Using Vevox in Canvas
You can use the Vevox Canvas integration to create asynchronous quizzes or surveys that your students can access in their own time when they log onto Canvas and open your module.
To use Vevox in Canvas, complete the following steps
- Whilst logged in to Canvas as an instructor, navigate to a course.
- In your course in the Modules area, click the + icon on the right side of the module tab to open up the Add Item panel
- Select External tool from the list
- Click Vevox
5. The first thing to do is choose a Vevox session you would like to link with this activity. You can choose a Vevox session you have already created or you can create a new one.
6. Select Identification - we need to choose whether this activity will be anonymous or identified:
- Anonymous - This is great for live polling sessions, quick instant feedback and putting your students at ease, safe in the knowledge they are not being monitored or tracked by their participation. We recommend this for the when you want to use Vevox in your class/lecture with minimal effort for encourage engagement.
- Identified - This is for when you want a greater degree of understanding about who is saying what whilst using Vevox. We recommend this only when you want to specifically track students or pass grades back into Canvas to record a grade, typically this would be done with a self-paced survey/quiz. Names will be hidden for other participants but the participant's identity will be visible in the data reports and grading information will be available.
IMPORTANT: If you choose an identified session, then students MUST access Vevox through Canvas as Vevox authenticates the student based on their Canvas Identity.
7. Select activity - The choice here really relates to if you intend on using the grading feature in Canvas
- Live Polling and Q&A - Typically when you are doing a live activity during a lecture or class it will be using the live polling or Q&A features of Vevox. Participants will be responding to questions live, as they are asked. Choosing this option will direct participants into the live aspects of the Vevox app
- Self-paced survey/quiz - If you are setting an activity intended to be done in the own time of your students then it will invariably be a self-paced survey. Choosing this option will allow you to link directly to a Vevox survey and then for the purposes of grading, it will pass the grade back to the relevant column in the grading report.
Choosing this option gives a further option to select a specific poll or self-paced survey/quiz within your Vevox session to link to or to create a new one.
When you are ready, click SELECT, and then save the assignment. The session will be added to Canvas as an assignment with the title Assignment.
As the Vevox activity has been configured, as the instructor when you select the assignment it will direct you to your Vevox dashboard (Note: due to security reasons the Vevox dashboard will be opened in a new browser tab rather than within the Canvas dashboard).
Additional Canvas settings
- On Canvas, click on the assignment name to open the assignment, then click Edit assignment settings (you may need to scroll down for this option). Enter a name for the session in the Assignment name field.
- Configure the other assignment options for the session. If the session isn't supposed to be graded, enter 0 in the Points field and select Do not count this assignment towards the final grade. Click Save.
Starting the session
- On Canvas, go to the Vevox assignment, click OPEN IN NEW TAB. This will open the Vevox dashboard, where you can create your survey/poll. Click the Poll or Survey tab on the left of the screen. If you named the activity in Canvas, it's name will appear.
- At the top of the Vevox dashboard, click START SESSION.
- Depending on whether you have made a survey or poll, click START SURVEY, or START QUIZ.
- When you are ready for your students to interact with the survey or poll, go back to the Canvas tab and publish both the module and the assignment.
- Click Student View and view the assignment to ensure all is set up correctly.
Participating as a student
- Students will see the Vevox activity listed within their course view.
- When selecting the activity students will be taken into the Vevox website where they can participate.
- If the activity is a general Live Polling/Q&A activity then they will be greeted by the Vevox home screen where they can navigate to the Q&A if enabled or await a live poll to be asked.
- If the activity is a Self-paced quiz/survey, then participants will be taken directly to the survey so they can complete it.
Important information around grading
If you want to use the Gradebook service to populate the grading report with scores, based on a students response to questions then the Vevox sessions MUST be identified.
It is also worth noting that if you do setup an identified session then students MUST access Vevox through Canvas. Vevox authenticates students through their Canvas Identity which is passed when they click on the link through their Canvas instance.
For the above reason, it is why typically we only recommend identification for a self-paced activity such as a survey or quiz when students are likely to navigate to this activity through Canvas. For live polling activities done in a classroom environment, students would generally access Vevox through https://vevox.app and therefore not be able to be authenticated with their Canvas account and link to the grading features.