Quiz Settings to Maximize Security

kona
Community Champion
92
238298

The following document was created to help our faculty better understand quiz settings and how they can be used to enhance quiz security. In many cases locking down a quiz as much as possible (ex: not allowing students to review what they got wrong on a quiz) can hinder student learning, so be sure to think through the positives, negatives, and the goals of the quiz before securing it. There is no way (in class or online) to guarantee that students aren't cheating, but to maximize quiz security there are various ways you can apply your quiz settings and availability.

Below are is a list of quiz settings and information on how they can be used to maximize your quiz security. For more information on this topic see the following CanvasLIVE webinar -

Question Groups - Create question groups to randomize quiz questions. The larger the number of questions in the question group (compared to the number randomly being picked for the quiz) the more secure the quiz. If there are a limited number of quiz questions and all of them are needed for the quiz then question groups can still be used to randomize the order of the questions. By using question groups it is unlikely that students will get the same questions or the same questions in the same order.

Question Groups

Shuffle Answers - This is a checkbox option under quiz settings and will randomize the order of the question's answer choices. By using “shuffle answers” students may get the same quiz question(s), but their answer options probably won't be in the same order. **If your quiz question has an answer like “all of the above/below” or “answer A & C” do not use the “shuffle answer” setting.**

Shuffle Answers

Time limit - This is a checkbox option under quiz settings and limits the amount of time students have to take a quiz. When deciding on a time limit try to estimate the average time a student should need to answer each question - taking into account different types of quiz questions. If quizzes are given in a non-proctored environment the time limit can be used to cut down on the amount of time students have to look up question answers and/or share the questions with other students. If a student needs extended test time this can be added per individual student under the Moderate Quiz settings.

Time Limit

Allow Multiple Attempts - This is a checkbox setting that allows students to have multiple attempts to take a quiz. From the multiple attempts Instructors can decide which quiz score to keep: Highest, Latest, or Average. If the number of allowed attempts is left blank, then students will have unlimited attempts that would only be stopped by the "Until" date/time. In general unless there is a large question bank of questions and/or your goal is mastery of the content, multiple quiz attempts does not create a secure quiz environment.

Allow Multiple Attempts

Let Students See Their Quiz Responses - This is a checkbox option under quiz settings and after a student submits a quiz allows them to see (1) the quiz questions & answer options, (2) the answer options the student selected, (3) if they got a question incorrect or partially incorrect, and (4) ALL question feedback. This information will be shown regardless of the due & until dates and even if the correct answers are NOT made available (via the “Let Students see the Correct Answers” setting). For enhanced quiz security leave this box unchecked altogether or leave it unchecked until after the “Due’ and ‘Until’ date(s).

The following options only appear if the "Let Students See Their Quiz Responses" box checked:

Let Students See Their Quiz Responses

Only After Their Last Attempt - This checkbox option only shows up if the quiz is set to allow multiple attempts with a specific number of attempts; this option does not show up if there are unlimited attempts. If this box is checked students will NOT be able to see any quiz results other than the score they got on each quiz attempt until they take the quiz for the last time (as designated by the number of allowed attempts). After they take the quiz for the last time the student will then be able to see (1) the quiz questions & answer options, (2) the answer options the student selected, (3) if they got a question incorrect or partially incorrect, and (4) ALL question feedback. If you are using multiple attempts, this is the best setting to use to keep the quiz secure. Yet, this information can't be controlled by a date/time, so a student could use all their attempts, get the question information, and then share the information before the due/until date(s).

Only Once After Each Attempt - This checkbox option  allows students to see (1) the quiz questions & answer options, (2) the answer options the student selected, (3) if they got a question incorrect or partially incorrect, and (4) ALL question feedback, but only ONCE after they have submitted a quiz. In a proctored environment this is a useful setting because students will get to see feedback from the quiz, but it is only visible immediately after submitting the quiz. If the student goes back to the quiz they will see their score for the quiz, but none of the other quiz information (1-4 above) will be visible.

