Recommended settings for online exams in Canvas

Quiz settings are important for making your exam available to students at the right time, and ensuring the highest level of academic integrity. The following guide sets out the UTS recommendations for Canvas quiz settings to be used in timed LMS and AI invigilated online exams; plus settings for take-home exams.

Settings for AI Invigilated and Timed LMS exams

When you create a new quiz or edit an existing quiz in Canvas, navigate to the Details tab.

Fill in the exam title and add the required exam instructions in the text box. The exam title should use the appropriate naming parameters for the respective exam and period ‘Exam – Subject ID – Session’.

Scroll down to the Options section. Use the information below to select the required settings for your exam.

• Shuffle Answers – Check this item – Recommended for highest level of academic integrity. Shuffles the order of the answers in questions. Ensure that relevant questions have been written so that they make sense when presented in any order (e.g. they do not contain answers that include phrases like “All of the above”).
• Time Limit – Enter the number of minutes given to complete the exam. This refers to the duration of the exam (eg. 120 mins), not the wider exam window (2-24 hours)
• Allow Multiple Attempts – for AI-invigilated exams this should be left unselected (allowing one attempt). For timed LMS exams one or more attempts may be allowed, at the subject coordinator’s discretion. Quiz Score to Keep should be set to highest.
• Let Students See Their Quiz Responses – uncheck this option. This option is not appropriate for online exams.
• Show one question at a time if it is suitable for your exam design. Lock questions after answering should be unchecked.
• Require an access code – Check this option for AI invigilated exams only. Otherwise, leave unchecked.
• Filter IP Addresses – not required. Uncheck this option.
• Assign to – Leave set as ‘Everyone’. This may change to ‘everyone else’ if exam provisions have been provided to approved individuals taking your subject. Do not remove these exam provisions, check with SAU exams if in doubt.
• Due – Set to match the Until time of your availability window.
• Available from / Until – Enter the dates and times for your chosen availability window for the exam. The availability window defines when students will be able to access and attempt the quiz. When the Until time is reached, any students who have commenced the exam and are still within the duration of their sitting will have their exam closed and submitted, ie. pens down

Select Save & Publish. By publishing the exam students will be able to see that there is an exam that will take place, but they will not be able to access it until the availability window.

Make sure that the grades for the exam won’t be visible for students by navigating to Marks and for the exam grade column use the option dots to access the menu and select Grade Posting Policy. A pop-up window dialogue will open, this should be set to Manually for this exam grades column, you will need to save this setting before exiting the window.

Settings for Take-home exams

A take-home exam is set up as an Assignment in Canvas with some specific settings that need to be taken into account. The following settings can be found when you edit or create a new assignment.

• Points – set according to your usual marking scheme for assignments
• Assignment Group – Set according to the assessment group you have provided
• Display Mark as – Set to ‘Points’
• Submission Type – ‘Online’ should be used – recommended types are text entry and file uploads as these can be reviewed through TurnItIn. It is recommended to limit file types to .doc, .docx or .pdf files.
• Submission Attempts – For online Take-home exams it is recommended to limit Allowed Attempts to a max of 3 attempts. While a single submission may present as more “final”, multiple submissions may also assist students who encounter technical issues. If only allowing students one submission please make this clear in the exam details.
• Plagiarism Review – Set according to your usual assessment inclusions, however the Show report to students setting should be set to ‘Never’.
• Group Assignment – not required for a take-home exam
• Peer Reviews – not required for a take-home exam
• Assign to – Leave as ‘Everyone’
• Due – Set to match the Until time of your availability window (below)
• Available From/ Until – enter the dates and times for your chosen availability window for the take-home exam.
• Check that Grades Posting Policy is set to ‘Manually Post Grades’ so that exams scores are hidden from students. This setting is found in the Marks section of the course navigation menu, more information can be found on the Canvas New Gradebook resource page.