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How do I reorder quizzes in Quizzes?

User3247983247

I'm an instructor. I know how to reorder quizzes in Assignments (I grab the 8-dot 'drag handle'). But how do I reorder quizzes in Quizzes? Thanks!

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Dianna

Quizzes don't appear to have the functionality to reorder. They are organized by due date first. Then quizzes without a due date follow alphabetically. Any surveys are below the quizzes. Is there an organizational challenge you're facing that would benefit you to have some organization of certain quizzes? As an instructor I just always have them organized within my modules, so I've never thought about a need to sort them in the Quizzes space.

jeremyfw

Hi @User3247983247

What you’re seeing in the Quizzes page is not manual order at all. It’s a fixed, rule-based sort. Canvas walks through your quizzes in layers, applying one rule at a time until everything has a place.

Think of it like a sorting conveyor belt:

First pass: Due date beats everything

Any quiz with a due date goes to the top.
These are ordered by due date (earliest → latest).
If multiple quizzes share the same due date (as in your image: Feb 9 at 10pm), Canvas moves to rule #2.

Second pass: Numbers come before letters (within the same due date)

Titles starting with numbers sort before titles starting with letters.
That’s why:
- 2 - Quiz appears before
- ZZ - Quiz
Canvas is doing literal alphanumeric sorting, not “instructional intent.”

Third pass: No due date = second class citizen

Quizzes without a due date are listed after all dated quizzes.
Within this group, the same rule applies again:
- Numbers before letters
- Then alphabetical order
Hence:
- 1 - Quiz
- AA - Quiz

Final pass: Surveys always sink to the bottom

Ungraded surveys are listed after all quizzes, regardless of naming.
They live in their own quiet basement, alphabetized among themselves.

So, compressed into one sentence:

Quizzes are ordered by due date first; within the same due date, titles starting with numbers come before letters; quizzes without due dates follow the same number-then-letter rule; surveys are always listed last.

This is also why experienced Canvas users rarely rely on the Quizzes index for sequencing. Modules are the only place where instructional order actually exists. The Quizzes page is more of a filing cabinet than a lesson plan - precise, literal, and completely indifferent to pedagogy.

A word of advice

Since the Quizzes page has no true instructional order - only sorting rules - clarity has to live in the title itself. Canvas will never infer pedagogy from intent; it only reads characters.

Here’s the organizing principle that works with Canvas instead of against it:

Treat quiz titles like coordinates, not labels.

For example, by leading with an ordinal (module → activity or lesson → checkpoint or description), you guarantee that:

Items stay grouped even when due dates match
Numeric learning sequences survive alphabetical sorting
The Quizzes page remains readable long after the course closes

Canvas isn’t “understanding” that 2.5 comes before 2.10. It’s simply sorting strings - but because we've embedded ordinal meaning into the string, the outcome aligns with instructional logic.

A few quiet rules that keep this system robust:

Always number from the left (Canvas reads left to right, ruthlessly)
Use decimals, not words (“Three” loses to “10” every time)
Be consistent across modules (don’t mix Unit 3, 3.1, and Lesson Three)
Pair numbers with Modules, not Quizzes alone. As @DiannaDK noted - modules are where learning order actually lives

Think of the Quizzes page as an index, not a syllabus. Indexes don’t teach; they point. Ordinal naming turns that index from a junk drawer into a map.

Cheers,
J

User3247983247

Hi Jeremy, thanks for all that, but I'm not asking about Canvas's automatic ordering. I'm asking about how to manually order them. In Assignments I can manually order them. I'd like to manually order them in Quizzes as well.

User3247983247

Hi Dianna, I find it convenient in general to be able to control the ordering of items so that I can locate them more quickly and also get a sense of how they are related to each other. I certainly don't see any advantage in prohibiting instructors from manually reordering quizzes in Quizzes, if you are right in your speculation that Canvas has for some reason removed this functionality.

jeremyfw

t’s a fixed, rule-based sort, so you can't manually reorder quizzes.

User3247983247

That's extremely puzzling. I can manually reorder quizzes in Assignments. Why can't I manually reorder quizzes in Quizzes? Is it some sort of bug?

LauraCira

Just to jump in on the reordering issue: we also have never seen the reorder functionality in Canvas for quizzes. That said, even when you take the time to order the various graded items in the Assignments Index, take note that students don't really see them in that order, per se. Quizzes are mixed with assignments and graded discussions, if you're using them, and while they may weave in using the order you set from the Assignments Index, the greater ordering paradigm in the student view is focused on their due dates: students see graded items organized into categories by Overdue Assignments, Upcoming Assignments, and, where applicable, Undated Assignments. That is the student view of the Assignment Index.

Your best bet is almost always to use Modules for your organization and student flow through your course. And be sure to preview the flow using the Student View button to confirm what they actually see.

TrishaMeyer1

Hi @User3247983247 ,

The best answer to your question "Why can't I manually reorder quizzes in Quizzes?" is "because that's how the Canvas engineers designed it to work."

The posters on this site are mostly other users of Canvas who are sharing their experience and expertise. They are not Canvas employees/engineers/designers. (Occasionally Canvas employees will post here.) So we don't know why they did it that way; we can only speculate and suggest other courses of action to suit your needs.

As for Rajith's seemingly contradictory posts, those appear to be generated by an LLM (ChatGPT or other). That's exactly the format and style I get from my interactions with ChatGPT.

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