Getting Started with New Quizzes

On this Page

• Common Actions in Classic Quizzes & New Quizzes
• Creating a Quiz in New Quizzes
  • Adding Instructions and Questions
  • Question Types
  • Item Banks
  • Quiz Settings
  • Publishing a Quiz
• Viewing and Grading New Quizzes
  • Regrading Questions
  • Releasing Scores

Common Actions in Classic Quizzes & New Quizzes

Although New Quizzes and Classic Quizzes are similar, both tools use different pathways to perform common actions. Below we’ve offered a table that explains how to complete these actions using either tool.

Functions & Features	Classic Quizzes	New Quizzes
Use text for formatting/organization (no question)	Create Text (no question) quiz question type	Create Stimulus quiz question type
Create a poll or survey	Quiz Type > Ungraded or Graded Survey	Zero point questions can be used as an alternative. For anonymous surveys, use Classic Quizzes, Poll Everywhere, or another tool (such as Qualtrics).
Re-use questions across courses or quizzes	Use Question Banks	Use Item Banks
Add images to a quiz question	Upload images to Files and change visibility status (published or unpublished).	Embed images directly in the quiz without uploading to File (click the Upload Media icon in the text editor > Drag & Drop or Browse desktop for image > Import).
Create a practice quiz	Quiz Type > Practice Quiz	Create a zero point quiz with unlimited attempts
Randomize question order	Use Question Groups	Quiz Settings > Shuffle Questions
Edit an Item Bank	Editing privileges are shared at course level.	Editing and viewing privileges are shared at the individual level. The creator of the Item Bank must share it manually with other instructors in the course.
Add math formulas or equations	Use LaTeX editor for formulas	Use MathQuill editor (To use LaTex,  copy/paste LaTeX into the MathQuill window or use the “\(” and  “\)” delimiters to type directly in the Rich Content Editor.)

Creating a Quiz in New Quizzes

To create a quiz in New Quizzes, please follow the Canvas documentation’s step-by-step guide on how to create your first New Quiz Assessment. To request that New Quizzes be enabled for your course, contact Courseware at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

Once New Quizzes is enabled, you can create quizzes through the Quizzes page by clicking the +Quiz button and selecting “New Quizzes.”

1. From the left navigation of your Canvas course, choose Quizzes then click the +Quiz button. You can create a quiz using Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes.  Choose New Quizzes unless you need to bulk download file-upload submissions or download a spreadsheet containing all quiz responses (such as for a survey). These functions are available only in Classic Quizzes.
2. Click Submit.
3. On the assignment details page, give the quiz a name, point value, due date, and any availability dates. You’ll set the time limit later in the quiz settings. You can edit the availability and due dates later, if necessary, by reopening the quiz.
4. Click Build to launch the New Quizzes quiz builder.

Adding Instructions and Questions

1. From the Build tab, add the quiz instructions and questions.  
2. Use the “+” icon to add a new question. 
3. This will display a list of question types. (Question types are explained in the next section.) 

4. After filling out the assignment details, New Quizzes will open and you can start building the quiz.

Choose from several different question types or search for your past questions in an item bank. Questions are automatically numbered and can be easily reordered.

Important Notes:

Editing

• New Quizzes uses a different rich content editor than the rest of Canvas.
• There is no HTML editor available. 
• MathQuill is the default equation editor, though LaTex is still supported. 
• To link to the course file in a quiz question, copy/paste the file URL into the text editor. 
• Questions from item banks must be edited in the item bank.

Question Creation

• There is no partial credit without penalty. 
• Stimulus questions cannot be used in item banks because the association between the stimulus and attached questions is lost.
• Automatic response feedback must be added to assessment questions before students start a quiz.

Question Types

New Quizzes includes several question types not available in Classic Quizzes: Hot Spot, Categorization, Ordering, and Stimulus Content. 

Each quiz can include a mix of automatically and manually graded questions.

