Overview

The following procedure may be used to generate new quizzes or convert existing exam or quiz question documents for import into Canvas.

How to create a properly formatted file for upload to Canvas

Source questions must be formatted in plain text, without using the text editor’s list tool. You can start with a Word document or Google document, but it must be formatted EXACTLY as shown in the Quiz Generator tool to work.  

• Use the formatting specified in the Canvas Quiz Generator or Template Quiz document. 

• Use Canvas Quiz Generator or Respondus software to automatically generate a QTI file from properly formatted questions and download a QTI file from the quiz questions provided.

  • Canvas Quiz Generator only supports multiple choice, multiple-answer, true-false, and essay question types at this time.

• The QTI file can then be imported into Canvas as a quiz.

Import the QTI file into Canvas

1. Open the Canvas course, and navigate to the Settings tab on the sidebar

2. Select Import Course Content 

3. For Content Type, select “QTI .zip file”

4. Select your Source. Click Choose File and locate the QTI file you downloaded from the quiz generator on your computer

5. Ignore the Default Question bank setting

6. Do not select the “Import existing quizzes as New Quizzes” checkbox (it will not work - convert to New Quizzes later if using)

7. Click Import. 

Setting up your quiz in Canvas

1. On import, after a brief loading time, a separate quiz and question bank will be created.

   1. Go to the Quiz Tab and locate the new quiz - if you did not enter a quiz title, it will import as “Quiz”. NOTE: The generated quiz is in the course but it is not available to students until it has been added to a module (step 3).

   2. Go into the Manage Question Bank list and review the question bank. A descriptive question bank title will be important when creating quizzes that pull questions from one or more question banks. NOTE: The generated quiz bank is in the course but is not in use until it is manually linked to a quiz using the Question Group option.

2. Determine how the questions will be deployed to students:

   1. If all available quiz questions will be given to all students, in the same sequence, you may add the generated quiz to the module. The generated quiz is not linked to the Question Bank unless Question Groups are used. You may safely delete the generated Question Bank if desired.

   2. If a randomized sample of questions will be given to each student (ie. select # questions from ___ question bank), you should delete the generated quiz containing all available questions, and create a new quiz using the New Question Group tool based on the generated Quiz Bank. The Question Group function links quizzes to one or more question banks: Canvas will reference your chosen bank(s) of questions as each student takes the quiz. 

   3. In the case where a module quiz already exists, it may be prepopulated with quiz instructions and settings but no questions. It's best to preserve the existing quiz, delete the generated quiz and add questions from the generated question bank to the existing quiz using Find Questions or New Question Group tools. Skip to step 6.

3. Add the quiz from step 2 to the appropriate Module.

4. Enter Quiz Instructions.

5. Apply Quiz Settings. 

6. Preview the quiz to ensure the quiz operates as intended.

7. Save and Publish the quiz to make it available for students.

Notes

• Questions that link to a Question Bank cannot be regraded since they may be used in more than one quiz.

• If you need your questions to appear in a specific order, do not use quiz questions inside a question group.

• A Question Group may be used to randomize question order, even when the imported quiz is designed to pose the same set of questions to all students.

• When copying a full module, where the copy acts as a template for subsequent modules, the original quiz is linked in the module copy. While module copies of a discussion, page, or assignment are newly generated, quizzes copied as part of a module link back to the original quiz, so edits in the module copy will change the original quiz. 

• If the course developer has already created an empty quiz with instructions and specific settings in a module (see 2c above), it is better to delete the imported quiz and add newly generated quiz bank questions to the module quiz using Find Questions or New Question Group tools.