What options can I set in a quiz?

When you create a quiz, you have a variety of options to choose from within a quiz.

Note: When the Default to New Quizzes feature option is enabled, you cannot create new Classic Quizzes. However, existing Classic Quizzes can continue to be edited, imported, and migrated to New Quizzes.

Name Quiz

Name Quiz

In the Unnamed Quiz field, you can add a name for your quiz.

Choose Quiz Details

Choose Quiz Details

When creating a new quiz, Canvas defaults to the Details tab.

  1. Create any instructions for the Quiz in the Rich Content Editor.
  2. Select the quiz type.
  3. Categorize the quiz into the proper Assignment group.

Set Quiz Options

Set Quiz Options

Quiz settings have several options.

Shuffle Answers [1]: You can shuffle (randomize) answers. (You can also shuffle questions by creating a question group.)

Time Limit [2]: You can choose to set a time limit by entering the number of minutes students have to complete the entire quiz. Timed quizzes begin once a student begins the exam and do not pause if the student navigates away from the quiz. If no time limit is set, students will have unlimited time to complete the quiz.

Notes: 

  • If a timed quiz is automatically submitted after a student loses internet connectivity, the submission time stamp and time to complete the quiz may not align with the allotted time limit and/or the availability dates.
  • If a student loses internet connectivity, Canvas extends the time for five minutes, saving the answer entered before the timer runs out.

Multiple Attempts [3]: You can allow multiple attempts.

Quiz Responses [4]: You can choose to allow students to view their answers, any automatic feedback generated by the quiz for correct or incorrect answers, and which questions they got wrong. Quizzes default to this option, so if you do not want students to see their quiz responses, deselect the checkbox.

As part of this option, you can restrict students view of the quiz results to Only Once After Each Attempt [5]. Students will only be able to view the results immediately after they have completed the quiz—results include both their responses and the correct answers.

Notes:

  • Students will still see their quiz score upon submitting a quiz when this option is enabled. Because of this, this option may not be appropriate for quizzes that require manual grading, such as essay questions, where students may need to access the quiz results multiple times to see an updated quiz score.
  • When a quiz is saved with the Only Once After Each Attempt option, you can use the Moderate Quiz feature to give students additional views to their quiz results.

Correct Answers [6]: You can allow students to see correct quiz answers after completing the quiz. This setting enables a green Correct tab on every correct answer for the entire quiz. Quizzes default to this option, so if you do not want students to see the correct answers, deselect the checkbox.

As a part of this option, you can also control when and for how long students can see the correct answers by setting dates (and specific times, if desired) in the Show and Hide fields.

  • To show answers immediately after quiz is submitted, leave the Show and Hide fields blank.
  • To create a date range to display the answers, set a start date in the Show field and an ending date in the Hide field.
  • To always show answers after a specific date, set a date in the Show field.
  • To hide answers after a specific date, set a date in the Hide field.

Note: If the Only Once After Each Attempt option is selected, it will override any show or hide dates or times. If you want to show or hide correct answers on any specific date or time, the Only Once option should not be selected.

One Question at a Time [7]: You can show one question at a time and lock questions after answering.

Notes:

  • Questions will be locked even if a student clicks the Next button without answering the question.
  • If your Canvas admin has restricted students from viewing quiz submissions after the course ends, options 4 and 6 will not be available after the course end date has passed.

View Expanded Options

View Expanded Options

A few of the settings contain expanded menu options:

Allow Multiple Attempts

  • Recent Quiz Score [1]—You can choose whether to keep the highest score, latest score, or average score of all attempts. By default, Canvas will keep the highest score unless this setting is changed.
  • Allowed Attempts [2]—You can allow multiple attempts and limit the number of attempts. The default dashes represent unlimited attempts.

 

If you retain the Quizzes default option for students to see their quiz responses:

  • If you allow at least one attempt for the quiz, the Let Students See Their Quiz Responses area will display a Only after their last attempt checkbox [3]. Selecting this option means that students can only see their correct responses after their last quiz attempt.
  • If you allow more than one attempt for the quiz, please be aware that not all students may complete all attempts and therefore may never see their quiz responses. For instance, if a student has three attempts but achieves their desired score in the second attempt, the student will most likely not complete the third (and last) attempt. That means their quiz responses and correct answers will not appear because the last attempt was not completed. To allow these students to see their responses, you would have to manually change the quiz settings at a later time.

 

If you retain the Quizzes default option for students to see the correct answers:

  • If you allow at least one attempt for the quiz, the Let Students See The Correct Answers area will display a Only after their last attempt checkbox [4]. Selecting this option means that students can only see the correct quiz answers after their last attempt. This option will follow the current quiz functionality around multiple attempts. If a student never makes it to the last attempt, the correct answer setting will not apply. To allow the student to view the correct answers, you can manually change the quiz options at a later time.  

