There are many Canvas options available to create student engagement in an online environment. The following examples are a few ideas that you could use to build student engagement and take attendance.


Canvas Tools - Assignments:


Assignments - Canvas supports various assignment types that allow teachers to create opportunities for students to submit work or artifacts to demonstrate engagement and participation. 

    • Assignment -  A Canvas assignment can be submitted online through text entry, file uploads, media recordings, Google Docs, URLs, or Canvas pages. This assignment appears on the Assignments Index Page, the Gradebook (graded only), the Syllabus, and on the User Dashboard (graded only).  Assignments can be assigned to individual students, groups, or sections.



    • Discussions - A Discussion is a Canvas assignment that will grade students' responses to discussion topics. This assignment will appear on the Assignment Index Page (graded only), the Discussions Index Page, the Gradebook (graded only), the Syllabus, and on the User Dashboard (graded only).  Discussions can be assigned to individual students, groups, or sections.


    • Quiz (See below for screenshot)- A Quiz is a Canvas assignment that can be used to conduct a survey or assess a student's comprehension of course content. This assignment will appear on the Assignments Index Page (graded only), the Quizzes Index Page, the Gradebook (graded only), the Syllabus, and on the User Dashboard (graded only).  Quizzes can be assigned to individual students or sections; they cannot be assigned to groups.


More Information on Classic Quizzes

 Within Classic Quizzes there are 4 options that a teacher can use to assess/engage students within a lesson.  Each option has a hyperlink to how to view the results for that type of quiz. The image below shows feedback on a completed quiz.



    • Graded Quiz-  A graded quiz is the most common quiz, and Canvas automatically creates a column in the grade book for any graded quizzes you build. After a student takes a graded quiz, certain question types will be automatically graded. You can also view quiz results for graded quizzes in SpeedGrader or from the quiz results page.


    • Practice Quiz-  A practice quiz can be used as a learning tool to help students see how well they understand the course material. Practice quizzes are not a graded quiz type. Students do not receive a grade for practice quizzes, even though the quiz results display the number of points earned in the quiz. Practice quiz results do not display on the student grades page and must be viewed from the submission details page. You can also view quiz results for practice quizzes.


    • Graded Survey- A graded survey allows the instructor to give students points for completing the survey, but it does not allow the survey to be graded for right or wrong answers. Graded surveys have the option to be anonymous. You can also view survey results for graded surveys from the quiz details page or in SpeedGrader.


    • Ungraded Survey- An ungraded survey allows you to get opinions or other information from your students, but students do not receive a grade for their responses. With ungraded surveys, you can make responses anonymous. Ungraded surveys are not a graded quiz type. You can also view survey results for ungraded surveys.