Allow scientific notation (E format) in numerical answers

[mhurwitz]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

Often students work with very large or small numbers, and need to enter numerical values such as "3.27E15" or "9.2E-6".  Canvas should allow this format in answers to numerical questions; it's so widely used in engineering and programming.

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the

   Canvas Release Notes (2019-06-01)‌

 Canvas Production Release Notes (2015-10-31)

[ashaukat]

I am a physics professor, and I think it's an absolute must feature to have. 

[vkg]

We are hearing from our faculty at Michigan that they need more options to ask numerical questions, including numerical answers that are either very large or very small.

Actually, I think students can answer 3.27E15 to a question (try it in quiz preview -- when you tab out of the field it'll resolve to 3270000000000000.0000) -- but not 9.2E-6 (because it'll resolve to 0.0000).  At a minimum we'd like more decimal places (perhaps 23 each side).

And also support for *instructors* to use the E notation (right now in my experience they have to type all the digits in creating the quiz -- only students can use E).

[mdjohnston]

Canvas really needs to get their act together!

Sent from my iPad

Milt Johnston

[petern]

I'd like to see scientific notation in Canvas too.  I've created a feature request for unit support :

[petern]

I think this is essential and accidentially created a feature request very similar.  The only difference being that students at schools (at least in the UK), do not use the E notation.  Instead they would write x10²³.  Here's my feature request in full:

There should be an option that teachers can turn on to allow students to input answers in standard form.  There could be two input fields: one for the number and the second for the exponent, e.g..

[Renee_Carney]

This Feature Idea is now Complete!

For more information on the release of this feature, and others, please review the Canvas Production Release Notes (2015-10-31)

Thank you to  @mhurwitz   for submitting .  Also, Thanks to  petern and  @ervanhor   for your submissions of and which were completed as part of this feature.

Additional thanks to idea contributors mdjohnston,  @jazemlya ,  @curtain ,  @kona ,  @douglas_deboer ,  @vkg , ashaukat and  @James  for your valuable input! Your investment in this idea helped refine a feature which is now part of the Canvas!

[petern]

Thanks Renee. Can this feature be extended to the formula question type also?

[Renee_Carney]

I'm not sure how much additional work that would take, but I will check.

I do know that the quiz tool is currently being examined and scoped for improvements.  This extension may be on that list.

[jsparks]

Hello Peter,

We're looking at a more "proper" way to handle large and small numbers in Canvas.  This is certainly a part of our thinking.  While I don't have a timeline, this is something we are wanting to consider for future development.

Kind regards,

Jason

[Renee_Carney]

Thank you for the exciting news Jason.

Community members can follow the larger project at Modern Quizzing Engine