Let Students see the Correct Answers - This checkbox option allows students to see the correct answers to quiz questions. If this box is checked students will have access to (1) the quiz questions & answer options, (2) the answer options the student selected, (3) which answer option was correct, and (4) all question feedback. For enhanced quiz security the best option is to leave this box unchecked (along with the “Let Students See their Quiz Responses” option) until after the “Due” and “Until” dates and then also limit how long the students can view the correct answers.

Only After Their Last Attempt - this checkbox option under "Let Students see the Correct Answers" only shows up if the quiz is set to allow multiple attempts with a specific number of attempts; this option does not show up if there are unlimited attempts. If this box is checked students will NOT be able to see which answer options were correct until after their last attempt (as designated by the number of allowed attempts). After they take the quiz for the last time the student will be able to access (1) the quiz questions & answer options, (2) the answer options the student selected, (3) which answer option was correct, and (4) all question feedback for as long as designated. For enhanced quiz security the best option is to leave this box unchecked (along with the “Let Students See their Quiz Responses” option) until after the “Due” and “Until” dates and then also limit how long the students can view the correct answers. Note: This setting also overrides the "Show Correct Answers at" date. If you want correct answers to be released or hidden on a certain date/time or do NOT check this box.

Show/Hide Correct Answers at - this option allows students to see the correct answers to quiz questions starting at the designated "show" time and hidden again at the designated "hide" time. The show and hide options can be used independently of each other or together to create a window of when correct answers are visible to students. If one or both dates are provided students will have access to (1) the quiz questions & answer options, (2) the answer options the student selected, (3) which answer option was correct, and (4) all question feedback - during the time frame designated by the show/hide dates/times. For enhanced quiz security the best option is not use this until after the “Due” and “Until” dates and then also limit how long the students can view the correct answers. Note: If you want to use the show/hide correct answers option then do NOT check the "only after their last attempt" box directly above it, it will override your date settings and make quiz answers visible to students after their last attempt.

Show One Question At a Time - This is a checkbox option under quiz settings and allows students to only see one quiz question at a time. It is recommended to use this feature in conjunction with the "Lock Questions after Answering" option. Used together, it requires the student to answer each individual question before moving on and prevents students from going back and changing their answer. **Students do NOT like getting one question at a time and especially if they are prevented from going back and changing their answers, so make sure you really want to use this option before implementing.**

Show One Question At a Time

Require an access code - This is a checkbox option under quiz settings and prevents students from taking the quiz without the correct code. This feature can be used to make sure students are taking the quiz at a specific time or in a certain location; this works especially well for students who need to take a test in the Testing Center or with a proctor. This setting can also be used if students have started taking an untimed quiz in class (or a proctored environment) and don't finish it in one class period and need to come back to class to finish it. The Instructor can add (or change) the access code after the quiz has started and it will completely lock the students out of the quiz until the student enters in the new access code.

Require an access code

Filter IP Addresses - This is a checkbox option under quiz settings that can be used to make sure students are taking the quiz in a specific location. This works especially well for students who need to take a quiz in the Testing Center or with a proctor in a secure environment. **To use this option you will need to talk to your Canvas Admins so they can coordinate things.**

Filter IP AddressesQuiz Availability

In general to maximize quiz security it is best to have a quiz open the least amount of time as possible. Below is information on the quiz availability options and how they can be used to enhance quiz security.

Quiz AvailabilityAssign to - In courses with multiple sections this feature allows instructors to designate the availability settings by course section or individual student(s). In general, unless you have students in different sections taking the quiz at different days/times, this would be left as “Everyone” (which is the default). This feature can’t be used with students who need testing accommodations or who are in different groups. For students who need different availability than the rest of the class it is recommended to manually unlock the quiz using the Moderate Quiz settings in conjunction with an Access Code.

