[New Quizzes] Student Highlight & Annotation Tools for Quizzes

[msommer]

Standardized testing looms large in the minds of all 3-8 grade teachers, in NJ where I work especially,  but also across the country. One of the skills students need to be able to succeed on the PARCC or SBA is to organize their thinking while reading across texts in an online testing environment, in order to write coherent essays and answer multiple choice questions citing text evidence in their answers. We teach them to do that by highlighting portions of the text as they are reading or going back to re-read, so they can use those pieces of evidence in writing their constructed responses. This is what they will be expected to do when they take PARCC or SBA.

We want our teachers to use Canvas to create engaging, meaningful, creative and collaborative learning experiences for students. The unfortunate reality of PARCC and SBA results being tied to teacher evaluations means our teachers also want tools they can use to specifically and directly help students practice for high-stakes testing. Annotation tools would go a long way in that regard. Please consider developing a way for students to highlight text in quizzes.

[TaylorB123]

Hello! I am proposing that Canvas add a strikeout feature and highlight feature to their online exams. This new generation of mainly online testing formats makes online testing difficult for individuals accustomed to taking physical paper exams. Having an option to strike out options will assist in allowing students to eliminate answers that they already eliminated in their minds. Also having a highlight option will allow students to pick out important details in answers as well as in the given vignette. I believe that with these features, students and instructors will see a big improvement in grades. Canvas will also see an increase in users since not many online student exam platforms have adopted these features. 

[Kheywood]

My teachers need to have their students annotate essays, images, text, etc within/during a Quiz.  They should have all of the same options they would as if they were taking a paper/pencil quiz.  Also, it needs to be added to meet the needs of students with accommodations such as "Mark in Book".  This feature needs to be added!

[DebRoberts]

Any updates on this feature? Are there any third-party tools that can be added/used with Canvas? 

[TeresaCarr]

There is a GREAT desire from teachers and students for tools such as highlighting text AND eliminating answer choices within a quiz.  These strategies are taught in grade school and continue in middle school and high school.  The state testing done on computers has these tools for students to use, so it makes it VERY difficult to encourage students to use these strategies when they can't be done on Canvas.  HIghlighting text encourages students to go back and look for evidence for their answers.  Eliminating answer choices, helps students visualize what they can "slash and trash" to then  choose from a smaller number of choices.  I can not express enough how much these tools are needed and would be appreciated.

Thank you for your consideration.

[LauraRO_TEIDE]

Problem statement:

When a student has to read a text and answer questions in new quizzes, can´t underline or mark some parts of the text while doing it.

Proposed solution:

It would be useful to be able to underline or mark some parts of the text which are important, above all when doing the work against the clock.

User role(s):

instructor,student

[ElleH]

I would also like to create quizzes that allows a quiz question to present a file (similar to the student annotation submission assignment) to students and then students annotate the file based on a set of instructions. Using the stimulus option, I would like to ask students not only to annotate the file but also to answer multiple choice questions about the same file and/or write an essay response to it, etc. This type of assessment would be more meaningful than a simple multiple choice question.

[hinkea]

Problem statement:

To best replicate the testing environment that students face during high stakes testing I would like to feature of annotation to be a part of the student response in a stimulus question. We teach them to annotate as they read to assist with comprehension and I think this feature along with stimulus would be really beneficial.

Proposed solution:

Combine the power of annotation like in assignments and speed grader with the stimulus question feature in new quizzes.

User role(s):

admin

[jessica_gutierr]

Problem statement:

Student annotation is not currently available as part the new quizzes platform. As part of their requirements in certain courses students are required to annotate a text as evidence to answer questions. Our courses include document based questions (DBQ) When using the stimulus question type, adding the functionality of annotation/marking up a text or image is critical to this type of assignment. They also have to respond to questions and complete write up at the end. Being able to create this within new quizzes as one assignment with multiple questions using the side-by-side functionality would be great.

Proposed solution:

Adding in the annotation/mark up functionality to the stimulus question. Ideally this would be best if it could be done on the edit stimulus side (left) of the question type. This would help student be able to reference their annotated text in order to answer the questions that will be on the right.

User role(s):

admin