FAQ: New Quizzes

[#1]

• General
• When can I access New Quizzes?
• How is New Quizzes different from the current ClassicQuizzes?
• Can I use New Quizzes along with the existing Quizzes feature in Canvas?
• Will the quizzes I create become part of a permanent record?
• Will New Quizzes work with Canvas test and beta instances?
• What is LTI?
• Why are Canvas content and settings not accessible from New Quizzes?
• Why are ungraded assessments not shown in the To Do List?
• Why does the Return button take me to the Assignments page?
• Why does Gradebook show a score even though the assessment is not fully graded?
• What is QTI and why does it not always work?
• Does New Quizzes have an API?
• Are Canvas Partner integrations supported?
• Features
• How do use New Quizzes?
• Is the Hot Spot item type accessible?
• Why does Canvas Student View make New Quizzes act like a student accessed the assessment?
• Can a question be duplicated?
• Is it possible to delete attempts?
• Is it possible to see which students got which version of the quiz?
• Are there extra credit questions?
• Why does copy-paste from some desktop applications not work?
• Is the rich content editor missing features?
• Arethere partial points grading for items?
• If I reimport a quiz into New Quizzes, will my changes be reflected in a previously-imported quiz?
• What are Question Banks vs Question Groups?
• Migration
• Can aClassic Quizmigrate to New Quizzes?
• What migration projects are in development?
• Can I migrate Question Banks from Classic Quizzes?
• In a quiz migration, what happens to Question Groups?
• How can I add questions from Question Banks as an Item Bank?

General

When can I access New Quizzes?

All Canvas customers can use New Quizzes. If you don't have access to New Quizzes—

• If you're an instructor, please contact your Canvas admin
• If you're are a Canvas admin, please contact your Customer Success Manager

In July 2021, all institution accounts will be configured to use New Quizzes. However, Classic Quizzes can still be used as an assessment engine for a specified period of time as indicated in the New Quizzes Timeline Overview.

New Quizzes is not currently available in Free for Teacher accounts. Enforcement for all accounts should also enable New Quizzes in our Free-for-Teacher environment unless otherwise updated here and in the timeline.

How is New Quizzes different from the current Classic Quizzes?

New Quizzes is a new assessment engine built to meet the assessment needs in your classroom today and in the future. Leveraging modern technologies, New Quizzes features include a series of feature enhancements and new item types, and bring workflow improvements to what is commonly encountered in Quizzes Classic.

To see how New Quizzes tool compares to existing quizzes, please see our New Quizzes Feature Comparison‌.

Can I use New Quizzes along with the existing Quizzes feature in Canvas?

Yes. Until the end-of-life date for Classic Quizzes is announced, if your institution has configured New Quizzes, both tools can both be used in the same Canvas course. However, some features in Classic Quizzes will started to be restricted as updated in the New Quizzes Timeline Overview.

Will the quizzes I create become part of a permanent record?

Yes, once the tool is configured in your instance, the data is a part of the permanent course record.

Will New Quizzes work with Canvas test and beta instances?

New Quizzes is available in the Canvas beta environment. This includes support for blueprint courses, quiz copy, course copy, and quiz migration. Reports, statistics, item bank search, and item bank tagging are not currently supported in the beta environment.

Outcomes added to Canvas in the beta environment after the beta refresh will not display in the New Quizzes beta environment. Outcomes must be added to the production environment to display in the beta environment.

At this time, New Quizzes cannot be used in the Canvas test instance.

What is LTI?

Learning Tools Interoperability, or LTI, is a framework for integrating LMS products with learning applications. It provides an open standards alternative to proprietary extension frameworks that are vendor-specific.

An LTI launch will pass some user context data from the LMS, and the learning application can optionally pass back a grade or content. Learning applications can serve many different purposes.

LTI dramatically improves options for LMS users. It also introduces the challenges of coordinating separate systems and maintaining a consistent user experience across both applications.

Why are Canvas content and settings not accessible from New Quizzes?

Canvas and New Quizzes are separate applications and do not share a common database. They communicate using the LTI standard, which is focused on providing information about the user and the context from which they launch the tool. Other information, like question banks or grade book preferences, are not supported.

Why are ungraded assessments not shown in the To Do List?

LTI supports grade passback but does not provide a way to offer further context about the assessment. Without the ability to provide additional context, Canvas cannot distinguish if the lack of a grade or the passed grade represents the fully graded contents of the quiz. This leaves the To Do List with no way to manage New Quizzes LTI assignments.

Why does the Return button take me to the Assignments page?

The context information passed during the LTI launch does not understand that Canvas will show the LTI assignments in places outside of the Assignments page.

Why does Gradebook show a score even though the assessment is not fully graded?

