Knowledge Checks – Using MS Forms in Canvas to Check Student Comprehension

Last updated on October 6, 2026

Have you ever wondered how to help your students develop better study skills? Students can spend a great deal of time reading or viewing material but merely reading material does little to help students learn or help students direct their studying efforts. Knowledge checks can be a powerful way to help students interact with course material. Low-stakes assessments help students see how well they have understood the information, make judgments about what and how much they should study, and allow students to process the material more deeply.

Best practices

When should I use this?

• Knowledge checks are useful for assessing student understanding:
  • Before they’ve learned new material to prime them with previously covered materials
  • While they are engaging with material like a reading or a lecture video
  • After a unit but before a formal assessment to help them see what they may need to review
• Align your knowledge checks with your module learning objectives. This helps the assignment and knowledge check feel meaningful to the students and helps reinforce your course learning objectives
• Provide feedback! It can be extremely helpful to go beyond simple “correct” and “incorrect” feedback and give the student more information.
  • Why was the answer incorrect? Where can the student go to get more information? The feedback is the most essential component for learning.
• Keep knowledge checks short (just a few questions) and keep the total number consistent with the number of learning objectives for a module.

When should I set this up?

• When creating lessons in Canvas. It can be helpful to students to break up content with short knowledge checks, and using the quiz tool can be fast and easy if you want to count these for a small grade.
• You can also embed Microsoft Forms knowledge checks into pages in Canvas using the RCE (remember, these do not connect to the grade book, so these are for teaching/learning only, and not assessment)

When should I not use this?

• Knowledge checks should not be designed to confuse students, but instead they should give them a realistic look at their understanding of the material.
• If you want to grade your knowledge checks, consider grading for completion, not correctness, so students can interact with the material several times if needed.
• Don’t rely on True/ False questions, these questions are easiest to guess and may not give students an accurate idea of their learning. Multiple choice questions can provide the learner with better feedback but keep grading to a minimum.

Let’s walk through it together

[Length 8:41, CC Available]

Create a Knowledge Check in a MS Form

1. Go to office.com/launch/forms in your internet browser.
2. Log-in with your MSU Denver Single-Sign On (your university email and password).
   • You may be automatically logged-in if you’ve logged into your email or other university systems on your internet browser.
3. Click + New Quiz in the top left-hand corner of the page.
4. Enter a title for the quiz in the Untitled quiz text field.
   • Optional: Click the Text Box below the title box to enter a description for your knowledge check.
5. Click Settings in the top right of the screen.
6. Uncheck the checkbox for One Response Per Person in the Who can fill out this form section.
   • You will want students to be able to see the knowledge check and attempt it again if they go through the material again.
7. Adjust any other settings you wish to have for your quiz.
8. Click the X at the top right corner of the settings panel to close the settings.

Add Questions to the Knowledge Check

MS Forms include a variety of question types, but we’ll just focus on the two most popular types for this use: multiple-choice and short answer.

1. Click the Quick start with button to add a question.
   • This button will be below the title if you haven’t added any questions already, or below the existing questions if you have.
2. Select the Question Type you wish to use for the question.
   • Choice: Multiple choice question.
   • Text: Open-ended/short answer question.
   • Rating: Students rate something on a scale.
   • Date: Students pick a date from a calendar tool.
   • Ranking: Students rank options by dragging and dropping.
   • Likert: Groups multiple Rating questions into a single grid (commonly used to ask how much students agree or disagree with a statement).
   • Upload File: Respondents attach a file to their response.
   • Net Promoter Score: A 0-10 scale that measures loyalty.
   • Section: Organizes your form into multiple parts with headings and descriptions.
3. Enter the Question in the text box that says “Question”.
4. Enter possible Answers in the boxes that say “Option [X]”.
5. Click + Add Option below the answer choices to add more possible answers.
6. Click the Check icon to the left of an answer to mark it as correct, if applicable.
   • Note: Some question types, such as Ranking, may require a different way of designating correct answers.
7. Hover over an option choice to view more tools.
   • Trash Can: Remove answer choice.
   • Word Bubble: Provide feedback when a student selects that answer.
   • Arrow: Move answer choice up or down.
   • Image Icon: Upload media to the answer choice.
8. Click the toggle to the left of a question setting below the answer choices to turn the setting on.
   • Math: Turns on math function ability.
   • Multiple Answers: Allows the student to select multiple correct answers (don’t forget to mark each correct answer as correct).
   • Required: Student can’t submit the form unless the question is answered.
9. Click the Trash Can icon in the top right-hand corner of the question box to remove the entire question.
10. Click the duplicate icon (rectangle) in the top right-hand corner of the question box to duplicate the question.
11. Click + Add new question below the question box to add a new question.

Embed the Knowledge Check in a Canvas Page

Get Embed Code for MS Fom

1. Click Collect Responses in the top-right corner of the Form.
2. Click the Embed (</>) icon under the link on the right-hand side of the Share panel to generate an embed code.
3. Click Copy to the bottom right of the embed code.

Embed Knowledge Check in Canvas Page

1. Log in to your Canvas Account.
2. Select the Course you’d like to work in.
3. Click Modules from the left-hand course navigation menu.
4. Click the Canvas Page you wish to add the MS Form to.
5. Click Edit in the top right-hand corner of the Page.
6. Click the Cloud Icon in the toolbar along the top of the text box.
   • Note: If the Cloud icon is not visible, click the More Options (3 Dots) icon to the right of the toolbar.
7. Paste the Embed Code in the pop-up menu.
8. Click Submit in the bottom right-hand corner of the pop-up menu.
9. Click Save or Save and Publish in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

---

Have Questions?

Need additional support on this or other teaching and learning topics? Please visit us for drop-in support or try one of our self-help tutorials. 

Ready to take your teaching to the next level? Opt into our Connections with CTLD newsletter!