New Quiz: Copy with Images

[MrReed]

This morning I have multiple teachers who are experiencing issues with copying a "New Quiz" between courses.

The new quiz is created in a "Sandbox" course.

Question stems include images added via "Insert > Image >Upload Image"

The quiz is copied to a live course with students.

Today the images are not being copied along with the quiz.  Instead the quiz is linking to the image located in the "Files" section of the original, sandbox course.

My teachers have not experienced this issue before, and the documentation says that the copy will include all linked files (https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-copy-a-quiz-to-another-course-in-New-Qu...)

Is anyone else experiencing this issue suddenly?   Is it a known issue/glitch, or a change in functionality?

[bdye]

We have a ticket in with the same issue.

Canvas did respond that it's a known issue and engineers are looking into it.

[tina_christophe]

Hi

As a quick fix, does it work to go into the course and re-upload the image to the quiz question, thus creating a link to the image within the course not via the copy process?

We are also struggling with the same issue.

thanks

[DebraPerry]

The workaround that I have found so far is to go into each class and then upload the photo for each question in the quiz. This is very time consuming (5 classes X4 images each) but the student can then see the image. 

[ShawnHarahush]

I am experiencing the same issue and hoping they fix it soon.  

[kdewey]

As of April 19th, I am still having this issue. Appeared yesterday the 18th, and another student reported it the 19th.

Sure hope there is a quick fix.

[TreyLeech]

Same issue still on June 26, 2023. 

[HansjoergVollme]

Same issue on July 6 2023

[JayParekh]

Same issue on July 27 2023. We just found out the issue and that is caused in our blueprint courses. Its just not feasible for us to update images in each of the associate courses. 

[tcurrie]

Continues to be an issue.  And this is why I have NOT used the new quiz format but thought it was fixed.

[sjones11]

Yikes!  I'm guessing this is a feature at this point 🙂

[KimberlyHendrix]

I am having this issue! I am trying to convince my Bio PLC that Canvas is great. I create the entire unit in our shared PLC Canvas page, including quizzes. But when we Share the Module with each teach, images in the New Quizzes are not showing up. I have to send out the images to each test and have them go into their page and add the pictures. 

Any word on a real fix for this?

KJ

[HansjoergVollme]

Hi,

I'm in contact with the Canvas Customer Support but so far they haven't been very helpful as they can't reproduce this issue on their end. I doubt there will be a fix (anytime soon).

[KimberlyHendrix]

Suggestions to Canvas tech team. Go into a teacher's classroom that is having the issues and watch from their end. Canvas has many "qwerks" that were not there last spring. Our kids are having more and more issues with Canvas.  Thank you for letting me know. I appreciate your time. - Kim

[KayceDavis]

Same issue 9/11/23

Very time consuming to upload each image to each course individually and my team is discouraged.

[caldwell]

I'm having the same issue. Add images to a new quiz question. Use the "Copy to" function to send it to another course. Images are all missing. I see the same thing when copying an entire course or importing the quiz via the import feature in course settings.

[SomeOwl]

FIX FOR SPECIFIC PICTURES:

When making the quiz, upload images use the URL address of images found on the web. Those URLs will work in other classes. Until the URL changes or the image is removed.

However, uploading your images from your computer will not copy the image into other canvas classes ever.

[Brandon_Rice1]

Same issue 9/22/23.  I knew that NCVPS (North Carolinas statewide virtual course provider) had opted not to use the new quizzes, and now I see why.   I am having to update every picture for each question across every course after copying the quiz from my sandbox.  Canvas has been quite degraded overall this year, with very buggy updates that seem to be languishing without a fix in sight.

[MichaelDross]

Our school district uses tax payer dollars to give teachers and students the best experience they can get with an LMS. 

THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED!

If I use the old style quiz, will I have something that works?

Unacceptable....

[BobLewis]

We believe we have found a solution to the issues listed above and below, give it a try. This is what we sent to staff:

Copying Quizzes in Canvas

Here are the steps that teachers need to take to ensure that their images are retained within their quizzes as they go from course to course.

