Adjusting and Updating Points

[JamesDauray]

I'm trying my best to integrate the new quizzes engine into my courses, but the number of problems and frustrations grows by the week. This is my latest --

I don't know why it doesn't automatically adjust the number of points on my quiz when I add or change questions. I had a quiz that was originally 22 points. I added a few questions, bringing it to 36, but the total points remained at 22.  

I didn't see this until AFTER the students had already taken the quiz.  So, I figured I'd just adjust the settings and change it to 36, right? Now all the students that had 22/22 now have 22/36 and are sending me panicked messages!

And there's no way to automatically update/refresh/regrade all the tests to reflect the new point total!  What a mess!

[mdthomas]

James,

I'm sorry that this change in feature caught you by surprise, because this is one of the differences between classic and new quizzes. While I don't have a solution for you yet to easily update the grades (but I'll try to replicate your situation in the next few days), I wanted to at least share my perspective on the advantages of being able to set the number of points differently in the "settings" then the points within the actual assessment.

Several individuals at my institution use chapter reading quizzes, including myself. In the past, to make each reading quiz worth the same (e.g. 10 points), instructors had to modify points to fit this max points, regardless if they had 10, 12, 15, 20, etc. questions. With New Quizzes, the two are distinct - so when designing the assessment each question can have the desired point value and the number of questions, let's say even 13 can be provided without a lot of concern. Then in the "settings" of the New Quizzes assignment, the maximum point value can be set based on the grading scheme of the course.

It is a change in behavior from classic quizzes, but I have already seen the positive benefits at our institution. With that said, when faculty move to New Quizzes we emphasize this as part of the differences.

I hope to try and get back soon on a method that might help update the grades to be out of 36.

- Melissa

[JamesDauray]

I do understand the value of having that option, however, I think the UI implements it poorly.  I would imagine having it default to having the number of points immediately change as the instructor adds or removes questions, then maybe have a checkbox or slider where you can choose to override that and put in as many points as you like.

As it is now, I not only have to remember to do that extra step, or I end up with the problem as I described.  If that happens, then I have to manually fix each individual student's grade.

[Ron_Bowman]

@JamesDauray -

I agree.  I was testing out something in new quizzes and I had one question worth 1 point, but the quiz was defaulted at 10.  When I took the quiz I got a 0.5 on it, but in the gradebook it showed 5.  I then remembered this post and saw that there was a difference.  I believe this functionality is in New Quizzes because people wanted that ability in Classic Quizzes.

My only complaint about it is that I think an message box should pop up indicating that the questions points and quiz points are different and then give you the option of what to do about the difference.  They already do it for assignments with rubrics if the rubric total is different from the assigned points to the assignment.

Ron

[Hakarl25]

My institution just adopted Canvas for fall 2025 but I decided to start using it this summer.  Even though I am a veteran of LMS like Blackboard I found that the learning curve was steep at first for Canvas. 

New Quiz Point Total - revising

I came accross this issue of point total also and found it quite annoying after working for decades in Blackboard where total points were automatically adjusted.  However, I did manage to solve the issue rather easily.  First I noticed that when you are in the new quizzes you will see a point total on the top left-hand side of test page.  After making note of the new points I went to Edit Assignment and updated my point total.  Finally, I opened the Grade Book and verified that the change had been made.  And it was.

Hotspot questions - cold comfort

On a separate but related issue I ran into similar problems with hotspot questions that were not visible to the students on a test I gave even though it was in the quiz preview.  I decided to set those questions to zero in SpeedGrader and recalculate the students scores.  The revised total showed up on the quiz page but not in the Grade Book.  I made sure to notify students of this to avoid "panic".  Strangely enough when I reset the total from points to percentage rather the values came out correctly.  

My recommendation is to try things out in short exercises first.  I use five-question quizzes to do so.

Best regards,

Dr. H. R. Karlsson - Geosciences, Texas Tech University.