[ARCHIVED] Canvas quiz keeps repeating the same question over and over

[lorraine_carey]

I have set up a Canvas quiz (actually a final exam) that is drawing 60 randomized questions from a bank of over 100 questions.  I have had several students report that they are getting one question repeated sometimes 10 or 15 times. I have checked their exam attempt and I do see one question repeated over and over, with other questions mixed in.  What is going on and how do I stop that?  If I delete that question will the same thing happen with another question?

thanks,

Lorraine Carey

[kblack]

Hi  @lorraine_carey ​ - Given the time-sensitive nature of this--and the fact that the Community cannot see the quiz itself--I would strongly encourage you to file a ticket with Canvas via Help>>Report a Problem.  In the meantime, I have a few suggestions for you to check on your quiz based on my own experiences with faculty at my institution that had similar issues.  (Though certainly not on the scale of 10 or 15 times--more like the same question appearing just twice.)

• Could you be basing one question on a question bank, but did you then also create a GROUP of questions based on that same question bank?  If that bank is relatively small, to begin with, you could be getting the same question again.
• Similar to the above case, do you have multiple GROUPS that are all drawing from the same question bank?  This can also cause a question to be repeated.
• Is the course IMPORTED from another Canvas class or from another LMS?  I had a faculty member who re-imported the same class multiple times, each time ADDING to the already-existing question banks.  She created questions based on question banks, not realizing she was referencing the same question bank multiple times--even though it may have had different names.

In other words, please check over your quiz--and especially questions and/or groups that are drawing from existing question banks in your course.

[lorraine_carey]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the response! This course is one I began by importing some introductory material from an existing course, but then creating the rest of the course, including all quizzes and exams, from scratch. What I did was to create a new question bank just for the final exam by copying questions from other exam question banks. I specifically copied, not moved the questions. As I went through the existing exam question banks, I clicked on the questions I wanted to copy, and then clicked on the new question bank to copy them into. I think I used the same system as when I created the original bank. As far as I know, I just clicked on each question I wanted 1 time, including the question that is duplicated. After the questions were copied, I "created the group" and saved.

There is only 1 final exam question bank that all students are getting their questions from. All students are in the same Group, and are getting that same question multiple times in their exams, but the number of times varies - some get it 8 or 9 times, others up to 15 times.

Any suggestions you have would be appreciated. The exam actually finished last night, but I'd like to know what happened in case any students complain about it.

thanks,

Lorraine Carey

Instructor - Geology, Oceanography, and Environmental Science

Dept. of Natural Sciences

Houston Community College

[kblack]

Hi Lorraine -  The fact that it's occurring so many times is what's troubling.  I'm out of ideas, other than to contact Canvas support.  Their engineers assisted with the one big issue that one of our faculty had with an exam like that and were able to describe and trace the problem so that the instructor was able to get it fixed.  The main thing is that you want it to get fixed now--even if the exam is over.  You don't want the same problem to recur if you copy the class again for a future semester!

[Robbie_Grant]

 @lorraine_carey ,

Were you able to find an answer to your question? I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered because there hasn't been any more activity in a while so I assume that you have the information that you need. If you still have a question about this or if you have information that you would like to share with the community, by all means, please do come back and leave a comment.  Also, if this question has been answered by one of the previous replies, please feel free to mark that answer as correct.

Robbie

[lorraine_carey]

Hello,

If you are referring to the issue of duplication of exam questions when a Question bank was set up, then no, that has not been resolved. However, I will be manually checking all my Question Banks from now on.

regards,

Lorraine Carey

Instructor - Geology, Oceanography, and Environmental Science

Dept. of Natural Sciences

Houston Community College

[kona]

Have you tried contacting Canvas Support to see if they can help or figure out what's going on with the duplicates?

[cmcdowell]

I'm having the same problem. Maddening.

[kammrath]

I have a teacher that is having this issue.  Is there a solution?