FAQs

Q: Why do students get this accommodation?

A: Students may receive this accommodation because of physical health conditions that prevent them from being able to sit or look at a screen for an extended period, or a cognitive disorder that causes the student to need time to rest after cognitive exertion.

Q: When should the accommodation be provided?

A: Because the student needs to ask for this accommodation before it is given, don't complete Parts 4 and 5 until the student presents their accommodation letter to the instructor. Also, note that not all students with this accommodation get extra time. If they do, factor the extra time in when deciding if the exam needs to be split. If they can take the whole exam in the given time period, no further action is needed.

Split Exam Instructions

You can provide the split exam accommodation in various ways. The process provided here is recommended since it covers most use cases and has consistent, reliable results.

Basic Overview and Considerations

Basic Overview

Broadly, this process involves figuring out how long the new exam parts need to be based on the student's needs, duplicating the exam or quiz, strategically deleting questions from the duplicates to create a new exam with two or more parts, exempting the student from the original exam or quiz, and adding them to the newly created parts once they provide their letter of accommodation to the instructor.

Considerations

Consider the following before deciding how and whether to split an exam:

Assignment groups: If you intend to drop items in an assignment group (e.g., the lowest grade), setting up a practice exam for the student and manually entering their grade may be a better option than splitting.
Question banks: If the exam uses question banks, you need to make sure that the parts of the new exam you create pull from different question banks, so you will need to split the banks before making copies. (See the Split a Question Bank section under Additional Instructions.) If your situation is complex, with a mix of standard questions and questions from a question bank, please work with the instructor and the student's disability specialist to determine the best solution.
Question types (multiple-choice, essay, etc.): Some questions may take longer to answer than others, so question type is important to consider.
Printing exams: Some students need a printed exam, so this page includes instructions for printing both standard (not split) and split exams.

Part 1: Calculate the Number of Parts and Make Copies of the Original Exam or Quiz

Part 1: Calculate the Number of Parts and Make Copies of the Original Exam or Quiz

Calculating the Parts

Determine how many exam parts you need by adding the student's extended time (if they have it) to the exam time and checking to see how long each part needs to be according to the student's accommodation letter or notification email. For example, let's say you have a midterm that's 60 minutes long and the student gets 50% extended time. That means this student will get 90 minutes to take the exam, and they need each part of the exam to be 60 minutes or less. If you split the exam into two parts, the student will have 45 minutes to take each section, meeting their accommodation need. If the parts are slightly over the maximum time, check with the disability specialist for guidance.

Note about question banks: If the exam or quiz uses question banks, this process will preserve the exam settings so that every copy will pull from the existing question banks, possibly creating duplicate questions if the banks aren't split. If you're using several banks, you may use a subset of the banks for each section of the exam, but if you need to copy and split a question bank, see the instructions in the Additional Instructions section below.

Creating the Parts

Select Settings in the Course Navigation Menu.
Select Export Course Content.
Under Export Type, select Quiz.
- Select only the quiz you want to copy; you must copy them one at a time.
- Select Create Export; the status will show in a progress bar.
- A New Export link will appear when it's ready. Select the link to download the ZIP file.
Choose Settings in the Course Navigation Menu.
Select Import Course Content.
Under Select Content Type, choose Canvas Course Export Package.
Browse to find the ZIP file you just downloaded.
Leave the All Content button checked.
Select the Add to Import Queue button.
Rename the exam you just imported so that you have the original and a Part A.
Repeat Steps 1 through 10 using the renamed copy of the exam each time until you have enough copies. (If you don't do this, the copy will overwrite the original.)
Unpublish the copies, as they will be published and assigned to Everyone by default.
Choose Quizzes from the Course Navigation Menu to find the duplicate exams or quizzes.
1. In the Assign to field, delete "Everyone," and enter the name of the student who needs the accommodation.
2. Select Save. If a window opens warning you that not all sections will be assigned the item, select Continue.
Once you have the necessary number of quiz or exam copies assigned to the student, continue to Part 2.

