Create questions for online exams in Canvas

The following resource is for timed LMS and AI-invigilated exams.

To get started, it’s recommended that you set up your exam questions in question banks first. Once set up, it is simple to populate a Canvas quiz using the questions created.

If you have already created a quiz or question bank in another Canvas course site (that you are enrolled in), you can import these into your exam subject site. You can do this by using the ‘import course content’ function and selecting specific items.

Question Banks

It is recommended that you set up your exam questions in question banks, first.  A question bank is a database of questions you can use across different subjects or quizzes, if required.  Question banks also gives you the ability to randomise your questions in your online exam.

Depending on the structure of your online exam, you may need to set up multiple question banks.

Follow the instructions on the Canvas guide for creating a question bank.  For instructions on setting up each question type, refer to the question types section of this resource

Question Types

The Canvas question types listed in this resource are the recommended question types for use in your online exam. You may use the other question types available on Canvas if required, but these may not work as well in the context of an online exam.

The following Canvas guides provide instructions on how to create each type of recommended quiz question in Canvas.

• Create a Multiple Choice quiz question
• Create a Multiple Answers quiz question
• Create an Essay quiz question
• Create a Matching quiz question*
• Create a Numerical Answer quiz question *
• Create a Simple Formula quiz question*
• Create a Formula quiz question with a single variable*
• Create a Fill-in-the-Blank quiz question*
• Create a Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks quiz question*
• Create a Text (no question) quiz question*

Note that the question types marked with an asterisk (*) do not work well with screen readers. See the accessibility section for more information.

Accessibility

Use the following guidelines when creating your questions to ensure that your online exam is as clear and accessible as possible for all students taking it. Note that students who use screen readers may experience issues with accessing some of the question types in Canvas.

• All text should be in black. Coloured text should not be used.
• Information and/or text should not be communicated purely through colour.
• Use the style headings provided in the content editor.
• Keep the formatting and structure of your questions as simple as possible.
• Tables should not be used to format or layout content.
• All images must have appropriate alt text descriptions.
• Information or text should not be conveyed with an image. If this is necessary, the information or text must be featured in a caption or in the alt text description.
• Any videos included in a question must have appropriate captioning or a transcript for students.
• Any hyperlinks must be descriptive and make sense out of context.