[New Quizzes] Create Item Banks from MSWord

[rledda]

It would be useful that when you create a question [item] bank at the account level being able to upload a huge number of questions once by using a word document. Now, the only way to do this is to create them one by one.

Rosalie

[gaminib]

I tried Respondus.  It only adds to the workload. 

[gaminib]

We don't have a choice about going to Blackboard.  System-wide it is Canvas.  

[nsweeten]

In the Respondus workflow that I use, it is worth it for large Quizzes/exams, like a 100 questions Final.  For smaller quizzes, building them by hand ends up being faster.  It also depends on whether you want to build question banks for rotating questions, or one straightforward list of questions. 

[edwardn1]

I am amazed that this feature doesn't exist.  I found a textbook that I want to use for one of my courses and it seems to have excellent resources - but only has a text bank in Word.  Being able to import a txt or Word file is something that other LMS have had or has - ANGEL had it for years  - from the beginning, I think - and Bb also has it.  Having to convert and and run through Bb is a very strange recommendation.  We should not have to rely on another LMS or other external program to do this.

[gwied]

I made a quiz/exam yesterday on Canvas, cutting an pasting from MSWord, embedding images/schematics, resizing etc.  Four hours for twenty questions. 

Dr. Gamini, I can appreciate that Repsondus adds steps, and how ridiculous this situation is. However, from your description of the labor you endured, I think Repondus would have saved you about 3.5 hours. Respondus can import quiz material from a Word doc that includes diagrams, math, and formatting; then export into a Canvas quiz or question bank.  Once inside Canvas, some cleanup may be called for; but in my experience, no tedious copy/paste endless loop, no save diagram/import diagram/embed diagram dance.

[Chris_Hofer]

 @gaminib ...

I would like to echo some of the thoughts  @gwied .  As a Canvas admin and someone who frequently loads quizzes/test/exams into Canvas courses for our instructors, the Respondus Exam Authoring Tool has literally saved me hours upon hours or time.  It's one of the main reasons I wrote this blog entry a few years back: Batch Uploading Quiz Questions with Respondus‌.  Most of the quizzes/tests/exams we get are all text, and so I don't have the opportunity to include images (and if I do, there's only a handful, and it's just as quick for me to manually upload them after the questions have been loaded).  But once you get familiar with the way Respondus works and the way that text or Word documents need to formatted (so that Respondus "reads" the file), it gets easier every day to know what to do and what to look for in your files.  My $0.02.

[ejp10]

I won't deny that Respondus can be a great tool, but I don't think that should be the only path to batch upload questions. My concerns with Respondus for faculty use are:

1. Doesn't work natively on a Mac. Instructors/staff on a Mac would need a virtual Windows, and I know a lot of K-12 places are on a Mac. Same for higher education instructors.
2. Requires a separate license fee - can all institutions afford a site license for their instructors? Would it be restricted only to a few staff?
In contrast, almost everyone can get access to Word or some other text editor for free or low cost.
3. Requires more training than a text file import. Even though some instructors could find the additional functionality of Respondus useful, some might find it more trouble than it's worth.

I'm not advocating getting rid of Respondus, but having a plain text option would be very helpful. Especially in a situation where many instructors are scrambling to get material into an LMS.

Hope this makes sense.

Elizabeth

[gaminib]

Thank you for the reply on Canvas LMS Ideas.  

> As a Canvas admin and someone who frequently 

>loads quizzes/test/exams into Canvas courses for our instructors, 

Moraine Park offers this service?  How very impressive!     

>the Respondus Exam Authoring Tool has literally saved me hours upon hours or time...Most of the quizzes/tests/exams we get are all text, and so I don't >have the 

>opportunity to include images 

It was the images that were giving us the most grief.  Text was mostly cut and paste.  Our exams (manufacturing, welding, metals, composite materials, power, electronics, and automation), almost all questions have schematics/drawings,  We had to snip images from Word, save them as JPEG, upload to Respondus, resize, then download to Canvas and resize, format text with image.  Resizing images & reformatting text took forever.  It was just as easy to save images in MyFiles in Canvas and embed them in the question. But that was also one at a time, unless it was a master course; altogether another bailiwick. 

I agree with what you say, just like most software, more one uses it,  the better one gets at it.  As program coordinator and instructor, I was "smooth sailing" and polishing our Scantron graded MS Word exam banks.  Overnight we went online and within days we had to develop quizzes exams.  We don't have a "Chris Hofer" here, most of my faculty are uploading exams/quizzes as PDFs in Canvas Modules, and asking students to email back the PDF...the instructors are manually grading PDFs one at a time.  This is just one step above from horse and buggy.  I helped a few of my faculty with Canvas...however, Canvas should have had this Word to Canvas process seamless.  The Ideas Tab/chapter on Canvas was established five years ago, 1700 up votes and is one of the most popular.  I realize coding of Canvas and Word are apples and oranges and the enormity of the seamless transfer.  And the rarity of the types of "Chris Hofer"     Moraine Park is fortunate to have you...and helping instructors during this challenging time.  

Again, thank you.

Sincerely,

gamini

[gaminib]

> As a Canvas admin and someone who frequently 

>loads quizzes/test/exams into Canvas courses for our instructors, 

How do you do this...do the instructors give you unrestricted access to their Canvas account?  

[Chris_Hofer]

 @gaminib ...

As a Canvas administrator, I have access to all of our courses in our Canvas environment.  My process for loading quizzes/tests/exams into Canvas using the Respondus Exam Authoring Tool is pretty straight-forward.  Even though I am an administrator, I enroll myself as a "Teacher" in my own sandbox course.  After I have loaded the quiz/test/exam into Respondus, it will eventually prompt me to select a course to upload the questions into.  I always select my own sandbox course.  (This way, I don't have to constantly enroll/remove myself from the courses that these quizzes/tests/exams will be going into.)  Once the quiz/test/exam has been successfully uploaded to my own course, I review it in my sandbox course...adding any initial instructions that the instructor provided and/or any other elements that Respondus wasn't able to handle.  Then, I navigate over to the instructor's course and use the Course Import Tool to select specific content to copy from my own sandbox course into the instructor's course.  How do I select specific content as part of a course import?

I hope is helpful to you in some way.  Take care...