What are Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes?
This Weekly Tip will cover some of the differences between the two quiz engines currently available in Canvas – Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes – and which one you should use as an instructor.
- Classic Quizzes is the original quiz engine for Canvas (and is being phased out for a sunset date of June 30th, 2024).
- New Quizzes, which will eventually be taking its place, is a quiz editor and external tool with a different work flow and different capabilities.
When you make a new quiz by clicking +Quiz on the Quizzes page, you will see two options from the “Choose a Quiz Engine” pop-up box - Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes.
When you are in the “Quizzes” screen, “New Quizzes” are designated by a solid-colored Spaceship icon, and “Classic Quizzes” are designated with an outlined Spaceship.
Which One Should I Use For My Course?
At present, IC recommends Classic Quizzes for the vast majority of cases. New Quizzes is in a beta and testing mode, and some of its functionality will be limited up until the official transition in 2023. It is also more likely that you will experience bugs when using New Quizzes, since it is currently in development. It is slower. It is also not a good solution for importing quizzes and question banks from Sakai.
New Quizzes is most useful if you need special question types or the ability to shuffle answers. Instructors can create multiple assessments of both types, Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes, in a single course. Optionally, they can also set one engine to be the default engine for a particular class.
What Differences Exist?
The workflows for Classic and New Quizzes differ somewhat. The Quiz settings are located in different places – for Classic Quizzes in the “Details” tab, and for New Quizzes on the “Options” screen. Questions are also added in different locations – in Classic Quizzes it’s the “Questions” tab and in New Quizzes it’s the “Build” screen. Other differences include -
- Setting the Point Value of a Quiz
- Extra Credit
- Randomization/Question Shuffling
- Regrading or Moderating Quizzes
Classic and New Quizzes access question banks differently – in Classic Quizzes they are known as “Question Banks”, and in New Quizzes they are called “Item Banks”. Banks of questions cannot be imported between the two.
Additionally, only a Classic Quiz can be migrated into New Quizzes format - New Quizzes cannot be migrated into Classic Quizzes.
In New Quizzes, Item Banks are not attached to any specific course but directly to the person who uploaded them. When accessing them, all item banks imported into New Quizzes are simultaneously visible to the importer. To reduce confusion, make sure to choose names that indicate the specific course and section.
When Should I Use Classic Quizzes?
Classic Quizzes currently offers the most functionality and convenience for building quizzes, importing content, and grading students. Be sure to utilize Classic Quizzes in the following circumstances:
- If you need to import Quiz content originally from Sakai, you should use Classic Quizzes.
- Due to Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes drawing from separate banks of questions (“question banks” vs. “item banks”), if you need to draw from the same item bank throughout a course and also need any features from Classic Quizzes for that assessment series, you should use Classic Quizzes.
- The Rich Content Editor is not currently supported in New Quizzes. As such, the New Quizzes Rich Content Editor does not support HTML editing, external tools or apps, audio and video recording, videos hosted in Kaltura (MY Media or Media Gallery), or the Accessibility Checker.
- New Quizzes does not currently support in-browser security options such as Proctorio or Respondus Lockdown Browser, so if you need such a proctoring tool, you should use Classic Quizzes.
- Quiz export options are currently reduced in New Quizzes. Bulk export of the entire item analysis (Ie, all student quiz submissions) as a .csv file is not currently possible. If you need to export group submissions, you should use Classic Quizzes.
- New Quizzes does not support ungraded surveys. To create an ungraded or ungraded practice test in New Quizzes you must create an assignment worth 0 points.
- New Quizzes do not support partial credit for Multiple Choice, Matching, Ordering, or Categorization questions. If you need to offer partial credits for those question types, you should use Classic Quizzes.
- New Quizzes does not support using the Speedgrader to grade open-text answers as Classic Quizzes does.
When Should I Use New Quizzes?
You can duplicate a question in New Quizzes and move questions individually to different Item Banks. Neither of these features are currently available in Classic Quizzes.
New Quizzes also includes the following unique question types:
- "Ordering" questions where students respond by placing answers in a specific order. (Applications: ordering events in time, describing a chemical or mathematical process)
- "Hot Spot" questions where students click on a particular part of an image to demonstrate understanding. (Applications: identifying anatomical structures, geographical areas, etc.)
- Questions that incorporate a piece of stimulus content – such as reading or video – for students to respond to. (Applications: essay prompts, critical reading activities)
- "Categorization" questions direct students to sort answers into two or more categories.
If any of those question types would make your assessments more effective, reliable, or engaging, you can consider using New Quizzes. Due to some of the functionality issues, it may also be worthwhile to consider using New Quizzes primarily for low-stakes assessments.
In this article, we covered some of the differences between the Classic and New Quizzes engines, and cases where you should use one or the other.
For a complete comparison of features in Classic and New quizzes, you can visit this Canvas New Quizzes Feature Comparison (Links to an external site.).
To learn more about the Quizzes tool, check out the following guides published by Canvas:
Video Guides published by Canvas
Quizzes Overview (Instructors) - Instructure Community (Links to an external site.)
Guides published by canvas:
What are Quizzes? (Links to an external site.)
How do I create a quiz using New Quizzes? (Links to an external site.)
What options can I set in a quiz? (Links to an external site.)
Once I publish a quiz, what kinds of quiz statistics are available? (Links to an external site.)
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