LTI supports grade passback but does not provide a way to offer further context about the assessment. Without the ability to provide additional context, Canvas cannot distinguish if the lack of a grade or the passed grade represents the fully graded contents of the quiz.

What is QTI and why does it not always work?

Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) specification is a standard format for assessments. The growing use of this standard has brought great mobility to assessment content, but the standard itself is quite loosely defined. This means that individual vendors end up with inconsistent implementations of the format. Working with QTI packages from some vendors can be very challenging due to the loose standard.

Does New Quizzes have an API?

APIs are coming in the future and will be announced in the Change Log ‌when available.

Are Canvas Partner integrations supported?

Partner integrations require the right types of API endpoints for the integration to be successful. Since general availability, we have been working to make our endpoints available for our partners to build their integrations. We are in active conversation with our partners to ensure this process happens smoothly. Any announcements related to partner integrations will be included in Release Notes: Canvas LMS‌.

Features

How do use New Quizzes?

You can find detailed information about functionality in New Quizzes using the New Quizzes Chapter in the Instructor Guide.

Is the Hot Spot item type accessible?

No. Hot spot questions are not accessible for users who require keyboard-only access or screen readers.

Why does Canvas Student View make New Quizzes act like a student accessed the assessment?

We plan to resolve this in the future. Canvas and New Quizzes are separate applications and do not share a common database. They communicate using the LTI standard, which does not have the concept of a fake user.

Can a question be duplicated?

Once an item has been added to an item bank, it can be easily copied or moved between item banks. Copying questions within an assessment will be added at a later time.

Is it possible to delete attempts?

This feature will be considered for future development.

Is it possible to see which students got which version of the quiz?

By selecting the student’s attempt from the Moderation page, you will see the questions the student was given, along with their answers. The version itself is not explicitly shown. The priority for development of this feature is is still under discussion.

Are there extra credit questions?

Not at this time. This feature will be considered for future development.

Why does copy-paste from some desktop applications not work?

Some desktop applications, particularly word processors, include styling information that web pages cannot handle. Try pasting without formatting to move content.

Is the rich content editor missing features?

The rich content editor is not complete. In no particular order, the following list includes features on our radar and at varying priority levels that are not currently available:

1. Record audio and video via tool in the RCE
2. Content Selector Sidebar
3. Accessibility Checker
4. Apps and LTI tools
5. HTML Editor
6. Media Recorder
7. Right-to-left/left-to-right formatting buttons

Are there partial points grading for items?

Partial credit grading functionality is supported for Fill-In-The-Blank and Multiple Answer question types.

Development for other question types is still under discussion. Likely additional item types for this functionality will include: 

• Ordering
• Matching

Similar functionality resides in the Multiple Choice question type, which allows points to be varied for individual answers.

If I reimport a quiz into New Quizzes, will my changes be reflected in a previously-imported quiz?

No. You cannot modify an existing assessment by importing the modified resource into New Quizzes. New Quizzes imports can only be used when creating an assessment for the first time. Importing the same resource, even after deleting the original, will revert to the original assessment import.

What are Question Banks vs Question Groups?

Question Banks are a collection of questions stored in Canvas that can be pulled into a Classic Quiz. Their behavior is analogous to Item Banks in New Quizzes.

Question Groups are sections in a Classic Quiz that contain a set of specific questions. Canvas can randomly choose some or all of the questions for a student as part of the quiz.

Migration

Can a Classic Quiz migrate to New Quizzes?

Yes. While New Quizzes migration supports all question types, you should still review your assessments for assigning them to students. For more information on quiz migration, refer to How do I migrate a Canvas quiz to New Quizzes?

What migration projects are in development?

The Quizzes team is currently working on the following features:

• Migrate New Quizzes in course copy and imports
• Import Canvas Question Banks as New Quizzes Item Banks
• Set New Quizzes to be the default option for course copy and imports

Timelines for these projects will be announced as available.

Can I migrate Question Banks from Classic Quizzes?

Currently, Question Banks cannot be imported into New Quizzes as Item Banks. 

However, a workaround exists by creating a new Classic Quiz that contains a question group with all questions from a Question Bank.

In a quiz migration, what happens to Question Groups?

When a Classic Quiz is migrated into the New Quiz engine, Question Groups import as Item Bank Questions. The quiz displays the group and the number of questions that are to be pulled from the group.

However, the questions in the question groups are not added as an item bank. They are stored in the quiz. To view the questions in the group, preview the quiz. All quiz questions in the group will be displayed in the preview.

How can I add questions from Question Banks as an Item Bank?

Until the development work is completed for Question Banks to convert to Item Banks, questions can be imported manually into an Item Bank by exporting Canvas quizzes.

