selective shuffling of answer options in a quiz

[jmk50]

I have a quiz where I've opted to shuffle answer options on all the questions. However, I have ONE question where I don't want to shuffle answer options. For that question only, I want the answers to appear in a certain order.

E.g. an opinion question worth zero points, where the answer options go in a descending order, likert-style

E.g. a question where "none of the above" is an option, so I want to ensure that appears last

Is there a way to mark individual questions within a quiz so that they are exempt from the otherwise global choice to shuffle answer options?

OR, just as good, to mark an individual answer option to force it to display in a certain position (e.g. "make this answer the last choice")

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Good morning, @jmk50 ...

Are you using current Classic Quizzes, or are you using New Quizzes?  If you are using New Quizzes, I think you'll be able to do all of what you are asking.  In taking a look at my own sandbox course with New Quizzes, there is an overall toggle switch (found in the "Settings" screen of New Quizzes) for "Shuffle Answers" that can be turned on/off.  This would shuffle answers for all questions in the quiz.  In addition, if I were to select a multiple choice type of question via the "Build" page, I also have a check-box for "Shuffle Choices".  When I check that box, a padlock icon appears next to the answer choices that you supply...and you can choose to "lock" any answer choice so that it remains at that position.  So, if you wanted "None of the above" to remain the fourth option, you can absolutely do that.  Here are a couple Guides I think will be helpful to you:

• How do I manage settings for a quiz in New Quizzes... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) - See the section on "Shuffle Answers"
• How do I create a Multiple Choice question in New ... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com) - See the section on "Shuffle Answers"

If you do not yet have access to New Quizzes, check with your school's Canvas administrator or someone from their Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Education team to see what their plan is for letting you and your fellow instructors use New Quizzes in your course(s).

Hope this helps a bit!

[jmk50]

I am using classic quizzes, not new quizzes. :(.   I'm actually hesitant to switch to new quizzes because I have hundreds of elaborate quizzes built in classic quizzes. After reading some of the posts about new quizzes here, I'm worried that some of my quizzes will get mangled in translation, or else I'll have to recreate them one quiz and one question at a time, or that I'll lose some functionality for some of the more exotic question types I use.

Thank you anyway for the suggestion. :-}.

Say, if anyone knows a way to do this using classic quizzes, or can thoroughly assuage my fear about the inconvenience of the switchover, kindly let me know. Otherwise I guess I'll just hafta miss out. 😕

[Chris_Hofer]

@jmk50 ...

I can only recommend trying the migration from a Classic Quiz to a New Quiz (if you have New Quizzes available to you).  You don't need to publish the New Quiz at all.  In fact, if you had a sandbox course that's separate from your normal course(s), you could even copy a quiz into your sandbox course and then perform the migration in that course so that you can see exactly what the migration will do.  Either way will work.  It's just getting you familiar with the New Quiz interface and how your questions might work.  In my experience with migration quizzes, most things will look o.k.  There may be a few tweaks you'll need to make here and there, but hopefully for you that won't be a whole lot.

How do I migrate a Canvas quiz to New Quizzes?

To be honest, I am not sure if there is a way to accomplish what I've described earlier in Classic Quizzes.  My experience has been as a Canvas administrator and not an instructor, so maybe there are work-arounds that other folks have come up with.  However, at the moment, I'm not coming up with any solutions for Classic Quizzes...sorry to say.

Again, I'd recommend having a conversation with your school's Canvas admin team.  They'll be able to provide you more information on when their plan is to roll out New Quizzes to you and your colleagues...if they haven't already.

Hope this helps!

[RupertRussell]

You can't do this with Classic quizzes.