Understanding classic Quizzes vs. New Quizzes

New Quizzes is an additional quizzing tool in Canvas that offers several new features and question types, but is missing many features from the current Quizzes tool on which many instructors depend. Both New Quizzes and classic Quizzes will continue to be available until New Quizzes has the same features as classic Quizzes. New Quizzes has been enabled in Canvas so instructors may begin familiarizing themselves with the tool by experimenting in practice courses and/or using it for no- or low-stakes course activities.

Canvas Documentation

To learn more about the new tool and how it compares with the classic Quizzes tool, see the following Canvas documentation. Canvas updates these documents regularly as new features are implemented in New Quizzes.

The comparison linked above is a high-level overview of the differences between New Quizzes and classic Quizzes. Listed below are some additional features in classic Quizzes that are not yet available in New Quizzes:

Proctoring and Lockdown browsers

  • New Quizzes may be used with Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor. 
  • At this time, New Quizzes does not support the use of Honorlock. 

Question Banks

  • Banks created in classic Quizzecannot be migrated directly to New Quizzes.

Extra Attempts

  • Blueprints.
  • Assessments in New Quizzes are only synced to blueprint courses during the initial sync. Changes to assessments are not included in subsequent sync attempts.

Get Started

Despite New Quizzes being part of Canvas, it behaves a little differently than other core Canvas tools because it, technically, is an external tool. Below are some tips to get you started along with a more detailed video.

  1. Enable New Quizzes in your course
    • New Quizzes is currently a course-level feature option. To turn it on in your course, navigate to Settings and choose Feature Options, then set the New Quizzes option to On.
  2. Go to Canvas Quizzes
    • The Canvas Quizzes tool now houses both classic Quizzes and New Quizzes. When you create a quiz, you’ll be asked which type of quiz you want to work with. On the quiz listing page, icon styles differentiate classic from New Quizzes. Classic Quizzes has an outlined icon of a rocket ship; whereas, the icon for New Quizzes is a solid (filled in) rocket ship.
  3. Quiz settings
    • The settings for New Quizzes are stored in two different places. When you create a New Quiz, you’ll be prompted to fill in the title, points, assignment group and availability/due date, as well as to add an optional rubric (these are the assignment settings for the quiz). As soon as you save these initial settings, you’ll enter the quiz in edit mode. Select Settings to set the delivery settings for the quiz (for example, shuffle questions/answers, one question at a time, number of attempts, feedback visibility, etc.). To access the assignment settings page after the quiz is created, open the options menu (three vertical dots to the right of the quiz level), and select Edit. To access the delivery settings, select the quiz title to enter edit mode, and then select Settings.
      NOTE:  Regardless of the number of points available in the quiz, the point value entered in the assignment details determines the value in the Gradebook. For the Gradebook score, the percentage of quiz points earned is multiplied by the points possible in the assignment details. For example, if a student earns 18 out of 20 points (90%) on a quiz worth 15 points in the assignment details, the student’s score in the Gradebook would be 90% of 15, or 13.5.
  4. Grading 
    • To grade a New Quiz, go to the Canvas Gradebook. Select any student cell in the column for the quiz, open the Grade Detail Tray, and select SpeedGrader. Once you’re in SpeedGrader, use the student list and the Next/Previous links to move from one student to the next.
  5. Return to your course
    • When you are working in a quiz, the navigation menu for your course is hidden. To leave the quiz and return to your course at any time, select Return at the upper right corner of the screen.

Canvas campus and vendor resources

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