Due – This is the day and time that the quiz is due. This does not stop students from taking a quiz, but quizzes submitted after the Due date will be marked as late in Speedgrader and in the Gradebook. Recommended practices for quiz security are to not allow students to take a quiz after the Due date; this can be done by making the Due date and Until date the same. If students are allowed to take quizzes after the “Due” date, then leave the "Until" date blank or set to the furthest day/time late submissions are allowed.

Available From – This is the day and time the quiz becomes available to students. Students will not be able to access the quiz before this day and time unless the quiz has been manually unlocked; manually unlocked is available under the Moderate Quiz settings. In general if a student or students are taking the quiz early the time will need to be set to when the first group of students is taking the quiz. This is also when it's a good idea to use the "Require an Access Code" option to keep the rest of the students out of the quiz until they should have access to it. **If a quiz is not published (has a gray cloud instead of green) then students WILL NOT be able to access or even see the quiz, even after the "Available From" date.**

Until – This is the day/time that the students will no longer be able to take the quiz. If the Until day/time is set beyond the "Due” date" students will still be able to take the quiz until the “Until” date, but it will show up as "late" in SpeedGrader and the gradebook. If a student is in taking a quiz Canvas will auto-submit the quiz at the "Until" date/time regardless of whether the student is in taking the quiz or not. If there is no "Until" date set then the quiz will not auto-submit until the end of the course. For enhanced security instructors should set the “Until” date to be the same as the “Due” date because it prevents students from taking the quiz after it is due. Yet, this can also cut students off in the middle of taking the quiz because the "Until" date will automatically submit the quiz.

Important Message: Quiz availability (dates/times) have NOTHING to do with whether a student can view their quiz results. The ONLY way to stop students from viewing their quiz results is to have the “Let Students See their Quiz Responses” and “Show which answers were correct” boxes UNCHECKED. If you want students to initially see their quiz results, these boxes can be checked and set to close once you no longer want students to view the quiz results.


Preventing Students from Viewing Quiz Scores

The only way to prevent students from viewing their quiz score at the end of a quiz is to mute the quiz before the students take the quiz. Please note though, muting an assignment will override your other quiz settings related to quiz feedback. Students will not see any quiz feedback including their responses to questions or the correct answers. Instead students will only get this message (see image below).

Muted Quiz

Once the quiz is unmuted, students will be able to see/access quiz feedback based on the the quiz settings.

For more information on how to mute or unmute quizzes see the following guides - Not authorized to view the specified document 2952 & Not authorized to view the specified document 2823

Do you use images as part of your Quiz?

If a course has the Files link enabled on the course navigation menu then students will be able to use that to browse all the files and this includes by default, any images you've uploaded to Canvas to embed in your quiz.

 

To prevent this, it is a good idea to either:


Useful Canvas Quiz Guides

Useful Canvas Quiz Guides

What options are available for Quizzes? (Reviews all the Quiz Settings)

Not authorized to view the specified document 2900

Not authorized to view the specified document 2628

Not authorized to view the specified document 2971

Not authorized to view the specified document 2979

Not authorized to view the specified document 2983

Not authorized to view the specified document 2984

92 Comments
emwalton
Community Novice

I've created large quiz banks with randomly selected questions for each quiz I give. However, since I have two TAs assisting with this, I've noticed some duplications of the questions. I now have 110+ questions in a bank and want to print it out to look for duplicates. Is there any way to do this?

kona
Community Champion

No good way that I can think of, but in theory you could create a quiz with ALL of the questions from the bank, preview it, and then copy and paste it into a word document. It will look pretty icky, but you should be able to use it to at least check and see which questions have been duplicated or not. The other way is if you have Respondus you could export the quiz bank from Canvas and into Respondus and then print it.

Sorry I can't be more help!

Chris_Hofer
Community Coach
Community Coach

Great write-up,  @kona ​!  Might have to feature your blog on our own Canvas Dashboard for instructors some time soon!!!

emwalton
Community Novice

Thanks so much for your help. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to log back on at the moment, but your answer certainly gave me a workable option.

Cheers!

Beth Walton

*****

Elizabeth M. Walton, Ph.D.