DO NOT SEND ITEMS TO THEIR DESTINATION UNTIL YOU VERIFY EACH OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS FROM THE CHECKLIST

1. Are all of your image files .PNG?
1. Copied quizzes do not like other image file types, especially Sophomore’s devices.
2. Are you using the commons to send the quiz to its new locations instead of “Copy to…”?
1. By publishing the quiz to the commons, we have found that the item does not have issues as long as all other conditions listed above have been met.
2. We have found that “Copy To…” works, but the images do not come over correctly. This is a known Canvas issue. They claim to have a fix, but we find it to be more difficult than the fix we have on our end.
3. Here is their fix for it, 
1. How do I export a New Quiz from a course?
2. How do I import a quiz from a QTI package in New Quizzes?
3. Are you sending the original quiz’s location to the new destination?
1. Copies of the original quiz do not play well.
2. Always choose the original quiz file.
3. For example, I copied the original from our shared sandbox course into my own Sandbox and then published it to the commons from my sandbox, not the original source location. This has been known to cause degradation.
4. Have you already tried and failed to send this quiz to its locations?
1. Always make sure you verify the above items before attempting to send the quiz.
2. Even if the quiz is deleted, a ghost copy remains in the course, so technically nothing is ever truly deleted. They always hold connections to items that come from the same source.
3. For example, I copied a quiz and the images don’t work. I deleted the quiz from the course and adjusted the original to match the image file type that should work. I then sent the quiz to the new destination again, but the images still didn’t work. What is happening is that because it was in the course and the same source, technically, is added back into the course, it brings the old version instead of the new version because it is still “technically” the same item so it comes back with what it was when it first came over.
4. If this occurs, you will need to individually fix the images within the course.
1. For example, if I pushed a quiz to four courses and found the image issue occurring, I would then need to go to each course and fix the images within those quizzes.

We understand that this is not how it is “supposed to work” in all of our minds and we have reached out to Canvas about it, put in tickets, and talked to our rep, but their programmers have yet to make our desired path a reality.

[BobLewis]

We believe we have found a solution to the issues listed above and below, give it a try. This is what we sent to staff:

Copying Quizzes in Canvas

Here are the steps that teachers need to take to ensure that their images are retained within their quizzes as they go from course to course.

DO NOT SEND ITEMS TO THEIR DESTINATION UNTIL YOU VERIFY EACH OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS FROM THE CHECKLIST

1. Are all of your image files .PNG?
1. Copied quizzes do not like other image file types, especially Sophomore’s devices.
2. Are you using the commons to send the quiz to its new locations instead of “Copy to…”?
1. By publishing the quiz to the commons, we have found that the item does not have issues as long as all other conditions listed above have been met.
2. We have found that “Copy To…” works, but the images do not come over correctly. This is a known Canvas issue. They claim to have a fix, but we find it to be more difficult than the fix we have on our end.
3. Here is their fix for it, 
1. How do I export a New Quiz from a course?
2. How do I import a quiz from a QTI package in New Quizzes?
3. Are you sending the original quiz’s location to the new destination?
1. Copies of the original quiz do not play well.
2. Always choose the original quiz file.
3. For example, I copied the original from our shared sandbox course into my own Sandbox and then published it to the commons from my sandbox, not the original source location. This has been known to cause degradation.
4. Have you already tried and failed to send this quiz to its locations?
1. Always make sure you verify the above items before attempting to send the quiz.
2. Even if the quiz is deleted, a ghost copy remains in the course, so technically nothing is ever truly deleted. They always hold connections to items that come from the same source.
3. For example, I copied a quiz and the images don’t work. I deleted the quiz from the course and adjusted the original to match the image file type that should work. I then sent the quiz to the new destination again, but the images still didn’t work. What is happening is that because it was in the course and the same source, technically, is added back into the course, it brings the old version instead of the new version because it is still “technically” the same item so it comes back with what it was when it first came over.
4. If this occurs, you will need to individually fix the images within the course.
1. For example, if I pushed a quiz to four courses and found the image issue occurring, I would then need to go to each course and fix the images within those quizzes.

