Atomic Assessments - Determining Assignment Settings [UW-Madison]

Atomic Assessments is an advanced quizzing tool currently available through Canvas to all of UW-Madison's for-credit instructors. Because it is an advanced quizzing tool, it is recommend for technically advanced instructors or instructors with departmental support staff. Please leave ample time to develop and test assessments in Atomic Assessments before incorporating them into your live courses.

This document outlines the advanced settings available in Atomic Assessments, as well as the effect enabling or disabling each setting has on the assignment.

Configuring basic assignment settings

To configure basic assignment settings:

  1. Create a new assignment as outlined in Atomic Assessments - Creating Assignments in Canvas [UW-Madison]
  2. After clicking Create, click on the Settings tab.
    Settings Tab
  3. Make sure the Assignment Name is set to something that clearly and concisely identifies the assignment.
  4. Determine whether this assignment should create a gradebook entry. Make sure Create gradebook entry box is selected if you want this assignment to appear in the gradebook.
    • You are only able to change this when you first create the assignment, so make sure to check the Create gradebook entry box if you want this assignment to appear in the gradebook.
  5. In the Points Possible field, set the total number of points possible for the assignment. You can update this at a later time if necessary.
  6. Determine whether grades for this assignment should be automatically submitted to the Canvas gradebook. Select the Auto submit score to gradebook checkbox for the grades to automatically submit to the gradebook after the assignment is graded.
  7. Use the Incomplete attempts drop-down menu to indicate how you want to deal with incomplete attempts where a student has not submitted their work. You can either:
    • Automatically submit assignments that were left unsubmitted at their closing date. For this option, select Automatically submit at close date.
    • Leave the assignment unsubmitted if you wish the students do not receive scores for partially completed assignments. For this option, select Leave unsubmitted.
  8. Use the Grade server side checkbox to indicate whether the assignment will be graded server side or if it will be graded in the browser.
    • Selecting Grade server side prevents any question validation information from being sent to the client at any time and computes scores server side rather than determining grades in the browser. While this prevents any scoring information from being sent to the browser during the activity or during review, round trip calls to the servers can decrease performance and response time.
    • Note that selecting this option will not display feedback for custom question types when clicking Check Answer, will disable the feedback options for correct/incorrect answer highlighting, will not allow the use of the Give Up button, and will disable the showing of correct answers until the review page.
      List of the general settings in atomic assessments
    • In the Assign block, specify who to assign this assignment to in the Assign to box.
      • Assignments are typically assigned to everyone, but you can also assign to specific students or course sections.
    • In the Number of allowed attempts field, enter the number of allowed attempts.
      • The default setting is 1 attempt, but it can be set to any number of attempts you would like. Select the Unlimited attempts checkbox to offer unlimited attempts.
    • In the Due field, enter the assignment due date and time.
      • The time zone of the assignment due date will reflect the course time zone, which is auto-set to match the instructor's time zone.
    • If needed, set the availability dates in the Available from and Until fields.
      • The time zone of the available from and until dates will reflect the course time zone, which is auto-set to match the instructor's time zone.
      • It is recommended that you set the Until field to at least an hour after the due date time to avoid student requests to reopen assignment.
    • If needed, select the Time limit checkbox and enter the time limit in minutes for the assignment in the Time Limit field.
    • Add any overrides needed for your students by clicking Add Override and filling in the relevant information. For example, if a student has an accessibility request and needs more time to complete an assignment, you can fulfill their request here.

