Testing Accommodations for Canvas

Extended test time is based on the amount of time students without accommodations will have for the exam.  For instance, if students in class have 20 minutes for a quiz, students with time-and-a-half will have 30 minutes, and students with double-time will have 40 minutes. 

Students who receive testing accommodations must also receive those accommodations while taking exams through Canvas. Both Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes allow faculty to set extended time for individual students within a course. You can find instructions on how to do this in the sections below.

If you are using a testing platform other than Canvas, please contact the SAS Testing Center at tests@ithaca.edu if you have questions.

In Classic Quizzes, it is possible to allocate extra time on exams for one or more students both BEFORE a student starts the exam and WHILE a student is taking an exam. It is not possible to allocate extra time for ALL Classic Quizzes within a course. To set extended time for a Classic Quiz:

1. Create your quiz. Set the time limit to reflect how long the class has to complete the assessment. You must set a time limit for the quiz to set extended time for any students.
   • If you set “Available From” and “Available Until” times, be sure that the window of time available is as long as the extended quiz time needed for any of your students.
2. PUBLISH the quiz. Note: If you don’t want the quiz to be available to your students when it is published, set the “Available From” date to a future date/time.
3. Once the quiz is published, select the “Moderate This Quiz” link in the upper right corner of the page. This will show you a list of students and various details about their quiz attempts.
4. Select the student(s)
   • To set extended time for a single student, click the pencil (Edit) icon at the far right of that record.
   • To set extended time for multiple students, click the box next to the name of each student that needs extended time and click “Change Extensions for XX Selected Students” at the bottom of the table.
5. This opens a window that allows you to either provide extra attempts or extra time for each attempt at the quiz. To set extended time, enter the EXTRA time the student should receive for the exam. If a quiz is set to be 10 minutes, for example, and the student has an accommodation for time and a half (1.5 times what the rest of the class receives), enter 5 into the “Extra time on every attempt” field.
6. Click “Save” when you are done.
7. You should now see the extra time allotted for each of the selected students under their name.

If a student is CURRENTLY taking an assessment, the table on the “Moderate Quiz” page should show a small, blue clock next in the “Time” field. To extend time on the assessment, click the clock icon. Using this method, you only set extended time for the current attempt. Future attempts at the assessment will default back to the time allotted for the class.

New Quizzes offer different methods for adding extended time. There are actually two options for doing this:

1. Set extended time limits for a student that will apply to ALL New Quizzes within the course.
2. Add time to a single quiz attempt. This works differently than with Classic Quizzes because this CANNOT be done while the student is actively taking the quiz. If time limits for a student are changed while a student is actively taking the assessment, the student will NOT receive extended time.

Note: As with Classic Quizzes, make sure that the Available Until date provides enough time for students receiving extended time. All quizzes will be automatically submitted when the Available Until date is reached.

To extend time limits for ALL New Quizzes for a given student

1. Create and PUBLISH your quiz.
2. Click the “Build” button at the bottom of the page.
3. At the top of the Build module, click “Settings” to establish a time limit for the quiz that will apply to the entire class.
4. Click “Moderate” to view information about individual students.
5. Click the pencil icon (Edit) under the “Accommodations” heading.
6. Modify the time adjustments for the student by selecting “Give Additional Time” or “Time Limit Multiplier”. For SAS accommodations, it is easiest to use “Time Limit Multiplier” to add extra time based on the accommodations listed in the students’ Accommodation Letter (the most common are one and a half times (1.5x) and double time (2x) for exams).
7. Click the “Save” button.
8. You will now see the extended time granted to that student. This extended time will be applied to ALL New Quiz attempts for the course.

New Quizzes offer different methods for adding extended time. There are actually two options for doing this:

1. Set extended time limits for a student that will apply to ALL New Quizzes within the course.
2. Add time to a single quiz attempt. This works differently than with Classic Quizzes because this CANNOT be done while the student is actively taking the quiz. If time limits for a student are changed while a student is actively taking the assessment, the student will NOT receive extended time.

Note: As with Classic Quizzes, make sure that the Available Until date provides enough time for students receiving extended time. All quizzes will be automatically submitted when the Available Until date is reached.

To extend the time limit for a SINGLE New Quiz for a given student

1. Create and PUBLISH your quiz.
2. Click the “Build” button at the bottom of the page.
3. At the top of the Build module, click “Settings” to establish a time limit for the quiz that will apply to the entire class.
4. Click “Moderate” to view information about individual students.
5. The pop-out panel shows how many attempts have already been made for the assessment, how much time the student is granted (including time set using the accommodation method).
6. Use the “Time adjustments” drop-down and the “Hours” and “Minutes” fields to give additional time or remove all time limits for this quiz.
7. Any additional time given for the quiz will now show under the “Accommodations” heading.

Note: It is not possible to use the Moderation settings to REMOVE time from a quiz attempt.

Note: Moderating a single quiz will apply any moderation settings on top of any accommodations that have already been set.

Students who require an auditory presentation of a test, using a reader, or who need the services of a scribe, for on-campus exams may also require them for online exams.  Students must request online exams through the SAS Alternative Testing Request Form using the same method as on-campus exam requests. 

To accommodate online students, a copy of the exam is needed so SAS staff can read the exam to the student via Zoom (during online instruction).  Faculty may accomplish this by uploading the exam to the Alternative Testing Request Form with detailed instructions. Upon completion of the exam, SAS will upload it back to the professor.

Students must communicate when this accommodation is needed so that faculty, the student, and SAS can work together on an alternate time that does not detract from the course objective and fits scheduling needs. Tests must be made up within a reasonable timeframe or the alternate time accommodation may be nullified.  

If a student is taking an online exam at an alternate time, faculty must ensure that the "Available From" and "Available To" dates and times in Canvas allow the student to test at that alternate time. If the alternate time is outside the times set within Canvas, the student will not be able to take the exam. It is possible to set alternate exam times for individual students within Canvas.

Based on a student’s disability some may require short, stop-the-clock breaks during exams.  This will apply only to students who have Breaks During Exams as an accommodation.  SAS will monitor break times for students in the testing center and add the time to the end of the exam.  For online exams, faculty can discuss the accommodation with the student to determine the length of the break and how it will be implemented.  One suggestion is to add an additional amount of time to the end of the exam that is equal to the length of the break (typically 10-15 minutes).