How do I add an online test (exam, quiz or assessment) to OnCourse?

Step-by-step guide

*The following steps outline adding a quiz and selecting settings. Links to adding questions, grading, and managing the quiz are in the Resources section at the bottom.*

Adding a Quiz

  1. From the course main page, turn editing on. Locate the green gear icon on the upper right hand side of the page. From the drop-down menu select "Turn editing on."
    Click on the drop-down menu to the right of the gear icon and click on Turn editing on

  2. In the topic area the Quiz belongs in, choose Add an Activity or Resource.
  3. In the Activity section select Quiz and press Add.

Configuring Quiz Settings

The steps below outline the sections needed to configure a quiz:

  1. Name: Enter the quiz name in this field. This is the name that will show on the course page.
  2. Description: This is optional, but works well to include directions with the quiz.
  3. Timing:
    1. Open and Close the Quiz: If you would like to schedule the quiz to be available during a certain time period, Enable these options and set the date and time for the quiz time period. If these are left unchecked, the quiz will be open once it is saved.
    2. Time Limit: Set the time limit for the number of minutes a student will have to complete the quiz once it is begun. To use this feature, first check the Enable box and then set time limit.
    3. When Time Expires: The default setting for this is “Open attempts are submitted automatically.” This is the recommended setting to ensure student submissions are received if time expires or if the student does not submit and open quiz.
    4. Submission Grace Period: The grace period only becomes available if choosing “There is a grace period….” From the “When time expires” setting. This would allow time for the student to press the submit button, but not make any changes to answers.
  4. Grade: The Grade section allows for placement of the quiz in the Gradebook. Select the Grade category for the quiz. The total number of points for the quiz will be added when adding questions.
  5. Layout: The default layout in the “New page” field is “Never, all questions on one page.” This will allow the students to scroll through the page to answer all of the questions. You may choose to limit questions per page by changing this drop down menu. If you need the questions to be answered sequentially, without allowing the students to return to a previous question, press the “Show more” link and change the “Navigation method” to Sequential.
  6. Question Behavior:
    1. Shuffle within questions: When using multiple choice or matching question types the parts making up each question can be shuffled by changing this menu item to Yes. Each question also has the option to turn off shuffling in the individual question settings.
    2. How Questions Behave: The two most common options are” Deferred feedback” and “Interactive with multiple tries.” The following descriptions are from Descriptions for the rest of the options can be found using the question mark next to the menu item and then by clicking the “More help” link.
      1. Deferred feedback: Students must enter an answer to each question and then submit the entire quiz, before anything is graded or they get any feedback.
      2. Adaptive mode and Adaptive mode (no penalties): Allows students to have multiple attempts at the question before moving on to the next question. This behavior requires that the "Whether correct" box is ticked under "During the attempt" in the "Review options" section, at a minimum.
  7. Review Options: This setting controls what the student can see about their attempt and when. The options are:
    1. The attempt: Shows what the student entered in response to each question.
    2. Whether correct: Displays whether or not the student's response to each question is correct.

    3. Marks: Shows the numerical marks the student received for each question and the overall score on the attempt.
    4. Specific Feedback: Shows feedback specific to the student's response. This text must be added by the instructor in the individual question settings.
    5. General feedback: Shows feedback for the question, not dependent on how the student answered the question. The same general feedback text is shown to all students. It can include links to resources for further study. This text must be added by the instructor in the individual question settings.
    6. Right answer: Shows an automatically generated summary of the correct response. This can be limited, so you may wish to consider explaining the correct solution in the general feedback for the question, and turning this option off.
    7. Overall feedback: Shows the overall feedback for the entire attempt, i.e. for the whole Quiz. This is configured further below.
  8. Overall Feedback: This section allows for feedback based on the final grade. After creating grade boundaries enter in feedback associated with each boundary.
  9. Activity Completion: By default this is set to “Students can manually mark the activity as completed.” If the quiz is self-grading, consider using “Show activity as complete when conditions are met” and selecting “Student must receive a grade to complete this activity.” This option will auto-check the quiz after the student submits.

After your settings are in place, pressing "Save and return to course” will take you back to the main course page. Choosing “Save and display” will save and open the quiz so that questions can be added.


  • Extending the amount of time a student has to complete a quiz, or changing the day a student can take the quiz is controlled by the “User Override” area of the quiz. After saving the quiz settings, this option becomes available. Directions for this can be found at


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