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Use Microsoft Forms for Knowledge Checks in Canvas

Last updated on November 11, 2022

Knowledge checks are a great tool for ensuring student comprehension when reading your course material. At their most basic, they can simply be a multiple-choice question at the end of a section to help the student see if they understood the material. They appear after content in Canvas and ask a few questions to gauge student understanding of the material, letting the student know if they might need to review the material again before moving on. Since Canvas doesn’t have a native tool for knowledge checks, this tutorial will cover creating an MS Form and embedding it in the Rich Content Editor. The process is very straightforward and can improve student intake and retention of the content in your course.

Directions

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. Click Untitled Quiz to enter a title for your knowledge check.
    • Optional: Click the Text Box below the title box to enter a description for your knowledge check.
  5. Click the More Options (3 Dots) button in the top right-hand corner of the screen, the the right of the Share button.
  6. Click Settings in the drop-down menu.
  7. Uncheck the checkbox for One Response Per Person.
    • You will want students to be able to see the knowledge check and attempt it again if they go through the material again.

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 + Add New 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. Click the Choice button to create a multiple-choice question.
    • Enter the Question in the text box that says “Question”.
    • Enter possible Answers in the boxes that say “Option [X]”.
    • Click + Add Option to add more possible answers.
    • Click the Check icon to the left of an answer to mark it as correct.
    • Click the Trash Can icon to the right of an answer to remove it.
    • Click the Word Bubble icon to the right of an answer to provide feedback when a student selects that answer.
    • Click the toggle next to Multiple Answers to allow the student to select multiple correct answers (don’t forget to mark each correct answer as correct).
    • Click the Trash Can icon in the top right-hand corner of the question box to remove the entire question.
  3. Click the Text button to create a short answer question. This should only be used when you want a student to enter something simple, like a name, word, or number.
    • Enter the Question in the text box that says “Question”.
    • Click + Add Answer to enter the correct answer (you can click it again to enter several possible correct answers).
    • Click the Trash Can icon in the top right-hand corner of the question box to remove the entire question.

Embed the Knowledge Check in a Canvas Page

  1. Click Collect responses in the top-right corner of the Form.
  2. Click the Embed (</>) icon to generate an embed code.
  3. Click Copy to the right of the embed code.
  4. Open a Canvas Page.
  5. Click Edit in the top right-hand corner of the Page.
  6. Click the Embed icon in the toolbar along the top of the text field (this icon looks like a cloud.
    • This icon might not be visible on smaller screens. In this case, click the More Options (3 Dots) icon to the right of the toolbar and then click the Embed icon.
  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 in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.