How to Create Tests and Quizzes for Your Canvas Course

The Quizzes tool can be used to create quizzes, tests, and surveys, though they’re all called Quizzes within Canvas. It can be used for both high-stakes exams, or no-stakes practice, as well as collect student feedback as a survey. If you are planning to use Canvas for graded remote exams, please be sure to review this information about Canvas and assessment security.

This is a guide for the most commonly used parts of Quizzes, but it will not exhaustively cover all the features available. For more detailed information about using the Quizzes tool and all of its features, please see the Instructor Help tab above.

Tip: In Canvas, Quizzes are a type of Assignment and will also appear on the Assignments page in your course for organization into Assignment Groups.

Managing Quizzes

Making a New Quiz

1. From your course navigation menu, click Quizzes.
2. Click the blue +Quiz in the top right corner.

The rest of the process is covered under Editing a Quiz, below.

Making a New Quiz with Randomized Questions

This process involves using Question Banks and is fully covered start-to-finish in our Create Random Quizzes in Canvas article.

Modify an Existing Quiz

1. From your course navigation menu, click Quizzes.
2. Find the quiz from the list and click the modify button ( ⋮ ) next to it.
3. Select Edit from the menu that opened.

The rest of the process is covered under Editing a Quiz, below.

Deleting a Quiz

1. From your course navigation menu, click Quizzes.
2. Find the quiz from the list and click the modify button ( ⋮ ) next to it.
3. Select Delete from the menu that opened.
4. Click OK to confirm.

Creating a Quiz

The quiz edit screen has two tabs (screens): Details and Questions. The details tab is where the options for the quiz as a whole are set, while the questions themselves are entered on the questions tab. While it is possible to switch between these tabs freely, we strongly recommend to work on one tab at a time and click Save before editing the other. This reduces the chance of accidentally losing work.

Quiz Details

Not all quiz settings are covered in detail below. For the full description of them, visit the Instructor Help tab above.

• Name the quiz. This is how the quiz will appear to both teachers and students.
• Quiz Instructions: What you type in this Rich Content Editor will be displayed to students when they take the quiz.
• Quiz Type
  • Graded Quiz appears in the grade book.
  • Practice Quiz does not appear in the grade book, but students will receive a score after taking it for their own information.
  • Graded Survey does not allow for correct or incorrect answers, but appears in the grade book upon completion on a complete/incomplete basis.
  • Ungraded Survey does not appear in the grade book.

  When creating a survey, an option to make answers anonymous appears. Please note that Canvas surveys are never fully anonymous, as the anonymity feature can be turned on and off by a teacher at will, even after the survey results have been collected. If you need truly anonymous input, you should use an external tool, such as Qualtrics.

  • Quiz Restrictions
    • Require an access code. Enabling this will prompt the students to type a password before taking the quiz.
    • Filter IP Addresses should only be used if the Testing Center has provided instructions to do so.
    • The Due date is the date and time the quiz is due. Quizzes submitted after the due date will be marked as late in the grade book (and a Late Submission Policy applies).
    • A quiz can only be taken between the Available From…Until dates. Use one or both of these if you do not want students to be able to take the quiz outside of specific dates.
    • Tip: Time limit and multiple attempt accommodations are made in Quiz Moderation, outlined below.

    Quiz Questions

    While editing your quiz, click the Questions Tab near the top to start adding questions to your quiz.

    

    Tip: We recommend only working on one question at a time. Please make sure to click Update Question (to save the changes to that question) before moving on to the next question or saving the quiz. Clicking Save for the quiz without first Update Question will cause you to lose work.

    Add a Question

    Boxed letters (such as: [X]) below reference the screenshot to help you locate items on this screen.

