Get to Know New Quizzes

Shanay Murdock

Apr 13, 2026

20261

New Quizzes has changed, updated, and improved many features that you use when creating a quiz or exam in Canvas. Use this guide to see how a New Quiz is created from start to finish and explore how the layout has changed. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

Creating a Quiz

Select Quizzes then +Quiz.
Select the New Quizzes option and click Submit.
Fill in the Assignment details.
Select Build to enter the New Quizzes editor.
- The other options will save (or cancel) and take you back to the Quiz Index page.
- You will select Build any time you want to interact with your quiz/exam, such as accessing the Settings or Moderate options.
To add a question, select the blue circle with + in it under the Add Instructions area.
Select a question type from the pop-up menu, then fill in the question details.
- Note: Every time you click outside of a text box, your changes will auto-save. Remember to choose Cancel if you were not intending to make and save changes, or if you do not wish to save the changes you've made.
Select Return in the top-right corner at any time to go back to your course or development site.

New Question Types

You will find several changes to questions in New Quizzes, such as adding new question types and modifying how some Classic Quiz question types work. Below we highlight the major changes, along with guides that link to in-depth detail about all the question types.

Categorization – This question type has three components: (1) categories, which is where students will drag and place their answers; (2) answers, where you will create the answers under the applicable category; and (3) distractors, which are incorrect answers that do not apply to any category. For more information, see the guide How do I create a Categorization question in New Quizzes?
Fill in the blank – Type a statement of any length and convert words or phrases into a blank space (from the students' perspective). Canvas now includes three entry types for student answers: Open Entry (typing), Dropdown, and Word Bank. Additionally, Canvas has improved the auto-grading function for Open Entry answers. Instead of Classic Quizzes'S exact match, which was the only available option, New Quizzes now offers five different matching options:
- The entry Contains the expected word or phrase.
- The entry is Close Enough. You define the Levenshtein Distance to make this determination. The Levenshtein Distance is the minimum number of single-character edits required to change one word to another.
- The entry is an Exact Match. This is the same functionality currently used in Classic Quizzes.
- Specify Correct Answers
- Regular Expression Match
- For more information, see the guide How do I create a Fill in the Blank question in New Quizzes?
Hot Spot – Upload an image, set a hot spot, and have the student locate an area on the image. You can use three shapes to create a hot spot on the image: rectangle, circle, and polygon. The polygon shape forms the lines from where you click to make an outline for a unique shape. The following image types are allowed for hot spots: BMP, GIF, JPG/JPEG, and PNG. For more information, see the guide How do I create a Hot Spot question in New Quizzes?
Matching – This question type has three components: question stem, corresponding answer, and distractors. Students will match answers to the question stem while ignoring the distractors. For more information, see the guide How do I create a Matching question in New Quizzes?
- Note: Some institutions have cited technical issues for testers when quotation marks are used in matching questions. While ODL technical support has not been able to replicate this error, we recommend caution.
Numeric – This question type must have a numeric answer, and the answer requirements can be changed to fit your preferences. For more information, see the guide How do I create a Numeric question in New Quizzes?
Ordering – When answering ordering questions, students drag their answers to be in the correct order. You can add a top or bottom label to clarify the order of answers. For more information, see the guide How do I create an Ordering question in New Quizzes?
Stimulus – The stimulus option allows you to attach instructions, information, or passages to one or more questions. Stimulus content replaces the Text (no question) option found in Classic Quizzes. Stimulus content is not visible unless it is attached to one or more questions. For more information, see the guide How do I insert stimulus content in New Quizzes?

Instructure Resources by Question Type

Item Banks

Canvas has made numerous changes and improvements to question banks, now called Item Banks.

Item banks are now associated with the person who created them and can be shared with other users or with a course site, although the process is no longer automatic.
- If you are working with TAs or collaborating with colleagues, remember to share your item banks! TAs only have access if the bank is shared with them directly. Sharing the Item Bank to the course will only allow other users enrolled as Teachers to access the bank.
- If you contact ODL Canvas Technical Support for help, we can view your item banks without your sharing them. However, since banks are not automatically tied to a course, we recommend you label them clearly. This will make it easier and quicker for us to help you.
Item banks are easier to access.
- You can now enable item banks in your course or development site's Navigation menu, which provides 1-click access to the banks.
- You can also access your item banks by clicking the folder icon, labeled Item Banks, while in the Build section of any quiz/exam.
Questions can now be added directly to item banks; they do not have to be created within the bank itself. In editing mode, below the question, select the Item Banking tab and then select Add to Bank.
You can now search for individual banks or questions in your item banks area and filter the results. You can also add Tags and other Metadata to your banks or questions, which helps you search for items with similar characteristics if you do not remember the titles.

Instructure Resources on Item Banks

Settings

In New Quizzes, you can access settings from two areas. When you select a quiz, you will see the basic Quiz Details, such as points or the Assign Access field. This includes Due Dates and Availability Dates.

Assignment Settings tab showing options like points, assignment group, submission type, and assigning access.

The second option provides a more detailed view of quiz settings. To see quiz-specific settings, you will need to access the New Quizzes edit area by clicking the Build button on the bottom right of the page.

Enter your quiz/exam by selecting your New Quiz name, then Build in the bottom right-hand corner.
Select the Settings tab in the top left-hand corner.

Instructure Resources on New Quiz Settings

Moderate Tab

The Moderate tab's functions contain the same information found in Classic quizzes but with additional details.

Moderate page showing student names, attempts, scores, time, accommodations, and the option to edit information at the student level.

You can select the Attempt for a student to see the questions and what they got right or wrong for that attempt.
You can select View Log to see the log of events, such as when the student started the test or answered a question, and auto-save logs when students are typing in essay boxes.
Select Accommodations for a student to give them extra time.
- Note: If you make any changes in the Moderate tab, you should go back to the Assignment details page and ensure that the Assign To window has enough room for the time accommodation.
- Instructors now have the option to apply time accommodations for a particular student to all assessments in the course instead of extending time for each individual quiz/exam. Remember to ensure that future Assign To windows have enough room for time accommodations.
When viewing the list of students, select the pencil icon on the far-right side to give a student additional attempts or time adjustments for this assessment only.