Quiz Options and Settings

---

The following article details the various options and settings available when creating or editing a Quiz.

 

Please note that the course layout, steps, and screenshots shown below may differ slightly for your campus.

---

Quizzes in Brightspace have several options and settings available to customize and control both how the quiz functions and the quiz experience for students. Instructors can use these options to customize their quizzes to suit their needs.

Basic Settings

1. Quiz Title - The Quiz Title controls the name of your quiz. Enter the name you want for your quiz in the box below Quiz Title (e.g., Quiz 1, Module 2 Quiz, etc.).
    
2. Grade Out Of - The Grade Out Of field determines the point value of the quiz in the Grade Book. We highly recommend that this value be the same as the Total Points displayed under Questions after you are done building your quiz. If this value is different, Brightspace will provide an equivalent grade in the Grade Book. For example, say your quiz's Total Points value shows 50 points, but "Grade Out Of" is set to 100. If a student were to achieve a 45/50, then the grade book will display 90/100. This can cause grades to appear to have strange values or decimals depending on the difference between Total Points and Grade Out Of.
    
3. Linking to the Grade Book - To the right of the Grade Out Of field is the field that controls how the quiz is linked to the Grade Book. There are a few options that you might see, and you can change this field by clicking on the text or down arrow/chevron:
   • Edit or Link to Existing - You will only see "Edit or Link to Existing" by clicking on either of the two options above. You can use 'Edit or Link to Existing' to link the quiz to a new or existing Grade Item in your Grade Book.
   • In Grade Book - If you see "In Grade Book", then your quiz is already linked to the Grade Book.
   • Not in Grade Book - If you see "Not in Grade Book", then your quiz is not linked to the Grade Book. You can change this by clicking on this field and by choosing either 'Add to Grade Book', which will create a new Grade Item for the quiz, or 'Edit or Link to Existing' to link the quiz to a new or existing Grade Item in your Grade Book.
   • 
      
4. Due Date - This field controls the Due Date displayed for the quiz. The due date does not control availability, it only marks a submission as late if it is submitted past the set due date. This date should appear in the course's Calendar tool.
    
5. Description - The Description field will be displayed to students before they start the quiz. Quiz instructions and similar information should be entered into this text box.
    
6. Add Existing -  The Add Existing button is used to pull questions into a quiz from a file, the Question Library, other quizzes, or the Learning Object Repository.
    
7. Create New - The Create New button is used to build new questions into your quiz, or to create a Quiz Section or Question Pool in your quiz.

Availability Dates & Conditions

1. Start Date - The Start Date function will prevent students from starting the quiz until the date and time chosen. The date can be added by typing it into the field in MM/DD/YYYY format, or you can click on the field to bring up a calendar and click on the day you want the quiz to start. After the date is chosen, a field to input a start time will appear to the right of the start date.
    
2. End Date - The End Date function will prevent students from starting the quiz after the date and time chosen. The date can be added by typing it into the field in MM/DD/YYYY format, or you can click on the field to bring up a calendar and click on the day you want the quiz to end. After the date is chosen, a field to input an end time will appear to the right of the end date.
    
3. Release Conditions - Release Conditions are used to prevent students from accessing a quiz unless they have met some designated criteria. For example, you can prevent students from seeing Quiz 2 unless they have completed Quiz 1. By clicking Add Release Condition, and then Create New, instructors can create a new release condition. You can find more information on the available types of conditions here: https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/3432-about-release-conditions.
    
4. Special Access - Special Access can be used to give a student an exception to various settings. For example, you can give a student extra time, make the quiz available on a different date, or provide extra attempts. You can find more information on how to set up a Special Access exception here: https://sunyonline.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1985/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=155749. Two settings within Special Access are of particular note:
   • Allow selected users special access to this quiz - This setting allows all students to access the quiz and then provides whatever exceptions you have specified for individual students. Use this setting if you want all students to be able to access a quiz.
   • Allow only users with special access to see this quiz -  This setting allows only students with a special access exception to see the quiz. Only use this setting if you want the quiz to be accessed only by any number of specifically chosen students.
      
5. Password - You can set a password for your quiz, which will only allow students to take the quiz if they enter the specified password. The password is case-sensitive.

Jump to top

Timing & Display

1. Timer - Checking the box next to "Set time limit" will allow you to set a timer for your quiz. In the box under "Time Limit" that appears, type in your desired maximum duration for the quiz in a number of minutes. By clicking Timer Settings, you can further customize the quiz timer. You can find more information on the available timer settings in our article here: https://sunyonline.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1985/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=161388.
    
2. Paging - The paging settings control how questions are displayed within the quiz. You can either have all questions displayed on the same page or break the questions up and display them over several pages. In addition, checking the box next to "Prevent going back to previous pages" will disable backtracking and stop students from going back to previous pages of the quiz.
    
3. Shuffle Quiz - Checking the box next to "Shuffle questions and sections within the quiz. Does not cascade to sub-sections." will set the quiz to shuffle questions within the quiz, and shuffle any Sections within the quiz as well. This setting will not shuffle questions within a Section, as sections have their own "shuffle questions" settings.
    
4. Display - The display settings can be used to allow hints if they have been added to any questions during question creation. In addition, you can disable some communication tools, like Email and Instant Messages, within Brightspace after students have begun a quiz. Please note that only communication tools within brightspace are disabled by this setting, students can still use email and instant messaging through other means.
    