    

    1. Click the +New Question button.
    2. (Optional) Name your question. This appears in statistics and can make it easier to find questions in a lengthy quiz. [A]
    3. Choose your question type from the drop-down menu. [B] The default is multiple choice, which we will assume for the rest of these directions.
       • You can find more information about the available question types in the instructor guide.
    4. Enter the point value of this question. [C]
    5. Enter your question stem in the Rich Content Editor. [D]
       • This can include embedding math formulae, videos, images, links to external websites, attached files, or anything else you can normally do in the editor.
    6. Enter your answer selections. [E]
       • You can add more choices with +Add Another Answer. [F]
       • You can remove a choice by pointing at it and then clicking the trash can icon to the right. [G]
       • If you need a full Rich Content Editor for the question answer (such as the answer choices need to be images), point at it and click on the pencil icon to the right. [H]
    7. Specify which possible answer is the correct answer by pointing at it and clicking on the green arrow that appears to the left. [I]
    8. Click Update Question to save changes. [J]

    Edit an Existing Question

    1. Point at the question you want to edit.
    2. Click the pencil icon to the right.
    3. Make edits (as when adding).
    4. Remember to click Update Question to save changes.

    Delete an Existing Question

    1. Point at the question you want to delete.
    2. Click the X icon to the right.
    3. Click OK to confirm deleting.

    Reordering Questions

    1. Point at the question you want to move.
    2. Click the handle ( ) and drag it up or down.
    3. Release the cursor where you would like the question.

    Tip: If you are moving the question a long distance, instead just click on the handle. A window will open up asking you where you’d like it to go.

    Completing and Saving the Quiz

    You must click either Save or Save and Publish at the bottom of the page before leaving the quiz-creation page. Your work will not be saved otherwise. Clicking the Save button at the bottom of the page will save your work on the quiz, but will not allow students access to it in order to take it. Clicking Save and Publish will give students access to the quiz (within the availability dates you set in the Quiz Details).

    Administering Quizzes

    Moderating (and accommodations)

    Once a quiz is published, you can moderate it. Moderating a quiz allows you to monitor student progress in taking the quiz. It is also where you enter accommodations (such as extra time or multiple attempts) for students who need them. To view quiz moderation:

    1. From your course navigation menu, click Quizzes.
    2. Find the quiz from the list and click on it.
    3. Click on Moderate This Quiz. (This is located in the right hand context menu. This may appear below the quiz if your screen or window is narrow (screenshot below).

    In addition to the useful information in the table, you can click the pencil icon at the end of any row to open the Student Extensions screen (screenshot below). Here, you can give a student additional attempts or time. (Extra time will not appear unless the quiz time limit option is enabled.)

    IMPORTANT: This accommodation is only for the time limit. If your availability window (“until date” discussed above) ends before the time limit, the exam ends then. Either make the availability window large enough for all accommodations, or add the student as an additional “assign to” with a separate window.

    Tip: Due date and availability accommodations are made under Quiz Details, as discussed above.

    

    

    Previewing

    You can get a quick preview of what your quiz will look like to students when they take it by using the Preview feature.

    1. From your course navigation menu, click Quizzes.
    2. Find the quiz from the list and click on it.
    3. Click on the blue Preview button in the middle of the page under the quiz options.
    4. This will allow you to preview your quiz.
    5. Follow the on-screen prompts to take the quiz similar to how a student would.
    6. When done, click Submit Quiz.
    7. You will return to your quiz page. If you scroll down, you will see your quiz as you completed it, with correct and incorrect answers marked (for questions that can be graded automatically) and your score.

    For a more robust form of previewing anything in Canvas as a student, including taking and grading a quiz that cannot be graded automatically, see the Student View help guide.

    Quiz Statistics

    Once your quiz has been completed by students and graded, you can view quiz statistics. This includes information such as basic statistics (average, high/low score, standard deviation, average time), and a question-by-question breakdown, including discrimination index.

    1. From your course navigation menu, click Quizzes.
    2. Find the quiz from the list and click on it.
    3. Click on Quiz Statistics. (This is located in the right hand context menu. This many may appear below the quiz if your screen or window is narrow.)

    You can also download this information in CSV (Excel compatible) format by clicking the Student Analysis or Item Analysis buttons at the top of the Quiz Summary page. To learn more about the statistics Canvas makes available to you, visit the full documentation.

