Multiple Fill in the Blank Choices

[MayaStahl]

For Fill in the Blank questions (New Quiz) with multiple correct answers...

I am a teacher and I have built a new quiz. I wanted a fill in the blank answer choice, but I do not need them to be in a specific order. Does the program require that the order be the same as I coded it in the question?

Does it matter the order the students place the answers? Does it have to be the exact order as I did it on the Canvas quiz?

Thank you!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello @MayaStahl ...

Thanks for describing the kind of fill-in-the-blank question you'd like to set up in New Quizzes.  I think the best way to do this would be to set it up so that both answers are "Open Entry" where students type in their responses.  In the "Text Match" area, you'd select "Specify Correct Answers".  In my example, you can see that I used the "Roses are `red`, violets are `blue`" example.  When you tell Canvas to "Specify Correct Answers", it puts red and blue in the respective first possible answer boxes, and so I just added the other color as a second possible answer.  Here's an illustration:

Do you think this might work for your needs?  Keep us posted here in the Community...thanks!

[BradThames]

One problem with this solution is that a student could enter the same answer for both blanks and get the question "right". Let's suppose the question was something like, "The colors of the US flag are `red`, `white`, and `blue`" and you want students to be able to write in all three colors, but like in the original post, it doesn't matter which order. If red, white, or blue was a possible answer for each blank, then a student could write in "red" for all three and get it "correct", when that would be a mistake. This came up in the context of an exam where it's really important for the students to be able to write in the answers from memory, so drop-downs and word banks would not suffice. 

Any ideas?

[Chris_Hofer]

@BradThames ...

Hmmmm...you bring up a really good point that I did not consider in my response.  Thank you!

As for a suggestion to remedy this...well, the only thing I can think of at the moment would be to include a short paragraph in the directions for this question that each answer must be unique...no repeats of colors (or whatever the words would be).  And, maybe include a note that says if a student puts in the same color for all answer blanks, only one will be counted correct by the instructor (assuming that the instructor would review the answers at a later time to check for accuracy).

Would that work for your needs?

[BradThames]

Thanks Chris!  I can see that working in smaller settings, but the course in question is very large, making it difficult to manually check each quiz; in fact, the instructor originally came to me because she was having to manually check each quiz to see if the student put the correct answers in the wrong order, echoing the problem of the original poster. So ideally there would be a way for Canvas to automatically grade a question like this, and it appears not. I guess it's over to the feature idea page!  

[MayaStahl]

Okay, thank you Chris!