Canvas: Using a File Upload Question for Written Work Submission

Creating a File Upload Question

To add a File Upload question to your Canvas Quiz:

1. In your Canvas course menu, click Quizzes.
2. In the list of quizzes, click the name of the quiz you want to edit.
3. In the top right corner of the Quiz summary page, click Edit.
4. At the top of the page that opens, click the Questions tab.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click + New Question.
6. In the box that opens, click the drop-down menu, and click File Upload Question.
7. Fill in the following fields:
   1. Question name
   2. Points the question is worth
   3. The question text
8. Click Update Question
   
   
   
9. At the bottom of the page, click Save when you are done editing the quiz, or Save and Publish to also publish the quiz.

How Students Upload Written Work

Students have several options for submitting their written work to a Canvas Quiz. Below are steps that should work for most students, but different scenarios may require different procedures.

1. Students can take pictures of written work using a smartphone. Note: if multiple images need to be uploaded to one quiz question, there are numerous apps available to scan to a PDF file.
2. Students can email these files to themselves to transfer them to the device on which they are taking the quiz. Other options include: uploading files to the cloud or to Files in the Canvas Student app, then downloading them on their computer.
3. Students then upload their files to the File Upload quiz question.

Viewing and Grading Student Submissions

To view student submissions for file upload questions, you must download them. To download student submissions:

1. In your Canvas course menu, click Quizzes.
2. Find the quiz that has submissions you want to download and click its name.
3. At the far right or bottom of the page:
   • click Download All Files to download all file submissions
   • OR click SpeedGrader to enter SpeedGrader, where files can be downloaded one student submission at a time.
     
4. If you choose to download from SpeedGrader, for each file upload question and for each student, click on the blue file link to download the submitted file.
   
   
   

To grade students submissions:

1. Open SpeedGrader as described above, then scroll to find the file upload question.
2. For each student, enter their grade for their written work in the field in the top right corner of the question box.
3. Optional: typed comments can be added to the file upload question.
4. Optional: if you made comments or annotations on the downloaded student files, they can be re-uploaded  as an Assignment Comment:
   1. Click on the paperclip icon.
   2. Click Choose File and browse your computer to upload the file with your annotations.
   3. Click Submit.