Canvas is Virginia Tech's learning management system (LMS). Instructors use Canvas to manage teaching materials like assignments, quizzes, feedback, and student grades. 

• Official courses are automatically created in instructors' Canvas accounts.
• Enrolled students are automatically added.
• Instructors can reuse teaching materials by importing them to a new course site.
• Canvas provides 24-7 support by phone (833-639-7621) and chat (click Help on any Canvas screen).

The Canvas Instructor Guide and the Canvas Student Guide have full instructions on using Canvas. These instructions are specific to Virginia Tech. To see other Canvas topics, please see:

• Using Canvas at Virginia Tech (for Instructors)
• Using Canvas at Virginia Tech (for Students)

Contents

• Setting up Quizzes
• Managing Quizzes
  
  • Giving Students Extra Time/Attempts
  • Checking Student Quiz Attempts
  • Designing for Online Assessment
• Using New Quizzes
• Using Respondus
• Getting Help

Setting up Quizzes

• See the Canvas Instructor Guide - Quizzes for detailed instructions.
• See the Canvas Instructor Guide - New Quizzes for detailed instructions.
  
  • See Using New Quizzes for more information about New Quizzes at Virginia Tech.

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Managing Quizzes

Giving Students Extra Time and Extra Attempts

Please see Canvas - Granting Student Accommodations with Quizzes for further instructions.

Checking Student Quiz Attempts

If a student claims to have begun a quiz, but you don't see a submission on the Moderate Quiz page, see Checking Student Access Reports. You can review student activity in your site, including whether they viewed or started taking a quiz. 

Designing for Online Assessment

Discourage or hinder cheating in online assessments by: 

• Creating large question pools (Canvas calls them “question banks”) where questions are randomly drawn for each student’s quiz. See How do I create a question bank in a course? and How do I create a quiz with a question group to randomize quiz questions?
• Randomizing the answers to multiple-choice questions. See Shuffle answers in How do I create a Multiple Choice question in New Quizzes?
• Giving timed exams, so students have less time to look up answers they haven’t learned. See What options can I set in a quiz?
• Creating your quiz with information that’s only shared in your class and hard to find online. 

Or, give non-traditional assessments:

• Assess students on authentic activities like group work, real-world case study analysis, and design.
• Have students create new, unique deliverables, like a new blog, digital artwork, mind maps, and more. 
• Give students multiple, low-stakes assessments like discussions or short quizzes throughout the semester. 

For more assessment ideas, contact the Center for Excellence for Teaching and Learning. 

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Using New Quizzes

New Quizzes is available in Canvas. Unfortunately, instructors must migrate quizzes and question banks individually from Classic Quizzes to New Quizzes. Canvas is developing better migration options, so for now we suggest only using New Quizzes to create new assessments. 

• See New Quizzes details and links regarding New Quizzes at Virginia Tech.
• See New Quizzes Features, Classic Quizzes Timeline for details from Instructure Canvas on New Quizzes implementation. Canvas has eliminated the end-of-life date for Classic Quizzes.

To turn on New Quizzes:

1. Go to Settings in your Canvas course.
2. Click the Feature Options tab.
3. Scroll to New Quizzes and click the red X to pull up the options.
4. Click Enable to turn on New Quizzes.

You can now start creating New Quizzes in your course and/or see the option to migrate a Classic Quiz to New Quiz.

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Using Respondus

Please see Using Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor for further instructions.

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Getting Help

For instructions on resolving common issues with Canvas, see:

• Troubleshooting Canvas (for Instructors)
• Troubleshooting Canvas (For Students)
• Recommended Browser Privacy and Security Settings for Canvas

Instructure, the creators of Canvas, provide 24-7 Canvas support, including live chat and a support hotline.

To get Canvas help, click Help on any Canvas screen and choose from help options:

• Search the Canvas Guides: Search Canvas documentation. 
• Chat with Canvas Support: Open a chat window in Canvas (or call the phone number). 
• Contact Virginia Tech 4Help: Submit an incident on 4Help or call 540-231-4357.
• Browse Virginia Tech Resources: See other Canvas Knowledge Base articles.
• Report a Problem: Submit a Canvas support case by filling out a short form.
• Ask the Community: Go to Canvas user community resources. 
• Submit a Feature Idea: Search a list of current feature idea conversations. Add to an existing conversation or start your own!

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