Canvas quizzes not awarding points correctly

[IreneGrant]

I set up a quiz with a mix of multiple choice and multiple answer questions, expecting one point to be awarded per correct answer.  Multiple answer questions often weren't marked correctly - it seems a wrong answer cancelled a correct answer, which wasn't my intention.  I had to manually go through each students qiz and correct marks, which was laborious.  How can I change marking rules in Quizzes? 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @IreneGrant,

Unfortunately, I don't think Canvas will do exactly what you may want.

In Classic Quizzes: "To calculate scores for Multiple Answers quiz questions, Canvas divides the total points possible by the amount of correct answers for that question. This amount is awarded for every correct answer selected and deducted for every incorrect answer selected. No points are awarded or deducted for correct or incorrect answers that are not selected. For example, an instructor may create a Multiple Answer quiz question with 9 points possible that includes three correct choices and two incorrect choices. If a student selects two correct answers and one incorrect answer, they would be awarded 3 total points for that question. This would be calculated by awarding 3 points (9 total points divided by 3 correct answers) for each correct answer and subtracting 3 points for the incorrect answer."

In New Quizzes: "You can choose to award partial credit with penalty or require an exact match for Multiple Answer questions. The partial credit with penalty option awards points for each correct answer selected and deducts points for each incorrect answer selected. Exact match awards full credit only if all correct answers are selected and no incorrect answers are selected.

Partial credit is calculated by dividing the total points possible by the number of correct answers for the question. This amount is awarded for each correct answer selected and deducted for each incorrect answer selected. No points are awarded or deducted for answers that are not selected. Zero is the lowest possible score. For example, if a question is worth 4 points and there are 2 correct answers, Canvas divides 4 by 2 and awards 2 points for correct answers selected and deducts 2 points for incorrect answers. If a student selects 2 correct answers and 1 incorrect answer, the student will receive 2 points total (4 points awarded for correct answers and 2 points deducted for incorrect answers)."

So no matter which quiz engine you're using, there will always be a penalty for selecting incorrect answers.  Without this penalty, students could just select every answer on every question and earn full points.  New Quizzes gives an additional option for an exact answer only, but that seems to be almost the opposite of what you want.

I'm hopeful that having this information will help, and perhaps you could communicate this to students to help them know what will happen if they start guessing at answers too much.  I know it's not exactly the answer you were looking for, but I'm going to mark this as the solution, as it's how Canvas functions at the time this was written.

-Chris