Quercus Quizzes

What Can I Use It For?

Quizzes in Quercus are assignments that can be used to challenge student understanding and assess comprehension of course material. The quiz tool is used to create and administer online quizzes and surveys. Quizzes can also be used to conduct and moderate exams and assessments, both graded and ungraded.

Special Notes

High-stakes assessments

In general, CTSI does not recommend the use of online tools alone as a simple replacement for high-stakes exams, as this strategy does not meet the University of Toronto policy requirements for exam-taking conditions. Online proctoring tools are available that can be used in conjunction with online Quercus tools such as Classic Quizzes.

Moderate Quiz – add extra time

When using Moderate Quiz to add time to a student’s Quiz attempt there are two options, and it is important to be aware of the method you are using.

Using the “pencil” icon to the right of a student’s name will allow you to grant extra time for any future attempts but WILL NOT add time for an attempt that is currently in-progress. If there you would like to add time to a student’s Quiz that is in-progress, you need to use the “clock” icon that will appear next to the student’s name. This will extend the current attempt but WILL NOT add time for future attempts.

More information on adding time can be found here. For general information on accommodations for Quercus Quizzes, see this page here.

Assessment Reports

Use Classic Quizzes when detailed student reporting is required. Student Analysis Reports are not currently available with New Quizzes.

Student Single Browser Sign-On

Students must open the quiz in only one single browser tab/window when taking quizzes. If students open the quiz in multiple browsers or in more than one tab/window in the same browser, their answers may not be saved or submitted

Duplicating Quiz Content

Copying (or importing) the same content into a course more than once may result in the content that was previously there being overwritten, resulting in lost edits. This can be especially problematic for Quizzes that are overwritten, as questions can take some time to build. If you would like to duplicate a Quiz, export the Quiz as a QTI file, and then Import to the destination course. Refer to Canvas QTI documentation for instructions.

If Students have already submitted to the original Quiz, their responses will not be lost or changed, but may be marked as requiring review if the questions have changed.

When importing a Classic Quiz QTI package to a course, you may encounter a option that cannot be deselected labeled Import assessment content as New Quizzes, forcing import as a New Quiz.
To resolve this :

Go to your course Settings
Select the Feature Options tab at the top
Select the red X icon to the right New Quizzes and select Enable from the drop-down menu
Import your quiz file and uncheck the Import assessment content as New Quizzes option to import as a Classic Quiz

This Academic Toolbox tool helps you...

Assess student work & provide feedback / Teach from a distance

Typical course activity format:

Synchronous or asynchronous

Quercus integration

Built-in tool

Where can I get more support?

Divisional Support Contacts

Quercus Support

Consultations

Related resources / similar tools

Multiple Choice Question and Quiz Tips

Assessing Online Learning

Online Assessment Tools

Quizzical

Quercus Learning Outcomes

Cost

Centrally funded

How to Get Started

You can view all your quizzes in your course on the Quizzes page. You can also add quizzes and modify quiz settings on the Quizzes page.

How to Use This Tool

Overview

Quizzes in Canvas are assignments that can be used to challenge student understanding and assess comprehension of course material through online quizzes and surveys that can be graded and ungraded. Both “New Quizzes” and the original built-in Quizzes tool (also known as “Classic Quizzes”) are available in Quercus and have been since Fall 2019.

Instructors can learn more about quiz analytics at Quercus Course Data and Reports.

Instructions

Classic Quizzes
Classic Quizzes

Use Quercus Classic Quizzes to create a variety of question types to test your students’ learning in an exam format. There are also options to create formative and self-assessments by creating practice quizzes and surveys. There are four types of quizzes available in Quercus:
- Graded Quiz: A column is automatically created in the Gradebook for a graded quiz. After a student takes a graded quiz, certain question types will be automatically graded.
- Practice Quiz: Use practice quiz as a learning tool to help students see how well they understand the course material. Students do not receive a grade for practice quizzes, even though the quiz results display the number of points earned in the quiz.
- Graded Survey: A graded survey allows the instructor to give students points for completing the survey, but it does not allow the survey to be graded for right or wrong answers. Graded surveys have the option to be anonymous.
- Ungraded Surveys: An ungraded survey allows you to get opinions or other information from your students, but students do not receive a grade for their responses. Ungraded surveys can be anonymous.
You can view all your quizzes in your course on the Quizzes page. You can also add quizzes and modify quiz settings on the Quizzes page.

In order to create a new Quiz, click the Add Quiz button.

When you create a quiz, you have a variety of options to choose from within a quiz.

In the Details tab, you can use the Rich Content Editor to add instructions for your quiz. The Office 365 integration displays the OneDrive icon in the Rich Content Editor in Quizzes and allows users to create a hyperlink to OneDrive files directly in the Rich Content Editor. You can also add links, files , and images to the Quiz instructions using the content selector.

