[ARCHIVED] How do I allow students to choose from a set of prompts on exam?

[erinbreaux]

I've finished creating a Quiz (really an exam) in my Canvas course. I normally have three sections, which I've made into Question Sets: Matching, Quote ID ("Essay Question" type), and Short Answer (also "Essay Question" type).

I normally give students a choice in the last two sections. So there are 4 possible Quote IDs, and they choose 3 of them to do. For short answer, there are 6, but they only choose 3. I do this with my in-person exams.

I was trying to accomplish this with the online exam and thought I had by telling the last two question sets to "Pick 3." However, now that I did a preview of the exam, I think that the "Pick 3" means the computer will randomly select 3 of the 4 quotes to give students and randomly select 3 and of the 6 short answers to give students. This isn't what I wanted, since I want them to be able to choose the 3 that they can best answer.

Is there a setting in Canvas that I am missing? How could I do this? I know this kind of situation is common in exams, giving students a choice of prompts. I'm just not sure how to make this happen in Canvas.

[dhulsey · Accepted solution]

Hi, Erin. You are right about what the Pick 3 a option will do: it serves up a random 3 out of 4 questions.

If it were me, I would accomplish your goal by using the "text (no question)" option on a question:

Use that to present all of your options, and then follow that with three essay questions that say something like: Pick one of the topics presented above to answer this questions with a well-developed paragraph . . . "   -- or something like that.

Do you think that would work for you?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, erinbreaux‌...

I thought that I would check in with you because this particular topic hasn't seen any new activity since February 19th.  Have you had a chance to review the posting from  @dhulsey ‌?  If so, did it help to answer your question.  If you want, please go ahead and mark his response as "Correct".  But, if you are still seeking assistance with your initial question, please post a message below so that the Canvas Community can continue to help you with your question.  For now, I'm going to mark your question as "Assumed Answered" because the topic has been quiet for quite a while.  However, that won't prevent you or others from posting additional replies below.  I hope that's okay with you.  Looking forward to hearing from you soon, Erin.

[whitney_suttell]

I would also like a feature that lets students choose from a set of questions. I have followed the advice Dallas E Hulsey gave and it works, but it is not ideal. I wish Canvas would create a feature in the quiz module that would allow teachers to create a set of questions that the student could choose from, instead of having the quiz choose them randomly.

[mhermida]

Yes, please! Canvas needs to come up with a better option to allow students to pick from a set of questions.

[thomasd]

I don't know if this will work, but what I am about to try: I have made a group of 8 essay questions, and students choose 5. Each of the 5 answered questions is worth 8 points, for a total of 40 points from essay. I made the first 5 questions worth 8 points, and the last 3 worth 0 points. In the instructions, I directed the students to answer only 5, and to disregard the point values, telling them each question was worth 8 points, and they should choose only 5 (their choice!). Since I grade these manually, I can assign up to 8 points per question regardless of point value shown. 

It might not work for a large section, but it works fine for the smaller section I have for this class.

[cwoodwar1]

This is what I am doing, but Canvas needs to come up with a way in the Group Question tool for the STUDENT to pick the questions not Canvas.

[khaber]

Maybe this will work.  Create a single "essay" type question in a Question Group by itself, setting "Pick" to 1.

Then structure your question like this:

------

Choose two of the three and answer BOTH in the space below.   Start each answer a number that indicates which question you're answering.

1. Name three pollutants in urban (city) air and give one source and one consequence for each.

2. Give two arguments that are frequently used AGAINST climate change, and explain why each is not true.

3. List three ways to reduce deforestation and explain each.

------

Students will choose the two they prefer and essentially answer them in a single essay space.  If there's a limit to the number of words that Canvas allows in an essay, there might be a problem.

Hope this helps!

[jnrosen3]

The only downfall of this option is that you cannot assign points to each individual answer. I too would like Canvas to provide the option, but have utilized the method suggested by Diann.

[Ashburnea17]

Simple, but LIFE SAVING solution to this problem. THANK YOU!

[lritterb]

I too have used one of these work arounds, but it is awkward and confusing to students.  Seems like it would be quite easy to set up this function in Canvas.  I hope Canvas developers will consider this.

[bsr]

A Real Solution would work for question types other than essay questions, too. I've used these work-arounds for essay questions, and they are at least feasible. There is no work-around for other question types, though. Ideally, I would like to be able to have students select a question group out of multiple question groups, and then answer all the questions within that group (could be various question types, not just essays). The use case I have in mind is for a pathology class, and I would like to allow students to select one of several pathogens, and answer the question set about that pathogen. I've run into this before with a mycology class, where I wanted to have students select a particular fungus and answer the questions about it. This would give students an opportunity to focus in on one example of particular interest to them, which motivates deeper learning, while still having a mix of machine and manual graded questions.  

[mnuar]

So I have come up with another way  to do this using the New Quizzes.  I have a quiz bank with 8 questions.  In New Quizzes, I have the quiz randomly select 4 questions from the bank of 8, each worth 33.3  points (they are essay questions).  The total points available for the quiz is 99.9.  Students are to answer 3 of the 4 questions selected. 

It seems like it would work for all types of questions.  If they answer all 4 questions I would  simply have to  give the 4th answered 0 points.  For things like multiple choice, that might get annoying, but it still works.

[bernardo]

This seems like really basic functionality; it's confusing why it's still not there after being asked for 5 years ago now. Think there's any chance we'll ever get it? Am I being naive about how straightforward this should be to implement?

[Lauren_A]

I still have instructors asking to have this functionality. Would be nice if we could look into this.

[PhillipsSocial]

I have a teacher in my office hour right now trying to do this same thing. Is there a place to upvote this concept to put it further on Canvas's radar? 

[Chris_Hofer]

@PhillipsSocial ...

This particular thread is only a discussion topic about choosing prompts on an exam.  It is not a submission for a new feature to be considered by Canvas software engineers to add to the LMS.  There is a separate area to submit your suggestions.  You can read more about all of that under the heading "Ideas and Themes" found here:

Instructure Community Guide - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

If you have any additional questions about the process to submit ideas and when voting windows are open, just ask...but you should find that information in the linked Guides, too.

Hope this helps!