Configuring advanced settings

To configure more advanced settings in Atomic Assessments:

  1. Click More Options.

    More Options

  2. Under General Settings, configure the following options:

    Setting Name Description
    Score to keep Highest: When multiple assignment attempts are enabled, the student's highest score will be kept as the final score.
    Latest: When multiple assignment attempts are enabled, the student's most recent score will be kept as the final score.
    Average: When multiple assignment attempts are enabled, the student's average score will be kept as the final score.
    Show all items on a single page All items and questions will be shown on a single page. This option overrides page and section breaks.
    Shuffle items Items will be shown in a different order to each student.
    Show start screen A screen with a Start button will display when the student first clicks into the assignment. Time limits will not start until the student clicks Start.
    Show remaining time Remaining time (if a time limit is specified) will be shown in the top right corner. This could help students manage their time more efficiently.
    Hide Canvas module navigation Instructors can use this to hide the previous/next navigation below the assignment when students are viewing canvas modules. When the student reaches the assignment, the module navigation at the bottom will disappear until the assignment is submitted.
    Require submission confirmation A confirmation button will display at the end of the assessment asking the student to confirm if they would like to submit the assignment.
    Show summary Students will see the summary, which includes score, previous attempt details, retake and/or review buttons, at the end of the assessment. When disabled, students will only see the review screen, which includes the questions with their answers
    Allow student review Students will be able to review their answers and feedback to any of their previous attempts.
    Show question numbers during review Items and questions will be numbered when students review their attempts. Items with multiple questions will be separated using a period. Ex. Question 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc.
  3. Under Question Settings, configure the following options:

    Setting Name Description
    Enable multiple question attempts Use Item-Level: Question attempts will be determined by the Check answer attempts set in each item.
    Never Show: The Check Answer button will never display, overriding item-level settings.
    Always Show: The Check Answer button will always display. You will also need to specify the number of allowed Check answer attempts.
    Number of allowed question attempts Students will be able to attempt each question the number of times specified here. This is only available when the setting Enable multiple question attempts is set to Always Show.
    Show remaining attempts for questions The number of remaining attempts for each question will be displayed at the bottom left of each question.
    Show "Check Answer" button even after student answers correctly If this option is enabled, students that submit a correct answer will still see the Check Answer button. When not enabled, students that submit a correct answer will no longer see the check answer button, even if they have not used all of their allotted attempts.
    Show "Try Again" button after an incorrect Check Answer After a student clicks the Check Answer button and the answer is incorrect, a Try Again button will display. When the Try Againbutton is clicked, highlighting and feedback disappear and the student can select a different answer. This button only shows if the student has remaining question attempts.
    Show "Give Up" button

    When a student clicks the Give Up button, answers will be displayed and there will be no more check answer attempts available to students. Students will not be able to submit alternate answers, even if check answer attempts remain.

    When enabled, highlighting and correct answers are shown based on the feedback timing grid.

    Penalties Disable penalties: When a student checks their answer by clicking the Check Answer or Submit button, no penalties will be applied.
    Use question penalties: When a student checks their answer by clicking the Check Answer or Submit button, a penalty percentage will be applied. This percentage is determined by navigating to the question settings and applying a percentage penalty to the question.
    Apply penalty to all questions: Instructors will set a penalty percentage that will be deducted from the question point total each time the user selects Try Again.
  4. Under Feedback Timing, configure the following options. Depending on your preferred feedback strategy, you can adjust when answer feedback, correct answers, and several other feedback options are made available to students. If you are unsure of what feedback strategy you would like to use, contact the DoIT Help Desk and request a consultation with a Learn@UW-Madison consultant.

