I have been using hotspot questions for over 3 years to great success in my courses (with 300 or more students). I recently was informed by several students completing the practice version of test that the functionality for hotspot has changed and their answers were often deleted (the system deleted all the answered hot spot questions), and they are finding it difficult to change their answer. For hot spots, students are required to use their mouse to click on an image and provided their selection is in the correct area – they get a mark for question. Up until now students have been able to select a point on image and if they realise it is not correct, the simply would click on another part of the image that would save the new selection and delete the previous. This was an easy, excellent approach but this has changed with the new 'hot keys' that canvas has implemented. It is unclear to me why any student would want to Delete ALL of their hot spot selections? The previous functionality where they could click a new area to change their response was fantastic. Many students have alerted me to difficulties they have had with the practice version with hot spot questions. They were not able to change their selection and if they deleted their selection, it deleted ALL their selections for all questions. There is a new instruction on hot spot questions. This has never been on questions before, and it seems canvas has changed something in the back end since last semester. I have contacted canvas support L1 and L2 and have been told that 'engineering has confirmed the behavior is functioning as designed'. I have asked for a simple 'how to guide' for the new hot keys be sent to me but this does not seem to exist. I have had to remove all hot spot questions from my assessments as the hot keys function is problematic.
We should be able to elect whether we want the hot keys activated. I would almost even suggest removing it entirely as the previous functionality was working perfectly with no issues whatsoever. It is really unclear why these changes were made at all.
