Canvas: Understand Classic Quizzes vs. New Quizzes


When instructors try to make a new quiz by clicking the +Quiz button on the Quizzes page, a window will appear prompting instructors to select either Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes.

  • Classic Quizzes is the quiz tool that has been available since our transition to Canvas. This is the original Quiz tool.
  • New Quizzes is a new quiz tool released in Summer 2020 but new features are still being added.


Please Note: While New Quizzes is available for faculty use in Canvas, it is a beta release with only limited support. Classic Quizzes is recommended as it is fully supported by WSU.


When you try to create a Quiz in your course, you may be presented with the prompt box below:


If you check "Remember my choice for this course", and want to update the preference or have an option to toggle between the two quizzes, you may click on the three dots on the right top corner, you may reset the Quiz Engine choice.




If you are happy with Classic Quizzes and it seems to meet all your needs, please continue using Classic Quizzes. We have enabled New Quizzes, so if any instructors have use cases that New Quizzes supports, then are able to do that. At your convenience, it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with New Quizzes in a practice course, or in a no/low-stake course activity until you are confident that New Quizzes is the right choice for you.


New Quizzes - Pros and Cons

AdvantagesLimitations
  1. Ability to tag questions with metadata and then be able to filter questions using metadata
  2. Ability to search Item banks with key word search
  3. Four new question types in addition to existing ones - Categorization, Hotspot*, Ordering, Stimulus
  4. Be able to import content into individual quiz
  5. Duplicate Quiz from Quizzes page
  6. Ability to shuffle questions globally
  7. Ability to shuffle answers per question
  8. Ability add extra time (Individual Student, for the whole course)
  9. Quintile Performance Reports
  1. Does not support any 3rd party tools/LTI such as proctoring tools.
  2. Some question types like Hot spot* questions are not accessible for users who require keyboard-only access or screen readers.
  3. Does not offer all capabilities within Rich Content Editor**.
  4. Does not support surveys.
  5. Canvas Student View makes New Quizzes act like a student accessed the assessment. 
  6. Partial credit grading functionality is supported only for Fill-In-The-Blank and Multiple Answer question type
  7. Does not support grading one question at a time (SpeedGrader)
  8. Does not provide Student Analysis CSV reports
  9. Reports may take up to 24 hours to generate
  10. Cannot bookmark Item banks

*Please be aware that Hotspot is not accessible for users requiring keyboard-only access or screen readers. It should also be noted that there are accessibility issues with more than just the Hot Spot option. WSU does not encourage the use of such question types that are not ADA compliant. Should faculty choose to use those question types, they should be prepared to offer an alternative for those who may need.

**The following functionalities within the Rich Content Editor are not currently available 

  1. Record audio and video via tool in the RCE
  2. Content Selector Sidebar
  3. Accessibility Checker
  4. Apps and LTI tools
  5. HTML Editor
  6. Media Recorder
  7. Right-to-left/left-to-right formatting buttons

Comparison at a glance:-


Comparison at a glance in table format:



Classic QuizzesNew Quizzes
Pros

LTI tools and Proctoring

Question banks per course/account

Surveys

Rich Content Editor

Item Banks by user and can be shared with other users

Tag Item bank with metadata

Search Item Bank

New Question types

Cons

Searching Huge Item banks cumbersome

No functionality to tag question banks with metadata

Not all new question types are ADA compliant 

No LTI tools or Proctoring

No Grading one question at a time (SpeedGrader)

Student Analysis CSV not available

Important Notes-


  1. Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes keep separate question banks and do not share. In order to use your question bank From Classic Quizzes as Item banks in New Quizzes, you would need to create a dummy quiz with all questions within a question bank and then export that quiz and import it in New Quizzes Item banks.
  2. Blueprint courses are supported for initial sync only in New Quizzes. 
  3. Point value of a Quiz
    1. Classic Quizzes - In the current quiz tool the point value of the quiz is determined by the number of points associated with each question in the quiz. 

    2. New Quizzes - In the new quiz tool the point value of the quiz is set in the assignment settings. Each question or question set in the quiz can have a set value as well. The students' scores are determined by the following formula:

      Correct answer points /Total number of question points * Total point value of the quiz

      The point value and assign to options for the quiz can be changed from the assignment settings. Once the quiz has been started, the point value cannot be changed. If there is an error, scores can be modified from within SpeedGrader.

  4. Question Types Fill in Multiple Blanks, Multiple dropdown, Text (No Question) are not supported in New Quizzes, below are the workaround options -


Item/Question Type not supportedWorkaround 
Fill in Multiple BlanksUse Fill in the Blank question
Multiple DropdownUse Fill in the Blank question
Text (No Question)Text can be included as stimulus content, but the stimulus type requires adding questions related to the content



       5. Creating a Practice Quiz and an ungraded Quiz are not supported in New Quizzes, But there are workaround options:


Features not supportedWorkaround 
Create Practice QuizCreate an assignment worth 0 points
Create Ungraded QuizCreate an assignment worth 0 points and select option to exclude from final grade


       6. There is no functionality to download all student submissions.


Please note that Canvas is making changes and improvements to New Quizzes. To learn more about the new tool and how it compares with the classic Quizzes tool, see the following Canvas documentation. Canvas updates these documents regularly as new features are implemented in New Quizzes.
• New Quizzes: FAQ
• New Quizzes Feature Comparison

Important Links:

  1. How to migrate a classic quiz to a new quiz?
  2. How do I share an item bank in New Quizzes?
  3. New Quizzes timeline overview
  4. How do I grade an assessment in New Quizzes? 
  5. All about New Quizzes