Instructor, Geospatial Technologies

Spatial Analysis and Modeling

School of Geosciences

University of South Florida

NES 214; emwalton@usf.edu<mailto:emwalton@usf.edu>

Skype: dr.elizabeth.walton

"We can't ignore the bad news ; it is real and it would be a disservice to gloss that over. But, the human brain is wired to try harder only when there is reason to believe that those efforts will make a difference. Call it what you want, but the convenient label for this belief that one's actions will make things better is 'hope.'" -- Ronald Swaisgood

kona
Community Champion

Thanks  @Chris_Hofer ​! I think there are a lot of admin's (and instructional designers) on Jive who are doing some pretty cool stuff (and innovative workarounds) and it would be really useful to have a weekly or bi-weekly theme for people to share what they're doing. Not sure where this would get hosted, but I think it would be a neat way to get people sharing and collaborating.

Cindy_Masek
Community Contributor

This is very similar to something I have created also!  We have gone to never checking the "Let students see their quiz responses" for our health science quizzes that are not from large question banks as these quizzes change little from semester to semester once the questions have been validated.  Rather, some teachers have a well guarded copy of the quiz with the correct answers that student may view after everyone has taken the test. Some share it individually and some via doc cam but anything else seems to big of a risk.  A few use Respondus Lockdown Browser for testing and then also allow reviewing and password protection through Respondus.

I also advise that every time someone or some group access the quiz that the password be immediately changed.  This prevents the student who might somehow communicate the password to someone off campus who may access and copy the questions.  (Sounds paranoid, I know, but these are pretty high stakes tests.)

Additionally if a student must take a quiz ahead of the whole class group or after, or for an extended time, this is all done through the "Moderate" feature and not through opening the whole quiz.  This also increases the security.

snugent
Community Champion

Awesome write-up  @kona . I like to tell instructors to use the option to only allow one viewing of the results after the student takes the quiz. Currently it provides the most optimal options for students getting feedback and protecting the integrity of the quiz. I would like to see more options in the quiz results so  I created a feature idea that I hoping gets moved up for voting. Be sure to add your comments as well.

bhauf
Community Explorer

 @kona ​, thank you for this detailed write-up. We usually include this type of information to our faculty with our course development kit. Here are some best practices we recommend to our instructors:

  1. Draw your quiz questions from a pool of questions using the Question Banks feature.
  2. Randomize answer choices for each question.
  3. Randomize question order (must use Question Groups feature).
  4. Update question banks for each course iteration.
  5. Give students a time limit for assessments. Enough time should be given so that students can answer the question without aide of a textbook or Internet resources.
  6. Display one question at a time.
  7. Have the assessment accessible only for a specific amount of time (for example, available on Friday at 5pm and due on Sunday at 9pm).
  8. Do not release the student's test score until the availability time has ended (use the “Mute Assignment” feature in the Gradebook).
  9. Do not release results to the students until after all students have taken the exam (use the “Mute Assignment” feature in the Gradebook).
  10. Routinely review start and end times for exams to identify anyone who takes an unusually short period of time to complete an exam.

And on top of that, we recommend using the following settings:

The following settings are always recommended for any type of graded quiz:

  • Shuffle Answers
  • Time Limit
  • Show one question at a time
  • Lock questions after answering
  • Set Available From, Due, and Until Dates.

If the exam is taken on campus in a computer lab:

  • Require an access code
  • Filter IP Addresses
ccalderon
Community Champion

Thanks so much for this clear and simple write up  @kona ​ - I am passing it along to an instructor today!

kona
Community Champion

Yay! Hope it helps! Smiley Happy

Beth_Young
Community Contributor

This is a great write up! One thing that wasn't clear to me originally, that your teachers might want to know, is that when you "Let Students See Their Quiz Responses," they see the questions, and their responses, AND any general comments on the answer, AND marks showing which auto-graded responses are incorrect.

