Center for Instructional Technology and Training
One of the advantages to creating quizzes in Canvas is that it’s possible to incorporate auto-graded questions, which can provide results to students immediately and reduce grading load. Several question types, such as multiple-choice, multiple selection, true/false, and fill in the blank can be graded automatically. If feedback is entered for a question during quiz creation, this can be shared automatically as well.
Many quizzes are intended as formative assessments, where the goal of the quiz is to check students’ understanding and help them recognize areas where they may need further study or practice. Auto-graded quiz questions can provide results immediately. In fact, in many cases students are given several attempts to complete formative quizzes, and students are encouraged to master the content before moving forward. It is also possible to enter feedback for each question, which can reduce the tedium of providing similar feedback to multiple students and ensure objectivity in grading.
Auto-graded questions can also be incorporated into quizzes or exams to make some hand-grading feasible. If most questions on an exam or quiz are auto-graded, this can enable the inclusion of several short answer or essay questions that require hand-grading, which otherwise may not be possible due to frequency of assessment or course enrollment.
For high enrollment courses where grading time is at a premium, consider frequent auto-graded quizzes. These will provide immediate feedback to keep students on-track, do not require any hand-grading, and can be randomized through the use of question banks to ensure that students encounter a unique quiz on each attempt. With grading time minimized, instructors may review quiz results each week and correct any misconceptions or commons questions via a class announcement, or at the next synchronous meeting.
Dr. Lorenzo Rossi, HOS6355: Root & Rhizosphere Ecology
Dr. Rossi utilizes auto-graded questions on his weekly quizzes to check on the progress of his students and provide feedback as needed. Each quiz randomly pulls 10 questions from a bank of 20-25 questions. Students have 10 minutes to complete the quiz and are permitted to attempts. Dr. Rossi has also created an introductory quiz in which students answer auto-graded questions and true/false statements on information from the course syllabus.