Once you have set up the settings for your quiz, click the Questions tab to create the quiz questions and points. You can create individual quiz questions, or find questions in a question bank. You can also create a question group to randomize quiz questions.

Individual questions can be added to a Question Group. Alternatively, you can link the Question Group to a Question Bank.

You can view student quiz results within each quiz in your course by viewing the quiz results page or moderating the quiz. When moderating the quiz, you can view the progress of student submissions and view the number of quiz attempts each has taken. You can also grant students extra attempts, grant extra time for timed quizzes, and manually unlock quiz attempts. As a moderator, you cannot remove student submissions.

If you are creating Multiple Choice questions and quizzes, you may find the following CTSI tips sheets helpful: Multiple Choice Question and Quiz Tips and Multiple Choice Quercus Quiz Analysis Reports.

Note about Quercus (Canvas) System Performance:

For optimum course performance in the Quercus (Canvas) interface, quiz statistics will only generate for quizzes with 100 or fewer unique questions or 1,000 total attempts. For instance, a quiz with 200 questions will not generate quiz statistics. However, a quiz with 75 questions will generate quiz statistics until the quiz has reached 1000 attempts. Results greater than these maximum values can be viewed by downloading the Student Analysis report and viewing the CSV file.
New Quizzes vs. Classic Quizzes
New Quizzes vs. Classic Quizzes

Please consult the following Canvas resources for the most up to date information:
- New Quizzes Feature Comparison Chart
- Canvas New Quizzes Hub
New Quizzes offers some new features and question types, but does not currently have some of the features of the original Classic Quizzes tool. We recommend using Classic Quizzes unless a feature you require is only available in New Quizzes.

New Quizzes offers some features that are not available in the Classic Quizzes tool. For example, in New Quizzes, you can:
- set a waiting period between quiz attempts for quizzes with multiple attempts
- Moderate a student’s quiz attempt in New Quizzes
- use new questions types, including:
  - stimulus to associate a group of questions with a block of content, and
  - hotspot to upload images and have students identify a specific area in that image.
Eventually, Instructure will retire the original Canvas Classic Quizzes tool. At that time, Classic Quizzes will be removed from Quercus and New Quizzes will remain as the only quizzing tool.

Instructors may want to use Classic Quizzes for assessments that require detailed student reports or when copying item banks.
Enabling New Quizzes & Creating a New Quizzes Assessment
Enabling New Quizzes

To enable New Quizzes in your Quercus course:

1. Click on Settings in the Course Navigation menu

2. On the Feature Options tab, click the New Quizzes slider to ON.

The slider will be green when activated.

Create a New Quizzes Assessment

New Quizzes assessments display a solid icon of a rocket [1] while Classic Quizzes assessments display an outline of a rocket [2].

To create a New Quizzes assessment:
1. 1. In Course Navigation, click the Quizzes link.
  2. Click the Add Quiz button.
  3. Click New Quizzes, when prompted to select a Quiz engine.
  4. Click Submit.
  5. Edit Assessment Details,including:
    
    Assignment Name
    
    Total points possible
    
    Assignment Group
    
    How grade is displayed to students, by selecting an option from the Display Grade as menu
    
    Remove assessment from final grade calculations, if appropriate, by clicking the Do not count this assignment towards the final grade checkbox
  6. Assign Assessment:
    
    Use the Assign To feature to select who will be required to take the assessment (can be assigned to Everyone, individual students or sections)
    
    Use the Due Date and Time fields to select the assessment due date/time.
    
    Use the Available From and Until fields to select the availability dates/times for the assessment.
    
    Use the + Assign To button to assign a different due date or availability window to individual students or sections.
  7. Click Save to save the assessment details.
    
    Note: it is recommended to NOT click Save and Publish until the assessment has been built and its settings defined
New Quizzes - feature parity with Classic Quizzes
To learn more about New Quizzes and how it compares with the existing Classic Quizzes tool, please see the following documents:
- FAQ: New Quizzes
- Canvas New Quizzes Feature Comparison (updated 2025)
Features Not Yet Available in New Quizzes

Some features that are available in the Classic Quizzes tool are not currently available in New Quizzes. However, they may be added in the future. The main identified feature parity differences in 2025 are:

New Quizzes “Item Bank” vs Classic Quizzes “Question Bank”

The new Item Bank replaces the Question Bank, however the storage of the questions/items also changes. It no longer lives in the course, which affects course copies. Item banks are saved by the user who can share, but it doesn’t get copied into the course, it lives with the user account.

Surveys – workaround

New Quizzes does not have an option to create surveys, either graded and ungraded. However, it is possible to create a New Quizzes assessment with no point value. See the Canvas guide: Zero Point New Quizzes.

Student analysis report – 2025 update

In New Quizzes, a Student Analysis Report is available. To access the Student Analysis report, go to the New Quiz and click on the “Reports” tab. Then, click “Generate” in the “Student Analysis” reports box. Refer to this Canvas Product Blog for more information.