This can be a problem if the comments give clues about the answer, as here (I left this question blank when I took it in student view):

students see answers 1.JPG

If the student's answer on an automatically graded question is incorrect, letting students see their quiz responses will tell them. And if their answer is correct, students will know it is correct because there won't be any flag on the question and they will have received full credit:

students see answers 2.JPG

You're giving great advice to leave this setting unchecked for maximum security, but teachers may not realize how much information is revealed when they check "Let Students See Their Quiz Responses." I know that I originally thought this setting let students see their responses ONLY. I had no idea it also revealed comments and grades.

kona
Community Champion

You are absolutely correct and while it's implied, I'm going to add the more specific information about what is visible. Thanks!! Smiley Happy

Beth_Young
Community Contributor

Also, Kona, did you mean to say "not" in this sentence: " If this box is checked students will be able to see the quiz questions and their answers, even if the correct answers are [NOT?] made available (via the “Let Students see the Correct Answers” setting)."

mjennings
Community Contributor

Just got to read through this  @kona ​ and it very well written and I will probably be send our folks this as a resource.

I would like to add something that is less security related but that we get a lot of questions about. The Due Date is what appears on the calendar. Which is something that caused an issue for many of our onsite proctored exams early in our Canvas adoption. Students were showing up to labs at the due time thinking that was when the exam started since that was when it was on the calendar. We now explicitly stress that calendar dates display the due dates unles the instructor also lists it separately.

My colleague, hensonj has a feature request that opens tomorrow (July 1) addressing this issue. You can find it here -

kedgecomb
Community Champion

These are great!  Thank you for sharing!  Our nursing department is always looking for tips and tricks on increasing security with testing.  Thanks!

biray
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @kona ​ will go cover this topic in greater detail (along with @Ryan_Seilhamer who will share the mobile side of quizzes) in the upcoming CanvasLIVE 2015 series: Feel Secure about Your Relationship with Quizzes

Be sure to register. This is one session you won't want to miss! Smiley Happy

amber_hainline
Community Participant

This is helpful! Thank you!

clcavana
Community Contributor

I have turned this part of the post into a Canvas Quick Reference Guide for our faculty with a link to this resource if they want further information. Thank you greatly!

kona
Community Champion

Awesome! Hope it helps!

tfreeman
Community Novice

I've found a probably unintentional work around for printing quizzes that works scary good. 

  1. Build on Kona's idea of pouring all the questions in the data bank into a quiz
  2. open it up using Safari on a Mac.  Use Preview if you want the correct answers indicated and Student View if you don't.
  3. Choose File > Print from the Safari File menu

From there you can print it directly of choose Save as a PDF.  It only prints the quiz and not all the rest of the stuff in the browser.

spratt2
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

I was just discussing quiz security with an admin the other day. This is a great resource that I will for sure pass along to them. Thanks for putting this all together!

amberh
Community Novice

I have instructors who want to host their final exams on Canvas but their course size is around 600 students. Students were unable to connect to the exam for the first 30 minutes because there were too many users submitting the same request at the same time, and this happend previously with a course of 200 students. Do we have any documentation for quiz settings best practices to allow this many users take an quiz without overloading canvas?

kona
Community Champion

amberh, there's nothing official from Canvas that I'm aware of, but you could double-check that with your CSM. Yet, there have been some good discussions about this recently that might help - Canvas Quiz Hangs at Loading and Submission & Suggestions for giving quizzes to large courses? It seems like staggering or having multiple copies of the quiz/exam might be potential work arounds, but I'd definitely talk to your CSM's about your concerns and to see if there is anything else you can do.