    Setting Name Description
    Show teacher feedback to student Feedback that teachers have written in the Atomic Assessments comment box in Speedgrader will be shown to students in the review screen.
    Correct/Incorrect Highlighting Correct/Incorrect highlighting, set by the instructor in each question, will display when one or all of the following conditions are met, depending on the instructors preferences:
    • When student checks answer
    • When student can no longer change answer
    • After submitting assignment but before the due date
    • After due date
    • Never
    Correct Answer The Correct Answer, set by the instructor in each question, will display when one or all of the following conditions are met, depending on the instructors preferences:
    • When student checks answer
    • When student can no longer change answer
    • After submitting assignment but before the due date
    • After due date
    • Never
    General Feedback General Feedback, written by the instructor in each question, will display when one or all of the following conditions are met, depending on the instructors preferences:
    • When student checks answer
    • When student can no longer change answer
    • After submitting assignment but before the due date
    • After due date
    • Never
    Response-Specific Feedback Response-specific Feedback, written by the instructor in each question, will display when one or all of the following conditions are met, depending on the instructors preferences:
    • When student checks answer
    • When student can no longer change answer
    • After submitting assignment but before the due date
    • After due date
    • Never
    Sample Answer Sample answers, provided by the instructor in each question, will display when one or all of the following conditions are met, depending on the instructors preferences:
    • When student checks answer
    • When student can no longer change answer
    • After submitting assignment but before the due date
    • After due date
    • Never
    Score The question Score will display when one or all of the following conditions are met, depending on the instructors preferences:
    • When student checks answer
    • When student can no longer change answer
    • After submitting assignment but before the due date
    • After due date
    • Never
    Points Possible The Total Points Possible for a question will display when one or all of the following conditions are met, depending on the instructors preferences:
    • When student checks answer
    • When student can no longer change answer
    • After submitting assignment but before the due date
    • After due date
    • Never
  5. Under Item Pool, configure the following options. Pools of items can be generated to sample from if you would like to have quiz variations. This helps promote academic integrity by removing the option to cheat, because all students will have different sets of questions for each assessment.

    Setting Name Description 
    Number of items to randomly select

    Students will only see the specified number of items that are randomly selected out of the total number of items in the activity.

    For example, if you have a pool of 20 items and enter 10 here, each student's assignment will have 10 random items selected from the pool of 20.

    Sample items based on tags For each tag type included in the activity, you can set them to:
    • Don't include items with this tag: Items with this certain tag that are in the activity will not be included in the assignment.
    • 1+: The specified number of items with this certain tag will be included in the assignment.
    • Don't sample based on this tag: Items with this certain tag will not be sampled. All items with this tag will be included in the assignment.
  6. Under Access Restrictions, configure the following options:

    Setting Name Description
    Access code Instructors can toggle the Require an access code option to specify an access code that users will need in order to access the assignment. This is useful if you'd like students to
    IP Address filters Access to an assessment is restricted based on the IP address of the user's computer. Separate entries with a comma. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are required. Valid entries are a full IP Address or those in CIDR notation such as 192.168.1.1/20 or fd12:3456:789a:1::/64
    To add both, put a comma (,) between the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses: 192.168.1.1/20, fd12:3456:789a:1::/64 

Managing assignment settings presets

An assignment settings preset is a configuration of assignment settings that can be easily reused in other assignments. You can manage assignment presets from a list by going into an assignment and clicking Load Presets the top right of the assignment settings view.

Assignment settings preset button

Saving a preset stores a configuration of assignment settings so that they it be later loaded by selecting the preset from a list. Assignment presets can be copied when a course is copied by a Canvas course copy or when a course is exported.

To create a new preset:
  1. After you've specified all of the assignment settings, click the Load Presets drop-down menu on the right and scroll to the bottom of the list.
  2. Click the Save new preset button. The Save New Preset window opens.
  3. Type a name in the Preset Name field and click the Create button.
To update an already existing preset:
  1. After you've specified all of the assignment settings, click the Load Presets drop-down menu on the right.
  2. Click on the little floppy disk icon to the right of the preset you'd like to update.
To set a default preset for new assignments in a course:
  1. Click the Load Presets drop-down menu on the right and scroll to the bottom of the list.
  2. Click the Set Default button. The Set Defaults window opens.
  3. Choose which assignments to set the default for:
    • New assignments in this course
    • New embedded assignments in this course
    • New assignments in all courses
    • New embedded assignments in all courses

To delete a preset:

  1. Click the Load Presets drop-down menu on the right.
  2. Click the X to the right of the preset name to delete. An "Are you sure you want to delete" window opens.
  3. Click the Delete button to delete the preset.


Keywordsatomic assessments, quiz, quizzing, advanced quizzing, assessments, canvas, assignment   Doc ID92409
OwnerLearn@UW MadisonGroupLearn@UW-Madison
Created2019-06-13 11:50:29Updated2023-12-11 09:38:57
SitesDoIT Help Desk, Learn@UW-Madison
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