This article explains the possible time issues you will find in Canvas Quizzes.
Availability windows in Canvas work differently than those in eCampus. Instead of the time window being a start window, in Canvas, the time window is absolute and overrides all other settings. To illustrate this, let’s see two examples of Canvas Quizzes.
Note: Examity is the proctoring solution in both examples.
Jump to an example:
Example 1: No Accommodations
This example is a 2.5-hour exam with 30 minutes added as flexibility time if students start late.
Flex time is extra time you add to the exam time window. It is not a feature or setting in Canvas, just something you account for to have some wiggle room. In our examples, the exam window is from 9 am to 12 pm. Note: The exam window is different from the exam timer.
Let’s say this is a proctored quiz, and the student schedules this quiz with Examity. The student joins the session 15 minutes early to perform the authentication process, in which they provide an ID, the proctor scans the room, and they start the exam.
If everything goes as planned, the student starts the authentication process before the exam window and joins right on time with 30 minutes extra. Then, the quiz timer starts running for 2 hours and 30 minutes. The test is submitted within the Canvas time window that was set for the exam.
A less ideal case is below. This time, the student starts 15 minutes late and authentication takes 20 minutes due to connection issues. That time is lost within the window.
So, even if the exam timer is supposed to run 2 hours and 30 minutes, the exam is cut short by 5 minutes since the exam window closes at 12 pm.
Since students are being proctored, we recommend that you make the test window longer than needed to avoid scheduling issues. That is why we add flex time.
Example 2: 2x Time Accommodations
This example is about a 2.5-hour exam with 2x accommodations and 30 minutes of flexibility time.
The instructor scheduled a time window from 9 am to 12 pm to take the exam. They also added accommodation time via quiz moderation.
Let’s say a student with a valid 2x accommodation schedules time with Examity and joins the session just in time at 9 am.
Even with an accommodation granted by quiz moderation, if there is no alternate time window for students with accommodations, Canvas will cut the time short.
It is important to remember that besides setting up a quiz moderation instruction, you also must set up an extended window for the affected students. You can’t use groups to assign this, so you need to add windows per student. The same goes for quiz moderation instructions.
Finally, it’s important to note that you must also set up accommodations on Examity’s side for the proctor to know those accommodations are enabled.
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