We understand that this is not how it is “supposed to work” in all of our minds and we have reached out to Canvas about it, put in tickets, and talked to our rep, but their programmers have yet to make our desired path a reality.

[TinaRobinson1]

If you use the "Send to" option for sharing the quiz to yourself, the quiz with the images will be saved in your Shared Content.

[wendy-riggs]

It is sort of a deal breaker for building high quality question banks, if they are broken each time you use them in a new class. Please please please, fix this Canvas!

[MOORESHANNEN]

Still having the same issue on 10/6/2023. Please do not get rid of Classic Quizzes if this issue is not fixed in New Quizzes. This is not an issue with Classic Quizzes.

[KimberlyHendrix]

My kids have to jump through a bunch of hoops with quizzes. We have to go in and wipe their browsing history & cache somethines to even get the quiz to load.  Sending quizzes to other teachers is frustrating because some images send while others do not. I love the platform otherwise but the quiz issue is bushing my buttons 🙂

[kellied]

Hi, this seems to be an ongoing issue that has not been addressed, I've been reading threads that date back to the beginning of 2023. It would be great if Canvas could actually get on top of this problem sooner rather than later. My institution has spent countless hours migrating all classic quizzes to new quizzes throughout the year (we have about 800 quizzes for the year). Now, to find that the images in new quizzes are not copying across so we have to upload all images again to individual quizzes (each quiz has multiple images) is just ridiculous. 

I look forward to hearing of any gains made with this matter.

[KeeleyLowery]

Same issue November 1.  

[WilliamHogan1]

I am also having this issue. I had a live chat tonight and the rep said there is no way to attach an image to a question and have the image stay attached when shared with other users or copied to another course.

[mmiddler]

Has anyone tried creating questions in a bank as the first step and then creating the quiz from the bank questions?  At that point I would think the quiz can be copied to other courses and the image links would be valid because they are in a question bank and not local to a specific course.  I tried it and it seems to work so far but not sure what will happen if I continue to copy these quizzes in future courses.  Will it maintain the image links or not?  We'll see!

[lbach]

Still an issue a year later. 

It's very weird. I have some older questions in New Quizzes with embedded images that are working fine, their source directs to an "assessment_questions" folder that seems to be accessible by multiple courses. However, any new questions have their image sources tied to a specific Canvas course and I can't seem to find a way to upload to a universal folder. 

I'm also having this problem with questions made in Item Banks. Even though the question itself is being made in the bank, not in a quiz in a course, the uploaded image source is still being tied to a particular class. 

[mabbott]

This Canvas page seems to indicate that this issue was resolved in June 2023: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Known-Issues/Files-uploaded-in-RCE-in-New-Quizzes-do-not-display-...

However, I just met with an instructor whose students cannot see images in quiz questions that were copied from one course into their course, and when we inspect the image location, it's using the first course's course ID. Adding more frustration to the issue, there are inconsistencies. Some students could see the image in question 2, some could not. I'm double-checking with the instructor regarding students' operating systems/browsers and wondering if it's a student issue or Canvas issue.

Has this issue improved or been resolved for anyone in this thread? Thank you.

[wendy-riggs]

This issue is absolutely NOT resolved. I've been on the phone (and chat) with Canvas help 4 times in the last 2 weeks. I've tried many different work-arounds trying to make the images in New Quiz Item Banks usable across any section of a course, semester to semester. The only thing that seems to work is putting images into an OLD QUIZ, exporting the old quiz, then importing the quiz as a NEW QUIZ ITEM BANK. This then places the images in some mysterious Amazon AWS location. When the image is stored here, it is available to multiple classes.

