Introduction

While a quiz is a type of assignment in Canvas, quizzes have features and options that are unique and varied enough to warrant closer examination on their own. This page includes activities and resources to help you create quizzes and question banks in your Canvas course.

IMPORTANT:

In case you missed it, see page 5a. Intro to Assessment Tools and Practices for an overview of the different types of assignments and quizzes available in Canvas and how to choose the option that's best for you!

Learn about the four types of Canvas quizzes

There are four types of quizzes available in Canvas. Learn about each type with the resources below:

What are the different types of quizzes?

Comparison: The four types of Canvas quizzes

Create a new quiz

Follow the steps in this tutorial to create a new quiz in your course:

How do I use the quizzes index page?

When you create a new quiz, there are a variety quiz settings to choose from, and while these options will help you customize the way you use the quiz in your course, some of the settings can be confusing. Use the following tutorials and videos for guidance as you select the appropriate settings for your quiz:

Quiz Settings to Maximize Security

Webinar recording: Feel Secure about Your Relationship with Quizzes (46 min)

What options are available for quizzes?

Quiz Creation- Settings (6 min)

Select and create different types of quiz questions

IMPORTANT:

Whenever you create or edit questions in a Canvas quiz, it is very important to click the update question button for each question before clicking the save button at the bottom of the page. Clicking save without clicking the update question button will not save your changes to individual questions.

View the Designing Assessments guide (created in collaboration with Penn State's Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence) to help select the quiz question types most suitable for your needs:

Designing Assessments: Common Item Types

When you know which types of questions you would like to create, follow the steps in this text to create your individual quiz questions:

How do I create a quiz with individual questions?

Create and use a question bank

Question banks are not required for creating a quiz, but some instructors find it helpful to create question banks for a variety of reasons. If you decide to use a question bank in your course, the following tutorials can help you learn the steps for creating and managing your question banks:

How do I create a question bank in my course?

How do I create a quiz by finding questions in a question bank?

How do I create a quiz with a question group linked to a question bank?

Customize quiz availability

If you would like to limit students' access to a quiz in your course, consider the following options:

Publish/Unpublish

When an item is unpublished in your course, it is completely invisible to students. Publishing is a manual process, and it overrides all other availability settings.

Lock/Unlock

You can lock a quiz manually by selecting the option to "lock this quiz now" via the quiz settings button, or automatically by date using the availability dates on the quiz settings page. When a quiz is locked using either of these methods, students will not be able to complete the quiz or access the quiz questions, but they will still be able to see the quiz title, description, and due date via the gradebook, calendar, and wherever the quiz appears in your course (e.g. in a course module).

Accessibility: Moderate a quiz and provide individual accommodations

Read the following tutorial to learn how to monitor student progress and customize quiz availability for individual students:

Once I publish my quiz, how do I use the moderate quiz page?

Read the following tutorial to learn how to assign a different due date for individual student(s) or course sections:

How do I assign a quiz to an individual student?

Additional Resources: While this page contains some of the most important resources to help you get started with Canvas quizzes, there are dozens of other tutorials on this topic in the Canvas Guides. Visit the quizzes section of the instructor guide here to learn more.

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