Hope this helps!

gouldt
Community Contributor

This is a great resource. I used this as a guide to create a cheat sheet for Instructors setting up their tests. We've had many question form Instructors wanting to deter students from cheating and this guide provides all the information they need to make those decisions when creating their tests. Thanks.

kona
Community Champion

gouldt, awesome! Glad you and your Instructors have found it useful! Quiz settings really can be confusing sometimes and I tried to explain it as best (and easiest) as I could. Smiley Happy

ProfessorBeyrer
Community Coach
Community Coach

Thank you Kona and to the Canvas Community for making this kind of sharing easy. I am prepping a webinar for my faculty on the Quizzes tool and had a slide on academic integrity with just a couple of points. Then I found your excellent document and now have a wealth of tips to share and a place to point those who want more information. Smiley Happy

kona
Community Champion

Awesome! Glad you found it helpful! And yes, the Community does make it wonderfully easy to share this type of information! Smiley Happy

olexar
Community Contributor

And now a shameless plug.jpgHey folks. You might be interested in

kona
Community Champion

Already voted!

ccalderon
Community Champion

Thank you! Voted up!!

myanalunas
Community Novice

Thank you for this helpful (and timely) post!

I have an instructor with a quiz set for 3 attempts and timed for 90 minutes. A student used 90 minutes on her first attempt and could not access the quiz for another attempt. Does the time set for a quiz mean a "total for all attempts" or does it mean that amount of time for each attempt? I am thinking it is a total for all attempts but I cannot find documentation in the Guides or Community to support that. Can you point me to the answer within Canvas?

Meg

kona
Community Champion

It would be 90 minutes for EACH attempt. My guess is to check the Until dates to see when the quiz closed for submissions.

myanalunas
Community Novice

Kona;
thank you for the swift response! I appreciate the confirmation that the time allotted is for each attempt. The Until date has not  occurred, so I keep coming back to the idea that because the student used the 90 minute stated time on the first attempt that she was barred from the additional attempts. Then again, there could also be "user error". Lol! I love puzzles so I'll keep looking.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend celebrating the freedom we enjoy in this amazing country.

Meg

kona
Community Champion

I'm guessing that it is user error, but to be safe, I'd recommend contacting Canvas Support (Help link --> Report a Problem). They will be able to dig deeper and let you know for sure what is going on.

clong
Community Champion

Hi  @kona ,‌ thanks for creating and maintaining this post, I often point my colleagues to it and they find it very helpful. An issue came up recently that would be good to add in your post. If a course has the Files link enabled on the course nav menu then students will be able to use that to browse all the files and this would include by default, any images that you've uploaded to Canvas to embed in your quiz.

To prevent this, it is a good idea to make a Quiz Files folder and change the permissions on it so it is "Restricted Access". Once you've done that make sure to place all of your Quiz images inside it. The other option would be to disable the Files Navigation menu in your course. Hope this helps!

kona
Community Champion

Wow, YES!! Thank you and I'll get that added later this morning!!

kona
Community Champion

And to close the loop, the document had now been updated! Thanks  @clong ‌!

mpatrick2
Community Novice

I just gave a quiz and selected the following options and quickly realized that if the student does not view the test in the classroom then he/she can still access it once anytime at any computer.  Is the only way to insure integrity of the quiz is not to select any of the following options.

Let students See their Quiz Responses

Only once after each attempt

Let Students See the correct Answers

kona
Community Champion

If you have the "Let students see their quiz responses" box unchecked that should be enough to keep the students from viewing the quiz results after they take it. 

sstumpf
Community Member

I switched to canvas this fall 2017 after using moodle for three years. Assembling a test was clunky in moodle. It is laborious in canvas. Perhaps readers can shorten a process that required more than 20 steps. Maybe this is a function of using Respondus and there is an internal Canvas tool that is simpler.

1. go to test bank (Respondus)

2. Select items for exam.

3. enter name of test item bank for the exam (ex. MIDFA17course#)

4. continue

5. export/copy items from Respondus

6. copy items to canvas item bank (step 3)

7. return to home page

8. go to quizzes

9. select settings "manage item banks"

10. open the item bank created for the quiz

11. go to modules or quizzes

12. assign exam settings (just like moodle)

13. "save" not "save and publish" (will need to edit exam before publishing)

14. "edit"

15. "questions"

16. "find questions" (which are in a bank)

17. select the correct question bank for the exam

18. select all questions (only have items for that exam in this bank)

19. add selected questions (to quiz)

20. save (again)

21. preview

22. ready to go!! well not exactly, questions should be edited

23. once questions are edited save the quiz bank and publish

sstumpf
Community Member

editing the quiz in canvas...extremely tedious...of course there may be a better way that streamlines what seems obvious to me.

