Why does Canvas Quizzes not like "0" as an answer?

[ashley_mcbride]

I have created a Quiz in Canvas with two questions that have the answer "0". One is a numerical answer question where students input "0" as the answer and the second is a fill in the blank question where students input "0".

When students go to submit the quiz, it says that they have 2 questions unanswered or without answers. I told them to submit anyways and it counts the 2 questions correct with "0" as the answer but it is inconvenient that the kids think their answer is not being saved as "0".

Why is Canvas doing this and can it be fixed? 0 should count as an answer.

[kona · Accepted solution]

 @ashley_mcbride , this is an interesting question/problem. My recommendation is to escalate this to Canvas Support. It sounds like some type of potential bug in the system and they should be made aware of the issue or if it's a known issue, they might be able to provide additional information about the status of the issue.

Hope this helps! Kona

[kona · Accepted solution]

 @ashley_mcbride , this is an interesting question/problem. My recommendation is to escalate this to Canvas Support. It sounds like some type of potential bug in the system and they should be made aware of the issue or if it's a known issue, they might be able to provide additional information about the status of the issue.

Hope this helps! Kona

[swd5237]

I talked to Instructure on the phone and they said this has sort of been "shelved" as they transition to the new version of quizzes. 

One "trick" we found is to enter 0.0. Canvas will tell the student that he/she hasn't answered that question, but they WILL recieve credit for it if 0 is the correct answer. 

Hope this helps! Soon we'll all be using new quizzes, so this is just a workaround until your school/university is transitioned to new quizzes. 

[kkilpo]

This still seems to be an issue...when will it be fixed? Very frustrating.

[u4564845 · Accepted solution]

In the instruction, I put "Type zero for 0."

[u4564845]

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Question-Forum/Bug-report/m-p/491566

[JosephBarkley]

This bug still exists, just filled out a quiz, anything that is text input does not recognize 0 or 0.0 as a completed answer