This is what the image HTML looks like when it works across sections:

<p><img src="https://quiz-api-production-s3-uploads-9bc92eovor5s.s3.amazonaws.com/quiz_assets/f6a9a477-81cb-44af-..." width="1075" height="1201" /></p>

And this is what it looks like when it WILL NOT work across sections: 

<p><img id="2509047" src="/courses/17804/files/2509047/preview?verifier=bafR9vTWaLjUVPoBbY1hIauJvWozAkHASVYnq7VU" alt="Exam 1- Station 5-1" /></p>

It is very frustrating. I am teaching human anatomy fully online (first time) and images are critical to the exams and quizzes. The energy and time I'm expending for the workarounds, just so I can reuse the hundreds of questions I'm building for the course...ooof. 

[JOANNORDILLE · Accepted solution]

We started having this problem with displaying images last week in our New Quizzes, both within and outside the Lockdown Browser. With the help of this discussion, I found a work around which I'm offering here in case it helps you as well.  My workaround is appropriate if you are using item banks in multiple courses of your own.  If you are sharing item banks with other instructors, this workaround probably will not help you.

My quiz creation process is to create item banks which seem to automatically be associated with a particular course.  I then use questions from the item banks in other courses after checking the box that says I want to share the item bank with the course.  I don't know what that checkbox does.  It seems to only list the item bank in the course where it is shared, but even if I forget to check the box, the questions will appear in the quiz.  Starting last week, the images did not display when I did this. Note that I always use png images.  Bob Lewis noted earlier that this is required.  The attached file describes the workaround I found.

[mmiddler]

This is the work-around that actually works for me!  Thank you.  The issue has to do with file permissions and it should be a very easy fix for Instructure developers and it is a mystery as to why it hasn't been done by now.  When you create a new quiz and upload images, even in an item bank, the attached filed are stored as part of the original course and have access permissions only for students within that course.  This is very confusing for instructors because, since we always have permissions, viewing a preview of the quiz from within another course that has a copy of the original quiz seems to work!  However, students in the 2nd course cannot access the images.

The work-around provided here has all of the images stored in the instructor's file folder that is outside of any particular course and global to ALL courses that they own.  Now students from any of that instructor's courses can access these image files.

Yes, it is definitely a bit of extra work to upload the files into a different location before adding them into the quiz but once it is done, it is easy to copy your quizzes between courses.

[tina_christophe]

Hi

Do you happen to know if this works in Shared Item Banks? 

[mmiddler]

Yes, I am also using shared item banks and, as long as the images are stored in your "My Files" folder and not under a specific course, then it has worked for me.

[wendy-riggs]

I tried this approach last semester, and it didn't work. This semester, I am rebuilding ALL my exam/quiz questions that contain images, because they all broke, even when I imported the question bank into my new class. 

😞

The only thing that seems to work for me is putting the image into an OLD QUIZ, then exporting the quiz, then importing it into a NEW QUIZ ITEM BANK.

I shyly share this exhausted video I created describing this process (14 min). I made this video at the request of Canvas support...and haven't heard back with any solutions. It is extremely discouraging.

https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cZQnepVRYt2

[wendy-riggs]

I just tried your strategy again-- and it worked for me. I then tried to update an image by uploading a new one into My Files and selected "replace image." I was curious if your approach would let me easily update my images (which would be extremely helpful). Unfortunately, when I replaced the image, even though it had the same name as the original, it broke in the quiz. 

Another thing I noticed when using the My Files image is that the alt-text adjustments wouldn't save for some reason. Maybe that was just a hiccup on my end, but I couldn't modify the alt text. I thought that was strange.

Your workaround might be faster than mine. But wouldn't it be great if we didn't need a workaround for this problem? 

Riggs

[Canvasisbroken]

This error also happened to me today (2024-09-27).

Frustrating error because the images show in the instructor preview but not for the students. This is completely broken. Shame on Canvas.

[soumyasbh]

I had this problem on 27th October 2024. I was given a bunch of technobabble by the Canvas helopchat as for the source of this problem. But when it came to provide a solution, they miserably failed to have a straight answer. The answer was to re-upload all the images separately in the course where I have the quiz posted and not just in the source, which was my sandbox. All in all, the New Quizzes are just inefficienct, inadequate, and utterly plain garbage when it comes to us - the instructors of a course to use them with any reliability.