Negative Points possible ?

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hari kumar

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Mar 10, 2015, 7:00:33 AM3/10/15
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Hi All,
 
I have a question, is it possible to set negative points in a Canvas Quiz.  The requirement is I am planning to set up a quiz for my students and I need to mark wrong answers with some negative mark.  Is this possible in Canvas?  Can somebody help me in this issue?
 
Thanks
Regards
 
Hari

Midiman

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Mar 11, 2015, 10:36:59 PM3/11/15
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Just to confirm, are you attempting to penalize a student double the amount they would normally get for a wrong response in a quiz? If a quiz is composed of 10 questions worth one point each, and a student misses 5 of those possible 10 questions, they would earn a total of 5 points out of 10 for 50% of the possible points so they are already being penalized for not answering all the questions correctly. If you were to specify negative points for a wrong answer they would get -10 points for a total of 0 out of 10. 

The number of points a quiz is worth as an assignment is based off of the number of points possible, so I don't think you can even do this or would want to do this.

hari kumar

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Mar 31, 2015, 4:46:14 AM3/31/15
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Hi,
Thanks for your reply
I am thinking of putting +1 mark for correct and -.25 for wrong answers, whether this type of marking pattern possible in Canvas?
Regards
Hari

Midiman

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Mar 31, 2015, 12:22:58 PM3/31/15
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Respectfully, your thinking on this is not going to work because the total points available in the quiz is what determines how it is going to be scored.

For instance if I have a 2-question quiz with 1 question worth -0.25 points and the other worth 1 point, that means that there is a total of 0.75 points in the quiz to be earned. 

If a student takes the quiz and gets the question worth -0.25 points wrong, and the question worth 1 point correct, the total score is 1 out of 0.75 points possible which means that the student is earning EXTRA credit. It would have the exact opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve. 

On the other hand if a question is worth positive points and it is marked as incorrect then the student is penalized the amount of points attached to the question for not answering it correctly. This is always how the scoring system in Canvas Quizzes has worked. So if I were you I would abandon the negative point idea. 

namisk...@gmail.com

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Apr 2, 2015, 8:45:43 AM4/2/15
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He's not trying to set minus points for the questions but for the wrong answers only. This type of grading is used in Finland as well on tests to prevent guessing for right answers. This means that the expected behaviour from students is to leave a blank answer if they don't know the answer, to avoid getting negative points for wrong answers. So Hari is asking if it's possible to set points for a quiz question separetely for right and wrong answers.

Charles Wood

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Apr 2, 2015, 1:32:49 PM4/2/15
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If it's not an option, you may want to put the feature up on BountySource(https://www.bountysource.com/) and see if you can get someone to contribute it. 

I see a few LTI apps and canvas features wished for that would work out well there.

Of course the developer would have to agree to Instructure's contributor terms.

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hari kumar

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Apr 6, 2015, 12:20:13 AM4/6/15
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Thanks Namisk for explaining my point and thanks Charles Max Wood for your suggestion. 
 
Regards
Hari
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