nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Providing extra time in bulk for multiple students for multiple quizzes w/in a course

JACOBSEN_C

(is this where we now create feature requests now with the new community site?)

Hi, we're commonly looking at the workload to giving extra time for multiple students for multiple quizzes w/in a course. Canvas does not currently offer a built-in way to bulk assign extended time for multiple students across multiple quizzes in a course. Extended time is manually added individually through Quiz Moderation. What would be great is something similar to the page to bulk update due dates to assignments, just with quizzes and to add extended time that is normally done individually through quiz moderation.

Thanks!

Find more posts tagged with

Instructional Designer

Instructor

Developers

Accepted answers

Chris

Hi @JACOBSEN_C,

In new Quizzes, there are two different areas to set up accommodations/moderations. Accommodations (clicking on the student name) are the ones that will apply to all New Quizzes, while Moderations (clicking the pencil) will only apply to a single quiz (though they both show up under the Accommodations column once entered). My guess is your screenshots show that a Moderation was applied to a single quiz.

-Chris

All comments

jeremyfw

Hi @JACOBSEN_C

Canvas stores extra time as a per-quiz, per-student override. That decision was intentional: extended time is treated as an assessment accommodation, not a scheduling rule. Because of that, Canvas never built a bulk UI the way it did for due dates.

Why it’s hard:

Quiz Moderation writes overrides at the attempt level, not the assignment level
Each quiz is its own override table
Canvas can’t safely assume the same students need the same accommodation on every quiz

That’s the architectural wall you’re hitting.

What can be done today (without Canvas API / admin scripting):

1. New Quizzes + Accommodations (best native option)

If you’re using New Quizzes, student accommodations (e.g., +50% time) apply automatically to all New Quizzes in the course.
This is the closest Canvas gets to “set it once, forget it.”

How do I add accommodations for a student in New Quizzes? This guide walks through the process of giving additional time, removing time limits, or using a time-limit multiplier for a student.

This was also answered by @Chris in his reply to a similar question last year.

Limitation:

Doesn’t work for Classic Quizzes
Applies uniformly (no quiz-specific variation)

2. Course-level duplicate quizzes (structural workaround)

Some institutions create:

a standard quiz
an “extended time” version
and assign via differentiated assignments.

This works, but:

doubles maintenance
risks version drift
is fragile at scale

3. Feature request (still valid, still missing)

This really is a feature gap, and posts like this are exactly how Canvas tracks demand. The fact that accommodations exist for New Quizzes but not bulk moderation strongly suggests Canvas expects users to migrate rather than extend Classic tooling.

The honest recommendation:

If extended time is common and systematic → migrate to New Quizzes + student accommodations
If it’s rare and contextual → manual moderation is still the only UI path
If it’s institution-wide → API automation is the only scalable answer

This is one of those places where Canvas’s philosophy shows: precision over convenience. Reasonable for accessibility compliance — painful for instructors managing real classrooms at scale.

JACOBSEN_C

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you for the reply. We are not seeing the behavior to #1 in your list. Images below to illustrate. Are we missing it somewhere?

—

Chris

Hi @JACOBSEN_C,

-Chris

Sign in to read more

Enhance your access to articles, forums, and events—and to participate by sharing insights, engaging in discussions, and connecting with your network of edtech peers.

Unanswered Questions

Portfolio Questions
We are looking to the Portfolio option but I have a few things I am not sure of that would be crucial to be able to apply the way it is needed. One, can you have the portfolio follow the student through the entire program (five total semesters) seamlessly or is it just going to be one semester? We have a clinical portfolio…
Total Column Averages?
It would be great to see the averages or any statistical information on the total columns in Canvas. As it is, we can only see averages after opening up the speed graded for individual assignments. Or that is all that I have found so far. I know we can download a CSV file but those are not interactive and kept up to date…
Solicitud de apoyo – Error al modificar opciones de respuesta en New Quizzes
Cordial saludo Actualmente estamos presentando una inconsistencia en New Quizzes al momento de realizar la migración y posterior edición de las evaluaciones. Específicamente, al intentar modificar una pregunta y eliminar una de sus opciones de respuesta, el sistema no permite ejecutar dicha acción. Con el fin de descartar…
Rubric with letter grade while Gradebook shows points
Is there a way for me to create a rubric that shows BOTH points and a letter grade, while the Gradebook in both my view and student view shows JUST points? I tried setting up the rubric showing a letter grade in the grading scheme, and a letter shows in the Assessment box…but then my gradebook also shows the letter grade,…
Canvas Outcomes – Best Way to Structure Multiple Skill Sets for Reporting?
Our institution is setting up 9 institutional outcomes in Canvas. Several of our outcomes have multiple skill sets within the rubric. For example: Critical Reading – Skill Set A Critical Reading – Skill Set B Critical Reading – Skill Set C Our understanding is that Canvas Outcomes data reports can provide the overall/total…