissions cannot be graded in SpeedGrader.
    • Randomizing questions is done through Question Groups.
    • All questions in the question group must be worth the same number of points.

    Assignments:

    • You cannot give an individual student additional attempts beyond the maximum number attempts established in the settings of an assignment.
      • To accommodate a second attempt, you would need to create a duplicate copy of the assignment and assign the duplicate to just that student.
      • Must have a due date that is set when the assignment is first created. This is when your students’ submissions will be compared against each other in Turnitin. If you do not set it immediately upon creation, the Turnitin compare date will be 2 weeks from the date you first created the assignment
      • If you are doing “draft” versions of a submission, do not store the draft versions in the institutional repository or else you could get false positives on the final draft.

      Grade Posting Policy:

      • "Automatic Grade Posting Policy" will allow students to see their grade as soon as you enter it.
      • "Manual Grade Posting Policy" will allow the instructor to complete grading and then release grades all at once.
      • If you change the Grade Posting Policy after you have entered some student grades, the grades that you already entered will still honor the Grade Posting Policy that was present at the time the grade was entered.

      Assignments:

      • Annotation feedback on Assignments is viewable by going to the Grades area, clicking on the Assignment and then clicking the "View Feedback" link.
      • Whenever submitting files for grading, keep file names simple and avoid including your name—instructors may incorporate blind grading which does not mask the file name.

      Quizzes:

      • If the quiz / exam is not using LockDown Browser, you can close your quiz / browser and resume the quiz at any time before the quiz expires.
      • If you have not done so manually, your quiz attempt will auto submit when your timer expires or the quiz closes (on the "Until" date / time), whichever comes first.
      • If your quiz has both a timer and an "Until" (close) date / time, the "Until" (close) date / time will override your timer. Make sure that you open and begin your quiz with ample time before the "Until" date / time so you will get the full amount of time on your timer.
      • You can use the quiz navigation to jump to questions and flag questions

      1. Creating and Setting Up a Canvas Quiz

      1.1. How do I create a quiz with individual questions?

      1.2. How do I create a quiz where students only see one question at a time?

      1.3. What options can I set in a quiz?

      One of the options available for Quizzes is to set a "Time Limit" which restricts students to have only a set amount of time to complete the Quiz. The timer will begin the moment the student opens the quiz and will auto-submit when the timer runs out.

      The Quiz's "Until" date set within the Quiz's settings will OVERRIDE a Quiz timer. If a quiz has a 1 hour timer and a student opens the quiz 5 minutes before the "Until" Date / Time, the student will only get 5 minutes to complete the Quiz.

      1.4. What question types are available for a Quiz?

      1.4.1. Multiple Choice

      1.4.5. Multiple Answers

      1.4.6. Multiple Drop-down (can be used for Likert scale)

      1.4.7. Likert Scale

      1.4.9. Numerical Answer

      1.4.10.1. Simple Formula

      1.4.10.2. Single Variable

      1.4.12. File Upload

      1.4.13. Text (no question)

      Typically a "Text (no question)" question is used to break up the exam questions into parts or to provide information for a series of questions.

      1.5. How do I link course content to a quiz question?

      Use the Hidden Files folder in your course site's Files area to store content used on your graded assessments. The Hidden Files folder will hide the content from students when they go to the Files area, but will be viewable to them when you link to the file in your Quiz Question or Assignment.

      1.6. How do I use the Math Editor in the Rich Content Editor as an instructor?

      2. Advanced Quiz Features

      2.1. Question Banks

      2.1.1. What is a Question / Item Bank?

      A Question / Item Bank is a repository that stores questions that you can use and reuse on multiple Quizzes. These banks can simplify the process of creating copies of quizzes, help create varied tests by randomly pulling questions from a bank, and to randomize the order of questions on a Quiz.

      Even if you did not specifically create a Question / Item Bank, all of the questions from your Canvas quizzes are by default stored in an Unfiled Questions Question Bank. You can copy and / or move your Quiz questions to other Question Banks if desired.

      2.1.2. How do I create a Question Bank in a course?

      2.1.3. How do I create a question bank in an account?

      2.1.4. How do I move/copy a question from one question bank to another?

      2.1.5. How do I create a quiz by finding questions in a question bank?

      2.1.6. How do I create a quiz with a question group to randomize quiz questions?

      2.2. LockDown Browser for secured exams

      If you are including a File Upload type question in your Canvas Quiz, DO NOT use LockDown Browser.

      2.2.1. Enabling LockDown Browser in your course

      2.2.2. Enabling LockDown Browser for a Canvas Quiz

      It is highly recommended that you create a practice LockDown Browser quiz for students to complete a few days before your actual assessment.

      This will give students time to download / install the browser and troubleshoot issues before hand.

      3. Quiz Scheduling and Student Accommodations

      3.1. How do I assign a quiz to an individual student?

      Due dates you set will be in Eastern Standard Time (EST). If you have remote students in other time zones, they can modify their personal time zone settings in Canvas so that due dates appear in their local time.

      If / when setting a different schedule for a student(s), make sure that you check with them to ensure that the date / time you select does not conflict with other course work or obligations.

      3.2. Once I publish a timed quiz, how can I give my students extra time?

      The "Until" date set within a Quiz's settings will OVERRIDE a Quiz Time Limit. If a quiz has a 1 hour Time Limit and you provide a student with 30 extra minutes—if the student opens the quiz 5 minutes before the "Until" date / time, the student will only get 5 minutes to complete the Quiz.

      3.3. Once I publish a quiz, how can I give my students extra attempts?

      4. Viewing Student Quiz Results

      4.1. How do I view student results in a quiz?

      4.2. Once I publish a quiz, what kinds of quiz statistics are available?

      5. Grading Canvas Quizzes

      5.1. Grading Quizzes through SpeedGrader

      5.1.1. How do I get to SpeedGrader from an assignment, quiz, or graded discussion?

      5.1.2. How to grade quiz questions in SpeedGrader?

      5.1.3. How do I grade one quiz question at a time in SpeedGrader?

      5.1.4. How do I adjust the point value for an entire quiz using fudge points in SpeedGrader?

      5.1.5. How do I leave feedback comments for student submissions in SpeedGrader?

      5.2. Regrading Auto-Scored Questions

      5.2.1. What options can I use to regrade a quiz in a course?

      5.2.2. How do I regrade a Multiple Choice quiz question?

      5.2.3. How do I regrade a True/False quiz question?

      5.2.4. How do I regrade a Multiple Answers quiz question?

      6. Canvas Quiz Resources for Students

      6.1. Before Taking Quizzes