CanvasCanvas New QuizzesDifferences between Canvas Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes

Differences between Canvas Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes

Canvas has a New Quizzes tool which Tufts faculty can use in their courses. The existing quiz tool ("Classic Quizzes") will also remain available.

The New Quizzes tool is still in development. When it becomes fully featured, there will be a transition to New Quizzes. We will provide updates on that timeline.

Below are some of the current notable differences between Canvas "Classic" and "New" quizzes.

Quiz Questions

New Quizzes includes four new question types:

  • Categorization: Students place answers in the correct categories.
  • Ordering: Students place answers in the correct order.
  • Hot Spot: Students select a point or region on an image. (This question type is not accessible for users who require keyboard-only access or screen readers.)
  • Stimulus: The quiz displays a piece of content with associated questions.

There are no "Question Groups" in New Quizzes. Instead, questions can be grouped with a Stimulus.

Additionally, in New Quizzes, "shuffle answers" can be set per question (as well as globally). "Shuffle questions" can be set globally without the need for a Question Group.

Quiz Feedback

  • In Classic Quizzes, the default is that students cannot see feedback unless the instructor checks the feedback boxes in quiz settings.
  • In New Quizzes, the default is that students can see all feedback. The instructor can choose to restrict feedback in the quiz settings.

Grading

New Quizzes have two settings that impact the total point value of the quiz.

One is in the quiz details, and is called Set Total Points, and the other is the cumulative value of points assigned to questions. This allows you to weigh questions within the quiz and independently determine the weight of the quiz in the total course grade. For simplicity, you can make these two numbers equal: Give each question the appropriate number of points, calculate the total points available, and fill that number into the "Set Total Points" blank in the quiz settings.

If those two numbers are not equal, Canvas will calculate the quiz grade as follows:

A quiz grade is based on the percentage of quiz points earned (according to point values assigned to individual questions) multiplied by total points possible (according to the quiz 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.

Quiz Moderation and Accommodations

In New Quizzes, when extending time for a given student, you can provide the extension for all of that student's quizzes at once, instead of having to moderate each quiz individually. Accommodations are set on the "Moderate" tab.

Question Banks

Question Banks are called "Item Banks" in New Quizzes. Canvas Classic Question Banks cannot directly be migrated to Item Banks. However, a Question Bank can be imported to New Quizzes if it is attached to a Classic Quiz.  

To migrate a Classic Question Bank into a New Quizzes Item Bank, the bank must first be ported into a Classic Quiz (not a New Quiz) on the old course site. Then that Classic Quiz can be exported and the export file can be imported to an Item Bank. For more details, see this conversation in the Canvas Community and this article on moving Question Banks to Item Banks.  

In New Quizzes, questions can be stored in Item Banks and used in other New Quizzes in the same course, or other Canvas courses.

Roles

In New Quizzes, Instructors and TAs can create quizzes, but Course Designers cannot.

Surveys

Surveys can be migrated from Classic Quizzes to New Quizzes. However, the survey will be migrated as a standard quiz, because New Quizzes does not include a survey feature.

More Information

For a comprehensive list of current differences in the quiz tools, see this feature comparison of Canvas New and Classic Quizzes. This document will be updated as the New Quizzes tool continues to be developed.

The complete instructor user guide for New Quizzes is available in the Canvas Guides.