As I've mentioned the quiz feature on Canvas to my colleagues there have been some mixed reactions...the one that struck me to most is when a colleague immediately recoils saying..."BUT THEY WILL CHEAT!" First of all, some kids will always cheat...always have and always will. What I want to focus on is not giving some major assessment on Canvas that will be safeguarded like Fort Knox, but instead the ability to use Quizzes as a quick and easy feedback tool.
It is a great vehicle for previewing an upcoming topic or summarizing one that you have already been studying. And if you make it T/F MC or Fill in the Blank etc. you give the students the ability to get immediate feedback as to how they are retaining the information in your course! Sometimes I wonder if we as teachers give enough timely feedback! I know I was guilty of that, which can really cause students to disengage and shut down. And with a digital universe at their fingertips its so easy to fall to the temptation of Snapchat or texting. But some of you may already be saying...When will I have time to make all these quizzes! A lot of us already have resources such as textbooks etc that have pre-made questions so now its really about the data entry. This is where our Student Assistants aka Community Service kiddos can come into play!
Create a fake course and enroll them as TAs or Designers heck even Teachers! That way they can access the course and enter all of your bell-ringer quizzes for you! Then you can easily import them in a variety of ways into a live course once they are ready. That is when you can choose your Quiz details such as time limits, multiple attempt, dates etc.
Imagine how nice the start of each class could be if you set a routine where the kids come in, fire up their Chromebooks and start focusing on the course content while you have a minute to breathe from last period, maybe hand out any passes, follow up with a kid who has been absent etc. Everyone is a winner!