Part 2: Delete Questions to Split the Exam

Part 2: Delete Questions to Split the Exam

Edit the exam or quiz copies so that each copy has the right number of questions. For example, if you have two copies, delete half the questions from each so that Parts A and B together reflect the original complete quiz. If the quiz uses question banks, you may need to split the question bank as well, but this varies depending on how the question banks are being used. Refer to the Additional Instructions section of this page for how to split a question bank. When in doubt, consult a design team member who is familiar with this process.

Here are the steps for deleting questions to split an exam:

Go to Quizzes in the Course Navigation Menu.
Select the Settings menu (vertical ellipsis) for Part A, and select Edit. The quiz editor will open.
Delete the first half of the questions.

Figure 1. The Delete Question Button
Select Save. If a window opens warning you that not all sections will be assigned the item, select Continue.
Repeat Steps 2–4 for additional parts as needed.
Continue to Part 3.

Part 3: Update Exam Instructions and Settings

Part 3: Update Exam Instructions and Settings

Update the exam time as determined by the student's letter (you calculated this in Part 1).
Add the exam to the correct assignment group if you are using those.

Figure 2. Choose the Correct Assignment Group
Edit the exam instructions to indicate the correct amount of time and number of questions.
Modify the assignment dates as necessary. The accommodation letter might specify a time frame for completing all sections, such as "All parts must be completed within 48 hours." If this applies, the instructor might have to talk to the student and adjust the availability dates based on when the student intends to start the initial section.
Select Save. If a window opens warning you that not all sections will be assigned the item, select Continue.
Continue to Part 4.

Note: If your course uses Honorlock for exam proctoring, ensure that any needed adjustments are made for all parts of the exam, which may include entering information in the Accommodations notes field and/or disabling the BrowserGuard setting. For more information, review the Accommodations With Honorlock page.

Part 4: Excuse the Student in the Gradebook

Part 4: Excuse the Student in the Gradebook

Remember, the student needs to request this accommodation before it is provided, so don't complete Parts 4 and 5 until the student provides the instructor with their letter of accommodation.

Note: If one or more assignments in an assignment group will be dropped (e.g., the lowest grade of the semester), you may want to set up a practice exam for the student and manually enter their grade rather than follow this part of the process.

Here is how to excuse a student from an exam:

Choose Grades from the Course Navigation Menu.
Select the Grade Cell associated with the quiz or exam for the student with an accommodation need.
- Note that the quiz or exam must be published before you can do this.
Enter "Ex" or "Excuse" in the text field.

Figure 3. Enter "Ex" in the Gradebook
Select Enter. The cell marks the student as "excused."
Repeat Steps 1 through 4 for each quiz or exam that needs to be split, and then continue to Part 5.

Part 5: Publish the Exam and Provide It to the Student

Part 5: Publish the Exam and Provide It to the Student

Once the quiz has been assigned only to the student who needs it (you did that in Part 1), you can publish it and add it to the correct module in the course. Do not create a specific module for these split exams because the module title will be seen by all students even if they can't see the quizzes within it.

Let the instructor know that this has been done so that they can tell the student the quizzes have been set up for them. The quiz will be seen only by the student it's assigned to and the instructor, so if you have multiple students who have different versions of an exam, you may want to add their name to the title—for example, "Exam 1 - Part 1 Name of Student"—so that they're easier to grade.

Additional Instructions

Split a Question Bank

Split a Question Bank

Even if you're using a question bank, you may not need to split it. Here are three scenarios for splitting exams. Only the last scenario requires splitting the question bank. When in doubt, talk to a design staff member familiar with this process.

Scenario 1: The original exam covers Chapters 1 through 4 of the textbook. There is a question bank for each chapter. To split the exam, follow the instructions above to make two copies, and then remove two banks from each half of the exam.
Scenario 2: If you have an exam with 20 questions, where each question has its own bank of four questions, make two copies of the exam, and delete half the question banks from each.
Scenario 3: You have one large question bank from which the exam pulls 50 questions. You'll need to make two copies of the question bank, delete half the questions from each to make two new banks, and then make two copies of the exam, as described in Part 2 above, and associate one of the banks with each of the new copies. Instructions for copying and splitting a question bank are below.

