Though you and your students may use the terms “test” and “quiz” interchangeably, Canvas calls this type of assessment a “quiz.” You can use Canvas quizzes for assessment, review, and practice.

Canvas currently has two quiz tools: Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes. Eventually, New Quizzes is expected to replace Classic Quizzes. (Covid delayed the deployment timeline, which continues to be extended.) For now, select either Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes when you create a quiz.

 

304 – Quizzes Overview from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

 

323 – New Quizzes Overview from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

Comparing Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes

Most quiz options are available in either quiz tool. You might explore both and use the one you prefer. A few key features are only available in one but not the other. They’re outlined here and in the full features comparison.

  • Consider Classic Quizzes in most cases and especially if you use Proctorio.
  • Consider New Quizzes If you use question banks extensively.

Using Canvas Quizzes in Your Teaching

No matter which tool you use, the following might spark ideas for how you can use Canvas Quizzes to extend student learning.

  • Practice quizzes (Classic Quizzes) or quizzes excluded from the final grade (New Quizzes) can help you assess student understanding of material.
  • Surveys allow students to respond to questions without being assessed on the “correctness” of their answers. These can be ungraded, or you can award points for completion. (Classic quizzes only)
  • You can add feedback to each quiz question to offer a correct answer, explanation, reference (e.g., textbook page number), and so forth.
  • You can give students multiple attempts to allow them to retake quizzes.
  • You can view quiz statistics showing how many students (and what percentage of the class) chose each possible response to a quiz question.
  • Use Moderate this Quiz to give specific students extra time or attempts. This option will appear only after you publish the quiz.

Adapted from “Quizzes in Canvas” in Start Here 102: Best Practices in Online instruction, licensed CC BY 4.0 by Grace Seo, University of Missouri.

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