• In Classic Quizzes, create a new quiz with the name of a question bank.
• In the Questions tab, select the Find Questions button. Locate the question bank and select all questions. Click the Add Questions button.
• Save the quiz.
• In Course Settings, click the Course Export button; select the Quiz Export type. Export the ZIP file when completed.
• In the New Quizzes menu bar, click the Manage Item Banks button.
• Create a new item bank. 
• Open the Item Bank. In the menu bar, click the Import Content button.
• Click the Import Content button.
• Locate the exported ZIP file and import it into the item bank.

Note: Item Banks will not allow additional content to be imported once questions have been added to a quiz. However, individual questions may be added manually.

[Hildi_Pardo]

Hi, I just read the above FAQs and have a question/concern about the last question:  "Can quizzes created in the Quizzes LTI be shared to other courses?   No. Quizzes created in the Quizzes LTI will not be shared with another course as part of a course import, course export, course copy, or blueprint courses."

Does this mean teachers will lose their Quizzes (will have to recreate all their LTI Quizzes) when they copy their course content from this year's course to next year's course?

[natalie_norton1]

Yes we would like to check this too! I was not sure if this was just in this beta phase or permanent?

[ctitmus]

Hello natalie.norton1@winchester.ac.uk and hildi.pardo@apsva.us,

I'm sorry that it's taken a few days to respond. I spoke to a member of our Product team that assists with Quizzes LTI. He says that they are currently working on supporting a feature to share Quizzes LTI assessment between courses. (This will not apply to blueprint courses.)

Here is a discussion post that relates to this topic to continue the conversation: https://community.canvaslms.com/message/85320-type-feedback-title-here?sr=search&searchId=8bb7f02a-7...‌.

Thanks!

[Hildi_Pardo]

Thanks, for referring us to the other conversation, Cody.   It sounds like they are working on a fix.   I'm still concerned that it won't work in blueprint courses, however.    Why would we push out multiple courses with no quizzes, right?   Perhaps it will be the next item on the list to fix.  I look forward to learning about updates!

[elizabethatrade]

So in preparation for having to move to new quizzes permanently we are trying to use it this year to get used to the process. But, the LTI supporting grade passback but NOT being able to provide further context such as whether there is a written question that a student fills in and it has to be hand graded, is driving us insane!

We are having to visit the assignments several times each day to see if there are any new submissions and go back through each student to make sure that each question is accounted for. I am having to have students email me that they completed an assessment using the new quiz because it won't show up in my To Do pile nor will it show that something needs to be hand graded. 

If the new quizzes is going to be what gets used permanently then these problems NEED to be fixed! I've got 180 students, I don't have time to keep going back over and over. 

If this is in the works, please let us know when this will be corrected.

[23Hagan]

I am a New Quizzes user (haven't tried Classic and since phasing out, will stick to New)j

I'm trying to make test that has two parts, one Multiple Choice and another Free Response/essay.  I want the questions to be shuffled for the MC part.  When I set "Settings" to shuffle questions, the Free Response questions are mixed in as well. 

Students should have 1 hour to take the test, and I don't want to make one MC test and one FR test each with 30 minutes b/c some will spend more on the MC and some will spend more time on the FR. (It's an AP Statistics test; we are 100% remote).

I'm pulling questions randomly from question banks for most of the MC section, so I could be okay, but if someone knows how to accomplish what I really want to do, I appreciate your suggestions.

Also, I thought I read somewhere (I've read a lot of "stuff" since we just converted to Canvas with about 1 week lead-time/transition period) that a "blank" (?) or no-count (?) essay question could be inserted to within a quiz and used to just give directions to a section?  I tried that, and it's doing what I want, BUT, it's counted as a question and I'm afraid students will think they have an unanswered question when to go to submit, but really don't.

[Steven_S]

@23HaganIf you put your MC questions in an item bank (there will be a drop down at the bottom of each question when you edit it) and delete them from the quiz, you can add the item bank by clicking the piggy bank in the upper right corner of the add a question menu.  It will open a right side menu and the button at the top will be add/random.  It will add a single entry into your quiz, when you edit that entry you can tell it to randomly select questions from the bank with a total number of questions equal to the number of questions in the bank.  You will need to set the same point value for all questions used from the bank, so you might need multiple banks if your points vary by question.

Then do not shuffle questions for the entire quiz, because the item bank is shuffling the MC already

[Steven_S]

@elizabethatradeMy best advice for now is to set all quizzes that require manual grading to have a manual grade posting policy.  Then when you grade, grade all submissions received so far, and then select post>graded.  (If you use post>everyone the empty cells that do not yet have a submission will "post" and then the manual posting policy will become ineffective.  If you use post>graded without having graded all submissions so far, you will "post" submissions where the manual grading has not yet happened.)  There is a red dot that shows up in the gradebook when scores are hidden, and so you will know that hidden scores mean a new submission has come in.