1. It would be nice if once the test items are in the quiz they were auto assigned a quiz number. My test items come in under author's name (see below; there can be 30 authors). It appears I have to manually change "item name" to "item number."

2. It would be great if I could edit the quiz as I preview it. Instead if I want to make an edit I have to switch to the "edit test" function while leaving the "preview test" function. Back and forth.

Students write their exam questions. I select 40 from a pool of ~120. Item quality varies so there is significant editing involved to present a fair and readable exam.

kona
Community Champion

 @sstumpf , welcome to the Canvas Community! Right now there isn't an internal Canvas tool that will do this, so using Respondus is your best bet. Yet, the new quizzing engine for Canvas is coming out in early 2018 so hopefully that might alleviate some of your pain. See the following area of the Community for more information on this - https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas/quizzesnext?sr=search&searchId=f8951a98-3aa9-469f-95...‌.

If you'd like specific help with using Respondus to get questions into Canvas, then your best bet is to copy your question and steps into a question in the https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers?sr=search&searchId=18bb936a-bd26-4dba-9a80-98cb81d...‌ area of the Community. The document you've posted your question to is one that I created myself (I'm not a Canvas employee) and I don't really use Respondus much (I leave that to my amazing coworker).

sstumpf
Community Member

Kona Jones - Thanks for the comments. I will certainly take the new Canvas quiz engine for a spin when released. I am happy to be a beta editor as well. It is my experience that Canvas does not integrate well with the tools from other creators such as Respondus. This is my semester using Canvas. Our entire campus - CSUN - goes online in the Spring. No more moodle. Moodle was clunky. So is Canvas.

sstumpf
Community Member

Thanks to all who read my initial comment. Since my mid Oct comment I have assembled 2 midterms. The process I follow (posted earlier) involves more than 20 steps. I am hoping and praying that the forthcoming Canvas tool will require far less steps. These are my priorities for creating a quiz.

1. A test item bank is necessary. My students write the multiple choice items. They must include four plausible choices and a reference for the topic. We use the Respondus StudyMate platform twice: once for test items and once for corresponding glossary terms. More on this below.

2. With moodle I selected the test items from the Study Mate bank and uploaded into a moodle item bank. Awkward.

2.a. Ideally the canvas tool will load directly into the quiz.

3. Once the quiz was created I edited each test item (most students are not trained item writers; they improve) and saved the final quiz.

4. After the quiz is completed by each student the scores should upload to the grade book (moodle completed this process).

Simple. Canvas and Respondus do not play well. The process is prone to failures and crashes. The grading tool in StudyMate for the test items and glossaries crashed this week forcing manual entry of scores.

Back to the above reference to using StudyMate for two kinds of entries; "terms and MC questions." I deploy StudyMate TWICE. I was concerned about using the same platform for two operations; writing test items and glossary terms. This approach worked for about half the term. Then it crashed and myself and the campus techs are unable to recover. Some students also were confused about creating two platforms under the same product name - StudyMate.

Final comment: Canvas has proven to be more cumbersome than moodle. In principle I am glad Canvas is constructing its own quiz platform. I hope it will include a glossary bank AND a test items bank. I am beginning to think Canvas is great for campus admins in uploading and tracking student status academic progress and other admin concerns. I have no way of knowing this. I am looking for a reason why Canvas was selected to go campus wide. My conclusion at this point was it could not have been for teacher and student convenience. I hope I learn otherwise as the semester progresses.