Automatically Graded Questions

• Multiple Choice
• True/False
• Fill-in-the-Blank
• Multiple Answers
• Multiple Drop-down (can be used for Likert scale)
• Matching
• Numerical Answer
• Formula
• Categorization
• Stimulus
• Ordering
• Hot Spot

Manually Graded Questions

• Essay
• File Upload 

Item Banks

The Canvas Instructor Guide provides an in-depth guide on how to manage item banks for New Quizzes.  

Use Item Banks to pull all questions or a specific number of questions randomly from a pool. This is a good way to add variety to the exam and/or keep similar questions together. 

1. To create an Item Bank, open any quiz in New Quizzes or create a New Quiz and navigate to the quiz builder page (by clicking Build at the bottom of the page). Then click the 3-dot options menu in the top right corner (next to Return). 
2. Click “Manage Item Banks” > “+Bank.” Give the bank a name and click “Create Bank.” 
3. To add questions, click on the name of the newly created bank and click “+New.” Click “Done” after creating each question. Your questions will be automatically saved in the Item Bank. Click “Return” to go back to the quiz builder.
4. To insert banked questions into a quiz, open the quiz and click the “+” icon as if you were going to create a new question. 
5. Click the piggy bank icon, then click on the name of a specific Item Bank. 
6. Click the “All/Random” button, then close the item bank by clicking the “X” in the top left corner of the Item Banks tab.
7. Back in the quiz, click to “Edit” the new question, then under the Question selection options, choose whether to “Use all questions” or “Randomly select questions.” Enter the points per question, and click “Done.”

Important Notes  

Managing

• Question banks cannot be imported into New Quizzes as item banks. However, you can import questions manually into an item bank by exporting a Canvas quiz.
• You can manage your item banks within any assessment in New Quizzes.
• You can also open New Quizzes to manage item banks by creating a new assessment.
• If an item bank is deleted, any questions added to an assessment individually will remain in the assessment.
  • Question groups that use a random number of item bank items will not be available after the item bank is deleted.  
• Once an item bank is deleted, it will also lose its statistical link to reports. 

Sharing Settings & Permissions

• Item banks need to be manually shared with other instructors/TAs in the course; otherwise, they won’t have editing access. 
• Item banks can be shared with other users in your account if the users have a teacher, TA, or admin role. Sharing an item bank allows other users to view, edit, and use the item bank.
• If you copy a quiz using the “Send to” or “Copy to” options, Item Banks will be copied and shared automatically.

Quiz Settings

Open the Settings tab to configure quiz options:

Publishing a Quiz

Before you publish the quiz, be sure to:

• Add availability dates so students cannot access the quiz until the start time.
• Review the quiz settings to ensure that Restrict Student Result View is enabled and that other exam settings are correct.
• Preview the quiz to view it as students will.
• Permit additional time by choosing Moderate to the right of the student’s name. Under Time adjustments, select Give additional time, enter the extended time, and close the tab.

Viewing and Grading New Quizzes

• Use Moderate to view student submissions, add more time or attempts for individual students, and to reopen a completed quiz.
• Add a score for any manually graded questions in SpeedGrader. Final quiz scores cannot be directly edited in the Gradebook.

Regrading Questions

You can regrade any automatically graded question, but this should be done only after all students have finished taking the quiz. When you regrade a question for one student, the change will be applied to all students who received that question.

To regrade a question, open the Gradebook, click the options menu to the right of the quiz name, and select SpeedGrader. 

From any student’s submission, navigate to the question you need to regrade and click Regrade. 

You can change the correct answer, add another accepted answer (for numeric and multiple answer questions), and/or change the point value.  Click Regrade.

Select an option for awarding full points.

Click Regrade again to save your changes. (You may need to refresh the page to see the change.) A message will appear with each question that you regraded. After regrading, you can also open Grades > Gradebook > Gradebook History to see the before/after comparison of scores.

Releasing scores

When you are ready for students to see their submissions and the correct answers, you should:

1. Open the quiz, click Build to access the New Quizzes quiz builder, and in the Settings tab, un-check Restrict student result view. This allows students to see their quiz submission.
2. If using a manual posting policy in the Gradebook, click Grades and to the right of the column with the quiz name, click the 3-dot options menu to select Post Grades > Post. Students will then be notified of their quiz scores.

Last Updated: 23 Sep 2022