🚀 Heads up: Our API Docs Have Moved!
We have relocated to Instructure Developer Documentation Portal. 🎉 Please update your bookmarks. This page will automatically redirect after July 1, 2026.

New Quizzes Accommodations API

API for setting course-level and quiz-level accommodations for students.

This API supports bulk operations to apply accommodations to multiple users at once.

An AccommodationResponse object looks like:

// Response structure for processing accommodations
{
  // Processing result message
  "message": "Accommodations processed",
  // List of successfully processed accommodations
  "successful": [{"user_id":5}],
  // List of accommodations that failed to process
  "failed": [{"user_id":6,"error":"User is not in any in-progress quiz sessions for course 3"}]
}

A CourseAccommodationRequest object looks like:

// Request format for setting course-level accommodations
{
  // Canvas user ID of the student receiving accommodations
  "user_id": 3,
  // Amount of extra time (in minutes) for quiz submission
  "extra_time": 60,
  // Apply accommodations to ongoing quiz sessions
  "apply_to_in_progress_quiz_sessions": true,
  // Removes one incorrect answer from multiple-choice questions with 4+ choices
  "reduce_choices_enabled": true
}

A QuizAccommodationRequest object looks like:

// Request format for setting quiz-level accommodations
{
  // Canvas user ID of the student receiving accommodations
  "user_id": 3,
  // Amount of extra time (in minutes) for quiz submission
  "extra_time": 60,
  // Number of additional attempts allowed beyond the quiz limit
  "extra_attempts": 1,
  // Removes one incorrect answer from multiple-choice questions with 4+ choices
  "reduce_choices_enabled": true
}

Set Quiz-Level Accommodations

POST /api/quiz/v1/courses/:course_id/quizzes/:assignment_id/accommodations

Scope: url:POST|/api/quiz/v1/courses/:course_id/quizzes/:assignment_id/accommodations

Apply accommodations at the quiz level for students in a specific assignment.

Request Body Format:

[{
  "user_id": 3,
  "extra_time": 60,
  "extra_attempts": 1,
  "reduce_choices_enabled": true
}]

Responses

  • 200 OK: Accommodations were processed with some successes and failures

  • 401 Unauthorized: User does not have permission to update accommodations

  • 404 Not Found: The course or assignment was not found

  • 400 Bad Request: Validation error (e.g., invalid JSON, missing user IDs)

Request Parameters:

Parameter Type Description
course_id Required string

The ID of the course where the quiz is located.
assignment_id Required integer

The ID of the assignment/quiz that needs accommodations.
user_id Required integer

The Canvas user ID of the student receiving accommodations.
extra_time integer

Amount of extra time in minutes granted for quiz submission. Allowed range: 0 to 10080 minutes (168 hours).
extra_attempts integer

Number of times the student is allowed to re-take the quiz over the multiple-attempt limit.
reduce_choices_enabled boolean

If ‘true’, removes one incorrect answer from multiple-choice questions with 4 or more options.

Example Request:

curl -X POST 'https://<canvas>/api/v1/courses/123/quizzes/456/accommodations' \
     -H 'Authorization: Bearer <your-token>' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     --data '[
       {
         "user_id": 3,
         "extra_time": 60,
         "extra_attempts": 1,
         "reduce_choices_enabled": true
       }
     ]'
Returns an AccommodationResponse object

Set Course-Level Accommodations

POST /api/quiz/v1/courses/:course_id/accommodations

Scope: url:POST|/api/quiz/v1/courses/:course_id/accommodations

Apply accommodations at the course level for students enrolled in a given course.

Request Body Format:

[{
  "user_id": 3,
  "extra_time": 60,
  "apply_to_in_progress_quiz_sessions": true,
  "reduce_choices_enabled": true
}]

Responses

  • 200 OK: Accommodations were processed with some successes and failures

  • 401 Unauthorized: User does not have permission to update accommodations

  • 404 Not Found: The course was not found

  • 400 Bad Request: Validation error (e.g., invalid JSON, missing user IDs)

Request Parameters:

Parameter Type Description
course_id Required string

The ID of the course where accommodations should be applied.
user_id Required integer

The Canvas user ID of the student receiving accommodations.
extra_time integer

Amount of extra time in minutes granted for quiz submission. Allowed range: 0 to 10080 minutes (168 hours).
apply_to_in_progress_quiz_sessions boolean

If ‘true’, applies the accommodation to currently in-progress quiz sessions.
reduce_choices_enabled boolean

If ‘true’, removes one incorrect answer from multiple-choice questions with 4 or more options.

Example Request:

curl -X POST 'https://<canvas>/api/v1/courses/123/accommodations' \
     -H 'Authorization: Bearer <your-token>' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     --data '[
       {
         "user_id": 3,
         "extra_time": 60,
         "apply_to_in_progress_quiz_sessions": true,
         "reduce_choices_enabled": true
       }
     ]'
Returns an AccommodationResponse object