I would like to be a beta evaluator for the new quiz tool.

kona
Community Champion

 @sstumpf , We've been using Canvas for 5+ years and it was designed first for students, then teachers, and last for administrators. As an Administrator and adjunct Instructor trust me when I say Canvas was NOT built for administrators in any way, shape, or form. 😉

That being said, I appreciate your insight, but this document is not the right place to be posting this because you're not going to get much of an audience (pretty much me since I'm the one who wrote this document). If you'd like to start a conversation about this or have further conversations about this then go to Find Answers‌ and create a discussion post with your findings. That way more people will see this and hopefully be prompted to add their information/insight into the issue.

dejonghed07
Community Champion

I’m helping an instructor with Canvas Quizzes (that she gives students during class time within a computer lab) and she has the following goals:

 

During the Quiz

  1. Students do not see their scores during the quiz
  2. Students do not see the correct answers during the quiz

The Next Day

  1. Students can view their scores, the quiz questions, and their answers the day after a quiz ends

48 Hours after a Quiz Ends

  1. Students can view their scores in the grade book, but not the quiz questions or the answers, approximately 48 hours after the quiz ends

 

We accomplished 1, 2 and 3 using these ideas suggested in the Canvas Community:

  • “Muting” the quiz when it is created 
  • Setting the “Show Correct Answer” Date for the day after the quiz ends
  • Unmuting the quiz the day after it ends - so that students can view their grade and the answers

 

Does anyone know how to accomplish #4? - Students can view their scores in the grade book, but not the quiz questions or the answers, approximately 48 hours after the quiz ends

We tried setting the “Hide Correct Answer” date and that did not work.

The concern is that students will print the exams if they are available indefinitely and if they display the correct answers. However, if a quiz is muted, students can’t view their scores.

kona
Community Champion

The only way to accomplish #4 is to uncheck the box to allow students to view their quiz results after the 48 hours are up.

Side note, if the student wants the quiz answers they can take a quick picture or video with their phone or copy and paste it when it’s unmuted initially. So basically I’m not sure how much you’re really accomplishing, but I definitely understand the concern. 

dejonghed07
Community Champion

Thank you! I agree that there's always a way for students to make a copy of a quiz.

sstumpf
Community Member

I received exact same reply from two jiveon addresses. Are they actually bots? I had commented that canvas was perhaps more suitable for admin tasks and less so for faculty and students. IMO this is at least disingenuous. I admit I have difficulty navigating the canvas chat network. These two replies did not lower any barriers. From "Kona Jones" and "Stefanie Sanders"

"Steven<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__community.canvaslms.com_people_sstumpf-40stevenstumpf.com&d=DwMFaQ&c=Oo8bPJf7k7r_cPTz1JF7vEiFxvFRfQtp-j14fFwh71U&r=GEis3LBSL6bEmE9y1KHTvcHYlm8Do944gV28sSYMx1Q&m=FJnNnCyXxpN-ET_9ZA_4C20E8t7MbzklJ16Do3y9XeY&s=RIIzu6Odq8Pp8pdxHLzJxo6lVBDKT-p0d24Lz-UNKh0&e=>, We've been using Canvas for 5+ years and it was designed first for students, then teachers, and last for administrators. As an Administrator and adjunct Instructor trust me when I say Canvas was NOT built for administrators in any way, shape, or form. Smiley Wink

That being said, I appreciate your insight, but this document is not the right place to be posting this because you're not going to get much of an audience (pretty much me since I'm the one who wrote this document). If you'd like to start a conversation about this or have further conversations about this then go to Find Answers<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__community.canvaslms.com_community_answers&d=DwMFaQ&c=Oo8bPJf7k7r_cPTz1JF7vEiFxvFRfQtp-j14fFwh71U&r=GEis3LBSL6bEmE9y1KHTvcHYlm8Do944gV28sSYMx1Q&m=FJnNnCyXxpN-ET_9ZA_4C20E8t7MbzklJ16Do3y9XeY&s=U3rqDRfpmM2AKZFMHsZyUIrE7QqpzwjZwwmAbki3AyM&e=> and create a discussion post with your findings. That way more people will see this and hopefully be prompted to add their information/insight into the issue."

kona
Community Champion

I'm honestly not sure and will direct a Community Manager to this question so they can weigh in on the question.