Canvas

1 Kudo

When creating an assessment, you can create a Fill in the Blank question in New Quizzes. Fill in the Blank questions can have multiple blank spaces and include various answer types.

Each blank space is given a point value calculated by dividing the total points possible by the number of blank spaces. Correct answer choices are awarded this point value and no points are subtracted for incorrect answers. For example, a Fill in the Blank question with four blanks that is worth 1 point would assign a point value of 0.25 to each blank. If a student selects two correct answers and two incorrect answers, they would be awarded a total of 0.50 points for the question.

You can also duplicate Fill in the Blank questions to create a new question.

Add Question

To create a question, click the Add button anywhere in the assessment.

Add Fill in the Blank Question

Click the Add Fill in the Blank button.

Add Question Title and Stem

In the Question Title field [1], add a question title. Question titles are optional and are not visible to students.

In the Question Stem field [2], add the question stem. The question stem contains additional instructions and information for your Fill in the Blank question. You can use the Rich Content Editor to format and add content to your question stem.

Note: The question stem is not used to add blank spaces for your Fill in the Blank question.

Type Statement

To begin creating a Fill in the Blank question, type a statement in the Type a statement field.

Create Blank Space

To create a blank space, highlight a word or group of words [1]. Then click the Create Blank Space button [2] or press the Enter key.

View Blank Space

View the blank space.

You can create multiple blank spaces in a single question. To create another blank space, highlight a new word or group of words.

Select Answer Type

In the Answer Type menu [1], select the answer type to use for a blank space [2]. Fill in the Blank answer types are Open Entry [2], Dropdown [3], or Word Bank [4].

Select Text Match

For Open Entry answer types, you will need to select a Text Match option from the Text Match menu. The following options are available:

Contains [1]: Allows for the text to exist anywhere in student responses.
Close Enough [2]: Uses Levenshtein Distance to determine if the response is close enough to the correct answer. Levenshtein Distance is the number of single-character edits needed to change one word to another. You can choose to ignore case.
Exact Match [3]: Requires case and spelling to match exactly.
Specify Correct Answers [4]: Specifies that each acceptable response use regular expressions for a custom match.
Regular Expression Match [5]: Requires using specialized text strings that describe search patterns. Not recommended for beginners.

Select Possible Choices

For Dropdown and Word Bank answer types, enter the answer choices in the Possible Choices fields [1]. Click the button next to the correct answer [2].

To add additional answers, click the Add Answer button [3]. To delete an answer, click the Delete icon [4].

Set Options

To allow students to use an on-screen calculator for this question, click the Show on-screen calculator checkbox [1].

If you select this option, you can enable a basic calculator [2] or scientific calculator [3]. The basic calculator displays numbers and basic math functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide). The scientific calculator displays more options for advanced calculations.

Note: The on-screen calculator option is intended to be used while displaying one question at a time. If the assessment does not display one question at a time, students may be able to use the calculator for all questions.

Align to Outcome

To align the question to an outcome, click anywhere in the Align to Outcomes section.

Add to Item Bank

If you want to save a question to use in other assessments, you can add it to an item bank.

To add a question to an item bank, click the Add to Bank link.

Note: After a question has been added to an item bank, it can only be edited in the item bank. You can still set unique point values and options in the assessment for an item bank question.

Add Point Value and Feedback

To customize the point value for the question, type the point value in the Points field [1] or use the arrows to increase or decrease the point value [2].

To leave feedback for students, click the Feedback icon [3].

Save Question

To save the question, click the Done button.

pcharles

With Fill-in-the-blank, we need the ability to ignore case on all of the open entry options and clearer guidance on the acceptable regex code because it is not accepting code that tests as correct on third party regex tools.

I was writing lots of naming questions for a chemistry Exam and could not find a setting that accurately graded the names. Consider a name such as Vanadium(ii) Sulfate. Students may enter the name using upper or lower case or an assortment, plus some put a space between “m” and “(“ as well.

i have students enter “Vanadium(ii)” in one box and “Sulfate” in another to help parse out the grading process, but even that is not enough. The exact match or contains options are case sensitive and don’t work. The close enough option ignores case, but marks “sulfate” and “sulfite” correct and would mark “(ii)” and “(iii)” and “(i)” correct, not to mention any other single character variant. I could not get the regular expression tool to grade using regex tested as working with the ruby test tool, so I was stuck listing all variants. Listing all possible answer variants is primitive and not where a “modern” quiz tool should be at.

A lot of problems could be resolved with an “ignore case” button for all grading methods, and better guidance on how the regex implementation works.

CanvasDocTeam

Hi @pcharles

This is useful feedback! Since comments in the guides aren't retained, I'm going to recommend that you add your comments to this idea: New Quizzes: Capitalization Case Issues Fill-in-the-Blank Questions. You can rate the idea (click the star rating below the idea) and give it your kudos as well. Thanks,

Allie