5. Header and Footer - By clicking Manage Header and Footer, you can add text and images that will be visible to learners at the top and/or bottom of the quiz.

Jump to top

Attempts & Completion

1. Attempts - By default, quizzes are set to allow only one attempt for each student. The attempts option allows you to change how many attempts students have for a quiz by clicking Manage Attempts. You can allow between 1 and 10 attempts or an unlimited number of attempts. The Manage Attempts window also includes options regarding how the quiz handles grading for more than one attempt, such as using the highest attempt grade achieved, or an average of all attempts. If allowing more than one attempt, you can also set the quiz to only show students the questions they answered incorrectly for future attempts by checking the box next to "On new attempts, only allow answers for previously incorrect questions".
   
    
2. Category - You can set or create an organizational category for your quiz here. Please note that this is not related to grade book categories, it is used solely for organizing quizzes within the Quizzes tool area in Brightspace.
    
3. Notification Email - You can enter one or more email addresses in the Notification Email box, with each email address separated by a comma. Any new attempt for the quiz will generate a notification email, and send that email to the specified email addresses.
    
4. Completion Tracking - For the purposes of tracking completion for tools like the To Do module or Visual Table of Contents, a quiz is considered complete by default once it has at least one attempt. Clicking the Manage Completion Tracking button will allow you to change this setting so that quiz attempts will be considered complete only if a student has achieved at least a certain grade that you specify. For example, you could change this setting to mark a quiz complete only if a student achieves 80% or better.

Jump to top

 

Evaluation & Feedback

1. Auto-publish attempt results immediately upon completion - With this setting checked, student attempts will be automatically published. If questions cannot be auto-graded by the system (e.g. written response questions), those questions will be automatically scored with a zero until manual evaluation. As such, for quizzes that use questions that can't be auto-graded, instructors may wish to leave this setting off and manually publish student attempts once they have been graded.
    
2. Synchronize to grade book on publish - With this setting checked, student grades will be automatically sent to the Grade Book once their attempts are published. In general, we highly recommend that this setting be enabled for any graded quiz.
    
3. When published, display to learners: - In this section, instructors can control what students can see about their quiz attempts immediately after their attempts are published. Checking the box next to "Attempt Grade" will allow students to see their grade when viewing the attempt, and has no bearing on student's ability to see grades in the Grade Book. The dropdown menu beneath "Attempt Grade" controls if and how students can see both questions and answers for their quiz attempts:
   • No questions - This option does not allow students to view any questions or answers when reviewing their quiz attempt.
   • Incorrect Questions only, with correct answers - With this option, students will only be able to see the questions they answered incorrectly when reviewing their attempt. Students will be able to see the answers they gave, along with the correct answers.
   • Incorrect Questions only, without correct answers - With this option, students will only be able to see the questions they answered incorrectly when reviewing their attempts. Students will not be able to see any answer information.
   • All questions, with correct answers - With this option, students will be able to see all questions in the quiz when reviewing their attempts. Students will be able to see the answers they gave, along with the correct answers.
   • All questions, without correct answers - With this option, students will be able to see all questions in the quiz when reviewing their attempts. Students will not be able to see any answer information.
      
4. Customize Quiz Results Displays - This function allows you to create different feedback release rules, like the rules above, that come into effect on a specified date and time. After clicking Customize Quiz Results Displays, you will see the Primary View, which controls the same settings as Step 3 above and applies immediately after a student submits their quiz attempt. Editing the Primary View is the same as editing the functions in Step 3. Clicking +Additional View, you can create a second set of rules that will override the Primary View on the specified date.
   
   • Display Date - The display date and time control when the new view comes into effect. After this date and time, the rules you set below in the additional view will override the Primary View.
   • A limited amount of time (in minutes) after submission - This setting will limit the number of minutes students will have to see the additional options set in the new quiz results display. For example, checking the box and entering 60 minutes would mean that students can only review feedback for 60 minutes after they submit their quiz. Please note that this timer starts after submission, not when the results display will come into effect, and counts down whether or not students access their feedback view. We recommend caution when considering using this setting.
   • Custom Message - You can optionally add a custom message to replace the "Your work has been saved and submitted" message that appears for students after the quiz.
   • Grade - Checking this box will allow students to see their quiz grade when reviewing their quiz attempt. This does not control whether or not students can see their grades in the Grade Book.
   • Questions - This option controls what the students see within feedback for questions and answers. If "Don't Show" is selected, no question or answer information will show. This setting can be changed similarly to Step 3, allowing instructors to show All Questions, only Incorrectly answered questions with student answers, or only Correctly answered questions with student answers. If an option other than "Don't Show" is chosen, further options for what answer information is displayed will appear.
     
   • Statistics -These options allow students to see additional information about the quiz when viewing their feedback. This includes the option to see the class average for the quiz or a distribution graph of the grades of the quiz. This will not reveal specific grade information for any other students, the information is anonymous.
      
5. Learning Objectives - Learning Objectives fall under the Competencies tool and are generally used for evaluating courses and student learning outcomes. The setting is very rarely used. For more information about Competencies and Learning Objectives, reach out to your campus directly.

Jump to top

---

If you need further assistance or have additional questions please contact:
SUNY Online Support Services Help Desk
1-844-673-6786 | sunyonlinehelp@suny.edu