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Other three question types in Canvas New Quizzes

These question types are different than the rest. "Hot spot" asks the student to place a marker in a picture. "File upload" recieves the answers in the for of uploaded files. "Stimulus" is a way to attach extra information to selected questions. Here we explain the question types and their recommended use.

Hot Spot

To use the question type “Hot spot” you need to upload a picture and mark an area in the picture and write a question text. The students receive points for the question if they place a marker in the picture that matches the area that you have indicated as correct.

Read more about "Hot spot" at Canvas Community .

Hot spot is used for marking details in visual content

“Hot spot” can be used for questions about details in pictures, diagrams, coordinate systems, and other visual content.  

Important to keep in mind! Variation in the form of an explanation with an image can often help more people understand, but this question type has significant accessibility issues that may need addressing. Students that answer the question type have to be sighted and be able to navigate with a mouse pointer, something that is impossible for some students. Think carefully about the use of “hot spot” and have an alternative prepared.

File upload

“File upload” makes it possible for you to ask for any number and types of files for the students to upload. This question type requires manual assessment, no score can be assigned automatically.  

Read more about "File upload" at Canvas Community .

Should only be used in exceptional cases

Avoid using “File upload” in your quizzes, unless the file submission must be directly related to the current quiz attempt. At this point (January 2024) it is not possible to use SpeedGrader to assess files that are submitted through a quiz. Thus, it is better to use Canvas Assignments for file uploads.  

Stimulus

“Stimulus” is not a question type, it is a support function that enables you to add instructions in the middle of the quiz, attached to one or more questions. The instructions can, for example, contain text, web links and pictures.

Note! “Stimulus" needs to be connected to at least one question to be visible for the students.

Read more about "Stimulus" at Canvas Community .

Recommended if questions need to be grouped

“Stimulus” is a convenient way to add information that is only relevant for some of the questions in the quiz or to clearly divide a quiz into different parts. For example, you can add a situation with a diagram and background information in a “stimulus” and connect it to three questions about the situation. Another example is to divide a quiz into “Discrete distributions” and “Continuous distributions” and enter the formula collection in the “stimulus”.