Help Needed: How to Take First Attempt Grade on Quizzes

Is there a way to get the quizzes feature on Canvas to take the first attempt grade for quizzes and also complete the quiz to 90%? I'm interested in this feature, because I want to incorporate competency-based learning, but I want students to study prior to a quiz, because it's high stakes.

I know this is a feature within the New Quizzes on Canvas, but the New Quizzes don't allow for smooth transition of questions into the test banks. It's possible, but SO effortful.

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Accepted answers

james_whalley

Hello @sargonza,

Sorry for the slow reply. I was really trying to think through this one.

Since you are working to combine Question Banks before transferring them, I am not sure if there is a method that is any faster. It would be cool if there were a feature where you could check boxes on a list of banks and then select to merge them.

If you are really set with staying with classic Quizzes, I can imagine a solution for the 90% benchmark, but it may be more work than the work of migrating Question Banks to Item Banks. It could be something like having a quiz that has a Mastery Path that releases a copy of the quiz for any score less than 90% and releases the next quiz for a score of 90% or above. The quiz copy would be kept in an Assignment Group worth 0% in order to not affect the grade. The quiz copy would also be set to release the next quiz on the achievement of 90% or above and would have unlimited attempts. The original score would have a single attempt.

So, it is possible, but is a bit of work. At least you have options now though.

Best,

James

All comments

james_whalley

Hello @sargonza,

Unfortunately, classic Quizzes on Canvas cannot use the first attempt grade for grading. This is an idea that has been mentioned in the past and the product team was able to add the functionality for New Quizzes (since it was already in development and development had stopped on Quizzes). Instructors at Cornell have gotten around this by making copies of quizzes as Practice Quizzes for students to use for studying.

As for completing the quiz to 90%, I am not sure I know what you mean. Can you elucidate?

Also, for migrating questions into Item Banks, may I ask which method you are using?

Regards,

James

sargonza

Hi James,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to me. It's unfortunate that they're no longer working on updates to Quizzes. I do like the features available on the New Quizzes and just wish it was easier to get the test banks transferred over.

Currently, what I've been doing is creating a quiz using the old quizzes. Then, I create a question group and add in all of the questions I want to be added into one test bank on the New Quizzes. I then go to course settings, I export the quiz I created. This creates an export file. I take that file and import it to the course and select the option for it to be added as a New Quiz. It is very cumbersome. Is there a simpler way that you know of? I've also been doing it this way, because I want to combine multiple test banks into 1. For example, I have 3 different test banks with content from Chapter 1 and I want to create 1 master test bank for chapter 1 on New Quizzes.

I'll try my best to clarify what I mean about having students complete the quiz until the reach 90%. I want to use competency-based learning in my course, which means that students must demonstrate mastery of the material by reaching a specific criterion level. For my courses, I've set the criterion level at 90%. Meaning, I want students to reach 90% on a quiz before they're able to access the next quiz and other more advanced content in the course. I don't want them moving on to more complex topics if they haven't fully grasped a more basic or foundational topic. I've been doing this by using the prerequisite feature within Canvas and setting the prerequisite for specific assignments at 90%. With this method though, everyone must reach 90% on all assignments. Which means all students will end up with a grade of at least 90%. Instead, I want the students grade to be based off their initial attempt so that they feel inclined to study and prepare for the quizzes, but still require them to retake the quiz until they reach 90%. This is possible on the New Quizzes.

I hope this helps to clarify what I am trying to achieve.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond to me and I look forward to your response.

james_whalley

Hello @sargonza,

Sorry for the slow reply. I was really trying to think through this one.

So, it is possible, but is a bit of work. At least you have options now though.

Best,

James

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