Alternative Grading of Multiple Answer quiz questions

[LauraFrawley]

Has anyone found an alternative way to grade multiple answers questions? I don't think the "partial credit with penalty option" is fair because it deducts points when students select an incorrect option. For example, if there are two correct answers and a student selects 1 correct and 1 incorrect, they receive a 0 for that question. I would much prefer the students to earn credit when they select a correct option but not deduct points when they select an incorrect option. Anyone else have issue with this? Any suggestions?

Below is what Canvas has on new quizzes: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-create-a-Multiple-Answer-question-in-Ne... 

 Partial credit with penalty option [1]. The Partial credit with penalty option awards points for each correct answer selected and deducts points for each incorrect answer selected.

Partial credit is calculated by dividing the total points possible by the number of correct answers for the question. This amount is awarded for each correct answer selected and deducted for each incorrect answer selected. No points are awarded or deducted for answers that are not selected. Zero is the lowest possible score. For example, if a question is worth 4 points and there are 2 correct answers, Canvas divides 4 by 2 and awards 2 points for correct answers selected and deducts 2 points for incorrect answers. If a student selects 2 correct answers and 1 incorrect answer, the student will receive 2 points total (4 points awarded for correct answers and 2 points deducted for incorrect answers).

thank you in advance!

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @LauraFrawley,

I don't really have a solution, but I may be able to point out a reason why Instructure has the options set up the way they do...  I believe the wrong answer penalty is there to prevent students from just checking every available option.  Unfortunately without the penalty, students would likely figure out that they would receive full credit for selecting every option available, even the wrong ones.  I guess another option would be to only let students select the right number of options, but that gets very problematic for coding and user experience, plus many instructors don't want students to know the number of answers they should select.  More options are usually nice, but I also know there are some practical limits as to how many grading options Instructure can provide and maintain... This is definitely a tough one...

With all that being said, if you would like Instructure to consider this idea in some form or another for a future enhancement, I'd encourage you to make a post in the Ideas area of the community.

Hope this helps at least a bit, even if it's not the answer you may have been hoping to receive.

-Chris