Collaborative Quiz Question Creation

[jmh491]

With multiple sections of one course, we often like to work with other faculty to create common exams. Canvas quizzes or question banks do not really facilitate this type of collaboration. I would like to be able to create the quizzes outside of Canvas in some collaborative tool and then import back into the Canvas quiz in a compatible format. However, I do not know of any method that would work.

One option is to create a master course (with all instructors added) and have everyone build their questions into one Canvas quiz. Are there any better options?

[kona]

 @jmh491 , the master course with all Instructors option sounds like a pretty good one. Otherwise, the only quiz authoring tool that I know of that works with Canvas is Respondus - Respondus 4.0: Exam Authoring Tool 

Kona

[valentinesking]

 @kona  FYI, TestGen also works with Canvas (but is Pearson related). I actually like using TestGen more than Respondus.

[kona]

Thanks! That’s helpful information!

[kyoung]

John,

Our campus has access to Softchalk, which can be set up to go directly to your grade books--the Quiz is the same but the data goes to the specific sections.

Another option may present security issues but is very easy to use.  The Google forms quizzes will spit out the answers into a CSV file that can then be opened in Excel and uploaded to the gradebook.  It does not give feedback, as a more sophisticated app might do.  It is free, which is always good.

[darin_johnson]

Ideally, Canvas should make it easy to share lessons and quizzes within Canvas. A private commons area would be helpful.

I'm sometimes using Bookwidgets for content authoring, and they have a variety of question types with grade passback features for groups. See BookWidgets - The perfect content creation tool for teachers in the classroom .

[kyoung]

Actually, there is a private institution only save and search setting in Commons. Using a shared master class is another solution.

Sent from my iPad

[bbennett2]

We're fighting the same battle, but in a K-12 setting instead. Many of our faculty have taken the shared master course route, where they import items from their own courses and the mix/match. We've found that creating topical item banks to be more beneficial in the long run because it allows for randomization and you're not all working on the same quiz. Here's an example:

If you're working on the same quiz, someone may change an item, but you've already given it, and then scores are inconsistent or irrelevant. That original quiz is also mutated and you can't compare versions unless you only make changes year over year.

If you work in item banks, everyone can write relevant questions that become available to everyone else. Using the master class, all I need to do is import the item banks into the live course. I can then cherry-pick specific items for my course. Or, I can let Canvas do the picking and I specify how many items from each bank to include. So, all students get the same material, but different items.

Building banks gives you more benefit for the work to create the items. Everyone benefits from one another without stepping on assignment-level toes.

I've also started hacking together a Google Spreadsheet template that allows users to upload quiz items, but I've run into some problems with rate limiting and items not uploading correctly. The idea is that you write a quiz in a templated spreadsheet and upload the items to a course (yours or a shared master) and then sort them into banks for import and export. I do agree, though, that Canvas could score some quick wins with a templated CSV upload (like they have with Outcomes) that would make quiz creation simpler and more powerful.