Instructions for Splitting a Question Bank

First, create copies of the quiz or exam as outlined above. Then, create copies of the question bank as listed here, and split the question bank following this process:

Go to Settings in the Course Navigation Menu.
Select the Import Course Content link.
From the Content Type menu, select Copy a Canvas Course.
From the Search for a course menu, select the current course you're in.
- Note: Ignore the alert (red exclamation mark). It's a warning that importing the same course content more than once will overwrite any existing content in the course, which means that you have to import content, rename it and export the renamed files if you need more than two copies.
Select the Select specific content radio button.
- Note: This step is critical. Skipping it can result in the duplication of all course content.
Select the Add to Import Queue button.
In the Content imports section under Progress, select the Select Content button. The Select Content window will open.
Select the arrow next to Question Banks to expand the list.
Select the checkbox next to the question bank(s) you need to copy.
- Note: The second time through, select the question bank you've already created (i.e., Part A). If you select the original, the second copy will overwrite the first copy.
Select the Select Content button. A progress bar will appear in the Current Jobs section. When it's complete, continue to the next step.

Figure 4. The Select Content Interface
Go to Quizzes in the Course Navigation Menu.
Select the Settings menu (vertical ellipsis) for the page, and select Manage Question Banks.
Select the Edit icon next to the copy of the question bank that you just made. Pay attention to the time stamp so that you open the new duplicate and not the original question bank.
Add “Part A” to the name of the question bank and select Enter.
- Note: The second time through, add "Part B" to the name instead.
  
  Figure 5. The Question Bank Editor
Repeat Steps 1–8 so that you have three question banks:
- the original
- Part A
- Part B
Open Part A and delete half of the questions. The questions you delete here are the ones you will retain in Part B.
Open Part B, and delete the questions you kept in Part A.
In the Course Navigation Menu, select Quizzes.
Select the Settings menu for Part A of your quiz or exam and select Edit.
1. Select the Questions tab.
2. Delete the current question group.
3. Select the + New Question Group button.
  
  Figure 6. The Quiz Editor
4. Select the Link to a Question Bank link.
5. Select Part A of your question bank.
6. Select the Select Bank button.
  
  Figure 7. The Question Bank and Quiz Interfaces
7. Update the number of questions and points as needed, and select Create Group.
8. Select Save. If a window opens warning you that not all sections will be assigned the item, select Continue.
Repeat Step 13 for Part B of your quiz or exam, selecting Part B of your question bank.

Print and Split an Exam

Print and Split an Exam

Follow these steps to provide a printable standard (unsplit) exam when a student needs that accommodation. (The next section includes steps to provide a printable split exam.)

Select Quizzes in the Course Navigation Menu.
Select the quiz you want to print.
Select the Preview button.
Select the Print button. Your browser's print window will open.
Save the exam or quiz as a PDF. This process varies by browser.

Split a Printed Exam Using a PDF

Follow these steps to provide a printed split exam or quiz when a student needs that accommodation. In this process, you provide the student with printable PDFs of the split exam through the Canvas quiz itself. Instead of splitting the exam questions in Canvas, you'll split the PDF version of the quiz.

Follow Steps 1–5 in the Save Exam as a Printable PDF section, and split that document using Acrobat Pro so that you have two parts of the split exam (Part A and Part B).
Select Files in the Course Navigation Menu.
Select the Upload button to upload the PDFs of Part A and Part B of the split exam to the Canvas course space.
Select Quizzes in the Course Navigation Menu.
1. Select the Settings menu (vertical ellipsis) for Part A of the quiz or exam and select Edit.
2. On the Questions tab, delete each question and group.
3. Select the + New Question button.
4. In the new question, select the File Upload Question type.
5. Place your cursor in the quiz text editor.
6. Select Insert, then Document, and then Course Documents, and then find and select the PDF of Part A that you uploaded to the course. A link to the PDF will appear in the question.
7. Select the Update Question button, and then select Save.
Repeat Step 4 for Part B of the quiz or exam.

Updated March 2025