Is is possible to drop the lowest scoring question for a student's quiz submission?

[IcedCoffeePlz]

I'm looking for an option to create a quiz (say 10 questions) and have the lowest score (like question #4) be dropped from the grade automatically. This could be in Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes. I know that the lowest quiz can be dropped, but is there a way to essentially do this within a single quiz for lowest scoring question?
Thank you!

[jboehly · Accepted solution]

There is not an option in Canvas to drop the lowest scoring question. The best alternative option we have is to use fudge points to adjust the point value in a quiz.

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

[Ron_Bowman]

@IcedCoffeePlz -

That question is a good one.  As far as I know, I do not think it is possible.  I have never seen (so it could exist - if it does, it is not obvious) such a capability in Classic Quizzes, and I do not use New Quizzes.

My gut instinct is that the capability of dropping the lowest scoring question from a quiz is not possible.  

[jboehly · Accepted solution]

There is not an option in Canvas to drop the lowest scoring question. The best alternative option we have is to use fudge points to adjust the point value in a quiz.

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

[Ron_Bowman · Accepted solution]

@IcedCoffeePlz @jboehly 

If you do go the way of fudge points - if that is even possible with what you are trying to do, I saw a post a few days ago talking about an easy-though some work required- way to add fudge points to all students quiz scores.  After scoring all the quizzes, export the gradebook.  Then in excel - perform the manipulation of the grade of adding whatever fudge points you want and change the score in excel to reflect that - i.e change the scores of all students by the fudge point amount.

Then import the modified grades into Canvas, and Canvas will automatically put the extra points into the fudge point categories.

If you need to drop the lowest question score, then you could do it with a lot more work by downloading the quiz results(go to the quiz, click on quiz statistics, run student analysis to get an excel file) in an excel file.  Then come up with the formula for determining which question to drop - or how to modify the score and then whatever else needs to be done to modify the actual score.  There would not be any indication of the score dropped to the student or to you - unless it is possible to modify the comments in the view I am thinking of (which it is not).     You would have to take the information from this download and use it to import new grades for the quiz into the gradebook.  If there is a way to import comments with a grade, that is something new that I do not know about.

[IcedCoffeePlz]

Thank you @Ron_Bowman - this is a creative work around to the issue I presented. I may play around with this a bit to see if it's something reasonable to adopt (or more work than necessary if we can just go in and fudge points individually). It's really just trying to figure out which process is more time intensive. Thank you for the suggestion!

[Ron_Bowman]

@IcedCoffeePlz 

I agree it is rather time intensive, but I imagine if you found a way to do it, the amount of time it takes would decrease with the knowledge of what to do.  I would still  like to have the ability to check a box to have Canvas do it automatically.

I was just thinking about your original question.  When you say drop the lowest grade, what exactly becomes the score?  I.e. 10 questions each worth 1 point.  They get 0.5 points on one question, 0 on another and 1's on the other 8.  Standard grading is then 8.5 out of 10.  dropping the lowest question makes it 8.5 out of 9.  If that is the score you want, then I do not think there is anyway possible to do it.  However if you want to give them all the missed points on a question back, then that is possible.  i.e my example would then result in adding a fudge point of 1 to the students score to give them 9.5/10

going to 8.5 out of 9 won't be possible because you can't just change the quiz score total (I am thinking classic quizzes - which is what my student analysis procedure above was based on).  In new quizzes changing the quiz total may be possible and then it is a matter of creating the modified score from the data and then importing it into the quiz.  

I did have another thought - this works great if you use weighted gradebooks.  Might be possible with points based as well, but i would have to look into that.

Create an assignment group worth 0% of the grade and put all your quizzes the students take in it.  Create another assignment group for the curved(question dropped) quiz scores.  In here just put an assignment for each quiz with the maximum point total allowed for the quiz (i.e. 9 from above).  Then when you analyze the student data, you get a new quiz total after dropping the lowest question and that total column can then be added to the assignment column in a grade book export which you would then import.  Of course this all depends on the questions on the quiz each being worth the same amount.

Lots of ways to think about it I guess - It all depends on which way causes the most work and/or confusion with the students.  I deal with college students so I figure they can figure it out.  if it is for 1st graders - maybe not such a good way.

[IcedCoffeePlz]

@Ron_Bowman These are some interesting ideas, thank you! My original question was from a faculty member's inquiry, so I'll give these ideas some thoughts and see if he's interested in digging deeper into his request. We work with college students as well so a little confusion in the gradebook can be explained in an announcement if need-be. I appreciate your thoughts on this and I'll definitely be thinking more about what we might be able to do. 

Thanks so much!

[IcedCoffeePlz]

@jboehly Thank you, yes, fudge points were discussed as a way to adjust, but it still requires going in to determine how many points to add (to off-set missed points of the lowest scoring question) for each student. The fudge point option is an excellent one for curving or adding bonus points of some kind. Thank you for your suggestion!