Small Updates, Big Impact: New Quizzes Delighters for Q4 2024

[BalazsSerenyi]

Hello, New Quizzes users! 

We're excited to share some recent improvements, inspired directly by you - our Canvas users! Many of these new features are ready to enjoy now, while some are planned for early 2025.

Today's highlights focus on "delighters" — small-but-mighty features that make building, managing, and taking New Quizzes a whole lot easier. And keep an eye out for future updates to proctoring and content management in the new year.

Released in Q4

Show Submission Date and Time in Moderate Log - This update provides critical details right where you need them. Monitor quiz submissions more effectively by viewing exact dates and times directly in the moderation log.

Two-Minute Alert for Timed Quizzes - Keep students informed with a timely alert as they approach the deadline, ensuring they're aware of the remaining time to complete their quiz.

Visibility of Question Types in Student Experience - This feature enhances accessibility by displaying question types to all users, including those using screen readers. By making question types visible in the student view, we're helping to ensure that every student has the information they need to succeed.

Improved Support for New Quizzes in Mobile Apps – These updates simplify navigation, enhance labeling, and add consistent visuals, making it easier for students and instructors to access and manage quizzes seamlessly. Learn more in the original Canvas Mobile Apps blog post.

Coming Next 

Reduced answer choices accommodation - We are  implementing a feature in New Quizzes that allows educators to tailor the number of answer options for individual students. This means you can now adjust the complexity of multiple-choice questions to suit the unique needs of each student, ensuring a more equitable testing experience.

Keyboard Support for Setting Target Locations on Hotspots in Quizzes - We're improving the quiz interaction experience with keyboard support for managing hotspots. This update allows users to adjust the position, size, and configuration of hotspots using keyboard shortcuts, making it accessible for everyone and reducing the reliance on a mouse or touchpad.

Multiple Selections in Hotspot Questions - We're enhancing Hotspot questions to allow instructors to define multiple correct areas within the same question. Now, you can create more dynamic and inclusive visual assessments using a variety of regular shapes, including squares, ovals, and polygons.

Default font settings for quiz authoring - We're simplifying the authoring process with a default font setting feature available on the Settings Page of New Quizzes. Now, you can select a default font type and size that will automatically apply to all rich content within a quiz.

We're always listening to your feedback and can't wait to deliver even more enhancements in 2025.

[EmilyCottrell]

While I have appreciated some of the new updates to New Quizzes (things like finally getting a Student Analysis report for New Quizzes as a CSV file), I am still left scratching my head with a couple of basic things Classic Quizzes can do that New Quizzes still cannot.

The one that has been a large sticking point for me the last few weeks, while trying to encourage professors at our university to switch to New Quizzes from their Classic Quiz models, is the lack of an option to have a text-only (no question/answers) add in for New Quizzes. I have searched through community posts, and all solutions provided require adding the text as a "stimulus"--but being forced to create a question to go along with this. 

This is so very counterproductive to attempting to encourage forward progress, when we can't even replicate the most basic of features in the new option. 

I am aware that general text can be added to the top of a New Quiz---the downside of this is that all of the text placed here is visible BEFORE launching the test. Oftentimes it is requested to be able to have information present once a student has officially launched the assessment. 

This seems like it should be higher on a priority list somewhere--since it doesn't seem to be something that any other test-making software struggles with. 

It just disappoints me I never see this in any of the talk for upcoming or current updates. 

[Hildi_Pardo]

The updates look very exciting!

And Oh yes -- I would like to piggyback on @EmilyCottrell comment.     The "Text (No Question)" option is very useful. 

Could the solution be as easy as making the "Stimulus" have a "Add Question" option, and a "No Question" option?

[ryan_corris]

Definitely some nice features!  Here are a few questions I am wondering about:

1. Regarding the reduced answer choices, it looks like this is a toggle switch to turn this on or off.
   • Is the instructor able to select which answer(s) are removed or is it randomized?
   • If it is randomized, do all students have the same answer removed, or do different students have different answer choices removed?
   • Is the option to only have one answer removed, or could an instructor have possibly two answers removed (maybe more than four answer choices to begin with)? 
2. Regarding the multiple selections in hotspots, I am wanting to understand this correctly.
   • If the instructor has three hot spots, the student needs to click on all three hotspots to be a correct answer?
   • Is it possible to have three (or more) hotspots that all indicate correct answers but the student only has to click on one to answer correctly?

@EmilyCottrell and @Hildi_Pardo, I agree with you.  I do like the text no question option too.  Sometimes it can be used for a quick encouragement in the middle of a quiz.  Something like, "You're half way through!  Keep working hard and I know you will do well."  While it is not optimal, since it is required to have an answer on a New Quizzes multiple choice question, I will sometimes include a multiple choice question with only one answer option.  For the "question", I will add whatever text I want the students to see.  Then for the "answer", I will have something like, "Click once you have read the statement and are ready to move on". So these types of questions (without really being questions) don't affect the grade of the quiz, I will make them worth 0 points.  This way they don't benefit from "correctly" answering or miss points for not answering the question.  While it would be nice if the text no question was an option in New Quizzes like it is in Classic, this is at least a way it can kind of be replicated for the time being.

[GideonWilliams]

Still waiting for RCE across all quiz types. No idea why this was not introduced at the very beginning. As someone who has been using 'New' quizzes for over 5 years it continues to be a long wait. I would also like to see the grade given reported when submitting a quiz rather than having to go and find it in the gradebook somewhere. I'm guessing this is the problem with having an LTI. Finally, if the New Editor block allows you to 'embed' a quiz questions in a block then why not be able to embed an entire quiz within a page.

I'd settle for the RCE improvements tbh. Adding media to question types opens up quiz use across so many other areas...

[vancej]

@GideonWilliams Can you clarify the behavior with  New Quizzes not reporting a grade? Or are you saying for the objective question-types New Quizzes does not report to the gradebook what the students earned before you assess the  essay/short answer question-types?