Exam Accommodations

This article describes how to use Canvas to grant students additional time and extended availability windows for exams, which, in Canvas, are called quizzes

If a student in your course has an approved accommodation from Student Disabilities Services (SDS) or must take a quiz at a different time than the rest of the class (because of time zone or another reason), you should ensure that reasonable accommodations are made. You are responsible for setting up these accommodations in Canvas, or for asking the Courseware team to do so. 

Please contact Courseware with accommodation requests at least 1 business day before the quiz is administered.

Availability Windows vs. Time Limits

The availability window is the total time period the quiz is open to students; e.g., from April 28 at 12pm to April 29 at 1pm.  

The time limit is a specified amount of time given to students to complete the quiz (e.g., 60 minutes). 

If your quiz uses both availability dates and a time limit, be sure to update both when making accommodations.

Student-specific Availability Windows

You can set different availability windows for students within the same quiz or assignment. 

  1. Open the quiz (in New Quizzes or Classic Quizzes) and scroll down to the Assign to field. 
  2. After setting the Due Date and Available from/Until dates, click the +Add button to create a second Assign to field. 
  3. Start typing the first few letters of the student's name and select their name from the student list that appears. You can assign a different availability window to multiple students or to different sections of students. 
  4. Enter the new due date and Available from/Until dates for these students. 
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 as needed, and click Save when you are finished. 

Notes: Individual students can only be assigned one (1) Availability Window. Students will see only the due date and available from/Until dates assigned to them.

Extending the Time Limit

You can extend the time limit of a quiz for individual students without adjusting the time limit for the rest of the class. This is possible in both New Quizzes and Classic Quizzes, but should be done before students start taking the quiz.

In New Quizzes

In Classic Quizzes

Allowing Extra Time for In-Progress Quizzes

Note: It is not possible to give a student additional time while they are taking a New Quiz. You can allow them another attempt, but not additional time.

In Classic Quizzes

  1. If a student has an emergency or technical issue while they are taking a quiz using Classic Quizzes, you can open Moderate This Quiz, then click the clock icon next to the student's remaining time. Classic Quizzes give extra time on in-progress attempt

2. Enter the amount of extra time to give the student and select to apply the extra minutes to the current end time of the quiz. Then click Extend Time. The extra time will be applied to the student's in-progress attempt and their countdown clock will be updated.

Classic Quizzes extend quiz time

Questions?

Email: courseware@wharton.upenn.edu