Giving Extra Time or additional tries in Canvas

Tue, 2016-09-27 13:23 -- azs2

Every now and again, faculty receive letters from students who have some type of disability. Not all disabilities are physical, some are neurological and require that students be given extra time on quizzes, exams or any other assignment that is timed. The student works with the Office of Disability Services and is given a letter to share with their instructors to receive the accommodation outlined in the letter. Sometimes, you may need to give a student another attempt at an assignment for any number of reasons.

In ANGEL, you'd have to set up a group, put the student in the group, and then make adjustments to the group settings. Canvas makes it easier than that. “Moderating Quizzes” is the term that Canvas uses for accomplishing these types of tasks. One thing that is important to know about moderating quizzes is that you can only moderate a quiz, exam, assignment etc. if it has been published. The button just isn't there to moderate if the item is unpublished. So if you prefer to publish items as you go instead of publishing everything before class starts and un-hiding as you go, you will need to moderate to add the extra time at the time when you publish. If you don't, the student who needs the extra time won't get it. Then you would have to give him, or her, a full second attempt. Instructions for moderating a quiz are below with a link to the full instructions in the Canvas Guide.

1. Open the exam, quiz or lab submission assignment to which you need to add the time extension. If it is published, you will see a number of actions you can choose on the upper right side of the page including “Quiz Statistics,” “SpeedGrader” and “Moderate this Quiz.” To add time for a student who needs it, click “Moderate This Quiz.” (All items that students submit answers for are called quizzes in Canvas.) Please note again that unpublished items do not have these options.
2. Scroll down until you see the student's name.
3. Click the Edit icon (tiny pencil all the way to the right in the row with her name) to open the Student Extensions box.
4. In the entry box beside “Extra Time on Every Attempt,” add whatever additional time is listed in the letter (This is not the total time the student gets. Canvas does the math, so just add the additional time. For example, if the student gets time and a half and the exam is 60 minutes, add 30 minutes in the box. Canvas will calculate and give the student 90 minutes.)
5. Click Save.
6. Move onto the next quiz, exam, assignment, etc.

This process is so much easier than it was in ANGEL. No Group is needed. This is also how you would give students additional attempts if needed, too.
Here are the complete instructions as shown in the Canvas Instructor Guide.

Author: April Millet, Learning Designer, Dutton Institute