 

Show One Question at a Time

  • Lock Questions [5]—You can choose to lock questions after answering. This option means that students cannot return to the previous question once it has been answered.

Set Quiz Restrictions

Set Quiz Restrictions

You can restrict the quiz so it can only be taken in specific situations. By default, these options are never selected.

  1. You can require students to enter an access code to take the quiz.
  2. You can filter IP addresses and require students to take a quiz from a specific computer lab.

 

Notes:

  • If you have the Respondus LockDown Browser plugin enabled by your institution, using that browser will also appear as an option here. The Respondus LockDown Browser does not allow other windows to be opened during the quiz and helps prevent cheating.
  • If your institution uses the Respondus LockDown Browser LTI, the Respondus option will not appear under Quiz Restrictions and Respondus LockDown settings can be managed from the LockDown Browser Dashboard in Course Navigation.

View Expanded Restrictions

View Expanded Restrictions

To require an access code, enter the access code in the access code text field [1].

To filter IP addresses, enter the IP address in the IP address text field [2]. Note: Quiz IP filters are a way to limit access to quizzes to computers in a specified IP range. Filters can be a comma-separated list of addresses, or an address followed by a mask (i.e., 192.168.217.1/24 or 192.168.217.1/255.255.255.0). For more information on these masks, view the IP Filtering in Canvas resource document.

Assign Quiz and Dates

Assign Quiz and Dates

In the Assign field [1], you can assign the quiz to everyone, a course section, or an individual student.

You can set the Due Date [2], Available From date [3], and available Until date [4] for the quiz. These fields are optional and can be set depending how you want to manage the quiz:

  • Due Date: the date and time that the Quiz is due
  • Available From: the date and time when the Quiz will become available for students to take the quiz
  • Until: the date and time when students can no longer take the quiz

Learn more about due and availability dates.

Notes:

  • Changing who the quiz is assigned to after the quiz is made available to students may result in submissions becoming unavailable.
  • If you have set section override dates in your course, you may need to select a course section and set due and availability dates that fall within the section override dates.
  • If you change the due date of a quiz that students have already begun but not submitted, their quiz submissions will auto-submit based on the date and time of the original due date.
  • For auto-submitted quizzes, the submission time stamp reflects a five minute grace period that begins once the due date and time have passed and may not align with the assigned due date and time.

Create Quiz Questions

Create Quiz Questions

Once you have set up the settings for your quiz, click the Questions tab to create the quiz questions and points. You can create individual quiz questions, questions with a question bank, questions with a question group, and questions with a question bank in a question group.

Save Quiz

Save Quiz

Click the Save button to save your work on your quiz.

Note: You should not publish your quiz until it is your final product. If you are ready to publish your quiz and make it available to students, click the Save & Publish button.

Unpublished Quiz Options

Unpublished Quiz Options

Once you save your quiz, you have several quiz options.

To publish the quiz, click the Publish button [1]. Publishing a quiz means that students will be able to see the quiz in the course.

Before publishing the quiz, if you want to see the student view and make sure it appears correctly, click the Preview button [2]. To edit the quiz, click the Edit button [3].

You can also view more options in the Options menu [4]:

  • Show the rubric for a quiz to evaluate student answers, such as for essay questions (learn how to add a rubric) [5].
  • Lock this quiz now so that students cannot access the quiz once it is published [6]. The quiz title will still be visible to students but they will be unable to open the quiz. This option only applies to quizzes that are assigned to Everyone.
  • Delete this quiz [7].

Note: If you want to hide the quiz from student view, do not publish the quiz. When the quiz is unpublished, it can only be viewed by the instructor.

Unlock Quiz

Unlock Quiz

To unlock a quiz, click the Options icon [1] and click the Let Students Take this Quiz Now link [2].

Unlock Quiz Limit

To unlock a quiz indefinitely, click the No time limit radio button [1]. If you prefer to unlock a quiz until a specific date and time, click the Until radio button [2] and use the calendar icon [3] to select the date and time. Click the Unlock button [4] when you are done.

Published Quiz Options

Published Quiz Options

Once you publish a quiz, you can view additional options.

In addition to the options available for unpublished quizzes, in the Options menu [1], you can:

  • Preview the quiz [2]
  • Show student quiz results from students who have taken the quiz [3]
  • Message students who have taken the quiz already or who haven't yet taken the quiz [4]

 

In the sidebar, you also have access to related quiz features:  

 

You can also hide grades from students by using posting policies in the gradebook.