    Other Quiz Features

    • You can provide feedback (called answer comments) to students per-question or per-answer answer. These are the green, pink, and slate boxes are while editing a question.
    • Question banks are available in Canvas. See the documentation or request a consultation to learn about them.
    • Quizzes belong to Assignment Groups. This is used for subtotals, weighted grades, or just to categorize your assignments. See our Gradebook guide for more information.

    Instructor Help for Quizzes

    Creating Quizzes

    • How do I use the Quizzes Index Page?
    • What quiz types can I create in a course?
    • What options can I set in a quiz?
    • How do I create a survey in my course?
    • How do I create a quiz with individual questions?
    • How do I create a quiz with a question group to randomize quiz questions?
    • 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?
    • How do I link course content to a quiz question?
    • How do I publish or unpublish a quiz as an instructor?
    • How can I create a quiz where students only see one question at a time?
    • How do I make a quiz available before or after the due date?
    • How do I assign a quiz to an individual student?
    • How do I assign a quiz to a course section?
    • How do I delete a quiz?
    • Once I publish a quiz, how do I make additional changes?

    Quiz Question Types

    • How do I create a Multiple Choice quiz question?
    • How do I create a True/False quiz question?
    • How do I create a Fill-in-the-Blank quiz question?
    • How do I create a Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks quiz question?
    • How do I create a Multiple Answers quiz question?
    • How do I create a Multiple Dropdown quiz question?
    • How do I create Likert scale quiz questions?
    • How do I create a Matching quiz question?
    • How do I create a Numerical Answer quiz question?
    • How do I create a Formula quiz question with a single variable?
    • How do I create a Simple Formula quiz question?
    • How do I create an Essay quiz question?
    • How do I create a File Upload quiz question?
    • How do I create a Text (no question) quiz question?

    Quiz Question Banks

    • How do I create a question bank in a course?
    • How do I bookmark a question bank in a course?
    • How do I unbookmark a question bank in a course?
    • How do I delete a question bank in a course?
    • How do I move multiple questions from one question bank to another?
    • How do I move/copy a question from one question bank to another?
    • How do I reorder questions or question groups in a quiz?
    • How do I import a question bank from one Canvas course to another?

    Moderating and Grading Quizzes

    • Once I publish a quiz, how do I use the Moderate Quiz page?
    • Once I publish a quiz, what kinds of quiz statistics are available?
    • Once I publish a quiz, how can I give my students extra attempts?
    • Once I publish a timed quiz, how can I give my students extra time?
    • How do I manually submit outstanding student quiz submissions?
    • How do I view student results in a quiz?
    • How do I view a quiz log for a student?
    • What options can I use to regrade a quiz in a course?
    • How do I regrade a Multiple Choice quiz question?
    • How do I regrade a True/False quiz question?
    • How do I regrade a Multiple Answers quiz question?
    • How do I view survey results in a course?
    • How do I view practice quiz results in a course?

    Sharing, Importing and Exporting Quizzes

    • How do I import quizzes from QTI packages?
    • How do I export quiz content from a course?
    • How do I copy a quiz to another course?
    • How do I send a quiz to another instructor?

    Student Help for Quizzes

    • How do I view Quizzes as a student?
    • How do I view the rubric for a quiz?
    • How do I take a quiz?
    • How do I take an assessment in New Quizzes?
    • How do I take a quiz where I can only view one question at a time?
    • How do I take an assessment where I can only view one question at a time in New Quizzes?
    • How do I answer each type of question in a quiz?
    • How do I answer each type of question in New Quizzes?
    • How do I resume a quiz that I already started taking?
    • How do I submit a quiz?
    • How do I view quiz results as a student?
    • How do I view quiz comments from my instructor?
    • How do I view my assessment results as a student in New Quizzes?
    • How do I know if I can retake a quiz?
    • How do I know if I can retake an assessment in New Quizzes?
    • How do I submit a survey?